Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015 that places minimal stress on modern hardware, and the measured results for the Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER confirm this. The data shows a configuration that is heavily overqualified for the task, delivering playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, while also revealing that the GPU is the primary bottleneck only at the highest settings and resolutions. The benchmark rows provide a clear picture of how this combo scales across three resolutions and four quality presets, with performance ranging from a low of 29.1 FPS at 4K Ultra to a high of 174 FPS at 1080p Low.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that the optimal experience depends entirely on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p displays, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation, as the combo still produces an average of 82.2 FPS, which is smooth for a turn-based tactics game. Dropping to High at 1080p yields 111 FPS, a significant jump, but the 82.2 FPS at Ultra is sufficient for the genre, where twitch reactions are unnecessary. The Medium preset at 1080p, at 140.8 FPS, only makes sense for very high refresh rate monitors, and Low at 174 FPS is unnecessary for this gameplay style.

At 1440p, the High preset becomes the sweet spot, delivering 69.5 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and allows for high visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness. The Medium preset at 1440p offers a substantial boost to 92.4 FPS, which could be preferred by users with 144Hz monitors, but the visual compromise from High to Medium is notable. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 53 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show the GPU's limits, making High the better balance. Low at 1440p runs at 110 FPS, but the graphical downgrade is severe for a game that benefits from atmospheric lighting.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. The High preset produces 38.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard and may feel sluggish for some players. The Medium preset at 47.9 FPS is closer to playable but still not ideal. The Low preset at 59.7 FPS is the only 4K option that approaches a smooth experience, and it does so at a significant visual cost. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 29.1 FPS, is effectively unplayable for most users. Therefore, for 4K, the Low preset is the only recommendation if smoothness is the priority, while Medium is acceptable for those who tolerate lower frame rates for better visuals in a slow-paced game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the defining component in this configuration's gaming performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Hard West even at 4K, as the game is not memory-intensive. The GPU's base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with 2560 shading units, deliver a raw compute capability of 9.062 TFLOPS FP32. This architecture, based on Turing and manufactured on a 12 nm process, is the primary driver of the frame rate differences seen across settings.

The benchmark data shows that the GPU's load scales predictably with resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the 174 FPS average suggests the GPU is not fully taxed, and the CPU may be providing a ceiling. However, as settings increase to Ultra at 1080p, the frame rate drops to 82.2 FPS, indicating the GPU is now the limiting factor. This trend continues at higher resolutions, where the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth become the sole determinants of performance. The GPU's percentile ranking of 65 among all GPUs places it in the mid-range tier, which aligns with its measured behavior in this game: capable at 1080p and 1440p, but struggling to maintain high frame rates at 4K with maxed settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Core i5-13400F and RTX 2070 SUPER achieves a combo rank of 1035 out of 1699 combos for Hard West. This ranking places it in the lower-middle portion of all tested configurations, which is surprising given the high frame rates measured. The reason for this rank is not the absolute performance, but the relative performance of other combos tested in this game, many of which likely feature newer, more powerful GPUs. The data shows that this combo is far from the top, but it also stands well above the bottom, suggesting that it offers a balanced, mid-tier experience for this title.

The combo's rank of 1035 out of 1699 indicates that a majority of tested systems outperform it in Hard West. This is expected, as the RTX 2070 SUPER is an older, end-of-life product, while many tested combos will feature newer generations. However, the measured FPS data tells a more nuanced story: at 1080p, this combo outperforms what its rank suggests, delivering over 82 FPS at Ultra. The rank is a holistic measure across all settings and resolutions, and the high frame rates at lower resolutions are offset by the poor 4K Ultra performance, dragging the overall rank down. For a 1080p or 1440p gamer, this combo would feel significantly better than its numerical rank implies.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1080p, the progression is smooth: Low yields 174 FPS, Medium drops to 140.8 FPS, High yields 111 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 82.2 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 33.2 FPS drop, while the step from High to Ultra is a 28.8 FPS drop, showing that each preset tier has a similar performance cost. At 1440p, the numbers are 110 FPS for Low, 92.4 FPS for Medium, 69.5 FPS for High, and 53 FPS for Ultra. The relative drop from Low to Ultra is larger here, from 110 FPS down to 53 FPS, a 57 FPS reduction, indicating the GPU is working harder at this resolution.

At 4K, the performance collapses as expected. Low yields 59.7 FPS, which is the only playable option. Medium drops to 47.9 FPS, High falls to 38.1 FPS, and Ultra sinks to 29.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 30.6 FPS, which is substantial. Comparing across resolutions at the same settings, the scaling is consistent: High at 1080p is 111 FPS, at 1440p it is 69.5 FPS, and at 4K it is 38.1 FPS. This pattern holds for all settings, confirming that the GPU is the primary scaling factor as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a clear resolution scaling pattern that points to the GPU as the limiting component at higher resolutions. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the FPS drops from 111 to 69.5, a 37.4% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High, the FPS drops from 69.5 to 38.1, a 45.2% reduction. This increasing rate of decline with each resolution step is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the pixel count outpaces the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity.

The same pattern is visible at Ultra settings: 1080p yields 82.2 FPS, 1440p yields 53 FPS (a 35.5% drop), and 4K yields 29.1 FPS (a 45.1% drop). The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical across High and Ultra settings suggests that the GPU is consistently the bottleneck at these resolutions, and the CPU is not constraining performance. At Low settings, the scaling is slightly less severe: 174 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p (a 36.8% drop), and 59.7 FPS at 4K (a 45.7% drop). Even at Low, the GPU remains the limiting factor, as the absolute FPS at 4K is still below 60, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER cannot fully saturate a 4K display even with minimal graphical load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides more than enough processing power for Hard West, a game that is not demanding on the CPU. With 10 cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, this processor has ample headroom for a turn-based tactics title. The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce this: its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 and single-core score of 3004 are strong, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or setting, as the FPS scaling is entirely consistent with GPU load.

Evidence of the CPU's sufficiency is found in the 1080p Low result, where the GPU produces 174 FPS. This high frame rate suggests that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is still the primary driver, and the CPU is capable of feeding it frames well beyond what the GPU can render. If the CPU were a limiting factor, we would expect to see a plateau in FPS at lower resolutions, but the data does not show this. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-13620H with a delta of 0.1%, are effectively identical in average benchmark score, confirming that the i5-13400F is a solid mid-range performer that will not hinder the RTX 2070 SUPER in this game. The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support are more than adequate for the game's data throughput requirements.