Hard West

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers a robust experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from late 2015. Across the twelve measured performance points, the combination demonstrates a clear scaling pattern from high-refresh 1080p capability down to playable-but-strained 4K, with the data indicating a system that is consistently GPU-limited at higher resolutions and increasingly CPU-leaning at lower ones. The average frame rates show a smooth progression, yet the margins between quality presets reveal how this hardware stack prioritizes raw throughput over extreme fidelity settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop varies significantly by preset. At 1080p, the combo achieves 156.6 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 100.3 FPS on High and further to 76.3 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 51.3% reduction from Low to Ultra at 1080p, indicating that the RX 7600’s shader throughput is the primary constraint even at this resolution when settings are maxed out.

Moving to 1440p, the performance envelope tightens considerably. The Low preset yields 101 FPS, High produces 63.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 45.8 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra here is 54.6%, slightly larger than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more heavily utilized as pixel count rises. At 4K, the trend accelerates: Low averages 52.2 FPS, High drops to 33.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 27.8 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap at 4K expands to 46.8%, but the absolute numbers reveal a system that is nearing its ceiling—even the lowest preset cannot maintain 60 FPS at 3840x2160.

The scaling pattern across resolutions indicates that the limiting component shifts with settings. At 1080p Low, the 156.6 FPS result is likely bottlenecked by the CPU’s single-thread performance, as the i5-12400F’s 3dmark_single_thread score of 909 and passmark_single_thread score of 3481 suggest adequate but not exceptional per-core strength. However, as resolution climbs to 4K, the GPU’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth become the decisive factors—the 33.7 FPS at 4K High is only 44% of the 1080p High result, a proportion that points squarely at the Radeon’s fill rate and memory throughput rather than processor limitations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark profile shows strong multi-threaded capability: cinebench_r23_multicore scores 16518, while geekbench_multicore reaches 9138. These figures place the CPU in the 77th percentile of all processors tested, with an average benchmark score of 19221. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, scores 19210 (0.1% delta), while the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS trails at 19364 (-0.7% delta)—a statistical tie that underscores this chip’s balanced performance.

In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU’s role is significant for game logic, AI pathfinding, and unit turn resolution. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (156.6) suggests the engine is capable of high frame delivery, but the CPU’s 3dmark_4_threads score of 3067 and 3dmark_16_threads score of 5895 indicate that scaling beyond 4 threads yields diminishing returns—a common trait for titles from this era. The 12 threads help maintain smooth minimums during complex tactical sequences, but the data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is rarely the sole bottleneck: the 100.3 FPS at 1080p High versus 156.6 FPS at Low represents a 56.3% performance penalty purely from settings, which is GPU-driven.

The boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides sufficient single-core headroom for the game’s turn-based logic, as evidenced by the cinebench_r20_singlecore score of 979 and geekbench_singlecore score of 2221. Yet the CPU’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support suggest it is designed for efficiency rather than extreme overclocking, and the data confirms that its performance is adequate but not dominant in this title. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s influence wanes further, as the FPS deltas between Low and High presets (37.1 FPS at 1440p, 18.5 FPS at 4K) align more closely with GPU workload scaling than processor capabilities.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is a Navi 33-based GPU on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 6 nm process with 13,300 million transistors. Its clock speeds are aggressive—a base of 1720 MHz, game clock of 2250 MHz, and boost up to 2655 MHz—which translate to a peak FP32 throughput of 21.75 TFLOPS. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, a figure that becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra where the game’s texture demands likely exceed the available memory bandwidth.

The GPU’s benchmark results reinforce its mid-range positioning. The passmark_g3d score of 16634 places it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20258. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, scores 20146 (0.6% delta), while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile achieves 20534 (-1.3% delta)—these are all effectively identical scores, indicating that the RX 7600 sits at a performance plateau where minor architectural differences matter more than raw compute.

In Hard West, the GPU’s role becomes dominant at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the 27.8 FPS result is a 67.2% drop from the 4K Low score of 52.2 FPS, which is a steeper decline than the 1080p Low-to-Ultra drop of 51.3%. This suggests that the game’s Ultra preset at 4K introduces effects—likely shadows, post-processing, and texture filtering—that disproportionately tax the RX 7600’s 64 ROPs and 339.8 GTexel/s texture rate. Conversely, at 4K Low, the GPU still manages 52.2 FPS, indicating that the card’s raw compute can handle the resolution when visual effects are minimized, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity may be insufficient for high-resolution texture streaming in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 ranks 1165 out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 31st percentile of all system configurations. This ranking is notably lower than the individual component percentiles—the CPU sits at 77th percentile and the GPU at 63rd—which suggests that the pairing is not optimal for this specific game. The bottleneck appears to be the GPU, as the CPU’s strong multi-threaded scores (cinebench_r23_multicore of 16518) cannot compensate for the RX 7600’s limitations at higher resolutions.

The rank implies that many other combos—likely those with more powerful GPUs or better-balanced pairings—deliver higher average FPS. However, the measured data shows that this combo still provides a playable experience at most settings: 1080p Ultra at 76.3 FPS is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and 1440p High at 63.9 FPS is also acceptable. The weak point is 4K, where even High settings drop to 33.7 FPS, making the combo marginal for 4K gaming. The rank of 1165/1699 reflects this mixed performance—strong at 1080p, adequate at 1440p, and below-average at 4K.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings for this combo in Hard West?*

A: The data shows 1080p High at 100.3 FPS and 1440p High at 63.9 FPS are both smooth. For maximum fidelity, 1080p Ultra at 76.3 FPS is viable, while 4K High at 33.7 FPS is only marginally playable.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the 156.6 FPS result indicates the CPU can push high frame rates, but the drop to 76.3 FPS at Ultra suggests the GPU becomes the primary constraint as settings increase. The CPU’s single-thread score of 909 (3dmark) is sufficient for this title’s turn-based logic.

Q: How does this combo compare to its nearest rivals in raw performance?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score of 19221 is 0.1% above the Intel Core i7-8700K and 0.7% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS. The GPU’s score of 20258 is 0.6% above the RX 7600 XT and 1.5% below the Intel Arc B570, indicating near-identical performance tiers.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Hard West?*

A: At 4K Low, it averages 52.2 FPS, which is playable, but 4K High (33.7 FPS) and 4K Ultra (27.8 FPS) fall below 60 FPS. The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely the limiting factors at this resolution.

Q: What does the combo rank of 1165/1699 tell us?

A: It places this pairing in the 31st percentile of all tested combos, indicating that while the components are individually capable (CPU 77th percentile, GPU 63rd percentile), the combination is not optimal for Hard West, likely due to the GPU bottlenecking at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the i5-12400F’s 6-core/12-thread configuration adequate for this game?

A: Yes, the cinebench_r23_multicore score of 16518 and 3dmark_16_threads score of 5895 show strong multi-threading, but the game’s turn-based nature likely relies more on single-thread performance, where the CPU scores 2332 (cinebench_r23_singlecore), which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p play.