Hard West

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination perform in Hard West at 1080p?

A: The combo achieves an average of 302 FPS on Low settings, 281 FPS on Medium, 234 FPS on High, and 175 FPS on Ultra at 1920x1080. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 239 FPS and a maximum of 323 FPS, indicating a very playable experience even with high refresh-rate displays.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1440p and 4K in this game?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 235 FPS on Low to 111 FPS on Ultra. At 3840x2160, the range drops to 123 FPS on Low and 58 FPS on Ultra. This represents a significant reduction of roughly 48% at Low settings and 47% at Ultra settings when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 192 FPS average with a minimum of 163 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz threshold for most monitors. At 4K, Medium still provides 101 FPS average with a minimum of 86 FPS, making it the highest settings tier that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's performance compare to its nearest rivals according to benchmark data?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 79842, placing it 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605) and 0.6% ahead of the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4% (80959) and sits 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940).

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

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 76th out of 3722 tested combos in this game. This places it in the top 2% of all configurations tested, indicating exceptional performance for this turn-based tactics title.

Q: Does the CPU's multi-threaded performance affect gameplay in Hard West?

A: The i5-14600KF scores 32544 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 38697 in Passmark multithread, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. For a turn-based tactics game, the 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom, though single-core performance (4594 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is more relevant for game logic and AI calculations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 functions as the primary rendering engine in this configuration, and its specifications directly influence the measured frame rates in Hard West. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. This substantial memory allocation ensures that even at 4K resolution with High or Ultra settings, texture streaming and frame buffer requirements are comfortably satisfied without any memory-related bottlenecks.

The GPU's clock behavior is defined by a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. These frequencies, combined with 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs, produce a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. For a game like Hard West, which relies on detailed 2D sprite work and isometric environments, these raw throughput figures translate into the ability to maintain high frame rates even when the GPU is pushing 302 FPS at 1080p Low settings.

The Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors, provides the foundational efficiency for this performance. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS indicates substantial compute capability, though Hard West's turn-based gameplay does not heavily stress compute-bound workloads. Instead, the RTX 5090's advantage manifests in raw rasterization performance, which is evident in the measured FPS scaling across settings presets.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU maintains 58 FPS average, demonstrating that even the most demanding preset remains playable. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 192 FPS with a minimum of 163 FPS, showing the GPU is not the limiting factor at these settings. The data suggests that the RTX 5090 is overprovisioned for Hard West's graphical demands, as even the 4K Ultra setting, which typically stresses even flagship GPUs, yields a playable frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, but the rate of decline is not uniform across settings presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 302 at 1080p to 235 at 1440p (a 22% reduction) and then to 123 at 4K (a 48% reduction from 1440p). This non-linear scaling indicates that at 1080p Low, the CPU may be partially limiting performance, as the GPU is capable of rendering the scene faster than the processor can feed it.

The High preset shows a similar pattern: 234 FPS at 1080p, 148 FPS at 1440p (37% reduction), and 78 FPS at 4K (47% reduction from 1440p). The Ultra preset exhibits the most consistent scaling: 175 FPS at 1080p, 111 FPS at 1440p (37% reduction), and 58 FPS at 4K (48% reduction). This consistency across High and Ultra suggests that these presets are more GPU-bound, with the graphics card's fill rate and memory bandwidth becoming the determining factors.

The Medium preset, which is the only one with complete min/max data, shows a degradation pattern of 281 FPS at 1080p (min 239, max 323), 192 FPS at 1440p (min 163, max 221), and 101 FPS at 4K (min 86, max 116). The minimum frame rates at each resolution maintain a consistent proportion of the average, suggesting stable frame pacing without sudden spikes or drops.

The resolution scaling analysis indicates that Hard West becomes increasingly GPU-limited as resolution rises. At 1080p, the gap between Low (302 FPS) and Ultra (175 FPS) is 127 FPS, while at 4K the gap narrows to 65 FPS. This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU's pixel throughput is the dominant constraint at 4K, whereas at 1080p, other system components (likely the CPU) begin to play a more significant role.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-14600KF + RTX 5090 combination delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset achieves 302 FPS average, which represents the absolute ceiling of measured performance in this configuration. The Medium preset produces 281 FPS with a minimum of 239 FPS and a maximum of 323 FPS, indicating that the frame time variance is relatively tight. High settings yield 234 FPS, while Ultra drops to 175 FPS. This 127 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p demonstrates that the settings presets have a substantial impact on GPU load, even at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings produce 235 FPS, Medium delivers 192 FPS (min 163, max 221), High achieves 148 FPS, and Ultra maintains 111 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 163 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it exceeds the refresh rate of most 1440p gaming monitors, ensuring a smooth experience even during graphically intensive scenes. The 124 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1440p is nearly identical to the 1080p spread, suggesting the GPU is still the primary performance driver.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly. Low settings yield 123 FPS, Medium produces 101 FPS (min 86, max 116), High achieves 78 FPS, and Ultra drops to 58 FPS. The Medium preset remains the sweet spot for 4K gaming, providing a 101 FPS average that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 58 FPS is just below the 60 FPS threshold, making it a borderline choice for players who prioritize maximum visual fidelity. The 65 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is roughly half the spread seen at lower resolutions, confirming that pixel fill rate becomes the limiting factor.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance, with frame rates that are 80-90% of the Low preset's performance while offering significantly better visual quality. The High and Ultra presets show progressively larger performance penalties, with Ultra costing approximately 42-53% of the Low preset's frame rate depending on resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 configuration ranks 76th out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the top 2% of all tested configurations, a remarkable achievement that reflects the raw performance of both components. The rank is particularly impressive considering the game's release date of 2015, which means this modern hardware is operating on a title that predates it by nearly a decade.

The combo's ranking suggests that Hard West is not a particularly demanding game, even at 4K Ultra settings. The fact that this configuration ranks 76th rather than higher indicates that some other combos in the database achieve even better performance, likely through more optimized CPU-GPU pairings or higher-clocked variants of similar hardware. However, the 76th position out of 3722 combos still represents elite-tier performance that will handle any scenario the game can present.

The ranking also contextualizes the measured FPS data. At 4K Ultra, the 58 FPS average is sufficient to rank in the top 76 configurations, meaning that many other tested systems fall below 58 FPS at this demanding preset. The combo's position in the database reflects its ability to maintain playable frame rates at the highest settings, even if it doesn't achieve the triple-digit numbers seen at lower resolutions.

Given the percentile rankings of the individual components (CPU at 90th percentile, GPU at 92nd percentile), the combo's top-2% game ranking is slightly better than either component's standalone percentile. This suggests a synergistic pairing where the i5-14600KF's strong single-core performance complements the RTX 5090's massive GPU throughput, resulting in a configuration that exceeds the sum of its parts in this specific title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF provides the processing foundation for this configuration, with 14 cores and 20 threads operating at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This Raptor Lake Refresh architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, delivers benchmark scores that place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and single-core score of 4594 demonstrate strong performance across both threaded and single-threaded workloads.

In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is primarily focused on game logic, AI decision-making, and unit pathfinding. These tasks are typically more dependent on single-threaded performance than multi-core throughput. The i5-14600KF's single-core score of 4594 in Cinebench R23, and 4273 in Passmark single-thread, indicates excellent per-core performance that ensures the game's logic runs without bottlenecking the GPU.

The CPU's memory architecture further supports this workload, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This cache hierarchy provides rapid access to frequently used game data, reducing latency for AI computations and game state updates. The dual-channel memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 offers flexibility, though the measured FPS data does not distinguish between memory types.

The 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier indicate that this CPU is designed for performance, and its benchmark results confirm this positioning. The Passmark data compression score of 485140 and encryption score of 27608 show robust general-purpose compute capabilities. For Hard West specifically, the CPU's 20 threads handle any background tasks and game sub-systems without contention, allowing the RTX 5090 to operate at its full potential.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.3% higher), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (0.4% higher), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (0.8% higher), while it leads the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 by 0.8%. This tight clustering around the 49000-50000 average benchmark score range indicates that the i5-14600KF is competitively positioned in its performance class, providing adequate processing power for Hard West's relatively modest CPU requirements.