Hard West

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 secures the 662nd position out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West. That places this configuration in the upper-middle tier of the database, comfortably ahead of more than half of all recorded systems. The ranking reflects a pairing where a high-end GPU from 2020 meets a mid-range six-core CPU from 2018, and the data suggests the combination is well-balanced for this turn-based tactics title.

Looking at the individual components, the RTX 3080 sits at the 80th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-9400 lands at the 50th percentile among all CPUs. This disparity in relative standing is typical for a system built around a powerful graphics card with a more modest processor. The GPU's average benchmark score of 35,787 places it in close competition with the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35,860, only 0.2% faster) and the AMD Radeon 880M (35,646, 0.4% slower). The CPU's average score of 2,305 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i3-10305 (2,300, 0.2% difference) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2,299, 0.2% difference). These tight margins indicate that neither component is dramatically outclassed by its direct rivals; instead, the pair works as a coherent unit.

The rank of 662 out of 1,699 combos means this system outperforms roughly 61% of all recorded configurations in Hard West. For a game that relies on strategic decision-making over raw frame rates, this ranking signals that the setup will handle the title without becoming a bottleneck. The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 3080 carries the graphical load, while the i5-9400 provides sufficient processing power to avoid holding the GPU back in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets, and the optimal choice depends on your display's refresh rate. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 117.6 FPS average, which is more than adequate for smooth gameplay on a standard 60Hz monitor and even works well on 120Hz displays. The High preset at 144.2 FPS and Medium at 158.4 FPS push further into high-refresh territory, but the visual gains from Ultra over High are typically modest in a tactical game like Hard West.

At 1440p, the High preset produces 97.8 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a comfortable experience on most monitors. The Medium preset at 129.2 FPS is even smoother, while Ultra drops to 73.4 FPS — still playable but with a noticeable sacrifice in frame rate for premium visuals. The Low preset at 148.9 FPS at this resolution is excessive for the genre, offering little competitive advantage in a turn-based game.

For 4K, the picture changes significantly. The Ultra preset manages only 36.8 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS target and may feel sluggish during camera pans or animations. The High preset at 53.6 FPS is closer but still not ideal. The Medium preset at 64.7 FPS crosses the 60 FPS threshold and represents the best balance at this resolution. The Low preset at 84.8 FPS provides the smoothest 4K experience, but the visual downgrade is substantial.

Given that Hard West is a turn-based tactics game where reaction time is not critical, the recommendation is clear: at 1080p, use Ultra for the best visuals without compromising fluidity; at 1440p, High or Ultra both work, with High offering a safer margin; at 4K, Medium is the sweet spot, delivering 64.7 FPS while preserving most graphical fidelity.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between components. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 144.2 FPS at 1080p to 97.8 FPS at 1440p (a 32.2% reduction) and then to 53.6 FPS at 4K (a further 45.2% reduction from 1440p). This steep decline at 4K indicates that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K while the CPU workload remains relatively constant.

The Low settings show a similar pattern: 173.4 FPS at 1080p, 148.9 FPS at 1440p (14.1% drop), and 84.8 FPS at 4K (43.1% drop from 1440p). The smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings suggests that the CPU can still feed the GPU adequately at lower graphical loads, but the 4K resolution overwhelms the RTX 3080's fill rate. At Medium settings, the drops are 18.4% from 1080p to 1440p (158.4 to 129.2 FPS) and 49.9% from 1440p to 4K (129.2 to 64.7 FPS), reinforcing that the GPU handles 1440p well but struggles with 4K.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic scaling: 117.6 FPS at 1080p, 73.4 FPS at 1440p (37.6% drop), and 36.8 FPS at 4K (49.9% drop from 1440p). The nearly halving of frame rates at each step-up indicates that Ultra's visual effects place extreme demands on the GPU's shader and memory subsystems. Across all presets, the pattern is consistent: the i5-9400's six cores and 2.90 GHz base clock are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the RTX 3080's 10 GB GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are taxed heavily at 4K, making the GPU the clear bottleneck at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the full range of presets yields playable results. The Low preset delivers 173.4 FPS average, which is the highest recorded across all resolutions and settings. Medium follows at 158.4 FPS, High at 144.2 FPS, and Ultra at 117.6 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 55.8 FPS, indicating that Hard West scales predictably with graphical complexity at this resolution. Every preset exceeds 60 FPS by a wide margin, so users can prioritize visual quality without concern.

Moving to 1440p, the averages remain strong. Low produces 148.9 FPS, Medium 129.2 FPS, High 97.8 FPS, and Ultra 73.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 75.5 FPS, and even the lowest result — Ultra at 73.4 FPS — stays comfortably above the 60 FPS target. This resolution represents the best compromise for this combo: the RTX 3080's 10 GB memory and 320-bit bus handle the increased pixel count efficiently, while the i5-9400's 4.10 GHz boost clock keeps frame pacing consistent.

At 4K, the numbers show a different story. Low averages 84.8 FPS, Medium 64.7 FPS, High 53.6 FPS, and Ultra 36.8 FPS. Only the Low and Medium presets cross the 60 FPS line, and Ultra falls below 40 FPS, which may cause noticeable stuttering during combat animations. The 48 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K highlights the GPU's diminishing returns at this resolution — the RTX 3080, despite its 8704 shading units and 29.77 TFLOPS, cannot maintain high frame rates with Ultra effects enabled at 3840x2160. The data suggests that 4K gameplay requires preset compromises, with Medium offering the best mix of smoothness and visual fidelity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU's base clock of 1440 MHz and boost clock of 1710 MHz, combined with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 320-bit bus, provide substantial bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. In Hard West, a game with relatively simple geometry but potentially complex lighting and shadow effects, this bandwidth is crucial for maintaining frame rates at high resolutions. The 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present, though their impact on a turn-based tactics title is minimal compared to raw rasterization performance.

The GPU's 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects its overall capability, but the measured FPS data shows that even this hardware hits a wall at 4K with Ultra settings. The 36.8 FPS result at 4K Ultra is telling: it indicates that Hard West's Ultra preset includes effects that heavily tax the GPU's 96 ROPs and 164.2 GPixel/s pixel fill rate. The transition from High to Ultra at 4K costs 16.8 FPS (from 53.6 to 36.8), a 31.3% reduction, which is disproportionate compared to the 26.4 FPS drop from Medium to High (64.7 to 53.6). This suggests that Ultra enables additional post-processing or transparency effects that are disproportionately expensive at 4K.

The GPU's launch MSRP of 699 USD places it as a high-end part, and its predecessor/successor lineage (GeForce 20 and GeForce 40 respectively) confirms its position in the 30-series lineup. The 28,300 million transistors on an 8 nm Samsung process, with a die size of 628 mm², represent a large and power-hungry chip — though power figures are not directly measured here, the suggested PSU of 700 W hints at its requirements. In Hard West, the GPU's 10 GB VRAM is never a limiting factor, as the game's textures and geometry are modest by modern standards. Instead, the limiting factor is raw compute throughput, which explains why the GPU's 29.77 TFLOPS and 465.1 GTexel/s texture rate are the key attributes driving the measured frame rates. The data confirms that the RTX 3080 is overqualified for 1080p and 1440p play, but its performance at 4K Ultra is the ceiling for this combo.