Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015, and the benchmark data for this AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination shows a system that is heavily overqualified for the game's demands. The measured FPS across all settings and resolutions reveals that this pairing is almost entirely GPU-bound at higher settings, while at lower settings the CPU's strong single-threaded performance becomes a factor. The data indicates that players can expect very high frame rates, but the differences between presets are significant enough to warrant careful selection based on your display's refresh rate and preference for visual fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for this system in Hard West. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 269 FPS, which is a substantial lead over the Medium preset's 221 FPS. The High preset drops to 170 FPS, and Ultra falls to 127 FPS. For a game of this genre, where reaction time is less critical than in a fast-paced shooter, the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot, offering a 221 FPS average with a minimum of 188 FPS and a maximum of 254 FPS, ensuring consistent smoothness on high-refresh-rate displays. The jump from Low to Medium costs roughly 48 FPS, but the visual upgrade in a turn-based game is generally worth it.

At 1440p, the pattern remains the same. The Low preset achieves 170 FPS, Medium reaches 140 FPS, High lands at 107 FPS, and Ultra drops to 80 FPS. The Medium preset's 140 FPS average, with a 119 FPS minimum, is still exceptionally smooth and is the recommended choice for most users at this resolution. The High preset's 107 FPS is also perfectly playable, but the data shows that the step from High to Ultra is a steep 27 FPS drop (from 107 to 80 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset is demanding on the GPU. For a tactical game where you are examining the battlefield, the additional visual details of High or Ultra might be preferred over chasing the highest frame counts.

The 4K data tells a different story. Here, the Ultra preset drops to a 42 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 4K averages 56 FPS, also slightly under 60 FPS. The Medium preset, however, achieves a comfortable 73 FPS average with a minimum of 62 FPS, making it the only viable preset for a locked 60 FPS experience at this resolution. The Low preset at 4K averages 89 FPS, but the visual compromise is too severe for a game like Hard West. Therefore, for 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation, as it offers the best balance between the 73 FPS average and visual quality. The data strongly suggests that the Ultra preset is not suited for 4K on this hardware, as it fails to maintain a stable 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a massive piece of hardware with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Its benchmark scores are enormous, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 and a Passmark G3D score of 39650, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. However, in Hard West, a game released in 2015, this raw power is only partially utilized. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is the key indicator of the GPU's role. At the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 221 at 1080p to 140 at 1440p and then to 73 at 4K. This scaling shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the increased pixel count directly impacts the render workload.

The RTX 5090's core clocks are listed with a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz. The data shows that this GPU is capable of pushing massive frame counts in this older title, but its performance is not immune to the demands of higher resolutions and more intensive presets. The 42 FPS average at 4K Ultra is a clear sign that even this top-tier GPU struggles with the game's maximum settings at that resolution, likely due to the game's engine not being optimized for the hardware's architecture. The GPU's Passmark DirectX 11 score of 341 and DirectX 12 score of 185 are notably lower than its compute scores, indicating that its raw compute power does not translate directly to legacy API performance, which is relevant for a 2015 title like Hard West.

The GPU's role is therefore to provide the headroom for high resolutions and settings. At 1080p and 1440p, it is not the bottleneck, as the CPU can feed it frames effectively. However, at 4K, the GPU's workload increases to the point where it becomes the primary constraint, particularly on the High and Ultra presets. The 32 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as it is unlikely to use even a fraction of it, but the sheer amount of memory ensures there are no texture streaming issues at any resolution. The data suggests that while the GPU is overkill for 1080p, it is still the component that determines the ceiling for 4K performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 725th out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the top 20% of all systems tested, which is a solid result, but not a top-tier ranking given the hardware's pedigree. The fact that it is not higher suggests that the game is not heavily dependent on the latest hardware features, and that other combos with different CPU/GPU pairings can achieve similar or better results. The combo's rank is a function of the game's age and its engine's limitations, which do not scale perfectly with modern multi-core processors or the latest GPU architectures.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark performance include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, which scores 0.1% higher, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which scores 0.6% higher. In contrast, the GPU's nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, score 0.3% higher, while the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 1.1% lower. These small deltas indicate that the components in this combo are each near the top of their respective performance tiers. However, the combo's rank of 725 suggests that in Hard West, the pairing's strengths do not combine to push it into the top 100. This is likely because the game is not sensitive to the specific advantages of this CPU, such as its 16 cores and 32 threads, which are largely irrelevant in a turn-based tactics title that relies more on single-thread performance.

When comparing to other combos, the data shows that this system is in the upper echelon, but there is room for improvement. The 725th rank out of 3722 combos means that 725 systems perform better in this specific game, which is a notable number given the hardware's capabilities. This is a reflection of the game's age and the fact that many other high-end systems from various generations could also run it very well. The benchmark results indicate that the combo is not a top performer in Hard West, but it is far from a poor one, and the actual frame rates are exceptionally high in most scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming on this system?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice for 4K, as it delivers a 73 FPS average with a 62 FPS minimum, ensuring a stable experience above 60 FPS. The High preset averages 56 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 42 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Why does the Ultra preset perform so much worse than High at 1440p?

A: The data shows a significant drop from High (107 FPS) to Ultra (80 FPS) at 1440p, a 27 FPS decrease. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces a substantial additional GPU load, likely from higher-quality shadows and effects, which is not justified by the visual gains in a turn-based game.

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

A: At 1080p with the Low preset, the system reaches 269 FPS, which is extremely high. The scaling from Low to Medium (269 to 221 FPS) suggests that the CPU is still able to feed the GPU effectively, but the game's engine limits the maximum frame rate. The GPU is not the bottleneck at this resolution, as it has ample headroom.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other systems in Hard West?

A: This combo ranks 725th out of 3722 tested combinations, placing it in the top 20% of all systems. This is a strong result, but not a top-tier ranking, due to the game's age and its lack of reliance on modern multi-core processors.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM matter for Hard West?

A: No. Hard West is a 2015 game, and its texture requirements are minimal. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory is far more than needed, and the game will not benefit from the excess capacity. The VRAM size is irrelevant to the performance in this title.

Q: What is the average FPS on the High preset at 1440p?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 averages 107 FPS. This is a very smooth experience for a turn-based tactics game, and it is a good balance between visual quality and performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling. At the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 221 at 1080p to 140 at 1440p, a 36.7% decrease, and then to 73 at 4K, a 47.9% decrease from 1440p. This scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound workload, as the number of pixels increases significantly with each resolution step. The 1080p to 1440p drop is substantial, but the 1440p to 4K drop is even more pronounced, indicating that the GPU is working harder to fill the additional pixels.

Looking at the High preset, the scaling is similar: 170 FPS at 1080p, 107 FPS at 1440p, and 56 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 37.1% and 47.7%, respectively, which are nearly identical to the Medium preset. This suggests that the relative performance scaling is consistent across presets, and the GPU's capabilities are the primary factor. The Ultra preset shows a slightly different pattern, with 127 FPS at 1080p, 80 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K, representing drops of 37.0% and 47.5%. The consistency of these percentages across all presets is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

This scaling also tells us about the CPU's role. At 1080p, the frame rates are very high, especially on the Low preset (269 FPS). If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would see less scaling between 1080p and 1440p, as the CPU load would remain constant. However, the significant drops in FPS as resolution increases prove that the GPU is the component being stressed. The CPU is capable of delivering frames at these rates, but the GPU cannot keep up as the pixel count grows. The data suggests that for a 2015 game, the RTX 5090 is not fully utilized at 1080p, but at 4K, it is pushed to its limits on the High and Ultra presets.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and a single-core score of 6030. The Passmark single-thread score is 3907, which is a strong indicator of its ability to handle older games like Hard West that rely on single-core performance. The CPU's 64 MB of L3 cache and 5 nm process node also contribute to its efficiency, but in this game, the key metric is single-thread performance.

The data shows that at 1080p with the Low preset, the system achieves 269 FPS. This is a very high frame rate, and it is likely close to the game's engine limit. The CPU's single-thread performance is crucial here, as it determines how quickly the game logic can be processed. The fact that the frame rate scales down as the resolution increases, even on the Low preset (170 FPS at 1440p, 89 FPS at 4K), indicates that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck. However, the CPU's role is not entirely negligible, as its high single-core score allows it to push the GPU to its limits at lower resolutions.

The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads are underutilized in Hard West, as turn-based tactics games typically do not use more than a few cores. The benchmark data shows that the CPU's average benchmark score is 76212, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, is only 0.1% faster. This indicates that the 8945HX is at the top of its class for general performance, but in this specific game, the extra cores do not provide an advantage. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.40 GHz is more important, as it ensures that the game's main thread runs as fast as possible. The data suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in Hard West, but its strong single-thread performance is necessary to achieve the highest frame rates at 1080p.