Hard West

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Hard West reveal a steep and consistent performance curve as resolution climbs from 1080p to 4K. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers 180.2 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Ultra drops that to 114.3 FPS, a reduction of roughly 37%. The final step to 3840x2160 Ultra yields 58.1 FPS, which is about half of the 1440p result and less than a third of the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the rendering load grows disproportionately with pixel count, which is typical for a game whose visual effects are heavily pixel-bound.

The Low settings tier shows the same trend but with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the average is 265.6 FPS. At 1440p Low, it falls to 224 FPS, and at 4K Low, it reaches 124.9 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is from 265.6 to 124.9, meaning the 4K result is less than half of the 1080p figure. This consistent halving across settings tiers suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU can keep feeding frames at lower pixel counts.

The gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (265.6 FPS) and Ultra (180.2 FPS) is 85.4 FPS. At 1440p, the gap grows to 109.7 FPS (224 vs. 114.3). At 4K, the gap expands further to 66.8 FPS (124.9 vs. 58.1). This widening gap indicates that Ultra settings impose a progressively larger per-pixel cost, which is consistent with heavy shading and post-processing effects that scale with resolution.

The data also shows that Medium settings sit closer to High than to Low at every resolution. At 4K, Medium delivers 100.6 FPS while High delivers 77.7 FPS, a difference of 22.9 FPS. At 1440p, Medium (193.9) and High (149.1) differ by 44.8 FPS. At 1080p, Medium (246.8) and High (225.1) differ by 21.7 FPS. This suggests that the jump from Medium to High adds significant visual workload, while the jump from Low to Medium is relatively smaller in performance cost.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its architecture is Raptor Lake-R, built on a 10 nm process. The CPU has 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 per core. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 21,914 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,093 in single-core. Its PassMark multithread score is 25,783, and single-thread is 3,723.

For a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, the CPU's role is primarily about maintaining a stable frame delivery rather than pushing extreme frame rates. The game's turn-based nature means that most computation happens in discrete phases — during enemy turns, pathfinding, and line-of-sight calculations — rather than continuous simulation. The 10-core configuration with 16 threads provides ample parallel capacity for any background tasks, but the single-thread performance (3,093 in R23 single-core) is what matters most for the game's main logic thread.

The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any tested resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 265.6 FPS, which is well above what most displays can show. Even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate is 58.1 FPS, suggesting that the CPU can feed the GPU faster than the GPU can render at that quality level. The fact that frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution (halving from 1080p to 4K) rather than plateauing at a CPU limit confirms that the processor is not holding back performance.

The CPU's 88th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32,508, places it in the upper tier of processors. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-12800H (deltaPct 0), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (deltaPct 0.2), and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (deltaPct -0.2). These near-identical scores suggest that the i5-14400F's performance envelope is well-established and competitive within its class.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a massive GPU with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its chip is GB202 on a 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors. The GPU has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. Its boost clock is 2407 MHz with a base of 2017 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5090 scores 14,411 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 39,650 in PassMark G3D. Its PassMark GPU Compute score is 26,756. The GPU's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306, places it near the top of the performance hierarchy. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 5090 D (deltaPct 0.1) and the RTX 5050 Mobile (deltaPct 0.2), though the average scores are nearly identical.

For Hard West, the GPU's role dominates the performance picture. The game is from 2015, and its rendering engine is not designed to take advantage of the RTX 5090's full feature set — the GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, but the game likely uses older API paths. This means the GPU's raw rasterization power is the main driver, and the 32 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for any texture load the game can present.

The frame rate drops from 4K Low (124.9 FPS) to 4K Ultra (58.1 FPS) show that the GPU is heavily taxed by Ultra settings at 4K. The 512-bit memory bus and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provide ample data throughput, but the game's shader complexity at Ultra settings creates a bottleneck. The gap between Medium (100.6 FPS) and High (77.7 FPS) at 4K is 22.9 FPS, indicating that High settings add substantial per-pixel work.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 35th out of 1,699 tested combos for Hard West. This places it in the top 2.1% of all combinations in the database. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 88th percentile standing and the GPU's 94th percentile standing. For a game that is primarily GPU-bound at high resolutions, the RTX 5090's strong rasterization performance (39,650 in PassMark G3D) carries most of the weight.

The combo rank of 35 is notable because the CPU is not a top-tier part — its average benchmark score of 32,508 is within 0.2% of several rivals. The GPU, however, is near the top of its class. In a game like Hard West, where the CPU's single-thread performance (3,093 in R23 single-core) is sufficient to feed even the fastest GPUs at 1080p, the combo's rank is driven almost entirely by GPU capability.

Compared to the database's full range of combos, the 35th position out of 1,699 means that only 34 combinations produce higher average frame rates in this game. The data shows that this combo is capable of exceeding 250 FPS at 1080p Low (265.6 FPS) and still maintains over 50 FPS at 4K Ultra (58.1 FPS). These results suggest that the combo is well-matched for this title, with the GPU providing headroom for future games while the CPU keeps pace in the present.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 265.6 FPS average, Medium 246.8 FPS, High 225.1 FPS, and Ultra 180.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 85.4 FPS, representing a 32% reduction in performance when moving to the highest quality preset. All 1080p results exceed 180 FPS, meaning the combo can drive high-refresh-rate displays without issue.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but show a clear step down. Low settings deliver 224 FPS, Medium 193.9 FPS, High 149.1 FPS, and Ultra 114.3 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most pronounced at Ultra settings (180.2 to 114.3, a 36.6% reduction) and least at Low (265.6 to 224, a 15.7% reduction). The 1440p Ultra result of 114.3 FPS is still smooth for most displays.

At 3840x2160, the performance falls further but remains playable. Low settings produce 124.9 FPS, Medium 100.6 FPS, High 77.7 FPS, and Ultra 58.1 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-60 FPS figure in the entire dataset. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steep: Ultra drops from 114.3 to 58.1 (49.2% reduction), High from 149.1 to 77.7 (47.9% reduction), Medium from 193.9 to 100.6 (48.1% reduction), and Low from 224 to 124.9 (44.2% reduction). This uniform ~50% drop across settings confirms that pixel count, not settings complexity, is the dominant factor at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Hard West with this combo?

A: The data shows that 1440p Ultra delivers 114.3 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 58.1 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS threshold. For a smooth experience at the highest settings, 1440p is the sweet spot.

Q: Does this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra?

A: No. The measured average at 3840x2160 Ultra is 58.1 FPS, which is slightly below 60. Lowering to High settings at 4K brings the average to 77.7 FPS, which exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: How much faster is this combo at 1080p compared to 4K?

A: At Ultra settings, the 1080p result (180.2 FPS) is more than three times faster than the 4K result (58.1 FPS). At Low settings, the 1080p figure (265.6 FPS) is more than double the 4K figure (124.9 FPS).

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

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The frame rate drops nearly by half when moving from 1440p to 4K across all settings, which is a classic GPU-bound pattern. The CPU's single-thread performance (3,093 in Cinebench R23) is sufficient to exceed 260 FPS at 1080p Low.

Q: What settings tier gives the best performance-to-quality tradeoff at 4K?

A: Medium settings at 4K produce 100.6 FPS, while High settings produce 77.7 FPS. The difference is 22.9 FPS, suggesting that Medium offers a substantial performance margin over High. Ultra at 4K drops to 58.1 FPS, which is below 60.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 35th out of 1,699 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.1% of the database. This high rank is driven primarily by the RTX 5090's strong rasterization performance, which scores 39,650 in PassMark G3D.