Hard West

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 lands at rank 649 out of 1,699 tested combinations in Hard West. That places this setup in the upper-middle tier of all tested combos, roughly in the 62nd percentile of system pairings. This is a meaningful result for a turn-based tactics title from 2015, where the RTX 3080's modern architecture is clearly doing heavy lifting. The ranking suggests that while this combo is not at the absolute top of the charts, it sits comfortably ahead of a majority of tested systems, which is expected given the GPU's 80th percentile standing among all GPUs and the CPU's 73rd percentile among all processors.

What the rank does not tell you is how lopsided the pairing is. The RTX 3080 is a much stronger component relative to its peers than the i5-10400F is relative to its own peers. That imbalance shows up across the measured FPS data, where the GPU is often waiting on the CPU at lower resolutions. Still, rank 649 out of 1,699 is a solid result for a game that is not particularly demanding by modern standards, and the data indicates this combo will handle Hard West without any serious bottlenecks at typical gaming resolutions.

# GPU Role

The RTX 3080 brings 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. These memory specifications are far beyond what a turn-based tactics game like Hard West requires, but they explain why the GPU performs so consistently across the measured settings. The 10 GB capacity ensures that even at 4K with Ultra settings, the game's assets fit comfortably within VRAM, and the high bandwidth prevents any memory-related stuttering.

Clock speeds are listed at a base of 1440 MHz and a boost of 1710 MHz, with memory running at 1188 MHz effective 19 Gbps. The boost clock is what matters in practice, and the data shows the GPU sustaining high frame rates across all resolutions. In 4K Ultra, the RTX 3080 delivers 37.6 FPS average, which is playable but not smooth. Drop to 4K High and it jumps to 48.8 FPS, a 29.8% improvement from the Ultra preset. This pattern indicates that the GPU's raw compute power — 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance — is the primary driver of performance at 4K, where the CPU is less of a factor.

The GPU's 28,300 million transistors on an 8 nm Samsung process translate to strong efficiency, and the 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms it is a high-end part even by current standards. In Hard West specifically, the GPU is never the limiting factor at 1080p or 1440p, as the frame rates suggest the CPU becomes the bottleneck before the GPU maxes out.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear pattern of diminishing frame rates as resolution increases, but the rate of that decline varies significantly by settings preset. Starting at 1080p High, the combo averages 150.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 100.4 FPS, a 33.5% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 48.8 FPS, which is another 51.4% drop from 1440p. This steep decline from 1440p to 4K indicates the GPU is becoming the limiting component at the highest resolution, which is expected given the pixel count increase from 3.7 million to 8.3 million.

The pattern is similar at Ultra settings, where 1080p yields 115 FPS, 1440p drops to 74.5 FPS (a 35.2% reduction), and 4K falls to 37.6 FPS (a 49.5% reduction from 1440p). At Low settings, the scaling is less severe in percentage terms: 1080p Low hits 181.6 FPS, 1440p Low drops to 153.6 FPS (a 15.4% reduction), and 4K Low reaches 82 FPS (a 46.6% reduction from 1440p). The smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings suggests the CPU is holding the system back at lower resolutions, since the GPU is not being taxed as heavily.

At 1080p, all settings produce frame rates above 115 FPS, which is well beyond what a 60 Hz or even 144 Hz display would need. The data indicates that at 1080p, the i5-10400F is the primary limiter, as the difference between Low and Ultra is only 36.6 FPS (181.6 vs 115). At 4K, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, and the gap between Low and Ultra expands to 44.4 FPS (82 vs 37.6). This is classic behavior for a high-end GPU paired with a mid-range CPU.

# Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in Hard West, the data suggests that the High preset at 1440p offers the ideal balance of visual quality and performance. At 1440p High, the combo averages 100.4 FPS, which is smooth and well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 1440p still delivers 74.5 FPS, which is playable, but the 25.9 FPS cost (from 100.4 to 74.5) is significant for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in a turn-based tactics game. At 1080p, the High preset at 150.9 FPS is the best choice for competitive or high-refresh-rate displays, as the jump to Ultra costs 35.9 FPS (down to 115) without providing a meaningful gameplay advantage.

At 4K, the recommendation is more nuanced. The High preset at 48.8 FPS is borderline for smooth play, while the Medium preset at 66.3 FPS is the safer choice for a consistent experience. The Ultra preset at 37.6 FPS should be avoided unless visual fidelity is paramount and the player can tolerate sub-40 FPS performance. The Low preset at 4K hits 82 FPS, but it sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that rewards atmosphere. Between Medium and High at 4K, the data shows a 17.5 FPS difference (66.3 vs 48.8), making Medium the better value if smoothness is the priority.

Overall, the data strongly favors 1440p High as the default recommendation. It delivers triple-digit frame rates while still taking advantage of the RTX 3080's capabilities. For players with 1080p displays, High is the clear winner, and for 4K displays, Medium provides the most consistent playable experience.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces the following average frame rates across presets: Low hits 181.6 FPS, Medium reaches 167.2 FPS, High achieves 150.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 115 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 66.6 FPS, which is significant but not as wide as the resolution scaling might suggest. The step from Low to Medium costs 14.4 FPS, from Medium to High costs 16.3 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 35.9 FPS. The large drop from High to Ultra indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU, even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low at 153.6 FPS, Medium at 128.7 FPS, High at 100.4 FPS, and Ultra at 74.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 24.9 FPS, between Medium and High is 28.3 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 25.9 FPS. The more uniform step-downs at 1440p compared to 1080p suggest that the GPU is becoming more of a factor, but the CPU is still contributing to the bottleneck at lower presets.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 82 FPS, Medium at 66.3 FPS, High at 48.8 FPS, and Ultra at 37.6 FPS. The absolute differences between presets shrink as resolution increases — from Low to Medium is 15.7 FPS, Medium to High is 17.5 FPS, and High to Ultra is 11.2 FPS. This compression happens because the GPU is saturated at 4K, so each preset change has a smaller absolute impact on frame rate. The overall scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low is a 54.8% reduction (from 181.6 to 82), while from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra it is a 67.3% reduction (from 115 to 37.6). This shows that the Ultra preset is more demanding at higher resolutions relative to the Low preset, which is typical of settings that increase geometric and shading complexity.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores are solid for its class: it achieves 10,297 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,453 in single-core, with a Passmark multi-thread score of 12,115. Its 73rd percentile ranking among all CPUs places it above the majority of processors, but its nearest rivals tell an interesting story.

The i5-10400F's average benchmark score of 14,168 is within 1.2% of the AMD EPYC 7552 (14,115) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14,277), and within 1.1% of the Intel Core i5-8500 (14,332). These are not high-end parts, which confirms the i5-10400F is a mid-range CPU. In Hard West, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates across all settings stay above 115 FPS but the differences between presets are smaller than at higher resolutions. The 3DMark single-thread score of 688 and Passmark single-thread score of 2,541 indicate that single-thread performance is adequate for a turn-based tactics game that likely relies on one or two cores for game logic.

The 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth and DDR4 support are sufficient for this game, and the CPU's 65 W TDP means it runs cool under load. However, the data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, as the GPU is capable of much higher frame rates than the 181.6 FPS ceiling observed at Low settings. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU becomes less relevant, and the GPU takes over as the primary performance driver. For Hard West specifically, the i5-10400F provides enough headroom to avoid stuttering, but it does cap the maximum achievable frame rate at lower resolutions, particularly when paired with a GPU as powerful as the RTX 3080.