Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a commanding performance profile in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings place this combination in the 24th position out of 1,699 tested combos, indicating top-tier capability. The data shows that even at the most demanding configuration, the system maintains playable frame rates, though the optimal experience depends heavily on the user's display resolution and preference for visual fidelity versus raw frame throughput.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data presents a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 302.5 FPS, while Medium reaches 280.3 FPS, High hits 230.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 173.4 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at this resolution shows a performance cost of approximately 43% when moving to the highest quality settings, but even the Ultra preset maintains a frame rate well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors.

For 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. The Low preset delivers 232.5 FPS, Medium produces 187.6 FPS, High scores 143 FPS, and Ultra falls to 107.1 FPS. At this resolution, the Ultra preset remains fluid, but the High preset offers a better balance for users seeking higher frame rates without sacrificing significant visual quality. The data suggests that High at 1440p provides a 33.5% improvement over Ultra while still delivering a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 56.4 FPS, which is playable but below the 60 FPS threshold that many users consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 4K improves to 73.9 FPS, a 31% increase over Ultra, while Medium reaches 99.8 FPS and Low tops out at 120.4 FPS. For 4K displays, the High preset represents the recommended choice, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while retaining most of the visual enhancements. The Medium preset is a viable alternative for users who prioritize frame rate stability, offering a 35% improvement over High. Given the genre's turn-based nature, where precise timing is less critical, the High preset at 4K or the Ultra preset at 1440p provides the best overall experience per the measured rows.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X features 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This processor belongs to the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael, and is built on a 5 nm process node from TSMC. The L3 cache is 64 MB shared, which benefits workloads that require frequent data access. In the context of Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is primarily to manage game logic, AI decisions, and unit pathfinding rather than continuous rendering tasks.

Benchmark results for the 7900X show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43,695 and a single-core score of 6,168. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling from 2,137 for 2 threads to 12,536 for max threads, indicating efficient utilization of the available cores. For a game like Hard West, which likely does not scale perfectly across all 24 threads, the single-core performance is more relevant, and the 7900X's Geekbench single-core score of 2,952 positions it well for games that rely on a few fast threads.

The processor's percentile ranking of 93 among all CPUs suggests it outperforms the vast majority of installed processors. Compared to its nearest rivals, the 7900X's average benchmark score of 50,556 is only 0.1% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and 0.4% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this configuration. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 302.5 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the RTX 4090 adequately even at high frame rates. The lack of significant frame rate drops when moving from lower to higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings, while the CPU maintains its role efficiently.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved with this combo?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 302.5 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the Ultra preset at 4K compare to the High preset at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages 56.4 FPS, while the High preset achieves 73.9 FPS, representing a 31% performance advantage for High over Ultra.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data shows that at 1080p, frame rates range from 173.4 FPS at Ultra to 302.5 FPS at Low, indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint, as the CPU's performance is sufficient to support these high values.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of the CPU and GPU in their respective benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks in the 91st percentile among all GPUs.

Q: How does this combo rank in Hard West specifically?

A: This combination of CPU and GPU ranks 24th out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 1.5% of all configurations.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 230.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 143 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 73.9 FPS at 3840x2160, a total reduction of 68% from 1080p to 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 24 out of 1,699 tested combinations places this system in the top 1.4% of all configurations tested in Hard West. This high ranking is expected given the hardware involved, but the specific margin over other combos can be inferred from the frame rate data. The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 66,473 is within 0.4% of the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and 0.5% above the NVIDIA Tesla P40, showing that the GPU is near the top of the performance hierarchy. The CPU's average score of 50,556 is similarly close to its rivals, with the nearest competitor, the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, being only 0.1% higher.

The ranking implies that the vast majority of the 1,675 other combos tested produce lower frame rates in Hard West. The measured data shows that this system can achieve over 300 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a level of performance that likely exceeds most other configurations. The combination of a 12-core, 24-thread CPU with a high single-thread score and a GPU with 16,384 shading units and 24 GB of GDDR6X memory ensures that neither component becomes a significant bottleneck in this turn-based tactics title. The rank of 24 suggests that only 23 other combinations of CPU and GPU deliver higher average frame rates across the tested settings, which is a remarkable feat for a game released in 2015.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear inverse relationship between resolution and frame rate across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 302.5 FPS at 1080p to 232.5 FPS at 1440p and 120.4 FPS at 4K, representing a 60% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the drop is from 280.3 FPS at 1080p to 187.6 FPS at 1440p and 99.8 FPS at 4K, a 64% reduction. High settings show a decline from 230.4 FPS at 1080p to 143 FPS at 1440p and 73.9 FPS at 4K, a 68% reduction. Ultra settings see the steepest relative decline, from 173.4 FPS at 1080p to 107.1 FPS at 1440p and 56.4 FPS at 4K, a 67% reduction.

The pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases is consistent across all presets, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The RTX 4090's memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s and 24 GB of GDDR6X memory are substantial, but the pixel throughput demands of 4K still cause a significant frame rate penalty. The fact that the frame rate at 4K Ultra (56.4 FPS) is less than one-fifth of the 1080p Low (302.5 FPS) underscores the GPU-bound nature of the workload at higher resolutions. Conversely, the relatively small difference between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (302.5 FPS vs. 232.5 FPS) suggests that the CPU is still able to keep up with the GPU's output at lower resolutions, and the bottleneck shifts entirely to the GPU as resolution increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average frame rates reveals the full performance envelope of this combination. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 302.5 FPS, Medium achieves 280.3 FPS, High reaches 230.4 FPS, and Ultra produces 173.4 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 129.1 FPS, or a 43% performance penalty for the highest quality settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates are 232.5 FPS for Low, 187.6 FPS for Medium, 143 FPS for High, and 107.1 FPS for Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 125.4 FPS, a 54% reduction. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 120.4 FPS, Medium achieves 99.8 FPS, High reaches 73.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 56.4 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 64 FPS, a 53% penalty.

Across all resolutions, the High preset offers the most balanced performance, with frame rates that remain above 60 FPS even at 4K. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, suggesting that users with 4K displays should opt for High settings to maintain smooth gameplay. The data also shows that the scaling from Medium to High incurs a 18% performance cost at 1080p, 24% at 1440p, and 26% at 4K, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 25% at 1080p, 25% at 1440p, and 24% at 4K. This consistent scaling pattern across resolutions indicates that the game's rendering pipeline responds predictably to both settings changes and resolution changes, making it easier for users to anticipate the performance impact of their choices.