Hard West

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of this CPU and GPU combination in Hard West?

A: The combo ranks 213 out of 1699 tested combinations, putting it in the top 13% of all systems benchmarked for this game.

Q: How close are the nearest CPU rivals to the Intel Core i5-13400F in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D is only 0.5% behind, the Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.1% behind, while the AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 are each 0.5% ahead.

Q: What is the GPU's closest competitor in the benchmark database?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile scores 0.6% higher, the Intel Arc A730M is 1.5% higher, the AMD Radeon Pro 580 is 1.6% lower, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is 1.6% higher.

Q: Does the game run at playable frame rates at 4K with maximum settings?

A: At 4K Ultra, the measured average is 45.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth gameplay. Lowering to 4K High raises it to 65.8 FPS.

Q: What is the fastest measured configuration in the data?

A: The fastest result is 1920x1080 Low at 258.6 FPS average, followed closely by 1920x1080 Medium at 242.1 FPS.

Q: How much faster is 1080p compared to 4K at the same settings?

A: At High settings, 1080p delivers 190.4 FPS versus 65.8 FPS at 4K — a 2.9x difference. At Ultra, the gap widens: 141.3 FPS at 1080p versus 45.2 FPS at 4K, a 3.1x difference.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory runs across a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock reaches 2610 MHz, with a base clock of 2310 MHz. These specifications place it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 44900.

The data shows that the RTX 4070 Ti handles Hard West's visual load well, but the game's demands scale steeply with resolution. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 45.2 FPS, indicating that the GPU's pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s is being taxed heavily. The texture rate of 626.4 GTexel/s also becomes a limiting factor when the game pushes high-detail textures across 3840x2160 pixels.

Interestingly, the GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are a mix of mobile and professional parts. The RTX 5090 Mobile scores only 0.6% higher, suggesting that this desktop GPU is well-positioned against top-tier laptop parts. The Intel Arc A730M at 1.5% higher and AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT at 1.6% higher are close, but the RTX 4070 Ti's real-world gaming performance in Hard West appears stronger than its synthetic averages might suggest.

The leap from High to Ultra settings at any resolution costs roughly 30% of the frame rate. At 1440p, High delivers 118.2 FPS while Ultra drops to 90.8 FPS. This scaling pattern implies that Ultra settings introduce additional rendering effects — likely advanced lighting or shadow calculations — that significantly burden the GPU's compute resources. The RTX 4070 Ti's FP32 throughput of 40.09 TFLOPS is substantial, yet Hard West's Ultra preset still manages to bring even this powerful card to its knees at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. This Raptor Lake-S processor has a 20 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. Its 3DMark scores show strong scaling: 1880 in the 2-thread test, 3459 in 4-thread, 5591 in 8-thread, and 7314 in the 16-thread test. The single-thread score of 960 indicates solid per-core performance.

In multi-threaded workloads, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 score of 21279, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, is within 0.5% in average benchmark score, while the Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.1% behind. This suggests the i5-13400F holds its own against both desktop and mobile competitors in synthetic tests.

In Hard West, however, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 258.6 FPS, which is likely near the game's internal engine limit. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is only 16.5 FPS (258.6 to 242.1), while the gap between Medium and High is 51.7 FPS (242.1 to 190.4). This uneven scaling suggests that the CPU can feed frames quickly at lower settings, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck as visual complexity rises.

The PassMark multithread score of 25032 and single-thread score of 3634 indicate that this CPU has ample headroom for turn-based tactics games, which typically rely on single-thread performance for AI calculations and pathfinding. The 16 threads handle background tasks easily, but Hard West's turn-based nature means the CPU likely spends much of its time idle between actions. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate is GPU-limited rather than CPU-limited, as the system still manages 45.2 FPS despite the heavy pixel workload.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy of playable configurations. At 1080p, Ultra settings deliver 141.3 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. The Medium preset at 242.1 FPS offers little visual benefit over Low's 258.6 FPS, but High at 190.4 FPS strikes a solid balance between visual quality and performance. For players with high-refresh monitors, the Medium preset at 1080p provides the best combination of frame rate headroom and graphical fidelity.

Moving to 1440p, the High preset at 118.2 FPS is the sweet spot. Ultra at 90.8 FPS remains playable, but the 27.4 FPS drop from High to Ultra suggests diminishing returns. Low at 189.6 FPS is excessive for most displays, and Medium at 156.8 FPS offers a good middle ground. The data suggests that 1440p High is the optimal choice for this resolution, as it maintains well above 100 FPS while preserving visual quality.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. Ultra at 45.2 FPS is borderline unplayable for a turn-based game, though some players may accept it given the genre's slower pace. High at 65.8 FPS is the recommended setting, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. Medium at 83.9 FPS is also viable, but the jump from Medium to High is only 18.1 FPS, making High the better value for the visual uplift. Low at 100.4 FPS is unnecessary given the game's genre, as the tactical gameplay does not require ultra-fast frame rates.

The best experience per the measured rows is 1440p High at 118.2 FPS. This configuration delivers excellent visual quality with a frame rate that exceeds most displays' refresh rates, leaving room for future driver optimizations or system upgrades without hitting a performance ceiling.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing of Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks 213 out of 1699 tested combinations in Hard West. This places it in the 87th percentile of all tested systems, meaning only 12.5% of configurations achieve higher performance in this game. The rank reflects a balanced system where neither component severely bottlenecks the other.

The CPU's 82nd percentile standing and the GPU's 85th percentile standing are closely aligned, which contributes to the overall strong ranking. When a CPU and GPU are similarly matched in their respective performance tiers, the system tends to scale well across resolutions. The data confirms this: the combo delivers playable frame rates at all tested settings and resolutions, with only 4K Ultra falling below 60 FPS.

The rank also benefits from the game's turn-based nature, which places less stress on real-time rendering than action titles. The measured frame rates are consistently high at 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that this combination exceeds the requirements for a smooth tactical experience. The 213th position out of 1699 is particularly impressive given that many higher-ranked combos likely feature flagship GPUs or overclocked processors that cost significantly more.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance envelope is broad. Low settings produce 258.6 FPS, Medium 242.1 FPS, High 190.4 FPS, and Ultra 141.3 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is 49.1 FPS, the largest single-step drop in the entire dataset. This suggests that Ultra at 1080p introduces effects that disproportionately impact the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high. Low reaches 189.6 FPS, Medium 156.8 FPS, High 118.2 FPS, and Ultra 90.8 FPS. The scaling from High to Ultra here is 27.4 FPS, a smaller absolute drop than at 1080p but still significant. The Medium preset's 156.8 FPS is notably close to the 1080p High result of 190.4 FPS, indicating that resolution scaling at these settings is relatively smooth.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops sharply. Low averages 100.4 FPS, Medium 83.9 FPS, High 65.8 FPS, and Ultra 45.2 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is 20.6 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 1440p drop. The fact that even Low at 4K stays above 100 FPS shows that the RTX 4070 Ti has substantial headroom, but Ultra pushes it beyond its comfort zone.

The complete dataset shows no min or max FPS values, meaning only averages are available for analysis. The consistency of the scaling pattern across resolutions suggests that the game's rendering pipeline is well-optimized for this hardware, with no unexpected performance cliffs.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, 1080p produces 258.6 FPS, while 4K produces 100.4 FPS — a 2.58x reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 190.4 FPS to 65.8 FPS, a 2.89x reduction. At Ultra, the drop is from 141.3 FPS to 45.2 FPS, a 3.13x reduction.

The increasing multiplier as settings rise indicates that the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as the bottleneck. At Low settings, the CPU may still be contributing meaningfully to the frame rate, limiting the impact of resolution scaling. As settings increase to Ultra, the GPU's pixel processing and texture work dominate, causing the frame rate to scale almost linearly with pixel count. The theoretical pixel count difference between 1920x1080 (2.07 million pixels) and 3840x2160 (8.29 million pixels) is exactly 4.0x, but the frame rate drops are smaller, suggesting that other factors like memory bandwidth and cache efficiency mitigate the full impact.

At 1440p, the scaling is more moderate. From 1080p High (190.4 FPS) to 1440p High (118.2 FPS), the drop is 1.61x, while the pixel count increases by 1.78x. This indicates that the system is not purely pixel-bound at these settings; the GPU's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 80 ROPs are sufficient to handle the intermediate resolution with less efficiency loss. The data implies that for this game, 1440p is the resolution where the RTX 4070 Ti's capabilities are best utilized — high enough to showcase the GPU's power, but not so high that the architecture's limitations become apparent.