Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015, and the benchmark data for this AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination shows a system that utterly dominates the title. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across all settings, making this pairing an overkill solution for the game's engine. The data indicates that the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions shifts to the CPU, while the GPU becomes more relevant as resolution scales to 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across four presets. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 302.3 FPS (Low), 279.6 FPS (Medium), 238.2 FPS (High), and 178.5 FPS (Ultra). The jump from Low to Medium costs only 22.7 FPS, which is a negligible 7.5% performance hit for a significant visual upgrade. However, the step from High to Ultra is more substantial, with a 59.7 FPS drop (25%) that yields diminishing returns in a game of this era.

At 2560x1440, the pattern remains similar but with tighter margins. Low produces 235.7 FPS, Medium 192.4 FPS, High 152 FPS, and Ultra 111.3 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra here is 40.7 FPS (26.7%), which is proportionally consistent with the 1080p result. The most interesting recommendation emerges at 3840x2160, where the data shows 128.2 FPS (Low), 99.4 FPS (Medium), 78 FPS (High), and 59.6 FPS (Ultra). At 4K, the Ultra preset is the only configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the only option that could potentially show judder on a standard 60 Hz display.

The optimal choice for most users is the High preset across all resolutions. It delivers 238.2 FPS at 1080p, 152 FPS at 1440p, and 78 FPS at 4K. This preset offers a balanced trade-off, keeping frame rates well above refresh rate capabilities for all but the most extreme 360 Hz monitors. The Ultra preset is only advisable for users with 4K displays capped at 60 Hz, as the 59.6 FPS average is still playable but leaves no headroom for drops. For competitive play or high-refresh displays, the Medium preset at 1440p (192.4 FPS) or 1080p (279.6 FPS) provides near-maximum visual fidelity with a comfortable performance buffer.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, running on the AMD Socket AM5 platform. Its base clock is 4.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, and it carries a 170 W TDP. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43695 and a single-core score of 6168. The Geekbench results show 17830 multicore and 2952 single-core scores, while the Passmark single-thread score is 4238.

The CPU's percentile ranking versus all processors is 93, and its average benchmark score is 50556. The nearest rivals show extremely tight competition: the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 scores 50598 (a 0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT scores 50738 (a 0.4% delta), the Intel Core i7-13850HX scores 50827 (a 0.5% delta), and the Intel Core i9-13980HX scores 50944 (a 0.8% delta). This indicates the 7900X is positioned at the very top of desktop CPU performance, with less than 1% separating it from the fastest alternatives.

In Hard West, the CPU role becomes evident when examining the 1080p frame rates. At Low settings, the system produces 302.3 FPS. This is a turn-based tactics game with relatively simple rendering demands, so the CPU is likely the limiting factor at this resolution. The 12-core configuration with 24 threads is far more than this 2015 title requires, but the high boost clock of 5.60 GHz is what drives the exceptional single-thread performance needed for game logic and AI calculations. The data suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as frame rates remain high even at 4K Ultra (59.6 FPS), where GPU load is typically highest.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. Memory configuration is substantial: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's percentile ranking versus all GPUs is 94, with an average benchmark score of 84306. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D at 84241 (a 0.1% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile at 84171 (a 0.2% delta). The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 trails at 83209 (a 1.3% delta), while the NVIDIA CMP 40HX leads slightly at 85637 (a 1.6% delta). These margins are minimal, confirming the RTX 5090 sits at the apex of GPU performance.

In Hard West, the GPU role becomes clear when comparing frame rates across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 302.3 FPS; at 1440p Low, it drops to 235.7 FPS; and at 4K Low, it reaches 128.2 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a 57.6% performance reduction, indicating the GPU is increasingly engaged as pixel count rises. At Ultra settings, the drop is steeper: 178.5 FPS at 1080p, 111.3 FPS at 1440p, and 59.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 66.6% reduction from 1080p to 4K, demonstrating that Ultra settings place significant load on the GPU's rendering pipeline, particularly with the 32 GB memory buffer handling textures without issue.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 5090 overkill for this game?

A: Yes. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 178.5 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it maintains 59.6 FPS. The GPU is never the limiting factor at lower resolutions, as the 302.3 FPS at 1080p Low demonstrates.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 delivers 152 FPS, which comfortably exceeds 144 Hz refresh rates. The Ultra preset still provides 111.3 FPS, so both are viable, but High offers more headroom.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: The data suggests CPU limitation is possible at very high frame rates. At 1080p Low, the system produces 302.3 FPS, which is extraordinarily high and likely near the CPU's practical limit for game logic in this title.

Q: How does the 7900X compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The 7900X scores 50556, which is within 0.8% of the Intel Core i9-13980HX (50944) and within 0.1% of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (50598). All four rival CPUs are effectively tied in performance.

Q: Can this system hit 60 FPS at 4K with max settings?

A: Yes, but barely. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces 59.6 FPS, which rounds to approximately 60 FPS. The High preset at the same resolution provides a safer 78 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: The difference is 68.6 FPS, from 128.2 FPS at Low to 59.6 FPS at Ultra. This represents a 53.5% reduction in average frame rate when enabling maximum visual quality.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals how the system's workload shifts between components. At Low settings, the drop is from 302.3 FPS to 235.7 FPS at 1440p, then to 128.2 FPS at 4K. The reduction from 1080p to 4K is 57.6%, which is substantial but still leaves the game highly playable. The 1440p result for Low settings shows only a 22.0% reduction from 1080p, suggesting that at lower quality presets, the CPU maintains a significant role in performance.

At Medium settings, the scaling is 279.6 FPS at 1080p, 192.4 FPS at 1440p, and 99.4 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31.2%, while the drop to 4K is 64.4%. This steeper decline indicates that Medium settings increase GPU dependency compared to Low. The High preset follows a similar pattern: 238.2 FPS at 1080p, 152 FPS at 1440p (36.2% reduction), and 78 FPS at 4K (67.3% reduction). The Ultra preset shows the most aggressive scaling: 178.5 FPS at 1080p, 111.3 FPS at 1440p (37.6% reduction), and 59.6 FPS at 4K (66.6% reduction).

The data pattern clearly indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor. The consistent ~66% reduction from 1080p to 4K at High and Ultra settings points to the GPU's rendering capacity being the primary constraint at high pixel counts. Conversely, the smaller reduction at Low settings (57.6%) suggests that CPU limitations cap the maximum achievable frame rate, preventing the GPU from fully stretching its legs at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low produces 302.3 FPS, Medium produces 279.6 FPS, High produces 238.2 FPS, and Ultra produces 178.5 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 123.8 FPS, which is a 41.0% reduction from the lowest to highest quality preset. The step from Medium to High is the largest single drop at 41.4 FPS, while the step from Low to Medium is a relatively modest 22.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the results show 235.7 FPS for Low, 192.4 FPS for Medium, 152 FPS for High, and 111.3 FPS for Ultra. The total spread here is 124.4 FPS, nearly identical to the 1080p spread, but the percentage reduction from Low to Ultra is 52.8%. This larger percentage drop indicates that at 1440p, the GPU is more heavily taxed by higher quality settings. The step from High to Ultra is 40.7 FPS, which is proportionally the largest gap between consecutive presets.

At 3840x2160, the data shows 128.2 FPS for Low, 99.4 FPS for Medium, 78 FPS for High, and 59.6 FPS for Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 68.6 FPS, and the percentage reduction is 53.5%. This is the most consistent scaling pattern across all three resolutions, with the 4K results showing a tight correlation between preset quality and frame rate. The Medium preset at 4K provides 99.4 FPS, which is the only sub-100 FPS result for a non-Ultra preset, confirming that 4K resolution dramatically increases GPU workload. The overall combo rank for this system in Hard West is 13 out of 1699 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1% of all hardware pairings for this game.