Hard West

# Hard West — AMD Ryzen 9 9900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The benchmark data places this combination at rank 1013 out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, which is a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The measured FPS results reveal a system that handles this older genre title with considerable headroom at lower resolutions, while 4K Ultra presents the only real challenge. The data shows a clear pattern: this pairing is heavily GPU-limited at 4K, but at 1080p the CPU's strong single-thread performance becomes the more relevant factor, even though the game itself is not particularly demanding by modern standards.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 155 FPS at 1920x1080 to 98 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 51 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 36.8% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 48% drop from 1440p to 4K. This scaling pattern is classic GPU-bound behavior — the RTX 3080's rendering workload increases with pixel count, and the CPU has plenty of headroom to feed it frames.

The Low settings row shows an even steeper relative decline: 246 FPS at 1080p, 155 FPS at 1440p, and 82 FPS at 4K. The 1080p Low result is extraordinarily high, indicating the GPU is nowhere near saturation at that resolution and settings combination. The fact that Low at 4K (82 FPS) still beats High at 1440p (98 FPS) by a small margin suggests the game's visual settings have a significant impact on GPU load, but resolution remains the dominant factor in performance scaling.

Medium settings provide the only complete min/max data across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the average is 201 FPS with a minimum of 171 and maximum of 231. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 127 FPS (min 108, max 146). At 4K Medium, the average falls to 67 FPS (min 57, max 77). The consistency of the min-to-max spread — roughly 30 FPS at every resolution — suggests the frame pacing is stable and the game's turn-based nature means there are no chaotic action sequences to spike frame times.

Ultra settings reveal the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the system still manages 116 FPS average. At 1440p Ultra, that drops to 73 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average collapses to 38 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that most displays target. This indicates that Ultra settings at 4K push the RTX 3080's 10 GB GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth to their limits, even in a game from 2015.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranking places this pairing at 1013 out of 3722 tested combinations, which puts it in the top 27.2% of all tested systems. This is a respectable position for a game that is not particularly demanding by modern standards, and it reflects the balance between the RTX 3080's strong rasterization performance and the Ryzen 9 9900X's excellent single-thread capabilities.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 92 out of all CPUs is notably higher than the combo's overall game ranking. This suggests the processor is overqualified for Hard West, and the game's performance ceiling is more likely determined by the GPU or by engine limitations. The GPU's percentile ranking of 68 is more modest, but still above average. The gap between these two percentile figures — 92 for CPU versus 68 for GPU — indicates that the RTX 3080 is the more likely constraint in this pairing.

The average benchmark scores reinforce this interpretation. The CPU's average benchmark score of 57498 places it within 0.1% of the AMD EPYC 9015 (score 57555) and 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313 (score 57399). It trails the Intel Core i9-14900 (score 58115) by 1.1% and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (score 58323) by 1.4%. These tiny deltas suggest the Ryzen 9 9900X is operating at the very top of its performance class, with no meaningful separation from its closest competitors.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 23172 places it within 0.3% of the NVIDIA P106-100 (score 23249) and 0.4% of the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (score 23273). These near-identical scores indicate the RTX 3080 is performing exactly as expected for its class, with no silicon lottery wins or losses affecting the results.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080's specifications paint a picture of a high-end card from the Ampere generation. It features 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units, with 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. The base clock runs at 1440 MHz with a boost clock of 1710 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Hard West, the GPU's role is primarily determined by resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the card is barely challenged, producing 246 FPS. The data suggests the RTX 3080 could likely push even higher, but the game's engine or the CPU's frame delivery becomes the limiting factor at that extreme. At 4K Ultra, however, the card's limitations become apparent with only 38 FPS average.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is worth noting. Hard West is a turn-based tactics game with relatively simple textures compared to modern AAA titles, so 10 GB is likely sufficient even at 4K Ultra. The memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s is substantial and should handle the game's data streaming requirements without issue. The lack of any min/max data for Ultra settings at any resolution suggests the frame times are consistent enough that the database did not record outliers.

The GPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks shows a mixed picture. Its PassMark G3D score of 25086 is strong, but its PassMark DirectX 12 score of 100 is notably low, likely indicating that this older game does not exercise modern DirectX 12 features effectively. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407 is more representative of the card's raw capabilities. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 152423 and Vulkan score of 33620 show strong compute performance, but Hard West likely does not leverage these APIs extensively given its 2015 release.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers excellent performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 246 FPS, Medium averages 201 FPS (with a range of 171 to 231), High averages 155 FPS, and Ultra averages 116 FPS. Even the most demanding setting at 1080p easily exceeds 100 FPS, making this resolution entirely playable on high refresh rate monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. Low settings average 155 FPS, Medium averages 127 FPS (range 108 to 146), High averages 98 FPS, and Ultra averages 73 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result is still above 60 FPS, providing a smooth experience for most displays. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 82 FPS, which demonstrates the significant impact of the game's visual settings.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more variable. Low settings average 82 FPS, Medium averages 67 FPS (range 57 to 77), High averages 51 FPS, and Ultra averages 38 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, with the minimum of 57 FPS still being playable. However, 4K High at 51 FPS and 4K Ultra at 38 FPS fall below the 60 FPS target that many users prefer, indicating that 4K gaming requires settings compromises with this combination.

The pattern across all resolutions is consistent: each settings tier costs roughly 20-30% performance compared to the next lower tier. From Low to Medium at 1080p, the drop is 45 FPS (246 to 201). From Medium to High, it's 46 FPS (201 to 155). From High to Ultra, it's 39 FPS (155 to 116). This consistency suggests the game's settings scale predictably with GPU load.

FAQ

Q: Can this combination run Hard West at 4K 60 FPS?

A: No, not at the highest settings. The data shows 4K High averages 51 FPS and 4K Ultra averages 38 FPS. Only 4K Medium (67 FPS) and 4K Low (82 FPS) exceed 60 FPS at this resolution.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination in Hard West?

A: 2560x1440 appears optimal. At Ultra settings, it averages 73 FPS, which is above 60 FPS. At High settings, it averages 98 FPS, providing excellent smoothness. The 1080p results are higher but the visual quality gain from 1440p is substantial.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU scores within 0.1% of the AMD EPYC 9015 and 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313. It trails the Intel Core i9-14900 by 1.1% and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M by 1.4% in average benchmark score.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes. The dramatic FPS drop from 73 FPS at 1440p Ultra to 38 FPS at 4K Ultra (a 48% reduction) indicates the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU's high percentile ranking of 92 suggests it is not the constraint.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 1013 out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 27.2% of all tested systems.

Q: Does the game benefit from the CPU's high core count?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X has 12 cores and 24 threads, but Hard West is a turn-based tactics game from 2015 that likely uses few threads. The CPU's single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2253) is more relevant for this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge codename), manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. It has a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth.

In Hard West, the CPU's role is likely minimal due to the game's age and genre. Turn-based tactics titles typically do not stress processors heavily, as the action is discrete rather than continuous. The CPU's single-thread performance is excellent — its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2253 and Geekbench single-core score of 3010 indicate strong per-thread capability, which matters more for older games that may not utilize multiple cores effectively.

The processor's multi-thread performance is equally impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32172 and a Geekbench multicore score of 22174. However, these capabilities are likely underutilized in Hard West. The PassMark physics score of 3381 and integer math score of 181056 suggest the CPU can handle any physics calculations the game might employ, but the game's turn-based nature means these are not continuous workloads.

The CPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is in the top 8% of processors. Its nearest rivals are all enterprise or high-end desktop chips, with the AMD EPYC 9015 and EPYC 7313 being server processors. The fact that a desktop consumer chip trades blows with server processors in average benchmark scores highlights its strength, but this power is largely irrelevant for Hard West's modest requirements.

The 120 W TDP and dual-chiplet design (2x 70.6 mm² die size) contribute to the CPU's thermal characteristics, but in a game like Hard West, power draw will be far below maximum. The processor's 16,630 million transistors and 4 nm process node give it efficiency advantages, but these factors are secondary to raw performance in this context.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points toward 1440p Medium or High as the best balance for most users. At 1440p Medium, the system averages 127 FPS with a minimum of 108 FPS)Skip, providing a smooth experience on 144 Hz monitors. At 1440p High, the average is 98 FPS, which still exceeds 60 FPS and provides better visual fidelity. This represents the sweet spot where the RTX 3080's capabilities are well-matched to the game's demands.

For users with 1080p displays, all settings are playable. Even Ultra at 1080p averages 116 FPS, so there is no reason to compromise on visual quality at this resolution. The 1080p Low result of 246 FPS is excessive for most displays, but demonstrates the system's headroom for future games or for users with 240 Hz monitors.

At 4K, the recommendation is to use Medium settings, which average 67 FPS. This is the only 4K settings tier that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. High at 4K averages 51 FPS, which may be acceptable for users who prioritize visual quality over smoothness, but it falls below the ideal threshold. Ultra at 4K at 38 FPS is only recommended for users who value maximum visual fidelity and do not mind sub-60 FPS performance.

The data suggests that the GPU's 10 GB VRAM and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for Medium settings at 4K, but the transition from Medium to High at 4K causes a significant performance drop (67 to 51 FPS). This indicates that the High preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU, possibly related to shadow quality or post-processing that are particularly demanding on the Ampere architecture.