Hard West

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Hard West reveals a pronounced resolution scaling curve that shifts the system's behavior from CPU-bound at lower resolutions to GPU-bound at 4K. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 153.9 FPS, which drops to 112.3 FPS at 1440p—a 27% reduction—and then to 60.3 FPS at 4K, a further 46% drop from 1440p. This steep decline between 1440p and 4K is the clearest indicator that the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is becoming the primary constraint at higher pixel counts.

The pattern becomes even more telling when examining the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 128.3 FPS, but at 1440p Ultra it falls to 82.5 FPS (a 36% drop), and at 4K Ultra it plummets to 44.7 FPS (a 46% drop from 1440p). The fact that 4K Ultra is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS suggests that the GPU's rendering workload, particularly with the demanding Ultra effects, overwhelms even a high-end RDNA 3.0 part at full resolution.

Conversely, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is relatively modest across all settings, with the Low preset only dropping from 182.4 to 153.6 FPS. This relatively gentle slope at lower resolutions indicates that the Intel Core i5-10400F is keeping pace adequately, but the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are not the bottleneck at 1080p—the GPU still has headroom there. The data implies that at 1080p, the system is operating in a balanced zone, while at 4K, the GPU's 20 GB memory buffer and 800 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily by the game's texture and shading workloads.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The RX 7900 XT's specifications directly explain the observed performance ceilings. With 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, the card has ample capacity for Hard West's turn-based tactical environments, which often feature large static scenes with detailed textures. The 800.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is a critical factor: at 4K Ultra, the game demands rapid texture streaming, and the data shows the GPU struggling to maintain 45 FPS, suggesting the memory subsystem is being saturated despite the high bandwidth.

The GPU's clock behavior also correlates with the results. The base clock of 1387 MHz and boost clock of 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz, indicate that the card can dynamically adjust its frequency. At 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 182.4 FPS, the GPU likely operates near its boost ceiling, but at 4K Ultra, the sustained load may cause clock throttling under the 300 W TDP envelope. The 5376 shading units and 192 ROPs are ample for this game's geometry, yet the 4K Ultra result of 44.7 FPS shows that even this hardware must compromise at maximum settings.

The GPU's benchmark pedigree supports its mid-range positioning here: it scores 29009 in Passmark G3D and 38358 average across all tests, placing it in the 82nd percentile against all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0) and the RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.6), which are mobile parts—indicating this desktop card is performing near the top of its class, yet Hard West's 4K Ultra still pushes it to its limits.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-10400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost of 4.30 GHz. This Comet Lake processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process, shows its age in the scaling data. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 182.4 FPS, but the CPU's single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 2541, Geekbench single-core of 1454) suggests it is not the primary limiter at this resolution. However, the delta between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (182.4 to 153.6 FPS, a 16% drop) is smaller than the delta at High settings (153.9 to 112.3 FPS, a 27% drop), which hints that the CPU's 12 MB L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth (42.7 GB/s) are adequate for lower settings but become more stressed as the game's logic and AI calculations intensify at higher presets.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are modest: Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297 and 3DMark max threads score of 4735. In a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, the AI turn calculations and pathfinding can leverage multiple threads, but the data shows that the 4K Ultra result (44.7 FPS) is far more GPU-limited than CPU-limited. The CPU's percentile ranking at 73rd among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14168, places it near the AMD EPYC 7552 (deltaPct 0.4) and Intel Core i5-8500 (deltaPct -1.1), indicating it is a competent but not exceptional performer. The fact that the system exceeds 150 FPS at 1080p across most settings suggests the CPU is delivering sufficient frame pacing, but the 4K results reveal that the GPU is the dominant constraint.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 529th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 69th percentile of all configurations tested. This mid-to-upper tier ranking is notable given the powerful GPU paired with a mid-range CPU. The data suggests that while the GPU is capable of high frame rates, the CPU's 6-core/12-thread configuration prevents the combo from reaching the top tier of results, which likely feature newer processors with higher single-thread performance.

The rank of 529 out of 1699 means roughly 30% of tested combos outperform this pairing. Given that the RX 7900 XT sits in the 82nd percentile for GPUs while the CPU is in the 73rd percentile, the combo rank is pulled down by the processor. This is evident in the 1080p results: the system achieves 153.9 FPS at High, but a newer CPU with faster single-thread performance could likely push this higher. The 4K Ultra result of 44.7 FPS, however, is likely close to the GPU's limit regardless of CPU, indicating that at 4K the combo's rank would improve relative to other combinations.

FAQ

Q: Does this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K in Hard West?

A: Only at High settings (60.3 FPS) and above. At Medium it drops to 75 FPS, but at Ultra it falls to 44.7 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the best resolution for this system in Hard West?

A: At 1440p, all settings including Ultra (82.5 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, making it the sweet spot. At 1080p, even Ultra reaches 128.3 FPS, but the GPU's headroom is underutilized.

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

A: The frame rate drops from 153.9 FPS at 1080p to 112.3 FPS at 1440p (a 27% reduction), then to 60.3 FPS at 4K (a 46% reduction from 1440p).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is still the primary constraint, as the frame rate scales significantly with resolution. At 1080p Low (182.4 FPS), the CPU's 6 cores are sufficient, but the 4K results show the GPU limiting performance.

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

A: It ranks 529th out of 1699 combos, placing it in the upper third of all configurations tested for Hard West.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and does it affect 4K performance?

A: The GPU has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K Ultra, the 44.7 FPS result indicates the memory subsystem is heavily taxed, likely due to high-resolution textures.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the data points to 1440p High as the optimal balance. At 112.3 FPS, this setting provides smooth gameplay with visual quality that likely includes most of the game's graphical features. If prioritizing frame rate over visuals, 1080p Low delivers 182.4 FPS, which is far beyond what the human eye can perceive, making it a waste of the GPU's capabilities. Conversely, 4K Ultra at 44.7 FPS is playable but falls below the 60 FPS threshold, which may cause noticeable stuttering in a turn-based game where camera pans are common.

For 4K users, the High preset (60.3 FPS) is the only option that maintains 60 FPS, while Medium (75 FPS) offers a comfortable margin. At 1080p, the Ultra preset (128.3 FPS) is the best choice for maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing performance. The data suggests that the Ultra preset's 4K penalty (44.7 FPS vs 60.3 FPS at High) is steep, indicating that Ultra settings add significant GPU load—likely through enhanced shadows, post-processing, or texture filtering that the RX 7900 XT cannot handle at full resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low 182.4, Medium 165.3, High 153.9, and Ultra 128.3. This shows a consistent scaling where each higher preset costs roughly 10-15% performance, with the largest gap between High and Ultra (153.9 to 128.3, a 17% drop).

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 153.6, Medium 142, High 112.3, and Ultra 82.5. The gap between Medium and High (142 to 112.3, a 21% drop) is more pronounced than at 1080p, indicating that the High preset introduces effects that cost more at higher resolution. The Ultra preset at 1440p (82.5 FPS) is still above 60 FPS, making it viable.

At 3840x2160, the measured FPS values are: Low 91.7, Medium 75, High 60.3, and Ultra 44.7. The Low to Medium drop (91.7 to 75, an 18% reduction) is significant, and the High to Ultra drop (60.3 to 44.7, a 26% reduction) is the steepest in the entire dataset. This suggests that Ultra settings at 4K add a disproportionately heavy load, likely due to 4K texture resolution and advanced shading effects that double the GPU workload.

The complete dataset shows that the system's performance scales almost linearly with resolution at Low settings (182.4 to 153.6 to 91.7 FPS), but the curve becomes steeper at higher presets. At Ultra, the drop from 1440p to 4K (82.5 to 44.7 FPS) represents a 46% reduction, which is the most severe scaling penalty observed across all settings, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component at 4K Ultra.