Hard West

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU/GPU combo in Hard West?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 288th out of 3,722 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 7.7% of all configurations.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and is it sufficient for this game?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth. Given that the game is from 2015 and the highest measured setting (Ultra at 4K) achieves 64 FPS, this VRAM capacity is far beyond what Hard West requires.

Q: What is the CPU's core and thread configuration, and how does it affect performance?

A: The i5-13400F has 10 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its multi-threaded benchmark scores (e.g., 22,604 in Cinebench R23 multicore) are strong for a turn-based tactics game that relies more on single-core performance.

Q: What are the measured FPS differences between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 286 FPS while Ultra averages 135 FPS. The gap of 151 FPS (or roughly 53% lower performance at Ultra) indicates the graphics settings have a substantial impact on frame rates.

Q: Which resolution shows the largest performance drop when moving to the highest settings?

A: At 4K (3840x2160), the drop from Low (137 FPS) to Ultra (64 FPS) represents a 73 FPS difference — a 53.3% reduction. This is the largest absolute drop across all resolutions, showing that 4K Ultra is the most demanding configuration tested.

Q: How does this GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 43,223 is essentially tied with the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262, delta -0.1%) and slightly ahead of the RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667, delta -1%). The percentile ranking of 83 means it outperforms 83% of all GPUs in the database.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, housing 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for Hard West's textures and geometry. The GPU's base clock of 1980 MHz and boost clock of 2475 MHz, combined with 7,168 shading units, deliver raw compute power that manifests in the measured frame rates.

In Hard West, the GPU's role becomes increasingly pronounced at higher resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the 286 FPS average suggests the GPU is barely taxed, with frame times likely dictated by CPU draw-call overhead. However, at 4K Ultra, the 64 FPS average indicates the GPU is now the primary bottleneck, as the 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is being fully utilized. The 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth becomes critical at 4K where larger texture sets and higher-resolution shadows demand more data throughput.

The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking relative to all GPUs, along with its synthetic scores (29,995 in Passmark G3D, 17,108 in GPU Compute), places it well above the median for this title. The measured results confirm that the RTX 4070 SUPER maintains playable frame rates even at the most demanding settings, with no single configuration dropping below 64 FPS average.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-13400F and RTX 4070 SUPER achieves a rank of 288 out of 3,722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 7.7% of all configurations. This high ranking reflects the synergy between a strong mid-range CPU and a high-end GPU. The CPU's 77th percentile ranking against all CPUs, combined with the GPU's 83rd percentile, creates a balanced system where neither component severely bottlenecks the other in this turn-based title.

When examining the nearest rival GPUs, the RTX 4070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 43,223 is within 1% of the Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262) and the RTX 5050 Mobile (43,268). This tight clustering suggests that in synthetic workloads, these GPUs perform nearly identically. However, in actual Hard West gameplay, the RTX 4070 SUPER's modern architecture and 12 GB VRAM provide advantages in texture-heavy scenes that the older Quadro cards may struggle with.

The CPU's nearest rivals show similar clustering: the Ryzen 9 6900HS (25,284, delta 0%), Core 5 120 (25,362, delta -0.3%), and Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25,365, delta -0.3%) all perform within a fraction of a percent. This indicates that the i5-13400F is well-positioned within its performance class, and the combo rank of 288 is more strongly influenced by the GPU's capability to handle high-resolution rendering.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear scaling pattern across settings. The Low preset delivers 286 FPS average, which drops to 206 FPS at Medium (with a minimum of 175 and maximum of 237), then 180 FPS at High, and finally 135 FPS at Ultra. The 151 FPS difference between Low and Ultra represents a 52.8% reduction, indicating that Hard West's graphical options have a significant computational cost even at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 212 FPS, Medium 151 FPS (128-173 range), High 132 FPS, and Ultra 99 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is 74 FPS (25.9% reduction), while the Ultra settings drop by 36 FPS (26.7% reduction). This consistent percentage reduction across settings suggests resolution scaling is roughly uniform regardless of quality level.

At 3840x2160, the numbers compress further: Low averages 137 FPS, Medium 97 FPS (83-112 range), High 85 FPS, and Ultra 64 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 64 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, but it remains above the 50 FPS threshold typically considered minimum for smooth turn-based gameplay. The Medium setting at 4K shows a minimum of 83 FPS, indicating that even with frame-time variance, the experience stays fluid.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 206 FPS with a minimum of 175 FPS, which is far beyond any display's refresh rate and provides a 45.9% improvement over Ultra while maintaining the frame-time consistency shown by the 175-237 FPS range.

At 1440p, Medium's 151 FPS average with a 128 FPS minimum ensures that even on high-refresh-rate monitors (up to 144 Hz), the experience remains smooth. The jump to High at 132 FPS is tempting for 120 Hz displays, but the 19 FPS difference (12.6% reduction) may not justify the visual gains in a turn-based game where motion smoothness is less critical than in action titles.

For 4K, the Medium preset at 97 FPS average (83-112 range) is the recommended choice. It provides a 33 FPS improvement over High (85 FPS) and a 33 FPS improvement over Ultra (64 FPS), all while maintaining a minimum above 80 FPS. The Low preset at 137 FPS is available for those seeking maximum fluidity, but the visual sacrifice is substantial for only a 40 FPS gain over Medium.

The Ultra preset, while offering the highest visual fidelity, produces frame rates that are 34.3% lower than Medium at 1080p, 34.4% lower at 1440p, and 34.0% lower at 4K. Given that Hard West is a turn-based tactical game where input latency is less critical, the Medium preset's higher frame rates provide a more responsive interface without the visual compromises of Low.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F features 10 cores (6 performance and 4 efficiency) with 16 threads, based on the Raptor Lake architecture on a 10 nm process. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz, combined with 20 MB of shared L3 cache, provide substantial single-threaded performance for game logic and AI calculations. The benchmark data shows a single-thread score of 3,191 in Cinebench R23 and 3,634 in Passmark, placing the CPU in the 77th percentile against all CPUs.

In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is primarily in handling game state updates, pathfinding, and AI decision-making between turns. The multi-threaded performance (22,604 in Cinebench R23, 25,032 in Passmark multithread) ensures that complex turn calculations are processed quickly, contributing to the overall responsiveness. The 3dmark scores show scaling from 1,880 (2 threads) to 7,307 (max threads), indicating good multi-core utilization.

The CPU's nearest rivals — the Ryzen 9 6900HS, Core 5 120, Ryzen 5 5600X3D, and Ryzen 7 6800H — all score within 0.4% of the i5-13400F's average benchmark score of 25,292. This tight clustering means that in CPU-bound scenarios, such as turn calculations at high frame rates, the i5-13400F provides performance parity with these alternatives. The 65W TDP and support for DDR4/DDR5 memory offer flexibility for system builders.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how the system scales from 1080p to 4K across all settings. At Low settings, the drop from 286 FPS (1080p) to 212 FPS (1440p) to 137 FPS (4K) represents reductions of 25.9% and 35.4% respectively. This scaling pattern is nearly linear with pixel count: 1440p has 1.78x the pixels of 1080p (expected 44% drop, observed 25.9%), and 4K has 2.25x the pixels of 1440p (expected 55.6% drop, observed 35.4%). The smaller-than-expected drops suggest the CPU is partially limiting performance at lower resolutions.

At Medium settings, the scaling shows 206 FPS (1080p) → 151 FPS (1440p) → 97 FPS (4K), with reductions of 26.7% and 35.8%. The consistency of these percentages across Low and Medium settings indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a bottleneck as resolution increases, but the CPU still plays a role at 1080p. The minimum frame times at Medium (175 FPS at 1080p, 128 FPS at 1440p, 83 FPS at 4K) show similar proportional scaling.

For High and Ultra settings, the pattern shifts. High shows 180 FPS → 132 FPS → 85 FPS (26.7% and 35.6% reductions), while Ultra shows 135 FPS → 99 FPS → 64 FPS (26.7% and 35.4%). The Ultra setting at 4K shows the largest absolute drop from 1080p (71 FPS, 52.6% reduction), confirming that the highest settings push the GPU harder per pixel. The fact that the percentage reductions are nearly identical across all settings (approximately 26-27% from 1080p to 1440p, and 35-36% from 1440p to 4K) indicates that the limiting component is scaling uniformly with resolution, which points to the GPU being the primary constraint at higher resolutions.