Hard West

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Hard West, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher settings. The data shows a stark drop from 1080p to 4K, where even the High preset falls below the 30 FPS threshold, making this combo best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frames per second reveal a classic GPU-bound scenario as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 84 FPS, which is smooth. Moving to 1440p High drops the average to 53 FPS, a 37% reduction in frame rate. The jump to 4K High is devastating, with the average falling to 28 FPS — a 67% loss from the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that the Arc B570’s rendering throughput, not the processor, is the limiting factor.

The pattern persists across all settings presets. At Low settings, 1080p yields 134 FPS, while 1440p produces 85 FPS, and 4K drops to 44 FPS. The Medium preset shows similar scaling: 110 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. Ultra is the most demanding, with 63 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and just 21 FPS at 4K.

The consistency of these drops — roughly 30-40% going from 1080p to 1440p, and another 30-40% going from 1440p to 4K — points to fill-rate and memory bandwidth constraints. The Arc B570’s 380.0 GB/s bandwidth and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are adequate for lower resolutions but become overwhelmed at 4K. The game’s turn-based tactical nature means that 28 FPS at 4K High is technically playable, but the data suggests users should avoid 4K unless they are willing to drop to Low settings, where 44 FPS is achievable.

For a smoother 4K experience, the Medium preset’s 36 FPS average with a 31 FPS minimum is the only viable option, though it remains below the 60 FPS standard. The scaling behavior indicates that the CPU, with its 6 cores and 6 threads, is not the limiting factor here; if it were, we would see smaller frame rate differences between 1080p and 1440p. Instead, the consistent proportional drops across all presets confirm that the Intel Arc B570 is the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience in Hard West. The Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance, delivering 110 FPS average with a 93 FPS minimum and 126 FPS maximum. This is the sweet spot for this combo, as it provides a significant margin above the 60 FPS target while maintaining visual quality above the Low preset.

The High preset at 1080p is also strong at 84 FPS, but it comes with a 26 FPS penalty compared to Medium. Given that Hard West is a turn-based tactical game where fast reaction times are less critical than in action genres, the Medium preset’s higher frame rate is preferable. The Low preset at 1080p produces 134 FPS, but the visual downgrade is likely not worth the extra 24 FPS over Medium, especially since the game’s art style benefits from higher detail settings.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, yielding 69 FPS average with a 59 FPS minimum. This is the only 1440p preset that maintains a consistent 60+ FPS experience. The High preset at 53 FPS is playable but dips lower, while Low at 85 FPS sacrifices too much visual fidelity. Ultra at 1440p is not recommended, as the 40 FPS average falls below the smoothness threshold.

For 4K, the data suggests avoiding this resolution unless absolutely necessary. The Medium preset’s 36 FPS average with a 31 FPS minimum is the only option that approaches playability, but it still falls short of the 60 FPS standard. Users with 4K displays should either drop to Low (44 FPS) or consider playing at 1440p on the Medium preset for a superior experience. The Ultra preset is universally impractical, with performance ranging from 21 FPS at 4K to 63 FPS at 1080p, making it the worst choice for any resolution in this dataset.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 + Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2360 out of 2949 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the bottom 20% of all configurations, indicating that while the combo is functional, it is not competitive with higher-end pairings. The rank reflects the GPU’s mid-tier positioning — the Arc B570 sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs — combined with the CPU’s modest 47th percentile standing.

The ranking suggests that most other tested combinations deliver better performance in this game. The combo’s performance is constrained by the Arc B570’s 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus, which limits its ability to handle the game’s higher-resolution textures. The CPU’s 6-core, 6-thread configuration with a 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.10 GHz boost clock is sufficient for Hard West’s turn-based mechanics, but the overall system is held back by the GPU’s fill-rate limitations.

Given that the combo ranks below 80% of tested configurations, users should temper expectations. The data indicates that this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it performs admirably, but it struggles to compete with combos featuring higher-tier GPUs at 1440p or 4K. The rank is not a condemnation — the combo achieves 110 FPS at 1080p Medium — but it clearly positions this hardware as entry-level for this game.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hard West?*

A: The data shows 1080p is the optimal resolution. At Medium settings, the combo achieves 110 FPS average with a 93 FPS minimum, while 1440p Medium drops to 69 FPS and 4K Medium falls to 36 FPS. The performance degradation from 1080p to 1440p is approximately 37%, and from 1440p to 4K is another 48%, making 1080p the only resolution where the combo consistently exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle Ultra settings?

A: Ultra settings are not recommended for any resolution. At 1080p, the combo produces 63 FPS, which is playable, but 1440p drops to 40 FPS and 4K falls to 21 FPS. The Ultra preset’s demands exceed the Arc B570’s capabilities at higher resolutions, and even at 1080p, the Medium preset offers 47% higher frame rates with likely minimal visual difference in a tactical game.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The resolution scaling data shows consistent proportional frame rate drops as resolution increases (134 to 85 to 44 FPS at Low settings), which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The Intel Core i5-9400’s 6 cores and 6 threads are sufficient for the game’s turn-based mechanics, but the Arc B570’s rendering limits prevent higher resolutions from being viable.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 69 FPS average with a 59 FPS minimum, making it the only preset that approaches 60 FPS. High settings produce 53 FPS, Low produces 85 FPS, and Ultra produces 40 FPS. For a balance of quality and performance, Medium is the recommended 1440p preset.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B570’s average benchmark score is 20556, which places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750 (20582). It also outperforms the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M by 0.4% and trails the AMD Radeon R9 M390X by 0.5%. These are marginal differences, indicating the Arc B570 performs in a tight competitive band.

Q: Is the Core i5-9400 a capable processor for this game?

A: Yes, the CPU is more than adequate for Hard West. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 6629, and it ranks at the 47th percentile among all CPUs. The nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2% faster), Intel Core i3-10305 (0.4% faster), Intel Core i7-10710U (0.3% slower), and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (0.4% slower). These negligible differences confirm the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the game’s performance profile. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The 19 Gbps effective memory speed is substantial, but the narrow bus width limits overall throughput, which becomes evident at 4K resolutions. The GPU’s 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units deliver a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s. These figures support 1080p and 1440p gaming well but struggle with the pixel fill requirements of 4K.

The GPU’s clock speed is fixed at 2500 MHz for both base and boost, which is unusual and indicates a stable, consistent performance profile. The 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is respectable for the mid-range segment. The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs aligns with its measured performance in Hard West, where it delivers 84 FPS at 1080p High but drops to 28 FPS at 4K High.

The 10 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game’s requirements, as evidenced by the absence of min FPS data point to texture swapping issues at lower resolutions. However, the 160-bit memory bus is the likely culprit for the steep 4K performance drop, as the bandwidth requirements double from 1080p to 4K. The GPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, performs within 0.1% in synthetic benchmarks, suggesting that this performance profile is consistent with Intel’s Arc 5 generation. The GPU’s 150 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate it is a mainstream part, and the data shows it pairs best with 1080p displays for this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides a solid foundation for Hard West, with its 6 cores and 6 threads proving more than adequate for the game’s turn-based tactical logic. The processor runs at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boosts to 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. This Coffee Lake architecture chip features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 256 KB of L2 cache per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The dual-channel DDR4 memory support provides 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for this game’s data requirements.

The CPU’s benchmark scores confirm its capability: Cinebench R23 multicore score is 6629, and single-core is 935. Geekbench scores are 5141 multicore and 1389 single-core. These figures place the CPU at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. The nearest rivals demonstrate how closely matched this CPU is to its contemporaries: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259 (0.2% faster), the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264 (0.4% faster), the Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248 (0.3% slower), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 (0.4% slower).

In Hard West, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, AI calculations, and unit pathfinding. The 6-thread configuration is sufficient for these tasks, as the game does not appear to utilize more than 6 threads effectively. The fact that 1080p Low produces 134 FPS — far above the 60 FPS target — demonstrates that the CPU is not a limiting factor. The resolution scaling data reinforces this: if the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain similar across resolutions. Instead, the consistent drops with increasing resolution are the signature of GPU-bound performance. The CPU’s 4.10 GHz boost clock ensures responsive single-threaded performance, which is important for the game’s turn-based interactions, but the data shows that upgrading the GPU would yield far greater performance gains in this title than upgrading the CPU.