Hard West

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Hard West across the three tested resolutions reveal a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling, though with some notable deviations at the extremes. Starting with the Low preset, the progression from 1080p to 1440p shows a drop from 213.4 FPS to 184.1 FPS, a reduction of approximately 13.7%. Moving further to 4K, the Low preset falls to 101.4 FPS, which represents another 44.9% decline from the 1440p figure. This steep drop at 4K indicates that even at minimal graphical load, the rendering pipeline becomes increasingly dependent on the GPU's raw throughput as pixel count multiplies.

The Medium preset follows a similar trajectory but with slightly different proportions. From 196.5 FPS at 1080p, the frame rate descends to 156.8 FPS at 1440p (a 20.2% decrease) and then to 84.3 FPS at 4K (a 46.2% drop from 1440p). The High preset shows the most linear scaling pattern: 181.7 FPS at 1080p, 119.4 FPS at 1440p (34.3% lower), and 61.6 FPS at 4K (48.4% lower than 1440p). This High preset data suggests that as settings increase, the resolution scaling becomes more consistent, with each step up in resolution exacting a similar proportional toll.

Ultra settings present the most dramatic scaling curve. At 1080p, the Ultra preset still manages 145.1 FPS, but this falls to 90.3 FPS at 1440p (a 37.8% reduction) and then to 48.7 FPS at 4K (a 46.1% drop from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result lands just below the 60 FPS threshold that many displays target, indicating that this combination of Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti begins to struggle when both resolution and settings are maxed out. The data points toward the RTX 4070 Ti as the primary limiting component at 4K, since the CPU's role diminishes as pixel count dominates the rendering workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, provides the graphical horsepower for this combination. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Hard West's turn-based tactical scenes even at 4K resolution. The GPU's 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output processors work together to produce the measured frame rates, with a boost clock of 2610 MHz driving performance.

The GPU's benchmark positioning shows it sitting at the 85th percentile among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44900. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45152, deltaPct -0.6), the Intel Arc A730M (45592, deltaPct -1.5), and the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44195, deltaPct 1.6). These tight delta percentages indicate that the RTX 4070 Ti sits in a competitive performance band, though the specific game-level results in Hard West will tell a more targeted story.

The GPU's VRAM capacity of 12 GB appears adequate for this game, as no resolution or settings combination shows signs of memory-related stalling. The 4K Ultra result of 48.7 FPS is more likely limited by compute throughput than memory capacity, given that the Low preset at 4K achieves 101.4 FPS. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 40.09 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s provide the theoretical ceiling that these measured results approach at higher settings. The data suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti's role becomes dominant at 4K, where the gap between Low and Ultra settings (101.4 FPS versus 48.7 FPS) reflects the GPU's shading and texturing workload scaling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides the processing foundation for this combo, with 6 cores and 12 threads operating at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Rocket Lake architecture processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process with a 276 mm² die size, includes 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 512 KB of L2 cache per core. Its memory support for dual-channel DDR4 at 51.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the GPU receives data without bottlenecking at lower resolutions.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark scores place it at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17181. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, deltaPct 0), the Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, deltaPct -0.2), and the Intel Core i5-1240U (17141, deltaPct 0.2). These near-identical scores indicate the i5-11400F performs roughly on par with these alternatives in general compute tasks. In Cinebench R23, the CPU achieves a multicore score of 14372 and a single-core score of 2029, while 3DMark tests show a max-thread score of 5652 and a single-thread score of 868.

In Hard West specifically, the CPU's role appears most significant at 1080p, where the frame rates are highest. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 213.4 FPS, which approaches the CPU's practical limit for feeding the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. The turn-based tactics genre typically involves moderate CPU load, but the high frame rates at 1080p suggest the i5-11400F's 6 cores handle the game's simulation without becoming a bottleneck. As resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes, and the GPU takes over as the primary performance determinant.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo in Hard West spans three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 213.4 FPS, Medium reaches 196.5 FPS, High achieves 181.7 FPS, and Ultra produces 145.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 68.3 FPS, representing a 32% performance reduction when moving to maximum settings.

At 1440p, the results show: Low at 184.1 FPS, Medium at 156.8 FPS, High at 119.4 FPS, and Ultra at 90.3 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution widens to 93.8 FPS, or roughly 51%, indicating that the GPU's workload scaling becomes more pronounced as pixel count increases. The High preset at 1440p drops below the 120 FPS mark that high-refresh monitors target, while Ultra falls below 100 FPS.

At 4K, the measured values are: Low at 101.4 FPS, Medium at 84.3 FPS, High at 61.6 FPS, and Ultra at 48.7 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap at 4K is 52.7 FPS, equivalent to a 52% reduction. Notably, only the Low preset at 4K stays above 100 FPS, and only Low and Medium remain above 60 FPS. The High preset at 61.6 FPS barely clears the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra falls below it, making 4K Ultra the only tested configuration that fails to maintain a playable frame rate for most displays.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this pairing of Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti achieves a combo rank of 313 out of 1699 total combos. This places the setup in the 81.6th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning it outperforms roughly 82% of combos in the database while being surpassed by about 18%. The rank reflects the aggregate performance across all tested games, with Hard West's specific results showing this combo's capability in a turn-based tactics context.

The high combo rank aligns with the individual component percentiles: the CPU sits at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU sits at the 85th percentile among all GPUs. The combination of a mid-range processor with an upper-mid-range graphics card produces a balanced system that ranks well above average. In Hard West specifically, the GPU's strength dominates the performance profile, allowing the combo to achieve high frame rates at most settings and resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 48.7 FPS is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, which tempers the otherwise strong showing. This single weak point prevents the combo from ranking even higher, as the 1699-combo pool includes configurations with more powerful GPUs that can sustain 4K Ultra in this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings configuration depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p displays, the Ultra preset at 145.1 FPS provides the best visual quality while still delivering well above the 60 FPS threshold, and even above the 120 FPS mark that benefits high-refresh monitors. The High preset at 181.7 FPS offers a meaningful performance headroom of 36.6 FPS over Ultra, which could be preferable for competitive play, but the visual upgrade to Ultra likely justifies the modest frame rate sacrifice.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset at 90.3 FPS remains playable and visually rich, but the High preset at 119.4 FPS provides a smoother experience that better matches 120 Hz displays. The data suggests High at 1440p strikes the best balance between image quality and fluidity, delivering 29.1 FPS more than Ultra while retaining most of the graphical enhancements. The Medium preset at 156.8 FPS is an option for users prioritizing frame rate above all else, though the visual tradeoff may not be worth the extra 37.4 FPS over High.

For 4K displays, the recommendations become more constrained. The High preset at 61.6 FPS just crosses the 60 FPS threshold, making it the highest-quality setting that maintains smooth playback. The Medium preset at 84.3 FPS offers a comfortable margin of 23.7 FPS over the 60 FPS baseline, which could be preferable for scenes with heavy particle effects or multiple characters on screen. The Ultra preset at 48.7 FPS falls below the playable threshold for most users and should be avoided unless the visual fidelity is paramount and the user accepts sub-60 FPS performance. The Low preset at 101.4 FPS demonstrates the GPU's headroom at 4K, but the drastic visual reduction makes it a poor tradeoff. Overall, the data points to High at 4K as the recommended starting point, with Medium as a fallback if frame rate consistency becomes an issue.