Hard West

Settings Recommendations

For Hard West, the measured data shows a clear relationship between graphics presets and frame rates, but the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 135.5 FPS average, which is already well above the standard 60 FPS threshold and only 45.9 FPS below the Low preset's 181.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is substantial, but the Ultra experience remains smooth. A better balance appears at Medium, which produces 169.1 FPS — a 33.6 FPS improvement over Ultra while still maintaining high visual fidelity. For players prioritizing responsiveness in turn-based tactical combat, Medium at 1080p offers the most sensible compromise between visual quality and headroom.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset produces 142 FPS, while High yields 133.3 FPS and Ultra drops to 112.1 FPS. The data indicates that High is the best experience at this resolution: it sits only 9.7 FPS below Medium but provides noticeably better visual settings. The Ultra preset at 1440p still clears 112.1 FPS, which is playable, but the diminishing returns from High to Ultra do not justify the 21.2 FPS loss. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 151.8 FPS, yet the visual compromise is unnecessary given that High already maintains a comfortable frame rate.

The 3840x2160 results present a different story. At 4K, the Ultra preset averages 61.2 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS floor but leaves minimal room for demanding scenes. High at 4K produces 79.2 FPS, representing a 29.4% improvement over Ultra while still delivering most of the visual features. Medium at 4K reaches 100.8 FPS, and Low hits 128.1 FPS. For a turn-based tactics game where reaction time is less critical, High at 4K appears to be the recommended preset — it provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS without the visual penalty of dropping to Medium or Low. Players with 120 Hz displays might prefer Medium at 4K, as it crosses the 100 FPS mark while retaining moderate visual quality.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 354th out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West. That places the pairing in the top 20.8% of all configurations evaluated for this game. The ranking reflects the substantial GPU-driven performance of the RTX 5090, which sits in the 94th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The CPU, meanwhile, holds the 73rd percentile among all processors.

The rank of 354 out of 1,699 combos indicates that while this system is far from the slowest, it is also not near the top for Hard West. This is notable because the RTX 5090 is among the most powerful GPUs available, with benchmark scores that place it 0.1% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D and 1.3% above the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 in average score. The CPU's position in the hierarchy — its average benchmark score of 14,168 sits 0.4% above the AMD EPYC 7552 and 1.2% above the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 — suggests that the i5-10400F may be limiting the GPU in certain scenarios. In a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, which typically does not stress the CPU heavily, the combo still manages to secure a respectable rank, but the data implies that pairing the RTX 5090 with a stronger processor could yield a higher position.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain much of the measured performance. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, producing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This memory configuration is far beyond what Hard West requires, given the game's 2015 release date, but it ensures that memory bandwidth is never a constraint at any resolution or settings level. The GPU's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with 21,760 shading units, deliver substantial compute throughput. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS provides ample headroom for even the most demanding modern titles, though Hard West's engine is unlikely to utilize this fully.

The RTX 5090's transistor count of 92,200 million on a 750 mm² die, built on TSMC's 5 nm process, reflects the massive scale of this chip. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores are features that Hard West, as a turn-based tactics title from 2015, will not leverage through ray tracing or DLSS. The game's rendering workload is more conventional, relying on rasterization. The GPU's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s indicate that fill-rate limits are unlikely at any of the tested settings. The benchmark results for the RTX 5090 show a passmark G3D score of 39,650 and a passmark GPU compute score of 26,756, reinforcing its position in the 94th percentile of all GPUs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS values show a tight cluster across settings. The Low preset averages 181.4 FPS, Medium reaches 169.1 FPS, High produces 149.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 135.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 45.9 FPS, which is the smallest relative difference among the three resolutions. This suggests that at 1080p, the system is not fully GPU-bound; the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz are capable of feeding the GPU adequately, and the frame rate differences come primarily from the GPU's workload scaling with visual settings.

At 2560x1440, the results shift upward in absolute terms but compress in relative differences. Low averages 151.8 FPS, Medium reaches 142 FPS, High produces 133.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to 112.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 39.7 FPS, narrower than at 1080p. This indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, but the RTX 5090 still has enough headroom to maintain high frame rates across all presets. The 1440p High setting at 133.3 FPS represents a comfortable experience for high-refresh-rate displays.

At 3840x2160, the performance scales as expected with the increased pixel count. Low averages 128.1 FPS, Medium reaches 100.8 FPS, High produces 79.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 61.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 66.9 FPS, the largest of any resolution, confirming that 4K is where the GPU's workload becomes substantial. The Ultra preset at 61.2 FPS is the only configuration that falls below the 100 FPS mark across all tested rows, and it sits just above the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K High setting at 79.2 FPS provides a more comfortable margin, while 4K Medium at 100.8 FPS offers the best balance for players seeking both resolution and smoothness.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use at 1920x1080 for this combination?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p averages 169.1 FPS, which is only 12.3 FPS below Low but provides improved visual quality over Low. Ultra at 135.5 FPS is also playable, but Medium offers a better balance between frame rate and visual fidelity.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra settings in Hard West?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra preset averages 61.2 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. However, the margin is slim, and the 4K High preset at 79.2 FPS provides significantly more headroom while still offering high visual quality.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84,306 is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D and 1.3% higher than the AMD Radeon PRO W6600. It trails the NVIDIA CMP 40HX by 1.6% in average score.

Q: What CPU benchmark scores does the i5-10400F achieve?

A: The i5-10400F scores 10,297 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,453 in single-core. In Geekbench, it reaches 5,783 multi-core and 1,454 single-core. Its passmark multithread score is 12,115, and its single-thread score is 2,541.

Q: How does the i5-10400F rank among all CPUs?

A: The i5-10400F holds the 73rd percentile among all CPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 14,168 is 0.4% above the AMD EPYC 7552 and 1.2% above the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546.

Q: Is the frame rate difference between 1440p and 4K significant for this combo?

A: Yes. At High settings, the 1440p resolution averages 133.3 FPS, while 4K averages 79.2 FPS — a difference of 54.1 FPS. At Ultra, the gap widens: 1440p produces 112.1 FPS compared to 4K's 61.2 FPS, a 50.9 FPS difference.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This Comet Lake processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process, features 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration, providing a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. In the context of Hard West, a turn-based tactics game from 2015, this processor is more than sufficient to handle the game's AI and simulation logic. The game's turn-based nature means that frame rates are less dependent on rapid CPU calculations than in real-time genres.

The CPU benchmark data shows a single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark and 1,453 in Cinebench R23, indicating solid single-core performance that is relevant for the game's main thread. The multi-thread scores — 4,748 in 3DMark 16-thread and 10,297 in Cinebench R23 — demonstrate that the processor can handle parallel workloads, though Hard West is unlikely to use all 12 threads effectively. The CPU's percentile rank of 73rd among all processors places it in the upper-middle tier, which aligns with the measured frame rates in this game. The i5-10400F's performance is within 1.1% of the Intel Core i5-8500 and 0.8% below the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C in average benchmark score, confirming that it sits in a competitive range for mid-generation processors.

The GPU's role in this combo is clearly dominant, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling with resolution. However, the CPU's contribution should not be overlooked: at 1080p Low, the 181.4 FPS result suggests the CPU can feed the RTX 5090 adequately even at high frame rates. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck in this particular game, which is computationally modest by modern standards. The CPU's PCIe Gen 3 support with 16 lanes provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 5090, though the GPU is capable of PCIe 5.0. This interface difference does not appear to meaningfully impact the measured results, as the frame rates scale consistently across resolutions and settings.