Hard West

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-12600KF anchors this combo with 10 cores and 16 threads, built on the Alder Lake-S architecture using Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz provide substantial single-thread headroom, which matters for a turn-based tactics title like Hard West where game logic, AI pathfinding, and unit actions often serialize onto fewer threads. The CPU's L3 cache is 20 MB shared, with 1.25 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core, giving the memory subsystem enough locality for the frequent small state updates typical of tactical combat.

Benchmark data places this CPU at the 79th percentile against all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 27799. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, scores 27872, a delta of -0.3%, meaning the 12600KF trails by a negligible margin. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D scores 27896, also -0.3% relative, while the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE scores 27712, putting the 12600KF 0.3% ahead. These results indicate the CPU sits in a tightly packed performance band where no single rival holds a decisive edge.

In synthetic multi-threaded workloads, the 12600KF posts 7956 in 3DMark 16-thread and 7952 in max-thread tests, while single-thread scores reach 1016 in 3DMark and 3302 in Cinebench R23 single-core. The multithreaded PassMark score of 27575 and Cinebench R23 multi-core of 23391 confirm strong parallel throughput. For Hard West, the key takeaway is that the CPU's 10-core/16-thread configuration is overkill for the game's computational demands; the measured FPS deltas across settings and resolutions are far more influenced by the GPU and the rendering load than by CPU throughput. The data shows that even at 1080p Low, where CPU-bound behavior would typically surface, the combo delivers 246 FPS average, indicating the processor is not a bottleneck in any measured configuration.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12600KF compare to its closest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The 12600KF averages 27799 across all benchmark tests. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, averages 27872, which is a 0.3% higher score. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D also averages 27896, similarly 0.3% higher, while the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE averages 27712, which is 0.3% lower than the 12600KF.

Q: What is the highest average FPS measured for this combo in Hard West, and at which settings?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 246, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is followed by 201 FPS at 1080p Medium and 155 FPS at both 1080p High and 1440p Low, indicating that lower resolutions and reduced graphical presets unlock the full headroom of the RTX 3080.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS measured, and what does it indicate about the limiting component?

A: The lowest average is 38 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This substantial drop from the 51 FPS at 4K High suggests that the Ultra preset imposes a rendering burden that the RTX 3080 cannot maintain fluidly at 4K, pointing to the GPU as the primary limiter at this resolution and settings combination.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in Hard West?

A: The combo ranks 1013 out of 3722 tested combinations. This places it in the upper third of all combos, indicating that while it is not a top-tier performer in this specific game, it outperforms the majority of tested systems.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread benchmark score, and why is that relevant to Hard West?

A: The 12600KF scores 1016 in 3DMark single-thread and 3302 in Cinebench R23 single-core. Since turn-based tactics games rely heavily on single-threaded logic for turn resolution and AI, these scores suggest the CPU can handle the game's serialized computations without becoming a limiting factor, as evidenced by the high FPS at lower resolutions.

Q: Does the measured FPS data include minimum or maximum frame rates for all settings?

A: No. Only the Medium preset at each resolution includes both minimum and maximum FPS values. For example, at 1920x1080 Medium, the range is 171 to 231 FPS, while at 3840x2160 Medium, it is 57 to 77 FPS. All other settings report only average FPS.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 155 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 High, the average drops to 98 FPS, a 36.8% reduction. At 3840x2160 High, the average falls to 51 FPS, a 67.1% drop from 1080p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint as pixel count increases.

The Low preset shows a similar trajectory. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 246 FPS, which drops to 155 FPS at 1440p (a 37% reduction) and then to 82 FPS at 4K (a 66.7% reduction from 1080p). The consistency of these percentages across settings suggests that resolution scaling is primarily a function of the RTX 3080's fill rate and memory bandwidth, not CPU limitations.

Ultra settings amplify this effect. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 116 FPS; at 1440p Ultra, it is 73 FPS (a 37.1% drop); and at 4K Ultra, it is 38 FPS (a 67.2% drop from 1080p). The near-identical percentage drops across all three presets — roughly 37% from 1080p to 1440p and 67% from 1080p to 4K — point to a purely GPU-bound scaling behavior. The CPU's role remains constant regardless of resolution, so the FPS deltas are attributable to the graphics card's workload.

The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS is particularly telling. It falls below the 4K Medium average of 67 FPS and even below the 4K High average of 51 FPS, confirming that the Ultra preset imposes a rendering cost that the RTX 3080 cannot offset at 4K. The data indicates that for smooth 4K gameplay, users should avoid Ultra settings on this combo, as the GPU becomes the clear limiting component.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 1013 out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West. This places the system in the 72.8th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning it outperforms roughly 73% of the field. While not a top-tier configuration for this specific title, the rank reflects a solidly above-average system.

To contextualize this rank, consider that the CPU itself holds the 79th percentile against all processors, while the GPU holds the 68th percentile against all graphics cards. The combo's in-game rank of 1013/3722 is slightly lower than the CPU's percentile standing, which suggests that Hard West's performance is more sensitive to GPU capabilities than CPU raw throughput. The fact that the combo does not crack the top 1000 despite having a strong CPU indicates that the RTX 3080's mid-pack GPU percentile (68th) drags the overall ranking down when the game's rendering demands scale with resolution and settings.

The rank also implies that there are 1012 other combos that deliver better measured FPS in Hard West. Given that the combo achieves 246 FPS at 1080p Low, the higher-ranked combos likely feature more powerful GPUs or more balanced pairings for this game's specific workload. The 3722 total combos represent a wide range of hardware, so a rank of 1013 is respectable but not exceptional for a system with this CPU and GPU pairing.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides four settings presets at each of three resolutions. The optimal choice depends on the target resolution and the desired balance between visual fidelity and frame rate smoothness.

At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 155 FPS average, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay in a turn-based tactics title. The Medium preset offers 201 FPS, and Low reaches 246 FPS, but the jump from High to Medium (46 FPS) is larger than the jump from Medium to Low (45 FPS), suggesting diminishing returns at the lower end. The Ultra preset at 116 FPS is still playable but represents a 25.2% drop from High. For 1080p, High is the recommended balance, as it provides a 39 FPS advantage over Ultra while remaining visually rich.

At 2560x1440, High delivers 98 FPS, Medium 127 FPS, and Low 155 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 73 FPS. The Medium preset offers a 29.6% improvement over High, and the step from Medium to Low (28 FPS) is nearly identical to the step from High to Medium (29 FPS). For 1440p, Medium is the recommended choice because it stays above 100 FPS while maintaining a reasonable visual quality level, avoiding the steep cost of Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. High averages 51 FPS, Medium 67 FPS, Low 82 FPS, and Ultra 38 FPS. The Ultra preset falls below 40 FPS, which is likely to feel sluggish even for a turn-based game. The Medium preset at 67 FPS is the best compromise, offering a 31.4% improvement over High and staying comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. Low at 82 FPS is viable for users prioritizing frame rate, but Medium provides a better visual experience without sacrificing fluidity. Across all resolutions, the data suggests that Ultra is only advisable at 1080p, while Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p and 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low delivers 246 FPS, Medium 201 FPS with a range of 171 to 231 FPS, High 155 FPS, and Ultra 116 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 130 FPS, with the largest single-step drop occurring between Medium and High (46 FPS) and the smallest between High and Ultra (39 FPS). The Medium preset's minimum of 171 FPS is still higher than the Ultra average, indicating that even the frame dips at Medium are well above the performance floor.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 155 FPS, Medium 127 FPS with a range of 108 to 146 FPS, High 98 FPS, and Ultra 73 FPS. The total spread narrows to 82 FPS. The step from Low to Medium (28 FPS) is smaller than the step from Medium to High (29 FPS), and the drop from High to Ultra (25 FPS) is the smallest. The Medium preset's minimum of 108 FPS remains above the High average, reinforcing that Medium is a stable choice at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 82 FPS, Medium 67 FPS with a range of 57 to 77 FPS, High 51 FPS, and Ultra 38 FPS. The total spread is 44 FPS, the narrowest across all resolutions. The step from Low to Medium (15 FPS) is larger than the step from Medium to High (16 FPS), and the drop from High to Ultra (13 FPS) is the smallest. The Medium preset's minimum of 57 FPS is above the High average, but the Ultra average of 38 FPS falls below the Medium minimum, underscoring the prohibitive cost of Ultra at 4K.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the only complete min/max data, with the 1080p range (171-231) showing the highest floor and the 4K range (57-77) showing the lowest. The High and Ultra presets at every resolution lack min/max values, meaning the averages alone must guide assessment.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 brings 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its GA102 chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors, operates at a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz. The memory runs at 1188 MHz, translating to 19 Gbps effective. These specifications place the GPU at the 68th percentile against all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 23172.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, delta -0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, delta -0.3%), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, delta -0.4%), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, delta -0.4%). All of these deltas are negative, meaning the RTX 3080's score of 23172 is slightly lower than each rival, though the margins are under half a percent. This clustering indicates that the RTX 3080's synthetic performance is comparable to these cards, yet its real-world performance in Hard West is defined by the measured FPS data.

The GPU's 10 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game's requirements, as evidenced by the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 4K Ultra, the 38 FPS average suggests that the rendering load exceeds what the GPU can handle gracefully, but this is more likely a compute or memory bandwidth limitation than a VRAM capacity issue. The 760.3 GB/s bandwidth provides ample throughput for the game's textures and geometry at 4K, but the pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s appear to be the limiting factors at Ultra settings.

The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 25086 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 152423 indicate strong raw compute capability, yet the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (38 FPS) versus 4K Low (82 FPS) shows a 53.7% drop. This scaling pattern aligns with the GPU's role as the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions. The data confirms that the RTX 3080's architecture, with 8704 shading units and 272 TMUs, is well-matched to the CPU for most settings, but the Ultra preset at 4K pushes the GPU beyond its comfortable operating range.