Hard West

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Hard West, but the data reveals a clear bottleneck shift as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080, the system is heavily CPU-bound, producing frame rates that range from 81 FPS on Ultra to 173 FPS on Low. Moving to 2560x1440, the average frame rate at High settings drops by 36.7% to 69 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 52 FPS. The transition to 3840x2160 is where the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with High settings yielding just 36 FPS and Ultra dipping to 27 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The scaling pattern is steep: from 1080p High to 4K High, the frame rate drops by 67%, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are increasingly stressed at higher pixel counts. The most telling metric is the 4K Low result of 57 FPS, which shows that even at the lowest graphical settings, the GPU cannot push past the 60 FPS mark, confirming a hard performance ceiling at this resolution. This behavior is typical for a turn-based tactics title where the visual load scales dramatically with resolution, but the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions without creating a frame rate plateau.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a predictable degradation as resolution increases, but the rate of decline is uneven across presets. At 1080p, the system is clearly not GPU-limited, as the Low preset achieves 173 FPS and Medium reaches 141 FPS, both well above what a 60 Hz display requires. The 1080p High preset at 109 FPS represents a 37% drop from Low, while Ultra at 81 FPS shows a further 25.7% reduction. This pattern suggests that the CPU can handle the game's logic and draw calls efficiently, allowing the GPU to render frames at high rates without hitting a compute wall. When moving to 1440p, the frame rates compress: Low drops to 109 FPS, High to 69 FPS, and Ultra to 52 FPS. The delta between Low and High at 1440p is 36.7%, slightly larger than at 1080p, hinting that the GPU is starting to feel the load. At 4K, the scaling becomes brutal, with High at 36 FPS and Ultra at 27 FPS, while Low sits at 57 FPS. The gap between 1440p High (69 FPS) and 4K High (36 FPS) is a 47.8% reduction, which is more severe than the 1080p to 1440p drop of 36.7%. This nonlinear scaling points to the RTX 2070 SUPER's memory bandwidth becoming a critical constraint at 4K, as the 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s throughput struggle to feed the shader cores with the increased pixel data. The data indicates that 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, where the CPU's 4.40 GHz boost clock and 18 MB of L3 cache keep the pipeline full, while 4K is only viable at Low settings if the user prioritizes frame rate over fidelity.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER, built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip, plays a central role in determining the playable limits of Hard West. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The GPU's base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with 2560 shading units, deliver 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. These specifications translate into the measured results: at 1080p Medium, the combo hits 141 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU has ample headroom for this title's visual effects at mainstream resolutions. However, the 4K Ultra result of 27 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows the GPU's fill rate and memory subsystem being overwhelmed by the higher pixel count. The GPU's 64 ROPs and 160 TMUs are sufficient for the game's geometry and texturing needs at lower resolutions, but the 113.3 GPixel/s pixel rate becomes a bottleneck when rendering to a 3840x2160 framebuffer. The 12 nm process node and 215 W TDP indicate a power-hungry design, but the data shows that the performance ceiling is hit well before power consumption becomes an issue. Notably, the GPU's percentile ranking of 65 versus all GPUs suggests it sits in the mid-range of tested hardware, and its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Arc B570 and Arc A750, score within 1.5% of its average benchmark score, indicating that this card's relative performance is well established.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the High preset at 109 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, as it provides a smooth experience well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining more detail than Medium (141 FPS) or Low (173 FPS). The Ultra preset at 81 FPS is also playable and represents a 25.7% frame rate cost over High, which may be acceptable for users seeking maximum visual fidelity. At 1440p, the High preset at 69 FPS is the recommended choice, as it stays above the 60 FPS line and offers a significant visual upgrade over Medium (90 FPS) or Low (109 FPS). The Ultra preset at 52 FPS dips below the ideal threshold, making it a less desirable option unless the user can tolerate occasional frame dips. At 4K, the data shows that no preset achieves a consistent 60 FPS, with Low at 57 FPS being the closest. The Medium preset at 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS and maximum of 54 FPS provides a more stable experience than High (36 FPS) or Ultra (27 FPS), but users should be prepared for sub-60 FPS gameplay. For the best experience per the measured rows, the recommendation is to use High settings at 1080p or 1440p, and drop to Medium at 4K if the resolution is non-negotiable.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 2164 out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 58th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects that the combo is slightly above the median but far from the top tier, which is consistent with the mid-range positioning of both components. The CPU's average benchmark score of 18683 places it in the 72nd percentile versus all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD EPYC 7643, which scores 18697 with a delta of -0.1%, indicating virtually identical performance. The GPU's average benchmark score of 20282 puts it in the 65th percentile versus all GPUs, with the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scoring 20480 (delta -1%) as the closest rival. The combo's rank of 2164 suggests that while the individual components are capable, the pairing does not unlock any special synergy in this turn-based tactics title. The data implies that users with higher-ranked combos would see more headroom at 4K, while those with lower-ranked combos would struggle to maintain 60 FPS even at 1080p. This ranking serves as a useful reference point for understanding where this hardware stands in the broader ecosystem of tested configurations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides the computational foundation for this combo, and its specifications directly influence the measured frame rates. With 6 cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, the CPU delivers strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for turn-based tactics games that often rely on discrete AI calculations and pathfinding. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, while the 10 nm Alder Lake architecture and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide flexibility for system builders. In Hard West, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p, where the frame rates reach 173 FPS on Low, indicating that the CPU is not a limiting factor. The 3dmark single-thread score of 910 and the passmark single-thread score of 3456 both indicate robust per-core performance, which is essential for maintaining high frame rates when the GPU is not saturated. The CPU's cinebench r23 multicore score of 15989 also suggests that even in scenarios with multiple entities on screen, the 12 threads provide sufficient compute headroom. However, the data shows that at 4K, the CPU's contribution diminishes, as the frame rates are dictated by the GPU's rendering capabilities, not by CPU throughput. The CPU's percentile ranking of 72 versus all CPUs places it in the upper quartile, and its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-14100F with a delta of 0.9%, show that this processor holds its own against newer budget offerings. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz is particularly effective for this game, as it allows the CPU to rapidly process turn-based logic without creating a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo is presented below, broken down by resolution and settings. All values are average FPS unless otherwise noted, with minimum and maximum values provided where available.

1920x1080:

• Low: 173 FPS average
• Medium: 141 FPS average, with a minimum of 120 FPS and maximum of 163 FPS
• High: 109 FPS average
• Ultra: 81 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 109 FPS average
• Medium: 90 FPS average, with a minimum of 76 FPS and maximum of 103 FPS
• High: 69 FPS average
• Ultra: 52 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 57 FPS average
• Medium: 47 FPS average, with a minimum of 40 FPS and maximum of 54 FPS
• High: 36 FPS average
• Ultra: 27 FPS average

The 1080p results show a clear progression from Low to Ultra, with the Ultra preset costing 53.2% of the Low preset's frame rate. The 1440p results compress this range, with Ultra at 52 FPS versus Low at 109 FPS, a 52.3% reduction. At 4K, the range narrows further, with Ultra at 27 FPS versus Low at 57 FPS, a 52.6% reduction. The minimum FPS values for Medium settings at each resolution provide insight into frame time consistency: at 1080p, the minimum of 120 FPS is 85.1% of the average, indicating smooth performance; at 1440p, the minimum of 76 FPS is 84.4% of the average; and at 4K, the minimum of 40 FPS is 85.1% of the average. This consistency across resolutions suggests that the game does not suffer from sudden stutters, but rather a steady decline in performance as the GPU load increases. The maximum FPS values for Medium settings follow a similar pattern, with 163 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K, reinforcing the idea that the GPU is the primary performance limiter at higher resolutions. These numbers provide a comprehensive picture of what users can expect from this combo, with the 1080p Medium and High presets offering the most balanced experience, while 4K requires compromises in settings to achieve playable frame rates.