Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015, and the measured results for the Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 show a configuration that is heavily influenced by the GPU at higher settings and resolutions. The data indicates a system capable of delivering very high frame rates at 1080p, with the performance scaling curve demonstrating how the game's demands shift as pixel count increases. The combination ranks in the 1013th position out of 3722 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all systems tested for this specific title, which is a strong showing for a game of this era.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a predictable yet pronounced drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with High settings, the system achieves an average of 155 FPS, which is already a very high refresh-rate experience. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 98 FPS, a reduction of 57 FPS or roughly 37%. The jump to 4K at 3840x2160 brings the average down further to 51 FPS, representing a 47 FPS drop from 1440p and a 104 FPS drop from 1080p. This steep decline strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the workload on the rasterizer and memory bandwidth increases exponentially.

The pattern holds across all settings presets. At Low settings, the 1080p average is 246 FPS, which falls to 155 FPS at 1440p and 82 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Low is 164 FPS, which is a larger absolute drop than at High settings (104 FPS), but the relative scaling is similar. This indicates that the game's engine is scaling the rendering load consistently, and the RTX 3080's capabilities are being taxed more heavily as the pixel count rises. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, does not appear to be the bottleneck at lower resolutions, as the 246 FPS at 1080p Low suggests the processor can feed frames quickly enough to keep the GPU busy.

What is particularly interesting is the performance cliff between Medium and Ultra settings at each resolution. At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 127 FPS, while Ultra drops to 73 FPS, a 54 FPS difference. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately heavy on the GPU, such as advanced lighting or shadow techniques. The data implies that for players targeting high refresh rates at 1440p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot, while Ultra is better reserved for 60 Hz displays. At 4K, the gap between Medium (67 FPS) and Ultra (38 FPS) is 29 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms but represents a similar percentage loss, reinforcing that the GPU is the dominant constraint at this resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 155, which is a very smooth experience for a turn-based tactics game and well above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is 51, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. At Ultra settings, the average drops to 38 FPS, suggesting that 4K Ultra is not a recommended target for this GPU.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a high refresh rate monitor?

A: Based on the data, 1920x1080 with Medium settings yields an average of 201 FPS, and 2560x1440 with Medium settings yields 127 FPS. Both are excellent options for 144 Hz or higher displays, with 1440p Medium being the better balance of visual fidelity and performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. The 1080p Low average of 246 FPS shows the CPU is capable of high frame rates, but the significant drops at 4K (82 FPS Low) point to the RTX 3080 being the constraint.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1013 out of 3722 tested combos for Hard West, placing it in the top 27% of all configurations tested. This is a strong result for a game from 2015.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The data shows minimum FPS values only for the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 171 FPS, at 2560x1440 it is 108 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it is 57 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is a high-end Ampere architecture card with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 25086, placing it in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. This hardware is clearly more than capable for Hard West, a game released in 2015, but the measured FPS data shows that even this card struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, averaging only 38 FPS. The 10 GB VRAM is likely sufficient for this title at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra load may be pushing memory capacity, though the data does not show any stutter or texture pop-in issues.

The clock speeds of 1440 MHz base and 1710 MHz boost are significant, and the 8704 shading units allow for massive parallel processing. However, the game's engine appears to be heavily dependent on raw pixel throughput, as evidenced by the steep scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p Low, the card achieves 246 FPS, which confirms its raw compute power. The drop to 82 FPS at 4K Low is a 67% reduction, which is a larger proportional loss than the 37% drop seen when moving from 1080p High to 1440p High. This suggests that the memory bandwidth and ROP throughput become the limiting factors at 4K, as the card's 164.2 GPixel/s pixel rate is being saturated.

The data implies that the RTX 3080 is overkill for 1080p gaming in Hard West, as even Ultra settings yield 116 FPS. The card's strengths are better utilized at 1440p, where it can maintain over 60 FPS on Ultra (73 FPS) and over 100 FPS on High (98 FPS). For 4K, the card is only suitable for Medium settings (67 FPS) if targeting a 60 Hz display. The 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is not fully utilized by this older title, which likely relies more on fixed-function units than on shader complexity, explaining why the card does not perform as well as its raw specs might suggest at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1013 out of 3722 tested combos places it in the 72.8th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 73% of all systems tested for Hard West. This is a strong result, but it is not at the top of the charts, which is surprising given the hardware's power. The data suggests that many other combos, likely with newer GPUs or higher-end CPUs, can achieve better frame rates in this game. The RTX 3080's percentile of 68 against all GPUs indicates that it is a solid but not top-tier card, and this is reflected in the game's ranking.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 23172, which is very close to the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276). The delta percentages are all within -0.4% to -0.4%, meaning the RTX 3080 performs nearly identically to these cards in synthetic benchmarks. This is a surprising result, as the RTX 3080 is a much more powerful card in theory, but the data shows that for this specific game, the differences are negligibleable. This could be due to the game's age and its lack of optimization for newer architectures.

The CPU's rank is 77th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25292. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25284, 0% delta), Intel Core 5 120 (25362, -0.3% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, -0.3% delta), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25201, 0.4% delta). This indicates that the i5-13400F is well-matched with other mid-range and high-end processors from both Intel and AMD. The combo's overall rank of 1013 out of 3722 suggests that the pairing is balanced, with neither component significantly holding back the other in this game, but the GPU's performance ceiling is clearly the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 246 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 201 FPS with a minimum of 171 FPS and a maximum of 231 FPS, showing a very stable frame time distribution. High settings average 155 FPS, while Ultra drops to 116 FPS. This shows that even at 1080p, the Ultra preset imposes a significant performance penalty of 39 FPS compared to High, which is a 25% reduction.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 155 FPS, which is the same as the 1080p High setting. The Medium preset averages 127 FPS with a minimum of 108 FPS and a maximum of 146 FPS. High settings average 98 FPS, and Ultra drops to 73 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, with an average reduction of about 37-40% depending on the settings. At 1440p, the Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, indicating that the testing methodology captured a broader range of frame times for this setting.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. The Low preset averages 82 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium settings average 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 77 FPS, showing that the frame rate can dip below 60 FPS under load. High settings average 51 FPS, and Ultra drops to 38 FPS. The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows in absolute terms (164 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, 44 FPS at 4K), but the relative performance loss remains consistent at roughly 50-53% from Low to Ultra at each resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1920x1080, the High preset at 155 FPS is an excellent choice for 144 Hz monitors, offering a significant visual improvement over Medium (201 FPS) while still maintaining a frame rate that exceeds most display refresh rates. The Ultra preset at 116 FPS is also viable for 144 Hz displays, but the 39 FPS drop from High may not be worth the visual gains in a turn-based game where motion smoothness is less critical than in action titles.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 127 FPS is the clear recommendation for high refresh rate gaming, as it provides a smooth experience with a minimum of 108 FPS. The High preset at 98 FPS is still excellent for 100 Hz displays, while Ultra at 73 FPS is suitable for 60 Hz panels but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The data suggests that 1440p Medium offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, as the 54 FPS drop from Medium to Ultra is substantial and the visual difference may not justify it.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset at 67 FPS is the only viable option for a 60 Hz display, though the minimum of 57 FPS indicates occasional dips below the threshold. The Low preset at 82 FPS provides more headroom but sacrifices visual quality. The High and Ultra presets at 51 FPS and 38 FPS, respectively, are not recommended for 4K gaming, as they fail to maintain a consistent 60 FPS. Overall, the data points to 1440p Medium as the best all-around experience, offering high frame rates and good visual quality, while 1080p High is the best choice for maximum smoothness on high refresh rate monitors.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22604 and a single-core score of 3191. The PassMark multithread score of 25032 and single-thread score of 3634 further demonstrate its capabilities. The CPU's 77th percentile ranking against all CPUs suggests it is a solid performer, but the data for Hard West shows that its role is secondary to the GPU.

In this game, the CPU does not appear to be a bottleneck at any resolution or setting. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 246 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that would stress many CPUs, but the i5-13400F handles it without issue. The 16 threads are likely more than enough for Hard West, which is a turn-based tactics game that does not feature complex AI simulations or physics that would scale across many cores. The game was released in 2015, before the era of high-core-count CPUs, so it likely uses only a few threads, meaning the i5-13400F's single-thread performance is more critical than its multicore capabilities.

The CPU's boost clock of 4.60 GHz is high, and the 20 MB of shared L3 cache helps with data locality. The data suggests that the CPU is not limiting performance, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate drops that correlate with resolution increases, which are purely GPU-bound phenomena. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates across different resolutions at the same settings, but the data shows a clear decline from 1080p to 4K. This indicates that the i5-13400F is more than capable of feeding the RTX 3080 with data, and the GPU is the sole determinant of performance in this title. The 65 W TDP is modest, but the CPU's efficiency is not a factor in gameplay, as the data shows no signs of thermal throttling impacting frame rates.