Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015, and the measured data for this Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combination shows a dramatic range of performance depending on how you configure it. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing is capable of delivering excellent frame rates at lower resolutions, but the demanding Ultra preset at 4K can push the system to its limits. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to offer clear guidance on the best settings, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and how this specific combo stacks up against the broader database of tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 suggests that the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience, particularly at higher resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers a strong average of 160 FPS, with a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 184 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without the performance overhead of the Ultra preset. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset still holds up well with an average of 102 FPS (min 87, max 117), which is well within the range for a fluid experience in a turn-based strategy game. Even at 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the highest setting that remains playable, yielding an average of 54 FPS with a min of 46 and max of 62.

While the Low preset offers the highest frame rates—172 FPS at 1080p, 125 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K—it comes at the cost of visual fidelity, which is less ideal for a game that relies on atmospheric, top-down environments. The High preset is a solid middle ground, providing 124 FPS at 1080p and 78 FPS at 1440p, but at 4K it drops to an average of 41 FPS, which may feel sluggish for some players. The Ultra preset is the most demanding; while it achieves 93 FPS at 1080p and 59 FPS at 1440p, it falls to just 31 FPS at 4K, making it unsuitable for that resolution with this hardware. Given these numbers, the data strongly supports using the Medium preset as the default recommendation, as it maintains high frame rates across all three resolutions while still offering a significant visual upgrade over the Low preset. For users prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Low preset is the fallback, but the performance overhead of Ultra is rarely justified given the diminishing returns in a turn-based context.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the clear driving force in this pairing, and its specifications in the fact pack explain why it handles Hard West so well. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a substantial 624.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for a 2015 title like Hard West, which is unlikely to stress the memory capacity or bandwidth even at 4K resolution. The card's architecture is RDNA 3.0, built on a 5 nm process, with a base clock of 1900 MHz and a boost clock of 2459 MHz. The game clock is rated at 2041 MHz, which is the sustained frequency under typical gaming loads.

The performance data shows how the GPU scales with settings. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Ultra reduces the average FPS from 172 to 93, a drop of 46%. This indicates that the GPU is fully engaged even at lower resolutions, and the higher settings are increasing the shading and texture work. At 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 31 FPS, showing that the GPU is heavily taxed by the combination of high resolution and high settings. The RX 7700's compute capabilities, including 2560 shading units and a FP32 throughput of 25.18 TFLOPS, are being utilized to their full extent here. The card's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 9060, which scores 1% higher on average, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which is 1.7% faster on average. This places the RX 7700 in a competitive position, but the data shows that Hard West is not a GPU-bound title at 1080p, as even the Low preset exceeds 170 FPS, leaving headroom for the CPU to become a factor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that is typical for a hardware combination where the GPU is the primary performance limiter. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the High preset, the average FPS drops from 124 to 78, a 37% reduction. From 1440p to 3840x2160, the High preset falls further to 41 FPS, another 47% reduction. This near-halving of frame rates at each resolution step indicates that the RX 7700 is becoming increasingly saturated as the pixel count rises.

The same trend is visible on the Medium preset, which shows 160 FPS at 1080p, 102 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. The scaling factor from 1080p to 4K is roughly 3x, which is close to the 4x increase in pixel count, suggesting the GPU is the bottleneck. In contrast, the Low preset shows a less severe drop: 172 FPS at 1080p, 125 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The smaller relative drop from 1080p to 1440p (27%) compared to 1440p to 4K (48%) suggests that at lower settings, the CPU may begin to have a more significant role, but the GPU still dominates the scaling curve. The Ultra preset is the most punishing, with 93 FPS at 1080p, 59 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K, showing that the combination of high settings and high resolution quickly overwhelms the card. This data strongly indicates that for a smooth 4K experience, users must lower settings to Medium or below, while 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance on the High preset.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 holds a combo rank of 1463 out of 2949 tested combinations for Hard West. This places it in the 50th percentile, meaning it performs better than half of all tested combos but worse than the other half. This is a respectable mid-pack ranking, reflecting that the hardware is capable but not top-tier for this specific game. The ranking is likely influenced by the fact that Hard West is a turn-based tactics game, which is not as demanding as modern first-person shooters, so even mid-range hardware can achieve high frame rates.

The GPU's individual percentile is 58, meaning it outperforms 58% of all GPUs in the database, while the CPU's percentile is 47, putting it just below the median. This suggests that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing. The combo rank of 1463 is lower than the GPU's percentile would suggest, which implies that the CPU is holding back the overall performance in some scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The nearest rivals for the GPU include the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (1% faster) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (1.7% faster), while the CPU's nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2% slower) and the Intel Core i7-10710U (0.3% faster). These small deltas indicate that this combo is closely matched with several other mid-range configurations, and the rank of 1463 reflects a system that is competent but not exceptional for Hard West.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It features 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. For a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, the CPU's role is often less critical than in real-time strategy or action games, as the computational load is more bursty, occurring during turn calculations and AI pathfinding. The benchmark results support this, showing that at 1080p with the Low preset, the system achieves 172 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for frame generation.

The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 5141, indicate a capable mid-range processor. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 is 0.2% slower, and the Intel Core i3-10305 is 0.4% faster, showing that the i5-9400 is right in the middle of its performance class. In Hard West, the CPU's influence is most apparent when the GPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p, the difference between the Low preset (172 FPS) and the High preset (124 FPS) is 48 FPS, which is entirely due to GPU load. However, the fact that the Low preset doesn't exceed 172 FPS, even though the GPU could likely push higher, suggests the CPU is capping the frame rate. This is further evidenced by the scaling from 1080p to 1440p on the Low preset, where the FPS drops from 172 to 125, a 27% reduction, which is less than the 33% increase in pixel count, indicating the CPU is still holding on. The 6 threads and 4.10 GHz boost clock are sufficient for this game, but they do limit the system's potential to hit extremely high frame rates at 1080p, making the GPU's headroom irrelevant in that scenario.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS data for this combo is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 172 FPS. The Medium preset yields an average of 160 FPS, with a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 184 FPS. The High preset produces an average of 124 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to an average of 93 FPS. The data shows a consistent decline as settings increase, with the Medium preset offering the best balance of high frame rates and visual quality at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 125 FPS. The Medium preset averages 102 FPS, with a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS. The High preset averages 78 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 59 FPS. At this resolution, the Medium preset remains above the 100 FPS threshold, making it the recommended setting for a smooth experience, while the High preset is still playable. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 65 FPS, the Medium preset averages 54 FPS (min 46, max 62), the High preset averages 41 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 31 FPS. The 4K data indicates that only the Low and Medium presets provide acceptable performance, with the Medium preset being the highest playable setting. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the most balanced performance, providing a high average FPS with a stable minimum, while the Ultra preset should be avoided at 4K due to its low 31 FPS average.