Hard West

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination ranks 486th out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West. That places it in the top 29% of all tested systems, a strong showing for a turn-based tactics title that rarely stresses high-end hardware to its limits. The combo sits comfortably above the median, but the ranking reveals something important: this is a game where even mid-range setups can deliver excellent framerates, so the 3080's raw power is somewhat underutilized at lower resolutions.

The rank reflects a system that is overqualified for the game's demands at 1080p and 1440p, yet still struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K Ultra. This is not a poorly balanced combo — rather, it highlights how Hard West's engine scales unevenly with settings and resolution. The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 3080 dominates at lower presets, but the gap between settings narrows dramatically as resolution climbs, suggesting the GPU becomes the limiting factor only at the highest loads.

# FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Hard West smoothly at 1080p?

A: Yes, decisively. At 1080p Low the combo delivers 247.6 FPS average, and even at 1080p Ultra it maintains 118.7 FPS. No 1080p preset drops below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K?

A: It depends heavily on settings. At 4K Low it averages 84.6 FPS, at 4K Medium 66.2 FPS, at 4K High 53 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 36.3 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that fails to hit 60 FPS.

Q: What is the biggest FPS jump between settings at a given resolution?

A: At 1080p, the difference between Low (247.6 FPS) and Ultra (118.7 FPS) is 128.9 FPS — the largest absolute gap across all resolutions. The relative drop is also steep: Ultra runs at 48% of Low's framerate.

Q: Which component is more likely to bottleneck this game?

A: At 1080p, the CPU appears more relevant, as the 247.6 FPS Low result far exceeds what the GPU alone would need to produce. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the constraint, with the 36.3 FPS result indicating the 3080's limits under heavy load.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3080's average benchmark score is 35,787. It trails the AMD Radeon Pro Duo by 0.2%, sits 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon 880M, and is 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is 1% slower.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark standing relative to similar processors?

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19,850, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. It is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-9700, 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-8700, 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX, and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-11600K.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable yet telling scaling pattern across resolutions. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average framerate drops from 155.5 FPS to 100.1 FPS — a 35.6% reduction. The jump from 1440p to 4K at High is even steeper, falling from 100.1 FPS to 53 FPS, a 47.1% loss. This progressive decline indicates that the GPU is increasingly taxed as pixel count grows, but the CPU still has headroom at 1080p.

At Low settings, the scaling is more dramatic in absolute terms: 247.6 FPS at 1080p, 156.2 FPS at 1440p, and 84.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is only 34.2% of the 1080p Low framerate, which suggests the rendering workload is scaling nearly linearly with pixel count. However, at Ultra settings the pattern shifts — 118.7 FPS at 1080p, 72.5 FPS at 1440p, and 36.3 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is just 30.6% of the 1080p Ultra framerate, indicating that the combination of high resolution and demanding settings pushes the GPU into a region where it becomes the sole bottleneck.

The limiting component shifts depending on the preset. At 1080p Low, the 247.6 FPS result is so high that the CPU's single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 910, passmark single-thread score of 3,456) is likely the primary constraint. At 4K Ultra, the GPU's 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is clearly the ceiling, as the 36.3 FPS result aligns with the 3080's expected performance under maximum load. The 1440p results sit in a balanced zone where neither component fully dominates.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 247.6 FPS average — this is the highest measured result across all configurations, indicating the combo has massive headroom at this resolution.
• Medium: 202.9 FPS average — still far beyond any display's refresh rate, making this preset effectively free for performance.
• High: 155.5 FPS average — a comfortable margin over 144 Hz displays, with no risk of frame pacing issues.
• Ultra: 118.7 FPS average — the first preset to dip below 120 FPS, but still smooth for most gaming scenarios.

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 156.2 FPS average — a strong result that suggests the CPU still has capacity to spare.
• Medium: 126.3 FPS average — well above 60 FPS, suitable for high-refresh 1440p monitors.
• High: 100.1 FPS average — the first configuration to fall below 120 FPS, but still excellent.
• Ultra: 72.5 FPS average — a significant drop from High, but remains comfortably playable.

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 84.6 FPS average — a playable result that shows the 3080's 10 GB GDDR6X memory handles 4K well at reduced settings.
• Medium: 66.2 FPS average — just above the 60 FPS target, indicating the sweet spot for 4K play.
• High: 53 FPS average — below 60 FPS, requiring a tolerance for occasional dips.
• Ultra: 36.3 FPS average — the only measured configuration that feels unplayable, far below the 60 FPS threshold.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It houses 8,704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. The GPU's base clock runs at 1440 MHz, boosting to 1710 MHz, and memory operates at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) across a 320-bit bus, yielding 760.3 GB/s bandwidth from its 10 GB GDDR6X frame buffer.

In Hard West, the GPU's role becomes apparent in the resolution scaling data. The 4K Ultra result of 36.3 FPS is the clearest indicator of the 3080's limits — the game's pixel fill rate demands (164.2 GPixel/s peak) are simply too high for the GPU to maintain fluid motion at maximum settings. Conversely, the 1080p Low result of 247.6 FPS shows the GPU is rarely the limiting factor at lower resolutions, even with the 3080's 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 throughput.

The 10 GB memory capacity is notable for a 2015 title like Hard West, which was released when 4 GB GPUs were flagship. The game's texture requirements at 4K are modest by modern standards, but the data shows a 30.6% framerate drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra, indicating that memory bandwidth (760.3 GB/s) and shading power are being fully utilized at the highest settings. The 3080's 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs (average benchmark score 35,787) reinforces that it is a top-tier part, yet Hard West's 4K Ultra setting still overwhelms it.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S family, running at a 2.50 GHz base clock and boosting to 4.40 GHz. It features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's 65 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make it a mainstream part, but its benchmark scores tell a stronger story: a 3dmark max-threads score of 5,890, Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15,935, and a passmark multi-thread score of 18,747.

In Hard West, the CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where the 247.6 FPS result suggests the processor is feeding frames as fast as the game's logic allows. The single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 910, Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,249) is particularly relevant for a turn-based tactics game, where AI pathfinding and turn resolution often run on a single thread. The 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs (average benchmark score 19,850) places it firmly above average, and the near-parity with the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% ahead) and Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% behind) confirms it trades blows with older high-end parts.

At 4K Ultra, the CPU's role diminishes, as the 36.3 FPS result is far below what the i5-12400 could theoretically feed. The data indicates the CPU is never the bottleneck at 4K, but at 1080p the 247.6 FPS Low result may be capped by the game's engine or the CPU's single-thread limits. The 12 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks, but Hard West's 2015-era engine likely doesn't scale beyond a few cores, making the 2.50 GHz base clock less important than the 4.40 GHz boost for those turn-based calculations.