Hard West

# Hard West with AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 pairing delivers a commanding performance profile in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015 that scales gracefully across resolutions. The measured data shows this combo ranks 101st out of 2949 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3.4% of all tested systems. With frame rates ranging from 329 FPS at 1080p Low to 53 FPS at 4K Ultra, this system demonstrates that even a decade-old tactical game can stress modern hardware at extreme settings.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the CPU headroom becoming evident only at 1080p. Moving from 1080p High to 1440p High, the average frame rate drops from 214 FPS to 135 FPS, a 36.9% reduction. This is a substantial decline that indicates the rendering load is scaling significantly with pixel count. The jump from 1440p High to 4K High continues this trend, with average FPS falling from 135 to 71, another 47.4% reduction. These steep drops suggest that Hard West's rendering pipeline is not particularly optimized for high-resolution output, and the RTX 5080's compute resources are being taxed heavily as resolution increases.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern changes character. The system produces 329 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 215 FPS at 1440p (a 34.7% reduction) and then to 113 FPS at 4K (a 47.4% reduction from 1440p). The fact that even at Low settings the frame rate drops by roughly half when moving from 1440p to 4K indicates that pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are critical constraints. The RTX 5080's 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 293.1 GPixel/s pixel rate are being fully utilized, and the game's draw calls become more expensive as resolution scales.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling penalties. At 1080p Ultra, the system manages 160 FPS, but this falls to 101 FPS at 1440p (a 36.9% drop) and 53 FPS at 4K (a 47.5% drop from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result of 53 FPS is the only measured configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that this setting combination pushes the hardware to its limits. The consistent ~47% drop between 1440p and 4K across all settings presets—High, Low, Medium, and Ultra—indicates that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of graphical complexity, pointing to a fixed bottleneck in the rendering pipeline rather than a specific setting causing disproportionate impact.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 101 out of 2949 tested combinations places it in the 96.6th percentile of all tested systems, which is an exceptionally strong showing. This ranking reflects the combined capability of the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and RTX 5080, both of which are high-end components in their respective categories. The CPU ranks in the 91st percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 87th percentile against all GPUs, so the pairing of two above-average components yields a system that outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the data shows tight competition at the top. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF scores 55,093 in average benchmark score, which is just 0.6% higher than the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's 54,762 average. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K trails by 1.3%, and the Intel Xeon 6505P is 2% behind. The Intel Core i7-14700F rounds out the nearest rivals at 2.1% behind. This clustering suggests that the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is performing right at the expected level for its class, with no significant anomalies in its benchmark results.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals show a similar pattern of close competition. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE leads with an average score of 57,367, which is 2.2% higher than the RTX 5080's 56,083. The AMD Radeon 8060S is 0.6% ahead, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 0.7% ahead. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X trails by 2.3%. This positioning indicates that the RTX 5080 is competitively placed among its peers, with no single rival having a decisive advantage.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 12 cores and 24 threads operating at a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This Zen 5 architecture processor, built on TSMC's 4nm process, features a substantial 128 MB L3 cache that is particularly beneficial for gaming workloads. The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 47,737 and a single-core score of 6,739. The Geekbench multi-core score of 22,884 further confirms the CPU's capability across diverse workloads.

In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game that primarily relies on single-threaded performance for game logic and AI calculations, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's strong single-core performance is critical. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1,269 and the PassMark single-thread score of 4,646 indicate that the CPU can handle the game's decision-making processes without becoming a bottleneck. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 2,512 shows that even when the game utilizes two threads for background tasks, the CPU maintains high throughput.

The CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 12,490 and max-thread score of 13,795 demonstrate that for any multi-threaded workloads Hard West might offload to the CPU, there is ample headroom. The 24 threads available ensure that even with multiple background processes running, the game's main thread receives sufficient CPU resources. The high boost clock of 5.50 GHz is particularly relevant for a game like Hard West, where low-latency decision-making and turn resolution benefit from high single-threaded throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system delivers exceptional frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 329 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 278 FPS with a minimum of 237 FPS and maximum of 320 FPS, showing good frame time consistency. High settings reduce the average to 214 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 160 FPS. These results indicate that at 1080p, the system has significant headroom, with even Ultra settings maintaining frame rates well above what most displays can show.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain highly playable but show the expected reduction. Low settings average 215 FPS, Medium settings average 176 FPS with a minimum of 150 FPS and maximum of 203 FPS, High settings average 135 FPS, and Ultra settings average 101 FPS. The Medium settings at 1440p show a minimum of 150 FPS, which is still well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors, making this resolution and settings combination ideal for competitive play.

At 4K, the system's performance becomes more demanding. Low settings produce 113 FPS, Medium settings average 92 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and maximum of 106 FPS, High settings average 71 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 53 FPS. The Medium settings at 4K provide a minimum of 79 FPS, which remains playable on most displays, but the Ultra preset's 53 FPS average is the only measurement that falls below 60 FPS. The frame time data for Medium settings at 4K shows a range of 79 to 106 FPS, indicating some variability but generally stable performance.

GPU Role

The RTX 5080, based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and built on TSMC's 5nm process, brings 16 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 256-bit bus, providing 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock of 2295 MHz and boost clock of 2617 MHz drive its 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and AI workloads, though Hard West from 2015 is unlikely to utilize these features. The GPU's FP32 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s indicate substantial raw compute capability.

In Hard West, the GPU's role is primarily focused on rendering the game's hand-painted art style and atmospheric effects. The 4K High result of 71 FPS and the 4K Ultra result of 53 FPS suggest that the game's shader complexity increases significantly at higher settings. The GPU's 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Hard West's texture requirements, even at 4K resolution, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth provides ample throughput for the game's texture streaming needs.

The GPU's benchmark results show strong overall performance, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8,637 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 255,450. The PassMark G3D score of 36,565 and GPU Compute score of 21,789 further confirm the GPU's capability. However, the PassMark DirectX scores are notably lower—DirectX 11 at 324, DirectX 12 at 151, and DirectX 9 at 389—which may reflect the game's older API usage. Hard West's rendering engine may not fully utilize the RTX 5080's modern features, but the raw performance still delivers high frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on resolution and performance priorities. At 1080p, even Ultra settings produce 160 FPS, making this the recommended choice for users with high-refresh-rate monitors. The 1080p Medium preset offers 278 FPS with a tight frame time range of 237-320 FPS, which would be ideal for competitive play or for users who prioritize maximum frame rates. However, the 160 FPS at Ultra is more than sufficient for most displays, and the visual quality improvements are worth the performance trade-off.

For 1440p, the High preset at 135 FPS provides an excellent balance of visual fidelity and performance. The Medium preset at 176 FPS is the better choice for users with 144 Hz or 165 Hz displays who want to ensure frame rates consistently exceed their monitor's refresh rate. The Ultra preset at 101 FPS remains highly playable and offers the best visual quality, making it a viable option for users with 100 Hz or 120 Hz displays. The Low preset at 215 FPS offers no practical advantage over Medium for most users, given that the visual quality reduction is substantial while the frame rate increase is beyond what most displays can show.

At 4K, the Medium preset at 92 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS is the recommended setting, as it balances visual quality with playable frame rates. The High preset at 71 FPS is also viable for users with 60 Hz displays, but the Medium preset provides a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 53 FPS is below 60 FPS and should only be used for cinematic experiences where frame rate is less critical, such as watching the game's narrative sequences. The Low preset at 113 FPS offers the highest frame rates at 4K, but the visual quality reduction is significant, making Medium the better overall choice for most users.