Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015 that seldom pushes a system the way a modern shooter does, but the measured results for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and Intel Arc B580 still tell a clear story. The pairing delivers frame rates ranging from 151 FPS at 1080p Low down to a 24 FPS average at 4K Ultra. The combo sits in 2817th place out of 3722 tested combinations, meaning it beats roughly a quarter of the tested combos while the CPU itself lands in the 92nd percentile of all processors. The Arc B580, which carries a launch MSRP of 249 USD, is the performance limiter at higher resolutions, while the Ryzen 9 9900X at a launch MSRP of $499 provides enough headroom that this game barely ticks over. The numbers below quantify exactly how the resolution and preset settings govern what you can expect from this combo.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a strict GPU bound pattern. At 1080p Low the combo achieves 151 FPS, but dropping to 1440p Low reduces the average to 96 FPS, and 4K Low further to 48 FPS — wait, the actual 4K Low average is 50 FPS. Compare 151 → 96 → 50: that is a 36% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 48% drop from 1440p to 4K. The trend is uniform across all settings, but the heavier presets make the GPU limit even more obvious.

At High settings, 1080p gives 95 FPS, 1440p gives 60 FPS, and 4K gives 32 FPS (a 37% drop, then a 47% drop). At Ultra, the numbers are 71, 45, and 24 FPS respectively. The sharpest drops occur between 1440p and 4K, where all settings lose roughly half the average frame rate. For example, Medium goes from 124 FPS at 1080p to 79 FPS at 1440p and then to 41 FPS at 2160p — a 36% and a 48% reduction. Because the base resolution only changes frame rate but not the pattern, the graphics card’s ability to compute pixels, its pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s, is the factor controlling performance. The 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X does not show any CPU bottleneck at even the lowest resolution and highest frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The database places this specific CPU-GPU pair at rank 2817 out of 3722 combos for Hard West. Since a rank of 1 would be the best result, a rank of 2817 means that the combo outperforms 905 of the tested combinations (about 24% of the list), while 2816 pairings deliver a higher average FPS in this title. That is a relatively low placement, despite the processor’s position among the top CPUs, because the Arc B580 is not a high-end part in the overall context.

The CPU’s 92nd percentile among all CPUs does not translate to a top-tier in this game ranking because the hard limit is the GPU. The Arc B580’s 68th percentile sitting and an average benchmark score of 23021 already place it just ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (which scores 23061, delta -0.2%) and behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22895, delta +0.6%) and RTX 3080 (23172, delta -0.7%). So while the CPU is a high-end 12-core Zen 5 part (Cinebench R23 multicore 32172, single-core 2253; PassMark Multithread 54643), it does not lift the overall ranking when paired with a graphics card that only achieves mid-card classification. The game’s low absolute turn-based load may explain why, but the ranking reflects that with this GPU, there is a ceiling on the FPS, especially if you want to push resolution beyond 1080p.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 card is the dominant component here. With 12GB of GDDR6 memory over a 192-bit bus and 456.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and with 2560 shader units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, it delivers average frame rates that range widely depending on preset. Its base and boost clock are both fixed at 2670 MHz, which is a modest frequency; the 20 RT cores support ray tracing, but Hard West is not a DX12 ray-tracing focused title, so the traditional rasterization numbers dominate.

The benchmark suite shows a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result of 3068, though the DirectX 11 Passmark score of 15748 gives a better view of its classic game performance across a wide range of desktop titles. Its average benchmark score of 23021 places the card within just over half a percent of older cards like the GeForce RTX 2080 (which reports 22895, delta +0.6%). This makes the card a mid-range choice: fine at 1080p but with before does. At 1080p Medium the average FPS of 124 is well above the 60 Hz threshold, but one automatically drops to 71 FPS at Ultra. Going to 4K with the same card yields an average of 41 FPS at Medium, 32 FPS at High, and only 24 FPS at Ultra. That collapse at high resolutions confirms the GPU is the whole limiting factor; the 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 rate is simply not enough to keep Hard West smooth at 4K with the preset maxed.

The card also has a 450 W suggested PSU, dual-slot width, and a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, though these details are hardware foundation, not directly related to the measured FPS numbers.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to run this combo if I want a high frame rate?

A: For anything close to 100+ FPS, stick with 1080p. The combo averages 151 FPS at Low, 124 at Medium, 95 at High, and 71 at Ultra, so only the Ultra preset falls below the triple-digit mark.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X overkill for this game?

A: This game, a turn-based tactics title, is not particularly demanding on CPU. The Ryzen 9 9900X with 12 cores 24 threads, a 4.40 GHz base, and 5.60 GHz boost hits the 92nd percentile benchmark of all CPUs; at 1080p Low it delivers 151 FPS, higher than at any other settings in the test. That suggests the CPU is not the constraint.

Q: How does the Arc B580 compare to other similar cards?

A: The Arc B580’s average benchmark score of 23021 places it within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23061, delta -0.2%), +0.6% of the RTX 2080 (22895), and -0.7% of RTX 3080 (23172). The card’s 68th percentile is aligned with these older cards, but it has 12 GB of memory which can be beneficial in modern titles.

Q: What frame rate does the combo deliver at 1440p with medium settings?

A: At 1440p Medium, the average FPS is 79, with a minimum of 67 and maximum of 90, so it is fully playable on a 60Hz monitor and just stable enough for a 75Hz panel.

Q: Is the 1080p High frame rate enough for a 120Hz display?

A: The measured 95 FPS at 1080p High means a 120Hz display can only hit 95 F/S average; this is typically fine for a tactics game, but you may want the 124 FPS at Medium if you target consistent High+ refresh.

Q: How big is the performance drop from 1080p to 4K?

A: The average FPS drops significantly across the board: with High a 95→60→50 pipeline, at Ultra 71→45→24, and at Low 151→96→50. Overall the 4K numbers are under half of the 1080p average at the same preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists all measured average, maximum and minimum values directly from the dataset for Hard West.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min – Max |

|------------|----------|---------|-----------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 32 | – |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 50 | – |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 41 | 35 – 47 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 24 | – |

| 2560x1440 | High | 60 | – |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 96 | – |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 79 | 67 – 90 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 45 | – |

| 1920x1080 | High | 95 | – |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 151 | – |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 124 | 105 – 143 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 71 | – |

The median FPS figures (where recorded) show that a smooth experience without stutter across all settings. For example, at 1080p Medium, the 124 FPS rate dips to 105 FPS at worst, but rarely below that. The consistency is excellent for a turn-based tactics title, and the absolute values show a 6-fold span from 24 FPS to 151 FPS.

CPU Role

The CPU’s part of the picture is nearly invisible, but only because it is a very fast processor for this workload. The Ryzen 9 9900X is a Zen 5 part, code‐named Granite Ridge, built on a 4 nm TSMC process. It has 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost at 5.60 GHz. The processor has 80 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, 64 MB L3, and is backed by dual‑channel DDR5 memory (up to 89.6 GB/s). TDP is 120 W, which is a moderate power draw for the performance check.

Active in benchmark averages, the CPU scores 32,172 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 2,253 in single core, and a Passmark Multithread result of 54,790 in the same database. To place with a 92nd percentile. It sits among rivals of comparable near res: the AMD EPYC 9015 (59,555? actually the "avg score" listed in nearest Rivals is 57,555 for a EPYC 9015) while the Intel Core i9-14900 averages 58,115. Such high overall strength appears nowhere