Hard West

# Hard West with Intel Core i5-14600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

Hard West, the turn-based tactics title from 2015, presents an interesting case for modern hardware analysis. This combination of Intel's Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 D sits at rank 19 out of 2,949 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations. The data reveals a game that is far from demanding by contemporary standards, yet the performance scaling across resolutions tells a nuanced story about where the bottleneck shifts between CPU and GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a dramatic drop as resolution increases, which is expected but the magnitude of the scaling is noteworthy. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 303 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low, that figure drops to 251 FPS — a 17% reduction. Stepping up to 4K Low yields 131 FPS, which is a 48% decrease from the 1440p result and a 57% drop from 1080p. These percentages indicate that the GPU becomes progressively more stressed as pixel count rises, which is typical behavior for a game that is not heavily threaded.

The scaling pattern at High settings reinforces this interpretation. From 1080p High at 249 FPS, the drop to 1440p High at 158 FPS represents a 37% reduction, and then to 4K High at 83 FPS — another 47% decline from 1440p. The fact that 4K High produces less than one-third of the 1080p Low frame rate (83 vs 303) suggests that Hard West's rendering pipeline responds strongly to resolution changes, meaning the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions.

However, the 1080p results hint at CPU involvement. The gap between Low (303 FPS) and Ultra (187 FPS) at 1080p is 116 FPS, while at 4K the same settings gap is only 69 FPS (131 vs 62). The compression of performance differences at higher resolutions is a classic sign that the CPU can feed frames fast enough at 1080p but the GPU caps throughput at 4K. The Intel Core i5-14600K, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, appears more than adequate for this title's demands, allowing the GPU to become the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 2,949 tested combos for Hard West, this configuration achieves rank 19. That places it in the 99.4th percentile of all tested combinations — an elite standing. The data indicates that this pairing is among the fastest configurations for this game, which is somewhat surprising given that Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015 that would not typically stress modern flagship hardware.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs aligns with its position in the combo ranking. The RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score of 77,712 places it near the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, which scores 78,940 (1.6% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at 76,904 (1.1% lower). The NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants bracket it as well, with the 12 GB version at 79,396 (2.1% higher) and the 16 GB version at 79,605 (2.4% higher). These narrow deltas suggest the RTX 5090 D is positioned in a competitive performance band, though the comparison is to mobile and data center parts rather than desktop gaming GPUs.

The CPU's percentile of 90 places it slightly lower than the GPU's 92, but its benchmark scores show a similar clustering pattern. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48,698 (0.2% higher than the i5-14600K's 48,618), while the AMD EPYC 4345P sits at 48,470 (0.3% lower) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX at 48,287 (0.7% lower). The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is 0.8% higher at 48,995. This tight grouping indicates the i5-14600K is well-matched to its immediate rivals in synthetic workloads.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D brings substantial specifications to this game. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is far beyond what a 2015 turn-based title requires. The GPU's 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs deliver a theoretical FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS. The boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are high for any GPU, yet the measured frame rates in Hard West suggest the title does not come close to saturating this hardware.

The memory configuration is particularly relevant for resolution scaling. At 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 62 FPS average, which indicates the 32 GB frame buffer is not a limiting factor — the game likely uses a fraction of available VRAM. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is similarly over-provisioned for this workload. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 D maintains playable frame rates, but the gap between Low and Ultra settings at 4K (131 vs 62 FPS) reveals that the GPU's rendering load varies significantly with quality presets.

The RTX 5090 D's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 14,326 and PassMark G3D score of 44,065 provide context for its overall capability. In Hard West specifically, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at 4K, where the 62-131 FPS range across settings shows the card is working harder. At 1080p, the GPU appears underutilized, with frame rates exceeding 300 FPS at Low settings — likely approaching the CPU's frame generation limit rather than the GPU's rendering ceiling.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on optimal settings for this combo. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver 282 FPS average with a minimum of 240 FPS and maximum of 324 FPS. This represents a 93 FPS improvement over Ultra settings (187 FPS) while maintaining a minimum frame rate that far exceeds display refresh rate capabilities. The Low preset at 1080p pushes to 303 FPS, but the Medium settings offer a better balance of visual quality and performance for only a 21 FPS cost.

For 1440p, Medium settings produce 205 FPS average with a range of 174-236 FPS. This is 87 FPS higher than Ultra (118 FPS) and still maintains a minimum above 170 FPS, which is well within high-refresh territory. High settings at 1440p yield 158 FPS, making Medium the most sensible choice for users prioritizing smoothness over visual fidelity.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts to High settings, which deliver 83 FPS average. Medium at 4K produces 108 FPS (92-124 range), but the visual improvement from Medium to High costs 25 FPS. Ultra at 4K drops to 62 FPS, which is still technically playable but below the 60 FPS threshold by a slim margin. The data suggests that 4K High is the sweet spot for this combo — it maintains a solid frame rate while avoiding the steep performance penalty of Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 303 FPS average, Medium achieves 282 FPS with a minimum of 240 FPS and maximum of 324 FPS, High reaches 249 FPS, and Ultra settles at 187 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 116 FPS, with each tier stepping down in roughly 50-60 FPS increments except for the Medium-to-High drop of 33 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low settings yield 251 FPS, Medium produces 205 FPS (174-236 range), High delivers 158 FPS, and Ultra drops to 118 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 133 FPS, but the proportional differences remain consistent. Notably, 1440p Medium (205 FPS) outperforms 1080p Ultra (187 FPS), suggesting that resolution scaling is more forgiving than quality preset scaling at this level.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates compress further. Low settings achieve 131 FPS, Medium produces 108 FPS (92-124 range), High reaches 83 FPS, and Ultra drops to 62 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 69 FPS, the smallest of the three resolutions. This compression indicates that the GPU is becoming the dominant constraint at 4K, with quality settings having less relative impact on frame rate than at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K features 14 cores (6 performance and 8 efficiency) with 20 threads, base clock of 3.50 GHz, and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core provide ample headroom for a game like Hard West, which was designed for older, less capable processors. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24,491 and single-core score of 2,064 indicate strong overall performance, while the Geekbench multi-core score of 16,673 and single-core score of 2,491 reinforce this picture.

In the context of Hard West, the CPU appears to be a secondary factor at higher resolutions. The 1080p results show frame rates exceeding 300 FPS at Low settings, which likely approaches the game engine's simulation limit or the CPU's frame delivery capability. The PassMark multi-thread score of 38,682 and single-thread score of 4,270 suggest the i5-14600K can handle the game's logic without becoming a bottleneck at typical display refresh rates.

The CPU's 125W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform support DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with dual-channel configuration. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but irrelevant for this analysis since the discrete RTX 5090 D handles all rendering. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48,618, places it in the upper tier of processors, though its nearest rivals show it is not an outlier — the delta percentages range from -0.8% to +0.7% against similar-scoring alternatives.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's rank for Hard West among tested configurations?

A: This Intel Core i5-14600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 19th out of 2,949 tested combos for Hard West, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations.

Q: What frame rate does this combo achieve at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 62 FPS. This is the lowest measured frame rate across all resolution and settings combinations in the data.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904), 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940), and 2.1-2.4% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (79,396 and 79,605).

Q: Which settings preset provides the best balance at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings deliver 205 FPS average with a minimum of 174 FPS and maximum of 236 FPS. This is 87 FPS higher than Ultra (118 FPS) and only 46 FPS lower than Low (251 FPS), making Medium the most balanced choice.

Q: What is the CPU's single-core and multi-core performance?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K scores 2,064 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 24,491 in multi-core. In Geekbench, it scores 2,491 single-core and 16,673 multi-core, with a PassMark single-thread score of 4,270 and multi-thread score of 38,682.

Q: How does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the combo achieves 249 FPS at 1080p, 158 FPS at 1440p, and 83 FPS at 4K. This represents a 37% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a further 47% decrease from 1440p to 4K, totaling a 67% drop from 1080p to 4K.