Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a thoroughly playable experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. With a combo rank of 923 out of 3722 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the top quartile of all systems tested. The data shows a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the 16-core processor provides ample headroom at 1080p. Across the twelve measured data points, the system never drops below 40 FPS average, even at the most demanding 4K Ultra preset, making it a reliable choice for this genre.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a clear story about where the bottleneck resides. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces an average of 246 FPS, which drops to 162 FPS at 1440p and further to 85 FPS at 4K. This represents a 65% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, is not the constraint here—even at 1080p Low, the system is pushing well beyond what most displays can refresh.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher quality presets. At Ultra settings, the average FPS goes from 121 at 1080p to 76 at 1440p (a 37% drop) and then to 40 at 4K (a 47% drop from 1440p). This non-linear scaling suggests that the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth are being taxed heavily at 4K Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra at each resolution is also telling: at 1080p, High yields 161 FPS while Ultra yields 121 FPS (a 25% penalty); at 4K, the same settings gap results in a 26% penalty (54 FPS vs 40 FPS). This consistent penalty across resolutions indicates that the Ultra preset introduces a fixed computational cost that scales with resolution.

Interestingly, the Medium preset shows the most efficient scaling. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 210 FPS with a minimum of 178 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average is 133 FPS (a 37% drop), and at 4K Medium, it lands at 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS (a 47% drop from 1440p). The minimum FPS figures for Medium are the only ones provided in the data, and they show that at 4K Medium, the system maintains a 59 FPS floor, which is comfortably above the playable threshold for a turn-based game. The data suggests that the limiting component at 4K is definitively the GPU, as the CPU's performance headroom—evidenced by its 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs—cannot compensate for the pixel throughput demands.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hard West?*

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 at High settings offers the strongest balance, delivering 102 average FPS. This is more than double the 4K High result of 54 FPS, while still providing a significant visual upgrade over 1080p.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K Ultra?

A: The 4K Ultra preset yields an average of 40 FPS, which is the lowest measured result in the entire dataset. While this is technically playable for a turn-based tactics game, the 4K Medium preset at 70 average FPS provides a much smoother experience.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor even at 1080p. The Ryzen 9 5950X has a 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs and scores 26,017 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, while the RTX 4070 sits at the 81st percentile. The 246 FPS at 1080p Low is high, but the GPU's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is still the ceiling.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 162 average FPS, while Ultra produces 76 average FPS. This is a 113% performance uplift for Low, but the gap narrows to 112% at 1080p (246 vs 121 FPS) and 112.5% at 4K (85 vs 40 FPS), showing a consistent scaling pattern.

Q: Does the RTX 4070's VRAM capacity affect results?

A: The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is sufficient across all tested settings. The data shows no anomalous drops that would indicate VRAM overflow; instead, performance scales smoothly with resolution, suggesting the memory subsystem is not a limiting factor in this title.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 923rd out of 3722 tested combos for Hard West, placing it in the top 25% of all systems. This ranking is consistent with the CPU's 91st percentile and GPU's 81st percentile standings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 923 out of 3722 tested combinations places this system in the 75.2nd percentile for Hard West performance. This is notably higher than what the individual component percentiles might suggest—the CPU ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 81st percentile among all GPUs. The combined result indicates that the pairing is well-balanced for this specific game, with neither component dragging the overall performance down.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its synthetic benchmark standing. The AMD EPYC 8124P scores 52,121, which is 0.3% higher than the Ryzen 9 5950X's 51,947 average benchmark score. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX is essentially tied at 52,073 (0.2% higher), while the Intel Core i9-13900F trails slightly at 51,730 (0.4% lower). These tiny delta percentages—all within 0.7%—show that the 5950X is firmly in a performance cluster with these competing chips, and in a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, this level of CPU performance is more than sufficient.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4070's nearest rivals show a similar tight grouping. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 scores 37,628 (0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37,507 (0.4% higher), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 scores 37,157 (1.3% lower). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is the only rival that outpaces the 4070 by more than 1%, with a score of 38,135 (1.3% higher). This clustering suggests that the RTX 4070's desktop performance is well-established, and the measured FPS in Hard West reflects its capability relative to this peer group.

Given that the game is from 2015 and turn-based, the 923rd rank is likely inflated by systems with more modern GPUs that handle the game's engine overhead differently. The measured data shows the combo achieves playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, which puts it ahead of a substantial portion of the 3722 tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings deliver an average of 246 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 210 FPS with a minimum of 178 FPS and a maximum of 241 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution. High settings yield 161 FPS, while Ultra drops to 121 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is a 51% reduction, but even the lowest result remains far above display refresh rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected resolution penalty. Low settings average 162 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth. Medium settings deliver 133 FPS with a minimum of 113 FPS and a maximum of 153 FPS. High settings produce 102 FPS, and Ultra falls to 76 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is 26 FPS, which is a meaningful difference for those seeking maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the system begins to show its limits. Low settings average 85 FPS, which is playable but represents a 48% drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS—this is the only resolution where the Medium minimum dips below 60 FPS. High settings produce 54 FPS, and Ultra drops to 40 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured data point that falls below the 60 FPS threshold for average frame rate, indicating that this preset is only suitable for players who prioritize image quality over fluidity.

The Medium preset's min/max data across all three resolutions provides the most complete picture of frame pacing. At 1080p, the range is 178-241 FPS (a 63 FPS spread); at 1440p, it is 113-153 FPS (a 40 FPS spread); and at 4K, it is 59-80 FPS (a 21 FPS spread). The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded as pixel count increases, reducing the variance that comes from CPU-driven frame time spikes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 plays the decisive role in Hard West performance, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for this game's requirements. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, and the data shows no signs of memory capacity or bandwidth being a limiting factor—performance scales predictably with resolution rather than hitting a wall.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial: 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines. The 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 455.4 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for a turn-based tactics game from 2015. The boost clock of 2475 MHz, paired with a base clock of 1920 MHz, allows the card to maintain high throughput across all tested settings. The architecture, Ada Lovelace on TSMC's 5 nm process, includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, though these are unlikely to be heavily utilized in a game of this vintage.

The GPU's 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,648, places it in a competitive position. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P4, is essentially tied at 37,628 (0.1% difference), while the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is 0.4% higher at 37,507. This tight grouping in synthetic benchmarks translates to the measured FPS data, where the 4070 handles 1080p and 1440p with ease but begins to struggle at 4K Ultra. The 200 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with a mid-range enthusiast card that prioritizes efficiency, and the 16-pin power connector indicates a modern power delivery system.

The data shows that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions, but particularly at 4K. The 40 FPS average at 4K Ultra is a clear indicator that the card's pixel throughput is maxed out, while the CPU sits idle with significant headroom. This is typical for a game of this era, where the rendering workload is predominantly GPU-bound.

Settings Recommendations

For players using this combination, the data supports a clear hierarchy of settings based on resolution. At 1920x1080, any preset is viable—even Ultra at 121 FPS provides an excellent experience. However, the Medium preset at 210 FPS with a minimum of 178 FPS offers the best combination of visual quality and performance headroom, ensuring that any scene complexity spikes are absorbed without dropping below 178 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 102 FPS is the recommended choice. It provides a 26 FPS advantage over Ultra (76 FPS) while maintaining a visual quality that is nearly indistinguishable in a turn-based game. The Medium preset at 133 FPS is also excellent, but High offers the best balance for players who want elevated textures and effects without sacrificing smoothness. The 1440p Low preset at 162 FPS is overkill for this genre and sacrifices too much visual fidelity for marginal gains.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the clear winner. At 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS, it is the only 4K setting that maintains a near-60 FPS floor. The High preset at 54 FPS is playable but leaves no room for frame time spikes, while Ultra at 40 FPS dips below the threshold where even turn-based games feel responsive. The data suggests that 4K Medium is the sweet spot for this resolution, providing a 30 FPS improvement over Ultra (70 vs 40 FPS) while keeping the minimum above 59 FPS.

The overall recommendation is to prioritize the Medium preset at 4K, High at 1440p, and Medium or Ultra at 1080p, depending on whether the player prefers maximum visual fidelity or maximum frame rate. The system's performance at 1080p is so high that even Ultra settings leave ample headroom for future driver optimizations or background tasks. For players with 1440p displays, High settings offer the best experience, while 4K users should stick to Medium to ensure consistent frame delivery. The data clearly shows that the RTX 4070's 12 GB of VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for Medium settings at 4K, but the Ultra preset demands more than the card can deliver at acceptable frame rates.