Hard West

# Hard West — AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015, presents an interesting benchmark case for this particular CPU-GPU pairing. The data shows a system that scales predictably across resolutions and settings, with the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (16 cores, 32 threads, Zen 5 architecture) paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (Ada Lovelace, 16 GB GDDR6X). The measured FPS ranges from 37 at 4K Ultra to 235 at 1080p Low, revealing a GPU that remains the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions while the CPU's strength becomes apparent at lower settings. This combination ranks 900th out of 2,949 tested combos, placing it in the 69th percentile overall — a solid but not top-tier position for this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings, painting a clear picture of where the performance ceiling lies. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 148 at 1920x1080 to 94 at 2560x1440 — a 36.5% reduction — and then to 49 at 3840x2160, which represents another 47.9% drop from the 1440p figure. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4080's rendering workload scales heavily with pixel count, as expected for a game with this age and visual style.

The Low settings curve tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers: 235 FPS at 1080p, 149 at 1440p (a 36.6% drop), and 78 at 4K (a 47.7% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops — roughly 36% from 1080p to 1440p and another 48% from 1440p to 4K — suggests the limiting component is the GPU's fill rate and pixel processing capability rather than any CPU constraint. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see diminishing FPS penalties at higher resolutions as the GPU becomes more saturated, but the proportional scaling indicates the RTX 4080 is the dominant factor throughout.

Medium settings show similar proportional behavior: 193 FPS at 1080p, 122 at 1440p (36.8% drop), and 64 at 4K (47.5% drop from 1440p). Ultra settings, the most demanding preset, sees 111 FPS at 1080p, 70 at 1440p (36.9% drop), and 37 at 4K (47.1% drop). The uniformity of these scaling ratios across all four settings presets is notable — it implies that resolution scaling in Hard West is largely independent of the quality preset chosen, which is characteristic of a game where pixel count dominates the rendering cost.

At 1080p, the RTX 4080 delivers frame rates that far exceed typical display refresh rates — 235 FPS on Low and 148 on High — suggesting the GPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution. The fact that the FPS at 1080p Low (235) is more than triple the 4K Ultra figure (37) reinforces that the GPU's pixel throughput is the key constraint as resolution climbs.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080's specifications provide context for these results. With 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster operation units, the GPU has substantial raw compute power. Its boost clock of 2,505 MHz and base clock of 2,205 MHz, combined with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 716.8 GB/s bandwidth, make it a high-end part. The memory clock runs at 1,400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective), which supports the high fill rates needed for 4K rendering.

The 4K Medium result of 64 FPS with a minimum of 54 and maximum of 74 shows the GPU's consistency at demanding settings. The 10 FPS spread between min and max at Medium 4K suggests frame pacing is relatively stable, while the 1440p Medium row (122 average, 104 min, 140 max) shows a wider 36 FPS range. This wider range at lower resolution hints that CPU involvement becomes more variable as the GPU works less hard.

The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,247, places it near the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209, only 0.1% difference) and ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828, -1.1% delta). The nearest rival comparisons show this is a well-established high-end part. Given that the RTX 4080's nearest rival is the RTX 4080 SUPER with a negligible 0.1% score difference, the performance headroom is essentially identical to that newer card.

For Hard West specifically, the 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is below the generally accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating that even this powerful GPU struggles with the most demanding preset at maximum resolution. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for a 2015 turn-based tactics game, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor; the constraint is raw shading and pixel throughput.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 900 out of 2,949 tested combinations places this pairing in the 69th percentile for Hard West performance. This is a respectable position, but it reveals something interesting: despite the RTX 4080 being a high-end GPU and the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 being a 95th percentile CPU, the combination does not crack the top third of tested systems for this game.

The CPU's nearest rivals help contextualize its contribution. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 has an average benchmark score of 77,740, which is just 1.6% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (76,513) and 1.6% below the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (76,492). It sits 1.7% above the Intel Core i9-14900K (79,097) and 2% below the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX (76,212). These are all high-end desktop or workstation parts, so the mobile-oriented Ryzen AI Max+ 395 holds its own in synthetic benchmarks.

The GPU's rank relative to its nearest rivals shows the RTX 4080 is essentially tied with the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% difference) and slightly outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (-1.1%) and AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (-2.6%). The fact that the combo rank is 900th rather than higher suggests that Hard West's performance profile may not fully utilize the strengths of this particular CPU-GPU pairing — possibly because turn-based tactics games like this one have modest threading requirements despite the CPU's 32 threads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy across settings. Low delivers 235 FPS average, Medium drops to 193 FPS (with a 164 min and 222 max), High yields 148 FPS, and Ultra produces 111 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 124 FPS, or roughly 53% of the Low figure. The Medium row's min-max spread of 58 FPS (164 to 222) indicates some variability, but the average remains high.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 149 FPS on Low, 122 on Medium (104 min, 140 max), 94 on High, and 70 on Ultra. The Medium spread at 1440p is 36 FPS (104 to 140), tighter than at 1080p. The step from High to Ultra at 1440p is 24 FPS (from 94 to 70), a 25.5% reduction, which is the largest percentage drop between adjacent settings at any resolution.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become more demanding: Low averages 78 FPS, Medium 64 (54 min, 74 max), High 49, and Ultra 37. The Medium min-max spread at 4K is 20 FPS (54 to 74), the narrowest of any resolution, suggesting the GPU is working uniformly hard. The drop from High to Ultra at 4K is 12 FPS (49 to 37), a 24.5% reduction — very similar to the 1440p High-to-Ultra percentage drop.

Comparing across resolutions at the same setting, the 4K Low result of 78 FPS is higher than the 1440p Ultra result of 70 FPS. This indicates that lowering the quality preset at a higher resolution can yield better performance than higher settings at a lower resolution — a useful data point for optimization. Similarly, 1440p Low (149 FPS) outperforms 1080p Ultra (111 FPS), showing that resolution and settings trade-offs are not linear.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 brings 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It has 64 MB of shared L3 cache, 80 KB of L1 per core, and 1 MB of L2 per core. The CPU's memory support includes LPDDR5X across a quad-channel interface with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth, and it integrates a Radeon 8060S GPU, though that is not used in this configuration.

The CPU's benchmark results are impressive: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,314 and single-core of 2,044, a Geekbench multi-core of 20,992 and single-core of 2,464, and a Passmark multi-thread score of 54,934. Its 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is a top-tier processor. However, for Hard West — a turn-based tactics game — the question is whether 32 threads matter.

The FPS data suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 4K, the GPU's workload dominates, with the CPU easily feeding frames. At 1080p Low, the 235 FPS result shows the CPU can drive the GPU to very high frame rates, but the fact that this is not higher (e.g., 300+ FPS) could be due to either a CPU limitation or the GPU's minimum frame time at these settings. Given that the RTX 4080 has a Passmark G3D score of 34,457 and the CPU's Passmark single-thread score is 4,147, the combination appears well-balanced for this game's demands.

The CPU's nearest rivals — all high-core-count parts — suggest that Hard West likely does not leverage the full multi-core capability. The 1.7% delta to the Intel Core i9-14900K (a 24-core/32-thread part) and the 2% delta to the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX (16 cores) indicate that synthetic benchmarks differentiate these CPUs, but the game's actual performance may be more dependent on single-thread performance or memory latency.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for smooth 60+ FPS gameplay with this combo?

A: At 1440p, all settings deliver above 60 FPS average — Low is 149, Medium 122, High 94, and Ultra 70. At 4K, only Low (78 FPS) and Medium (64 FPS) exceed 60 FPS average, while High (49) and Ultra (37) fall short.

Q: How much performance is lost moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 148 at 1920x1080 to 94 at 2560x1440 (a 36.5% reduction), then to 49 at 3840x2160 (a 47.9% further reduction from 1440p). The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K is 99 FPS, or 66.9%.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 or the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 the limiting factor in Hard West?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K, where FPS scales proportionally with resolution changes. At 1080p, the high frame rates (up to 235 FPS on Low) suggest the CPU is sufficient, though the exact ceiling of the CPU's capability is not revealed by these measurements.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested combinations?

A: It ranks 900th out of 2,949 tested combos, placing it in the 69.5th percentile. The RTX 4080's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, has a nearly identical average score (0.1% difference), so similar combos with that GPU would likely rank similarly.

Q: What is the FPS range at Medium settings across all resolutions?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average is 193 FPS with a range of 164 to 222. At 1440p Medium, the average is 122 FPS with a range of 104 to 140. At 4K Medium, the average is 64 FPS with a range of 54 to 74. The min-max spread narrows as resolution increases.

Q: Can this system achieve 4K 60 FPS with any settings?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where the average is 78 FPS. Medium settings at 4K average 64 FPS, which is above 60 but close enough that dips (minimum 54 FPS) could be noticeable. High and Ultra settings do not maintain 60 FPS averages.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, every setting preset delivers well above 60 FPS, so the choice comes down to visual quality versus headroom. Ultra at 111 FPS is the best visual experience while still maintaining a high frame rate; Low at 235 FPS provides extreme headroom but sacrifices visual fidelity unnecessarily. Medium at 193 FPS offers a balanced middle ground, but the data suggests Ultra is the preferred choice at 1080p for maximum quality without compromising smoothness.

At 2560x1440, Ultra at 70 FPS is playable and provides the best visuals, but the 25.5% performance drop from High (94 FPS) to Ultra (70 FPS) may not justify the visual gains for all users. High at 94 FPS is the safest recommendation for 1440p, offering a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while retaining most quality. Medium at 122 FPS is a strong option for those prioritizing higher frame rates, and Low at 149 FPS is unnecessary given the other options.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. Low at 78 FPS is the only setting with a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Medium at 64 FPS is borderline — the 54 FPS minimum could produce perceptible stutter in demanding scenes. High at 49 FPS and Ultra at 37 FPS fall below the 60 FPS threshold and are not recommended for smooth gameplay. For 4K, Medium is the optimal balance if the user can tolerate occasional dips, while Low guarantees consistent performance. The 20 FPS gap between the 4K Medium minimum (54) and maximum (74) indicates that even at this setting, frame pacing is variable, so users sensitive to frame drops should prefer Low.

Across all resolutions, the data shows that High settings provide the most consistent experience relative to visual quality — at 1080p it offers 148 FPS, at 1440p 94 FPS, and at 4K 49 FPS. The performance scaling from High to Ultra is steeper than from Medium to High, suggesting diminishing returns on the Ultra preset. For this turn-based tactics game, where frame rate demands are lower than fast-paced action titles, 4K Medium at 64 FPS average may be perfectly acceptable, but the 54 FPS minimum should be noted.