Hard West

FAQ

Q: What average frame rate does this combo achieve at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers an average of 133.2 FPS. This is the most demanding preset at this resolution, yet it remains well above standard display refresh rates.

Q: How does the GPU's average benchmark score compare to its closest rival?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 42576. Its nearest listed rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 42653, which is a delta of -0.2% from the 4070 SUPER's perspective. This places the two cards in essentially the same performance tier according to the aggregate data.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all tested processors?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, indicating it outperforms the vast majority of processors in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score is 50556, with its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, scoring 50598 (a -0.1% delta).

Q: At which resolution and settings does the frame rate drop below 60 FPS?

A: The only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold is 4K (3840x2160) with Ultra settings, where the average frame rate is 42.8 FPS. At 4K High, the average is 60.8 FPS, just barely clearing that mark.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in this game relative to other tested combinations?

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 267th out of 1699 total tested combos for Hard West. This places it in the top 15.7% of all configurations in the database for this title.

Q: How large is the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces an average of 179.1 FPS, while Ultra produces 82.6 FPS. That is a difference of 96.5 FPS, or roughly 117% more performance from the Low preset compared to Ultra.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary driver of frame rate variance in Hard West, especially at higher resolutions. The card features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. With a boost clock of 2475 MHz and 7168 shading units, the GPU has substantial raw throughput for a turn-based tactics title that does not appear to demand state-of-the-art rendering features.

The measured data reveals a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. At 1080p, the frame rates range from 133.2 FPS (Ultra) to 283.8 FPS (Low), suggesting the GPU has ample headroom even at maximum settings. At 4K, however, the Ultra preset drops to 42.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU's compute resources are being saturated by the combination of high resolution and demanding graphical effects.

The 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42576, places this card in the upper tier of graphics hardware. Its nearest rivals—the RTX A6000 (-0.2%), RX 7650 GRE (-0.3%), and Radeon Pro 580X (+1.4%)—all sit within a narrow performance band, suggesting that the 4070 SUPER's positioning is well-established by the aggregate data. For Hard West specifically, the GPU's 12 GB VRAM appears sufficient even at 4K, as no memory-related stutters or outliers are evident in the measured FPS numbers.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that High settings offer the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 179.8 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display. At 1440p High, the average drops to 114.8 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS and ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. Even at 4K High, the average of 60.8 FPS hits the standard 60 FPS target precisely.

Ultra settings, by contrast, exact a heavy toll. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate collapses to 42.8 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users. At 1440p Ultra, 82.6 FPS is acceptable but represents a 28% reduction from High. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 46.6 FPS (179.8 to 133.2), which is significant for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in a game from 2015.

Medium settings serve as a fallback if higher frame rates are desired. At 4K Medium, the average rises to 75.7 FPS, a 24.5% improvement over High. Low settings push frame rates to extreme levels—283.8 FPS at 1080p—but are unnecessary given the performance headroom at High. The recommended path is High for all resolutions, with Medium as a sensible compromise for 4K users seeking higher refresh rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 7900X and RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 267th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. This places the pairing in the top 15.7% of all configurations, a strong showing for a mid-to-upper-tier GPU paired with a high-end CPU. The ranking reflects the game's relatively modest hardware demands—turn-based tactics typically do not stress systems as heavily as real-time 3D shooters—so even a 1080p Ultra frame rate of 133.2 FPS is enough to position this combo well above the median.

The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking among all processors contributes to this placement by ensuring that no CPU-bound bottlenecks occur at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 283.8 FPS, a figure that would be unattainable if the CPU were limiting. The GPU's 84th percentile ranking, while slightly lower, is still well above average and sufficient for this game's requirements.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X provides 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This is a high-end desktop processor with a 170 W TDP, designed for heavy multi-threaded workloads. In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is less demanding than in real-time strategy titles, but the data shows it is more than adequate.

At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 283.8 FPS indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU effectively even at very high frame rates. The gap between 1080p Low and 1440p Low (283.8 vs. 179.1 FPS) suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions; rather, the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity determine performance. The CPU's benchmark scores—such as 43695 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6168 in single-core—confirm its strong overall capability, though these figures are far beyond what Hard West likely requires.

The 12-core configuration ensures that any background tasks or streaming overhead will not interfere with game performance. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache and DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provide ample memory throughput for game logic and AI calculations in a turn-based genre where CPU-bound simulations can occur during enemy turns.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are: Low 283.8 FPS, Medium 231.9 FPS, High 179.8 FPS, and Ultra 133.2 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra sees a 150.6 FPS drop, with the largest single-step reduction occurring between Medium and High (52.1 FPS). The step from High to Ultra costs 46.6 FPS, while Low to Medium costs 51.9 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 179.1 FPS, Medium 146.8 FPS, High 114.8 FPS, and Ultra 82.6 FPS. The total spread from Low to Ultra is 96.5 FPS. The largest step-down is between High and Ultra at 32.2 FPS, followed by Medium to High at 32.0 FPS. Low to Medium drops 32.3 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 97.1 FPS, Medium 75.7 FPS, High 60.8 FPS, and Ultra 42.8 FPS. The total spread is 54.3 FPS. The step from High to Ultra (18.0 FPS) is the largest absolute drop, but the relative penalty is steepest at the top end—Ultra delivers only 44.1% of the Low preset's frame rate at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a consistent resolution scaling pattern. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at each settings level reduces performance by roughly 36-38%: Low goes from 283.8 to 179.1 FPS (-36.9%), Medium from 231.9 to 146.8 FPS (-36.7%), High from 179.8 to 114.8 FPS (-36.2%), and Ultra from 133.2 to 82.6 FPS (-38.0%). These near-uniform reductions indicate that the GPU is the scaling bottleneck, as pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p, yet frame rate drops by only about 37%.

From 1440p to 4K, the pixel count increases by another 125%, but the frame rate penalties are more variable. Low drops from 179.1 to 97.1 FPS (-45.8%), Medium from 146.8 to 75.7 FPS (-48.4%), High from 114.8 to 60.8 FPS (-47.0%), and Ultra from 82.6 to 42.8 FPS (-48.2%). The larger percentage drops at 4K suggest that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated, with memory bandwidth (504.2 GB/s) and shading capacity reaching their limits.

The scaling behavior indicates that Hard West is primarily GPU-bound at all resolutions above 1080p Low. The CPU's 12 cores and high boost clock are sufficient to maintain high frame rates even at 1080p, where the GPU's output is the limiting factor. The sharp decline at 4K Ultra—down to 42.8 FPS—shows that this combo, while strong, cannot sustain maximum settings at 4K for this title.