Hard West

The benchmark profile for Hard West with the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is defined by a stark divide between CPU-bound low resolutions and GPU-bound high resolutions. Measured data across three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) and four quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) shows the RTX 4090, boasting a 2520 MHz boost clock and 24 GB of GDDR6X, pushes the Godfather of this 2015 tactics title well north of 200 FPS at 1080p—yet fails to sustain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 12 th-gen Intel Core i3-12100F (4 cores, 8 threads, 4.30 GHz boost, 12MB L3 cache) holds up admirably, allowing a 244 FPS result at 1080p Low, but the RTX 4090’s raw compute (82.58 TFLOPS FP32, 443.5 GPixel/s) is the deciding factor when resolution climbs. Ranked 232nd out of 3722 tested system combos, this pairing sits in the top tier of system results, though the data reveals diminishing returns for Ultra settings at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS curve across resolutions is typical of a mid-tier CPU paired with an extreme flagship GPU, but the magnitudes are startling. At High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 62 FPS (206 to 144), a 30% reduction, and falls another 68 FPS from 1440p to 4K (144 to 76), a 47% drop. At Low settings, the same pattern emerges: 244 FPS at 1080p, 209 at 1440p, and 120 at 4K — meaning 1080p Low is exactly double the 4K Low result. The scaling factor is consistently steep, indicating that the RTX 4090’s fill-rate ceiling is the primary limiter once the pixel count rises.

At 1440p, the margins shrink between different presets: Low (209), Medium (188), and Ultra (108) — a 101 FPS gap between Low and Ultra. At 1080p, the same gap is 171 FPS (from 244 Low to 171 Ultra), which suggests the CPU does not fully starve the GPU until ultra levels. At 4K, the gap narrows further: 120, 99, 76, and 57 for Low through Ultra. The steepest scaling effect is visible at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS (57) hardly clears the 60 FPS threshold from the min/ max range, indicating the GPU is maxed out completely.

The scalability of the presets — 4K High (76) vs. 1440p High (144) — reveals a 47% loss, almost identical to the resolution scaling. This indicates that both resolution and quality presets independently compress the frame budget. Hard West is not a lightweight CPU title; the drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 124 FPS, showing that even at the lowest GPU load, the CPU’s 4 core / 8 threads provide a headroom that disappears under the 4090’s bombardment of pixels.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this data. Its base clock of 2235 MHz and boost to 2520 MHz, paired with a 384-bit memory bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, drive the high averages at 1440p. The GPU’s 24 GB GDDR6X frame buffer is excessive for a 2015 tactical title—likely unused in the low-preset runs—but the memory bandwidth still matters for the 4K Medium result, which holds a minimum FPS of 84 with an average of 99. The pixel rate (443.5 GPixel/s) and texture rate (1,290.2 GTexel/s) are directly exercised at 4K, as shown by Ultra dropping to 57 FPS while the GPU runs at full tilt.

Comparing the RTX 4090 to its nearest synthetic rivals—the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326 avg) and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896 avg)—the GPU’s measured avgBenchmarkScore of 60,347 sits within negligible 0.4% to 0.5% margins, demonstrating that this GPU falls in a performance band around that score. Yet in Hard West, the 4090 crushes those rival classifications; the GPU’s percentileVsAllGpus of 88 means it exceeds 88% of all known GPUs, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9223 is testament to raw extreme geometry. The difference between Ultra (57 FPS at 4K) and Low (120 FPS at 4K) is the GPU’s true ceiling – an over 211 percent delta from the boosting to Wattage limit.

The GPU’s transistor size (76,300 million, 5nm) is irrelevant in practice, but its final boost speed (2520 MHz) directly uplifts the Low preset at 1080p to 244 FPS. At 1080p Ultra, the GPU reaches 171 FPS – that is 171% higher than the 4Kp Ultra. The Lux logos show that graphical preset scaling is strictly coupled to GPU output. When vs 2560 extern, the minimum fps recorded for Medium slices (216 max) at 1440p shows the GPU is stable under load, but the GPU often falls to 120 FPS at 4K Low, indicating the pixel overdraw is the singular bottleneck.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread desktop part with a 3.30 GHz base clock, 4.30 GHz boost, and a 12 MB shared L3 cache. Its measured benchmarks show a fractal pattern: a single-thread Cinebench R23 score of 1674 and a multi-thread score of 11,860 – not top-tier for modern titles, but sufficient for a turn-based game that relies on command logic more than AI pathfinding. The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus is 68, meaning it beats 68% of all CPUs tested, but in this specific benchmark, it is clearly the weakest link at low resolutions.

At 1080p Low, the CPU appears to supply 244 FPS, which far exceeds the 60 FPS standard. However, for High (144) and Ultra (171 – wait, Ultra High is 171, but Ultra result doesn't appear at 1080p? Actually sees Ultra 171. So at 1080p Ultra, the CPU can’t restrict the 4090, but it still delivers. The steepest CPU influence is seen at 4K where the CPU is likely not the limiter: the 4K Ultra FPS (57) is 35% lower than 1440p Ultra (108), and 1080p Ultra (171) is 3 times higher than 4K Ultra. That scaling is purely GPU bound.

The CPU’s multi-thread performance (PassMark multithread score 149,915 … actually 14,015 from pack) and the 3dMark max threads 12,023 – but I see that the pack has: 3dmark_max_threads 12,023? It says 4023 in the JSON, I believe it's 4023. Anyhow, single-thread (passmark 3,444) explains the 1080p FPS. Since the 4090 is so powerful, at 1080p Low the CPU can't drive the GPU to its absolute limit (the GPU could likely do >200 FPS, but it's exactly 244). The CPU’s relatively low L3 and 4 cores (8 threads) stop the GPU from exceeding 200 at 1080p Low. Given the CES, the CPU score matches a Core 3 N0 (delta 0%) or i5-9500 (0.5% higher). The CPU not being able to scale above 4K is because the draw-call complexity is low, but the 4090’s massive clock and 24 GB of VRAM move the bottleneck entirely.

How This Combo Ranks

The core combination of the RTX 4090 and the Core i3-12100F holds a rank of 232 out of 3,722 tested combos – which translates to the top 6,2% of all systems tested in the database. This placement is far ahead of the CPU alone (68th percentile) and the GPU alone (88th percentile), but the rank reflects the FPS data as measured in Hard West. The combo beats 3,490 other pairings, though a large share of those are CPU-heavy or budget systems. More tellingly, the rank is 232, which places it above many high-end chips like Ryzen 9 7945HX+4090 setups, though the data doesn't show unique latency of this game to penalize the 8-thread CPU. The GPU’s nearest rival average scores are within 0.4–2.9 % of each other, so though the i3-12300 is only 68% percentile, the GPU’s massive raw output (60,347 avg) at 12 12 12 carries the system high in the test list. However, a 232nd rank is also a sign that the GPU is nearly the only component contributing.

The key competitive angle: with a RTX 4090, the CPU is the limiting factor only in the 1080p boundary; at 4K, the GPU is the dominant constraint. Rank 232 of 3722 tells a database. The divergence (ranks) is robust because the game is not GPU-Hungry enough to need the 450W TDP powerfull 4090, but the 4090 handles it with enormous 4K Ultra overhead. At 1440p and 1080p, this combo is essentially a massacre—executor 114-260 FPS of headroom to stay above 144Hz.

FAQ

Q: At 4K with High settings, what average FPS does the combo achieve?

A: The measured data shows 76 FPS average at 3840x2160 High, which is above a 60 FPS display refresh.

Q: Is there any combo of resolution and preset that yields below 60 FPS only?

A: Yes – at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 57, which is below the 60 FPS. All other 11 combinations in the measured data beat 60 FPS.

Q: Which preset produces the minimum fps of the entire dataset?

A: The 4K Medium row records a minimum FPS of 35 (from min 84 max 113); Bas min as 1080p Medium gives 193 FPS, but the absolute minimum is at 4K. Wait, the fact pack: 3840 Medium min is 84, so the lowest is 84. Additionally 1920 Medium min is 193.

Q: At 1080p Low, what FPS does the i3-12100F generate?

A: An average of 244 FPS, and 120 max.

Q: What is the L3 cache on this CPU?

A: 12 MB (shared).

Q: Which rival GPU has a nearly identical average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326, entering a deltaPct of 0 vs the RTX 4090’s 60347.

Settings Recommendations

For gaming at 1920x1080, the data shows Ultra (171 FPS) running at 6.6 FPS above a 144Hz display, but the Medium (227) far exceeds that. To maximize the 3 fps headroom and reduce heat of the 4090, Medium or High is optimal. At 2560x1440, High (144) hits exactly the 144Hz maximum, while Medium (188) and Low (209) are overkill for most monitors; Ultra (108) is acceptable if one has a 100 Hz panel. For 4K, the only smooth options are High (76) – a 60-75Hz panel – or Medium (99) for a 100 Hz display. Ultra at 4K (57) is below 60 Hz and impacts visuals with min intra, so avoid Ultra for playability. Overall, the recommended sweet spot is 1080p High (271) fps for a low feature-competitive battery; at non-ultramodern resolutions, go with High settings for the best balance, as Low is not needed for any of the metrics.

From the data, Medium settings at 1080p (244FPS) actually perform better than High (206); the Lows only show 1.1× of fidelity. For AA cyclers, if V-sync and 60Hz, pick High at 1440p (144). Which adaptive doesn't matter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Below is the complete measured data table for the combo in Hard West:

• 1920x1080, Low: avg 244, min —, max —
• 1920x1080, Medium: avg 227, min 193, max 261
• 1920x1080, High: avg 206, min —, max —
• 1920x1080, Ultra: avg 171, min —, max —
• 2560x1440, Low: avg 209, min —, max —
• 2560x1440, Medium: avg 188, min 160, max 216
• 2560x1440, High: avg 144, min —, max —
• 2560x1440, Ultra: avg 108, min —, max —
• 3840x2160, Low: avg 120, min —, max —
• 3840x2160, Medium: avg 99, min 84, max 113
• 3840x2160, High: avg 76, min —, max —
• 3840x2160, Ultra: avg 57, min —, max —

These exact figures represent 2 the measured FPS ranges for this specific CPU/GPU pair. The lowest average is 50 FPS at 4K Ultra; the highest is 244 FPS at 1920x1080 Low. The only preset with a tested minimum and maximum is the Medium preset at 1080p and 1440p, giving 193–261 and 160–216 respectively. All other runs lack min/max bounds, leaving median as the single point of truth. This dataset confirms the pairing of a 2015 tactical title with a modern 24GB GPU reaches comedic frame rates at any 1080p setting, but the 4K Ultra caps out at 57—still above 30, but below the Universal 60FPS bar.