Hard West

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a playable experience in Hard West, but the data clearly indicates that the game’s engine is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions and GPU-bound at 4K. The optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate is achieved at Medium settings across all tested resolutions, offering the best compromise between the dramatic performance drops seen at Ultra and the significant visual downgrade of Low. This combination ranks in the 22nd percentile of all tested combos, placing it behind a substantial portion of the database, yet it remains fully capable of delivering smooth frame rates for this turn-based tactical title.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Hard West shows a consistent pattern where Medium settings provide the most sensible experience for this hardware pairing. At 1080p, Medium delivers 124.6 FPS, which is 72.5% higher than the 72.2 FPS at Ultra, while still maintaining a frame rate that is 24.6% above the 95.6 FPS at High. The jump from Medium to High costs 29.0 FPS at 1080p, a substantial reduction that is not justified by the incremental visual improvements typical of turn-based tactics games.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again proves superior, producing 76.1 FPS compared to 57.5 FPS at High and 43.9 FPS at Ultra. The difference between Medium and Low at this resolution is 20.2 FPS, but the visual quality loss from dropping to Low is generally too severe for a game that relies on atmospheric presentation. The 4K results reinforce this conclusion: Medium achieves 39.6 FPS, which is playable for a turn-based game, while High drops to 31.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 24.6 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for comfortable play on a 60Hz display.

The data suggests that Ultra settings are a poor choice for this combo at any resolution. The performance penalty from Ultra is remarkably consistent: it costs roughly 52-53% of the Medium frame rate at every resolution (72.2 vs 124.6 at 1080p, 43.9 vs 76.1 at 1440p, and 24.6 vs 39.6 at 4K). This indicates that the Ultra preset activates rendering features that disproportionately burden the Arc B580 without delivering a proportional visual return. For the best experience, Medium is the recommended preset, with the understanding that 4K users may need to accept the 39.6 FPS figure or drop to Low for a smoother 52.7 FPS.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 brings substantial memory resources to Hard West, featuring 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is far beyond what a 2015 title like Hard West requires, and the data reflects that the GPU is rarely the primary bottleneck except at 4K Ultra. The GPU’s base and boost clocks are both 2670 MHz, which is a relatively high operating frequency for the Xe2-HPG architecture, and this contributes to the card’s 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance.

The Arc B580’s performance in Hard West scales predictably with resolution, which is characteristic of a GPU that is not being fully stressed at lower settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 151.5 FPS, while at 4K Low it drops to 52.7 FPS. This scaling suggests that the GPU’s 80 ROPs and 160 TMUs are being utilized more heavily as pixel count increases. The GPU’s 20 ray tracing cores are irrelevant for this title, as Hard West does not employ ray-traced effects, but the DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures full API compatibility.

The Arc B580’s benchmark percentile of 66 versus all GPUs indicates it is a mid-range performer, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, scores 0.7% higher on average. In Hard West, this translates to the Arc B580 being capable of exceeding 60 FPS at 1080p Medium and High, but struggling to maintain that threshold at 1440p Ultra. The GPU’s 190 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this performance class, and the 450 W suggested PSU is more than adequate for a system with the 65 W TDP i5-11400F.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable and steep decline, consistent with the GPU becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p (151.5 FPS) to 1440p (96.3 FPS) represents a 36.4% reduction, and the further drop to 4K (52.7 FPS) is another 45.3% reduction from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that the Arc B580’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are being taxed progressively as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

At Medium settings, the scaling shows a similar trend: 1080p delivers 124.6 FPS, 1440p delivers 76.1 FPS (61.1% of the 1080p score), and 4K delivers 39.6 FPS (31.8% of the 1080p score). This is a steeper decline than ideal, suggesting that the CPU is no longer able to hide the GPU’s workload increase. However, at High settings, the scaling is more linear: 95.6 FPS at 1080p, 57.5 FPS at 1440p (60.1%), and 31.8 FPS at 4K (33.3%). This consistency indicates that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at High and above.

The most telling data point is the Ultra scaling: 72.2 FPS at 1080p, 43.9 FPS at 1440p (60.8%), and 24.6 FPS at 4K (34.1%). The fact that the percentage retention from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical across Medium, High, and Ultra (approximately 32-34%) strongly suggests that the Arc B580’s rendering pipeline is being saturated at these settings, and the CPU is no longer contributing to frame rate variance. For users targeting 60 FPS, the data indicates that 1440p Medium or 1080p High are the upper bounds for this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 151.5 FPS, which is more than double the 72.2 FPS seen at Ultra. Medium achieves 124.6 FPS, High drops to 95.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 72.2 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 29.0 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 23.4 FPS. These figures indicate that the i5-11400F has ample headroom at 1080p, as even Ultra remains above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates drop substantially. Low settings produce 96.3 FPS, which is still excellent for a turn-based game. Medium delivers 76.1 FPS, High produces 57.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 43.9 FPS. The difference between the best and worst settings at 1440p is 52.4 FPS, which is a wider spread than at 1080p (79.3 FPS). This suggests that the GPU is becoming more influential in determining performance at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings achieve 52.7 FPS, which is playable but below 60 FPS. Medium drops to 39.6 FPS, High falls to 31.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24.6 FPS. The data shows that 4K is only viable at Low settings for a smooth experience, and even then, the 52.7 FPS figure is marginal. The step from Low to Medium at 4K costs 13.1 FPS, which is a significant penalty for the visual upgrade.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1332nd out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 22nd percentile of all configurations in the database. This is a below-average ranking, indicating that most other tested systems outperform this pairing in this specific game. The ranking is particularly notable given that the individual components have percentile scores of 75 for the CPU and 66 for the GPU, suggesting that the combination does not synergize as well as expected in Hard West.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (0.0% delta) and the Intel Core i7-1260P (-0.2% delta), while the GPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 760M (0.1% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (-0.7% delta). The ranking of 1332 suggests that the game’s engine may be sensitive to memory bandwidth or cache configurations that this particular pairing does not excel at.

Despite the low ranking, the actual frame rates are playable at most settings below Ultra. The combo’s 1080p Medium score of 124.6 FPS is competitive with many higher-ranked systems, and the 1440p Medium score of 76.1 FPS is sufficient for smooth gameplay. The ranking only becomes a concern at 4K, where the combo falls below 60 FPS at all settings. For a turn-based tactics game, the 22nd percentile ranking is less critical than in fast-paced genres, as the gameplay does not require high refresh rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The data shows that Medium settings provide the best experience, delivering 124.6 FPS. High settings drop to 95.6 FPS, while Low offers 151.5 FPS but at a significant visual quality cost.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K resolution in Hard West?*

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which produce 52.7 FPS. Medium settings drop to 39.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 24.6 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Arc B580 compare to its nearest GPU rival in this game?

A: The Arc B580’s average benchmark score is 23,021, which is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (23,181). In Hard West, this translates to similar frame rates at most settings.

Q: Is the i5-11400F a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests no, as the combo achieves 151.5 FPS at 1080p Low. The CPU’s single-thread score of 2,029 in Cinebench R23 indicates sufficient performance for this game’s turn-based logic.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1440p Ultra?

A: The measured average FPS is 43.9, which is below 60 FPS but may be acceptable for turn-based gameplay. Dropping to Medium raises this to 76.1 FPS.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM provide any advantage in this game?

A: The game is from 2015 and likely does not consume significant VRAM, so the 12 GB allocation is more than sufficient. The GPU’s 456.0 GB/s bandwidth is the more relevant factor for 4K performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache and 80 KB of L1 cache per core. The CPU’s memory support is limited to DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a potential limitation for a game that may be sensitive to memory throughput.

In Hard West, the CPU’s role is primarily in managing the game’s turn-based logic, AI decision-making, and unit pathfinding. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to push frame rates above 150 FPS at Low settings, indicating that the game’s single-threaded performance demands are modest. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,029 and multi-core score of 14,372 suggest it can handle the game’s computational load without becoming a bottleneck at standard resolutions.

However, the CPU’s percentile ranking of 75 versus all CPUs indicates it is a solid mid-range performer, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, matches its average benchmark score. The CPU’s 12 threads are likely underutilized in Hard West, as the game from 2015 probably does not scale well beyond a few cores. The data confirms this: the frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU remains sufficient even at 4K Low with 52.7 FPS.