Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a compelling performance profile in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The measured data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but possesses enough CPU headroom to push frame rates to extreme levels at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, component roles, and optimal settings based strictly on the provided benchmark figures.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the graphics card as the primary limiter as pixel count increases. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 161 at 1920x1080 to 102 at 2560x1440, a drop of 59 FPS, and then further to 54 at 3840x2160. This represents a 66.5% decrease in average frame rate when moving from Full HD to 4K at High settings, indicating that the RTX 4070 is being progressively saturated by the rendering workload.

The scaling pattern holds across all presets. At Low settings, the system achieves 246 FPS at 1080p, 162 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K reduction at Low settings is 161 FPS, which is a 65.4% decline. This consistency suggests that the game's engine scales its rendering load predictably with resolution, and the GPU's compute resources are the dominant factor in determining output. The RTX 4070, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, shows diminishing returns as resolution increases, a classic sign of pixel throughput becoming the bottleneck.

At 1440p, the system produces highly playable results across all presets, with even Ultra settings maintaining an average of 76 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS, averaging just 40 FPS. This indicates that while the GPU is capable of handling the game at 4K, the highest visual fidelity preset places a demand that exceeds the card's comfortable performance envelope. The data shows a clear inflection point between 1440p and 4K, where the cost of each additional pixel becomes prohibitive for maintaining high refresh rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features a boost clock of 2475 MHz. Its memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR6X operating at 21 Gbps effective, delivering a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s over a 192-bit bus. These specifications directly correlate with the measured performance: the card has sufficient memory capacity for Hard West's textures, but the bandwidth and pixel fill rate become the limiting factors at higher resolutions.

The GPU's compute capabilities, quantified by its 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance, are more than adequate for this turn-based tactics title. The benchmark results show that at 1080p, the card is not fully utilized, as evidenced by the 246 FPS average at Low settings. This headroom is also visible in the 3DMark scores, where the card achieves 3854 in Steel Nomad DX12 and 26927 in Passmark G3D. These synthetic scores place the RTX 4070 in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals including the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, both within a 0.4% performance delta.

The transition from Medium to Ultra settings at each resolution shows the GPU's scaling with quality presets. At 1440p, the average FPS moves from 133 at Medium to 102 at High to 76 at Ultra, a step-down of 31 FPS and 26 FPS respectively. This non-linear progression suggests that Ultra settings introduce additional effects or shading loads that disproportionately impact the GPU's frame rendering time. The card's 64 ROPs and 184 TMUs handle the rasterization workload, but the data indicates that the Ultra preset's demands on these units cause the most significant performance hit.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X provides a robust foundation for this gaming workload, featuring 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz ensure that single-threaded performance is strong, which is critical for a game like Hard West that likely has modest multi-threading requirements. The CPU's benchmark scores support this: it achieves 1527 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 16262 in multi-core, along with a Geekbench single-core score of 2083.

The CPU's role in the measured results is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU is not saturated. At 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 246 FPS, which is likely approaching the engine's frame rate ceiling or the CPU's ability to feed the GPU. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 9075 and max-thread score of 10075 indicate that the processor can handle heavy workloads, but in gaming, its 64 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s are more relevant. The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking at any tested resolution, as the frame rates scale consistently with GPU load.

The CPU's position relative to its rivals further contextualizes its performance. The 5900X has an average benchmark score of 41376, which puts it in the 87th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H, scores 41263 with a delta of 0.3%, indicating near-parity in synthetic workloads. This suggests that for Hard West, the 5900X provides ample processing power that does not constrain the RTX 4070's output, allowing the GPU to be the definitive performance arbiter across all settings and resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS values, the optimal configuration for this combo depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 161 FPS, which is suitable for high-refresh-rate displays, while Ultra still maintains a respectable 121 FPS. For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity at 1080p, the Ultra preset is viable, but the High preset offers a 33% performance increase with only a step down in quality, making it the more balanced choice.

At 2560x1440, the High preset produces an average of 102 FPS, which is ideal for 100 Hz monitors. The Medium preset offers even more headroom at 133 FPS with a minimum of 113 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without frame drops. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 76 FPS, which is playable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes. For the best experience at 1440p, the High preset is recommended as it balances visual quality with performance, keeping the average above the 100 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes significantly. The High preset averages 54 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset improves this to 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS, making it the highest quality setting that consistently maintains playable frame rates. The Low preset achieves 85 FPS at 4K, but the visual compromise is substantial. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo is best served by the Medium preset, which provides the sweet spot between image quality and frame rate stability.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 923rd out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 24.8% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the system's strong overall performance, but it is not in the top tier, likely due to the presence of more powerful GPUs or newer CPUs in the benchmark database. The rank is a holistic measure that considers all tested settings and resolutions, giving a weighted view of the combo's capabilities.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 81 suggests that the RTX 4070 is above average, but not exceptional, in the broader landscape of graphics cards. Its nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark include the RTX 4080 Mobile, which is 1.3% faster, and the Radeon PRO W6400, which is 1.3% slower. For the CPU, the 87th percentile ranking indicates strong performance, with the 5900X sitting just 0.5% above the Intel Core i7-14650HX in average score. This mid-tier ranking for both components explains the combo's overall position: it is a well-matched pair that delivers solid results without reaching the upper echelons of the performance charts.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 246, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K with High settings?

A: No, the average FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings is 54, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The only minimum FPS values provided are for Medium settings: 178 FPS at 1080p, 113 FPS at 1440p, and 59 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37648, while its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P4, scores 37628, showing a delta of 0.1%.

Q: What is the CPU's single-core performance score?

A: The Ryzen 9 5900X achieves a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1527 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2083.

Q: What is the combo's rank in the game?

A: The combo ranks 923rd out of 3722 tested combinations in Hard West.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 246 FPS. The Medium preset averages 210 FPS, with a minimum of 178 FPS and a maximum of 241 FPS. The High preset averages 161 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 121 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 162 FPS. The Medium preset averages 133 FPS, with a minimum of 113 FPS and a maximum of 153 FPS. The High preset averages 102 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 76 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 85 FPS. The Medium preset averages 70 FPS, with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS. The High preset averages 54 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 40 FPS.

These figures demonstrate a consistent pattern: each step up in resolution reduces average FPS by roughly 40-60% depending on the preset, and each step up in quality from Low to Ultra reduces FPS by approximately 50% at a fixed resolution. The Medium preset is the only setting with complete min/max data, showing that frame time variance increases with resolution, as evidenced by the wider spread between minimum and maximum FPS at 4K compared to 1080p.