Hard West

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a robust experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The data indicates that this combination provides high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, with performance scaling predictably as resolution and graphical fidelity increase. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to isolate the roles of the CPU and GPU, addresses common questions, and places this specific combo within the broader benchmark database.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 152.5 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops this to 113.8 FPS, a reduction of approximately 25%. The most significant shift occurs at 4K High, where the average falls to 60.1 FPS, representing a 47% decrease from the 1080p result. This steep decline at 4K is typical of a system transitioning from a CPU-bound scenario at lower resolutions to a GPU-bound one at higher pixel counts.

The spread between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution further illustrates this dynamic. At 1080p, the difference between Low (179.2 FPS) and Ultra (136.7 FPS) is 42.5 FPS, showing that even at maximum settings, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough frames to stay well above 100 FPS. At 1440p, the gap narrows slightly, with Low hitting 151.9 FPS and Ultra at 85.9 FPS. However, at 4K, the Ultra setting drops to 45.1 FPS, while Low maintains a playable 97.2 FPS. This 52.1 FPS gap at 4K is the largest of any resolution, indicating that the GPU's rendering load is the primary bottleneck at this setting.

The data suggests that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting component at 4K, particularly under Ultra settings where the average dips below 60 FPS. The 1080p and 1440p results, by contrast, show that the i5-10400F handles the game's logic without constraining the GPU, as even the highest settings at 1440p remain above 85 FPS. The turning point appears to be between 1440p and 4K, where the pixel throughput demand doubles, and the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth become the deciding factors.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores show a single-thread result of 688 in 3dmark and a multi-thread score of 4735 in 3dmark_max_threads. In Cinebench R23, it scores 1453 single-core and 10297 multi-core. These figures place the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all tested processors, indicating solid mid-range performance for its generation.

For a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, the CPU's role is primarily to manage AI pathfinding, turn order, and game state logic, which often relies on single-threaded performance. The i5-10400F's single-thread score of 1453 in Cinebench R23 is adequate for this task, as evidenced by the high FPS at 1080p. At 1920x1080 Low, the average of 179.2 FPS suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the GPU is still able to render frames well above typical refresh rates. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 136.7 FPS average indicates that the CPU's 4.30 GHz boost clock and 6 cores are sufficient to keep up with the game's demands.

The multi-threaded performance also plays a role, as the 12 threads allow for background tasks and any multi-threaded game subsystems to run without interfering with the main rendering thread. The data shows no significant frame rate drop when moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p, which would be expected if the CPU were struggling. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s via dual-channel DDR4 is also adequate for this title, as the game's data likely fits within the 12 MB L3 cache, reducing the reliance on system memory.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5nm process from TSMC. It features 7168 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, along with 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores. The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and it achieves a pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s. The GPU's passmark G3D score is 29995, placing it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs.

In Hard West, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 4K, the pixel count quadruples compared to 1080p, and the data shows the RTX 4070 SUPER handling this load with diminishing returns. The 4K Ultra average of 45.1 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that the 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for texture storage but the raw compute power is stretched. The 4K Low result of 97.2 FPS, however, shows that when the shader load is reduced, the GPU can still produce high frame rates, indicating that the bottleneck at Ultra is the pixel shading and fill rate requirements.

The GPU's performance relative to its peers, as shown in the nearestRivals data, is competitive. It sits within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon Pro 580X and 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A6000, with a deltaPct of 1.4 and -0.2 respectively. This suggests that the RTX 4070 SUPER is a balanced performer for its class. The measured FPS at 1440p High (113.8 FPS) and 4K Medium (80.5 FPS) indicate that the GPU provides a smooth experience at mainstream resolutions, with the 4K Ultra being the only setting that falls below the 60 FPS target.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The combo achieves an average of 152.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, indicating strong performance for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 45.1, which is below the 60 FPS standard, suggesting the GPU is the limiting factor at this extreme setting.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1440p?

A: No, the data shows the GPU is the primary constraint. At 1440p Ultra, the average is 85.9 FPS, and at 1440p Low, it reaches 151.9 FPS, indicating the CPU can push frames well beyond typical monitor refresh rates.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: The difference is 52.1 FPS, with Low averaging 97.2 FPS and Ultra averaging 45.1 FPS, highlighting the significant impact of GPU load at high resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score compare to its rivals?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER scores 29995 in passmark G3D. It is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (42653 avg score) and 1.4% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580X (41991 avg score).

Q: Does the CPU's single-thread performance support this game?

A: Yes, the i5-10400F scores 1453 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which is sufficient for Hard West's turn-based logic, as evidenced by the high FPS at 1080p across all settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 488th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the top 29% of all configurations in the database, indicating a strong overall system for this title. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's mid-range compute power and the GPU's high-end rendering capability.

The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 73 and the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 84 both contribute to this ranking. The data shows that the combo performs best at 1080p and 1440p, where the average FPS remains above 85 even at Ultra settings. At 4K, the combo still achieves playable frame rates at Medium (80.5 FPS) and High (60.1 FPS), with only Ultra dipping below the 60 FPS threshold.

This ranking suggests that while the combo is not at the very top of the database, it offers a well-rounded experience for Hard West, particularly for users targeting 1080p or 1440p gaming. The CPU's 73rd percentile score and the GPU's 84th percentile score indicate a slight imbalance, with the GPU being the stronger component. This is reflected in the resolution scaling, where the CPU keeps up at lower resolutions but the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K Ultra. For a game released in 2015, this modern hardware combination provides headroom for high settings and future-proofing, even if it does not top the charts.