Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015 that remains surprisingly demanding at high settings, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 shows a configuration that ranges from massively overkill at 1080p to merely adequate at 4K Ultra. This combination ranks 14th out of 1,699 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 1% of systems, yet the frame rate spread across resolutions and presets reveals that even flagship hardware hits a wall when the game’s older engine is pushed to its limits. The data measured here provides a clear picture of where the CPU’s 14 cores and the GPU’s 32 GB of VRAM matter most, and where they do not.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo in Hard West?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the system delivers 147.7 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz threshold for smooth gameplay. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average drops to 77.6 FPS, which is still playable but not ideal for high-refresh displays.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5090 compared to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 84,306, which is 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D (84,241) and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (83,209). The deltaPct values show the 5090 is essentially tied with the 5090 D, while the gap to the AMD card is negligible.

Q: Does the i5-14600K bottleneck the RTX 5090 in this game?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo hits 299.8 FPS, which suggests the CPU is near its limit since the GPU is capable of far more. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate falls to 56.5 FPS, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution and settings increase.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 236.7 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 114.6 FPS. That is a 122.1 FPS drop, or roughly 51.6% fewer frames, when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Is the 32 GB of VRAM on the RTX 5090 necessary for Hard West?

A: The game’s measured FPS at 4K Ultra (56.5 FPS) suggests the GPU is compute-bound rather than VRAM-limited, since the 32 GB pool is far more than a 2015 tactics title would require. The bottleneck appears to be the rendering workload, not memory capacity.

Q: How does the i5-14600K compare to the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X in overall CPU performance?

A: The i5-14600K has an average benchmark score of 49,166, which is 0.2% higher than the Ryzen 9 5950X’s 49,062. The deltaPct of 0.2 indicates the two processors are statistically indistinguishable in average performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K brings 14 cores and 20 threads to the table, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. In a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, the CPU is responsible for game logic, pathfinding, and AI decisions, which typically scale with single-thread performance rather than core count. The i5-14600K’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,642 and multi-core score of 32,881 indicate strong performance in both areas, but the game’s 2015 release date suggests it was built for far less capable hardware.

The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 299.8 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this engine. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 175.5 FPS, a 124.3 FPS reduction that is far larger than the GPU’s synthetic advantage would predict. This suggests that Hard West’s draw calls and object rendering are heavily CPU-dependent at higher settings, even with a processor that scores in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The i5-14600K’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and per-core L2 cache of 2 MB help feed the GPU with data, but the game’s engine appears to serialize some workloads.

The nearest rival data reinforces that the i5-14600K is a top-tier CPU: it is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and only 0.4% behind the Intel Core i5-14600KF. The deltaPct values of 1.0% against the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and -0.9% against the AMD EPYC 4345P show that the i5-14600K sits in a tight performance band with these server-class and high-end desktop parts. For Hard West, the CPU’s single-threaded strength is what matters most, and the data shows it can push past 300 FPS at low settings, leaving headroom for the GPU to work at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs give it immense raw throughput, with a FP32 compute rating of 104.8 TFLOPS. The base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost of 2407 MHz, and the memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). This is the kind of hardware that typically dominates 4K gaming, but Hard West’s measured results show a different story.

At 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 produces just 56.5 FPS, which is far below what its Passmark G3D score of 39,650 would suggest. The GPU’s 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 84,306 place it just 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D and 0.2% ahead of the RTX 5050 Mobile, but these synthetic tests do not translate into overwhelming performance in this older title. The 4K High result of 77.6 FPS is more respectable, but still indicates that the game’s shader complexity or draw call volume is taxing the GPU in a way that modern benchmarks do not capture.

The 32 GB VRAM is never a limiting factor in Hard West, as the game’s textures are from 2015 and would fit in a fraction of that pool. Instead, the GPU’s role shifts with resolution: at 1080p, the RTX 5090 is underutilized, as shown by the 299.8 FPS Low result, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, with the frame rate dropping to nearly half of the 1080p High result. The 575 W TDP and dual-slot cooler are clearly built for sustained heavy loads, but Hard West’s workload appears to be more serialized than parallel, limiting the RTX 5090’s ability to flex its 104.8 TFLOPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a full matrix of performance. At 1920x1080, the system starts at 299.8 FPS on Low, drops to 284.1 FPS on Medium, 237.3 FPS on High, and 175.5 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 124.3 FPS, with the largest single drop coming between High and Ultra at 61.8 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces a significant rendering cost, likely from shadow quality or post-processing effects.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates are 236.7 FPS on Low, 198.1 FPS on Medium, 147.7 FPS on High, and 114.6 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 122.1 FPS, nearly identical to the 1080p spread, but the percentage loss is larger because the starting point is lower. At 1440p, the High preset still delivers 147.7 FPS, which is excellent for a 144 Hz monitor, while Ultra dips below 120 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results are 124.8 FPS on Low, 100.7 FPS on Medium, 77.6 FPS on High, and 56.5 FPS on Ultra. The Low to Ultra spread is 68.3 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms than at lower resolutions, but the percentage drop is steeper. The 4K Ultra result of 56.5 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS measurement in the entire dataset, and it highlights that this combination is not ideal for maxed-out 4K gaming in Hard West.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a consistent pattern of frame rate decline as resolution increases, but the rate of decline varies by settings preset. At Low settings, scaling from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS from 299.8 to 236.7, a 21% drop, and then to 124.8 at 4K, a further 47% drop from 1440p. At Ultra settings, the 1080p result is 175.5 FPS, which falls to 114.6 at 1440p (a 35% drop) and then to 56.5 at 4K (a 51% drop from 1440p). The steeper percentage drop at Ultra settings indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting component more quickly when the preset is heavier.

The resolution scaling also reveals the point where the CPU stops being the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the 299.8 FPS result is likely CPU-limited, as the RTX 5090 has ample headroom. By 1440p High, the frame rate of 147.7 FPS suggests a more balanced load, and at 4K High, the 77.6 FPS result shows the GPU is clearly dominant. The jump from 1440p to 4K at any settings preset costs more than half the frame rate, which is typical for a game that does not scale well with modern GPU parallelism.

This scaling behavior points to a game engine that is not optimized for high-end hardware. The RTX 5090’s 1.79 TB/s bandwidth and 32 GB VRAM are irrelevant when the frame rate halves from 1440p to 4K, because the bottleneck is likely in the GPU’s shader execution or the CPU’s draw call submission. The data suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combination, as it delivers 147.7 FPS on High while 4K requires dropping to Low settings to exceed 120 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 144 Hz or higher, the data shows that 1080p and 1440p are the viable resolutions. At 1920x1080, the High preset at 237.3 FPS provides a comfortable margin above 144 Hz, and even Ultra at 175.5 FPS exceeds that threshold. At 2560x1440, High settings at 147.7 FPS are right at the 144 Hz line, while Medium at 198.1 FPS offers more headroom. Ultra at 1440p drops to 114.6 FPS, which is still playable but may not satisfy high-refresh owners.

For 4K gaming, the recommendation is to avoid Ultra entirely, as the 56.5 FPS result is below the 60 FPS standard. High settings at 4K produce 77.6 FPS, which is smooth for a turn-based tactics game where twitch reactions are not required. Medium settings at 4K yield 100.7 FPS, which is the best balance of visual quality and frame rate for 4K displays. Low settings at 4K reach 124.8 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely too steep for a game that relies on atmosphere.

The measured data suggests that the High preset is the best overall choice for this combination. It delivers 237.3 FPS at 1080p, 147.7 FPS at 1440p, and 77.6 FPS at 4K, which are all playable and visually superior to Medium. The Ultra preset’s cost is disproportionate to its benefit, as the frame rate drops by 61.8 FPS at 1080p and 30.1 FPS at 1440p compared to High. For a turn-based tactics game, the jump from High to Ultra is not worth the performance penalty, especially when High already provides a smooth experience at every resolution tested.