Hard West

# FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in Hard West?

A: The combination ranks 69th out of 3,722 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 1.9% of all configurations tested. This is a strong result, though not the absolute top, given the game's age and the hardware's modern pedigree.

Q: How many cores and threads does the CPU have, and what is its boost clock?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X has 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This is a Zen 5 architecture chip built on a 4 nm process, indicating high single-thread and multi-thread capability.

Q: What is the VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth of the GPU?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This is extremely high, but the game's data shows that even this capacity is not a limiting factor at any resolution tested.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The highest average FPS is 332, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This high frame rate indicates that the combo is vastly overqualified for this game at lower settings, with the CPU likely being the primary driver of performance at this resolution.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 57, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is still playable, but it shows that the highest settings at 4K can stress even this top-tier combo, likely due to the game's rendering engine rather than hardware limitations.

Q: Does the data include minimum FPS values for all settings?

A: No, minimum FPS values are only provided for the Medium settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum is 252 FPS; at 2560x1440 Medium, it's 160 FPS; and at 3840x2160 Medium, it's 84 FPS. Other settings rows do not list min/max values.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this combo, and its specifications shape the performance envelope in Hard West. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM on a 384-bit bus. This memory configuration yields a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, which is far beyond what a 2015 turn-based tactics game would require. The data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the combo produces 332 FPS, and at 1080p High, it still manages 228 FPS, indicating that the GPU is never the bottleneck at lower resolutions.

The GPU's raw compute power—82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance—is another indicator of its overkill status. However, the measured FPS data reveals a different story at higher settings and resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 57, which is a significant reduction from the 120 FPS at 4K Low. This suggests that the game's Ultra preset introduces rendering effects that heavily tax the GPU, even one as powerful as the RTX 4090. The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is not a factor, as the game's textures and geometry are unlikely to exceed even a fraction of this, but the sheer fill-rate demands of 4K Ultra can still challenge the GPU's 176 ROPs and 512 TMUs.

The GPU's 16,384 shading units are ample for this game, but the data implies that Hard West's Ultra settings may use inefficient rendering paths or unoptimized shaders. The 5 nm process node and Ada Lovelace architecture provide efficiency, but the game's age means it was not designed for modern GPU architectures, potentially leading to underutilization or strange bottlenecks. The measured FPS scaling—from 76 FPS at 4K High to 57 FPS at 4K Ultra—shows a 25% drop, which is more than the settings difference would typically warrant, indicating a performance cliff rather than a gradual scaling.

# Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear pattern of FPS reduction as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, but the scaling is not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 332 at 1080p to 229 at 1440p (a 31% decrease), and then to 120 at 4K (a 48% decrease from 1440p). This steep drop at 4K suggests that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, as the CPU's role diminishes at higher resolutions where pixel throughput dominates. The RTX 4090's 1.01 TB/s bandwidth is sufficient, but the game's draw calls and geometry at 4K may saturate the GPU's processing pipelines.

At High settings, the scaling is more moderate: 228 FPS at 1080p, 144 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 76 FPS at 4K (a 47% drop from 1440p). The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 67%, which is substantial but not linear, indicating that the GPU handles resolution scaling better when settings are higher, possibly due to more balanced workload distribution. At Medium settings, where min/max FPS are available, the averages are 297 at 1080p, 188 at 1440p, and 99 at 4K, with minimums of 252, 160, and 84 respectively. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (84) is still above 60, showing playability, but the gap between average and minimum widens at higher resolutions, suggesting occasional frame hitches.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 171 FPS at 1080p, 108 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 57 FPS at 4K (a 47% drop from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result of 57 FPS is the only measured point below 60, and it's just barely under. This indicates that the limiting component at 4K Ultra is the GPU, as the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads are unlikely to bottleneck at any resolution. The data suggests that for this game, the RTX 4090 is the primary driver of performance differences across resolutions, with the CPU playing a supporting role only at lower resolutions where frame rates are extremely high.

# How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 69 out of 3,722 tested configurations places this system in the top 1.9% of all combos tested for Hard West. This is an elite ranking, but it's not the absolute best, which is surprising given the hardware's pedigree. The data implies that some combinations—perhaps with different CPU-GPU pairings or overclocked variants—achieve higher FPS in this specific game. The rank is based on measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, and the 4K Ultra result of 57 FPS likely drags down the overall ranking, as other combos may maintain higher minimums.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X scores an average of 57,498 across all benchmarks, with the AMD EPYC 9015 scoring 57,555 (a delta of -0.1%), the AMD EPYC 7313 scoring 57,399 (a delta of 0.2%), the Intel Core i9-14900 scoring 58,115 (a delta of -1.1%), and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M scoring 58,323 (a delta of -1.4%). This shows the CPU is competitive but not the absolute top performer, which may influence the combo's rank in game-specific tests.

For the GPU, the RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60,347, with rivals including the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326, delta 0%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60,140, delta 0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61,896, delta -2.5%), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58,657, delta 2.9%). The GPU's percentile of 88 versus all GPUs is high, but the rank of 69 suggests that in Hard West, other factors—like game-specific optimization—matter more than raw benchmark scores. The data indicates that this combo is excellent, but not unbeatable, and the game's age means it may not fully utilize the hardware's capabilities.

# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has 64 MB of L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core, which is substantial for a desktop chip. In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, AI calculations, and draw calls, which are not typically as demanding as in real-time strategy or action games. The data supports this: at 1080p High, the combo achieves 228 FPS, and at 1080p Low, it hits 332 FPS, indicating that the CPU is capable of pushing frame rates far beyond what the GPU can render at higher settings.

The CPU's single-thread performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,253 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3,010. This is crucial for Hard West, as turn-based games often rely on single-threaded performance for AI pathfinding and game state updates. The multi-threaded scores—32,172 in Cinebench R23 and 22,174 in Geekbench—show that the CPU is also well-suited for any background tasks. However, the measured FPS data at 4K Ultra (57 FPS) suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the GPU is clearly saturated. At lower resolutions, the CPU's 12 cores may not be fully utilized, but the high frame rates indicate it's more than sufficient.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s (dual-channel DDR5) is modest compared to the GPU's 1.01 TB/s, but this is not a limiting factor for the game's data. The CPU's 92nd percentile versus all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 57,498 place it among the top chips, but its nearest rivals show it's within 1.4% of similar performance. In Hard West, the CPU's role is to ensure the game logic doesn't bottleneck the GPU, and the data shows it does this effectively at all but the most demanding settings.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 332 FPS, Medium averages 297 FPS with a minimum of 252 and maximum of 341, High averages 228 FPS, and Ultra averages 171 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 48% drop, showing that the GPU is progressively more stressed as settings increase, but even the lowest Ultra result is far above any display refresh rate. The min/max data for Medium shows a range of 89 FPS, indicating some frame variability, but the average is stable.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains high but shows a clear step down. Low averages 229 FPS, Medium averages 188 FPS with a minimum of 160 and maximum of 216, High averages 144 FPS, and Ultra averages 108 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, around 31-37%, which is expected given the pixel count increase. The Medium settings show a min/max range of 56 FPS, which is tighter than at 1080p, suggesting better frame pacing at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more variable. Low averages 120 FPS, Medium averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 113, High averages 76 FPS, and Ultra averages 57 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 53%, which is the largest percentage difference across all resolutions, indicating that the Ultra preset at 4K is particularly demanding. The Medium min/max range of 29 FPS is the smallest across all resolutions, showing more consistent frame times, but the Ultra average of 57 FPS is the only sub-60 result in the dataset. This breakdown shows that the combo is capable of 60+ FPS at 4K on all settings except Ultra, where it falls just short.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for the best experience with this combo. At 1920x1080, any setting from Low to Ultra provides well over 100 FPS, so the recommendation is to use Ultra settings for the best visual quality, as the 171 FPS average is still far above any refresh rate. At 2560x1440, Ultra settings average 108 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors, making Ultra the recommended choice for 1440p gaming.

At 3840x2160, the choice is more nuanced. Ultra settings average 57 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS threshold, and may result in occasional dips that are noticeable. High settings average 76 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while still delivering good visual quality. Medium settings average 99 FPS, which is better for high-refresh-rate 4K displays, but the visual fidelity is lower. Low settings at 4K average 120 FPS, but the visual quality is significantly reduced.

The data suggests that for a 4K display, High settings offer the best balance of visual quality and performance, with a 76 FPS average that ensures smooth gameplay. Ultra settings are playable, but the 57 FPS average may cause stutter on some displays. For 1440p and 1080p, Ultra is the clear recommendation, as the combo has ample headroom. The Medium settings at 4K provide a 99 FPS average, which is ideal for 120 Hz displays, but the visual compromise may not be worth it when High offers 76 FPS. Overall, the data indicates that this combo is best utilized at 1440p Ultra or 4K High, depending on the display's native resolution.