Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title where the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination produces a performance profile that is heavily dictated by resolution and graphics presets. The benchmark data indicates that this pairing is overwhelmingly capable at 1080p, but demands careful settings management to maintain fluidity at 4K, with the Ultra preset presenting a significant challenge at the highest resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly indicates that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions, making it the recommended starting point for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, High settings produce an average of 172 FPS, which is only 54 FPS behind the Low preset's 274 FPS but delivers substantially better visual fidelity. This pattern continues at 2560x1440, where High achieves 109 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, while Low reaches 173 FPS. The most compelling argument for High comes at 3840x2160, where it is the only preset besides Low to remain playable, averaging 57 FPS.

The Ultra preset is only advisable for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it delivers 129 FPS and 82 FPS respectively. At 4K, Ultra drops to 43 FPS, which falls below the smoothness standard for most users. The Medium preset serves as a solid fallback for 4K users seeking higher frame rates, producing 74 FPS at 3840x2160 with a minimum of 63 FPS, which maintains consistent pacing. The Low preset is unnecessary for this hardware at 1080p and 1440p, as even High settings provide triple-digit frame rates, and it should be reserved exclusively for 4K scenarios where maximum performance is prioritized over visuals.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X brings substantial processing power to Hard West, with its 12 cores and 24 threads running on the Zen 5 architecture. The processor's base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide the single-thread performance that turn-based tactics titles typically leverage for game logic and AI calculations. Benchmark results show the 9900X scoring 2253 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 3010 in Geekbench single-core, indicating robust per-thread capability.

In the context of this game, the CPU's multi-threaded performance is also relevant, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32172 and Geekbench multicore score of 22174. The processor's 64 MB of L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth ensure that game assets and AI pathfinding data remain readily accessible. The 9900X achieves a 92nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 57498.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the 9900X performs nearly identically to the AMD EPYC 9015, which scores 57555, a difference of only -0.1%. It sits 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 7313 at 57399 and trails the Intel Core i9-14900 by 1.1% (58115) and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M by 1.4% (58323). These margins are negligible for gaming workloads, meaning the 9900X is not the limiting factor in Hard West's performance across any tested resolution. The data shows that even at 1080p with Low settings, where the CPU would face its heaviest relative load, the system delivers 274 FPS, suggesting ample headroom remains.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary determinant of frame rates in Hard West, especially as resolution increases. This GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2512 MHz and base clock of 2325 MHz drive 6144 shading units, which deliver 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance. The GPU's 80 ROPs and 192 TMUs handle pixel and texture processing, with pixel rate at 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate at 482.3 GTexel/s.

The RTX 5070's benchmark scores include a PassMark G3D score of 29137 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 178923, placing it in the 82nd percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 40377 puts it in close competition with professional workstation cards: it scores 0.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318), 0.8% above the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063), but 1.2% below the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870) and 2% below the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568).

The GPU's role becomes increasingly pronounced at higher resolutions. The performance delta between Low and Ultra settings expands from 145 FPS at 1080p to 48 FPS at 4K, indicating that the RTX 5070's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck when settings are maximized. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Hard West's demands, as evidenced by the fact that the 4K Ultra preset, which would place the heaviest memory load, still produces 43 FPS rather than crashing or stalling. The memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s ensures that texture streaming at 4K does not introduce additional latency beyond what the core GPU clocks dictate.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Hard West with this hardware?

A: The data suggests 2560x1440 on High settings offers the optimal balance, delivering 109 FPS while maintaining visual quality. This is more than 60 FPS above the 4K High result of 57 FPS, yet still provides a significant upgrade over 1080p's 172 FPS on the same preset.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 43, which is below the 60 FPS standard many players prefer. While technically playable, the 14 FPS loss compared to High settings at the same resolution suggests that Ultra is not recommended for 4K.

Q: How does the Low preset performance compare across resolutions?

A: Low settings produce 274 FPS at 1080p, 173 FPS at 1440p, and 91 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K on Low is 183 FPS, which is the largest absolute decrease among all presets, indicating that even at minimal settings, resolution scaling heavily taxes the GPU.

Q: Which component is more important for Hard West performance?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor, as evidenced by the substantial FPS differences between presets at each resolution. The CPU's 92nd percentile ranking and near-identical scores to rival processors suggest it provides ample headroom, while the RTX 5070's performance scales directly with resolution and settings changes.

Q: Is the Medium preset viable for 4K gaming?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 on Medium, the system averages 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS and maximum of 86 FPS. This provides a consistent experience above the 60 FPS threshold, making it a better choice than High (57 FPS) or Ultra (43 FPS) for 4K displays.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 172 FPS, which is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors. This represents a 31% reduction from Low settings but a 33% increase over Medium settings, making High the sweet spot for 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation as pixel count increases, confirming that the RTX 5070 is the primary bottleneck. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 172 FPS at 1920x1080 to 109 FPS at 2560x1440, a 63 FPS decrease, and then further to 57 FPS at 3840x2160, another 52 FPS decrease. This represents a total drop of 115 FPS from 1080p to 4K, or approximately 67% of the baseline performance.

The scaling behavior differs by preset, providing insight into the workload characteristics. On Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 4K is 183 FPS (from 274 to 91), which is the steepest absolute decline. This indicates that even with minimal graphical features, the GPU's rendering pipeline is heavily taxed by the 4K pixel count. Conversely, the Ultra preset shows a smaller absolute drop of 86 FPS (from 129 to 43), suggesting that at higher settings, the additional effects and shading work are already consuming significant GPU resources, leaving less headroom for resolution scaling to impact.

The Medium preset, which includes minimum and maximum FPS data, shows that at 1080p the system ranges from 191 to 258 FPS with an average of 224. At 1440p, this range narrows to 121-163 FPS with a 142 average, and at 4K it drops to 63-86 FPS with a 74 average. The minimum FPS values are particularly telling: the 4K minimum of 63 FPS is close to the average of 74, indicating stable performance, whereas the 1080p minimum of 191 is 33 FPS below the average, suggesting occasional frame dips that are less perceptible at high frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5070 delivers exceptional performance across all presets. The Low preset achieves 274 FPS, making it the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 224 FPS with a minimum of 191 FPS and maximum of 258 FPS, providing smooth and consistent gameplay. High settings reduce the average to 172 FPS, which still exceeds the refresh rate of most gaming monitors. The Ultra preset, while the most demanding, still manages 129 FPS, ensuring that even maximum visual quality does not compromise playability at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. Low settings deliver 173 FPS, which is a 37% reduction from the 1080p result. Medium settings average 142 FPS with a range of 121-163 FPS, maintaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. High settings produce 109 FPS, which is suitable for high-refresh-rate 1440p displays. Ultra settings drop to 82 FPS, which remains playable but represents the first preset where the frame rate approaches the performance threshold for demanding users.

At 3840x2160, the performance hierarchy shifts dramatically. Low settings produce 91 FPS, which is the only preset above 60 FPS at this resolution. Medium settings average 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS, providing a stable experience that remains above the 60 FPS floor. High settings drop to 57 FPS, which falls below the ideal threshold but remains playable for turn-based tactics where frame timing is less critical than in action genres. Ultra settings produce 43 FPS, which is the lowest measured result and indicates that this preset is not suitable for 4K gaming with this hardware configuration.

The data across all resolutions shows a clear progression: the RTX 5070 is overkill for 1080p, well-suited for 1440p, and requires settings compromise at 4K. The CPU's performance, as indicated by its benchmark scores and rival comparisons, does not bottleneck the system at any resolution, allowing the GPU's capabilities to be fully expressed. For users with 4K displays, the Medium preset offers the best combination of visual quality and performance, while High settings at 1440p provide the most balanced overall experience.