Hard West

Hard is a turn-based tactics title, and the measured data for this Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti pairing spans three resolutions and four quality presets. The combo ranks at position 1287 out of 3722 tested combinations for the game, with all frame rates taken from real measurements. In practice, this machine can push well past 120 FPS at 1080p on most presets, but dropping to 4K with Ultra settings leaves it just below comfortable playability at 40 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The frame-rate drop between 1080p and 4K is not uniform across settings, which tells us where the bottleneck sits. The biggest absolute drop happens on Low: 1080p Low produces 172 FPS, 1440p Low drops to 147 FPS, and 4K Low lands at 85 FPS. That means stepping from 1080p to 1440p costs only 25 FPS – about a 15% reduction – while going from 1440p to 4K loses 62 FPS, about 42% of the 1440p figure. The GPU is doing progressively heavier work, but the frame rate stays high enough that the drop is manageable.

The Medium preset paints a similar picture. At 1080p Medium the average is 160 FPS, at 1440p Medium it falls to 132 FPS, and at 4K Medium it lands at 69 FPS. That translates to an 17.5% loss between 1080p and 1440p, then a 47.7% loss from 1440p to 4K. When resolution is quadrupled, the GPU has to render four times as many pixels, so the second big stair is expected and the 69 FPS result shows the RTX 3080 Ti still has enough headroom for an acceptable turn-based strategy experience at 4K.

High settings show a steeper early loss. 1080p High reaches 145 FPS, but 1440p High is only 102 FPS – a 29.7% decline. At 4K High, that number halves to 53 FPS, an additional 48.0% drop. The 4K High result is already below the common 60 FPS target, suggesting that sustained High quality on a 4K monitor requires either turning down other options or accepting 31° FPS jumps? Actually the raw numbers speak for themselves.

Ultra is the most punishing. The jump from 1080p Ultra (120 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (76 FPS) is a 36.7% reduction, and then to 4K Ultra (40 FPS) is another 47.4% loss. Across the full resolution range, Ultra retains only about a third of its 1080p performance – 40 FPS versus 120 FPS. This pattern indicates the GPU becomes the primary limiting component at 4K, while the CPU, with its six cores and six threads, is able to keep up at the lower resolutions but cannot carry the 4K load on its own. The 4K Ultra result of 40 FPS is clearly bound by the GPU’s pixel throughput and the Titan-class GPU is being constrained by the settings rather than the processor.

So if you’re playing on a 1440p or 4K panel, the data shows the scaling curve is dominated by the 12GB GDDR6X memory and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth of the RTX 3080 Ti, and not by the 65 W TDP of the i5-9400. At 1080p the headroom is abundant, which allows the display to run at very high refresh rates, but at 4K you need to drop a preset level to keep the frame rate above 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 brings six physical cores and six threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boosting up to 4.10 GHz. It caches 64 KB L1 and 256 KB L2 per core, with a shared 9 MB L3, and uses dual-channel DDR4 memory at 42.7 GB/s bandwidth. These are modest specs for a 2018-era desktop CPU, and the average benchmark score of 2254 places it at the 47th percentile of all CPUs in the database. In the game’s measured results, the 6-thread/6-core setup appears to be enough to drive the RTX 3080 Ti to triple-digit frame rates at 1080p, but the 1080p Low frame rate of 172 FPS suggests the CPU is the ceiling for raw frame output.

Actually, compare to its nearest CPU rivals by average score to put this in perspective. The Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259 with a 0.2% delta, the Core i7-10710U scores 2248 with a 0.3% delta, the Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 with a 0.4% delta, and the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264 with a 0.4% delta. All four are within half-percent of the i5-9400, meaning the CPU performance cluster around the same compute level. In single-threaded tasks the 9 GHz boost clock delivers a Cinebench R20 single-core score of 392 and an R23 single-core score of 935, while multi-core R20 hits 2784 and R23 reaches 6629. Geekbench reports 5141 multi-core and 1389 single-core. That is enough for turn-based scenes, which rely more on consistent frame pacing than on extreme per-frame CPU crunching.

Looking at the game’s measured performance, there is a clear point where the CPU changes from being sufficient to being a party guest. At 1080p Low the combo produces 172 FPS, which is the second-highest number in the table (only 168? Actually no, 172 is highest). At 1080p Medium the figure is 160, and at 1080p High it is 145. The gap between Low and High is 27 FPS at 1080p, which is about 18% less? Actually 145 out of 172 = 84.3%, so a 15.7% reduction. This is moderate and suggests that the CPU is still keeping up with the GPU headroom even at High. However, when the resolution rises to 4K, the FPS drops to a range of 40 to 85 FPS, and the 6-thread CPU cannot keep all the frame time up to reach the extra 60 frames. The measured frame rates do not include CPU usage, so it is not possible to state the precise CPU load, but the pattern is consistent with a CPU that is reasonably matched to this GPU at 1080p and only begins to throttle at high pixel counts, where the GPU takes over.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is built on the Ampere GA102 chip with 10,240 shading units, 80 RT cores, and 320 tensor cores. Its boost clock reaches 1665 MHz, and it carries 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus with 912.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The card also has 112 ROPs and a pixel fill rate of 186.5 GPixel/s, which all help push the high texture counts and shadow effects of Hard West. The GPU’s average benchmark score, 41187, places it in the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest measured rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 40870 (0.8% delta), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB at 41707 (-1.2% delta), the Tesla M40 at 41897 (-1.7% delta), and the GeForce RTX 5070 at 40377 (2.0% delta). These are all close, but the 3080 Ti is effectively at the top of that cluster in terms of average marks.

Where the GPU really shows up in the game is at the high end. Hard West is not a demanding virtual-reality style title, but at 4K Medium the RTX 3080 Ti delivers an average frame rate of 69 FPS, with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS – a smooth experience for a turn-based tactics game. At 4K Low the average jumps to 85 FPS, which is well above what most turn-based players need. The GPU’s ability to keep the minimum frame time (59 minimum at 4K Medium) close to the average is a good sign for frame pacing, since tactics games with flickering text and menus also depend on stable frame times.

At 1440p the GPU clearly has more to give. The Medium preset produces 132 FPS with a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 152 FPS, meaning the 3080 Ti can sustain well over 60 FPS at quite with a large safety margin. Even at 4K Ultra, the only 4K preset that fails to reach 60 FPS, the actual frame rate is 40 FPS, which is still playable for turn-based mechanics, though the stutter is not ideal for transitions between scenes. The GPU’s role becomes to compress the frame time enough to keep each turn’s camera movement or projectile animation smooth; that requires GPU capacity, and the RTX 3080 Ti provides it for all but Ultra at 4K.

FAQ

Q: Can this i5-9400 + RTX 3080 Ti keep a 4K monitor at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but not on every preset. At 4K Medium the average is 69 FPS, and at 4K Low it is 85 FPS. On High or Ultra the average drops to 53 FPS and 40 FPS respectively, so you need to set the quality to Medium or Low to stay above 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: Which resolution gives the smoothest experience on a 144 Hz monitor?

A: Based on the measured data, 1080p on High or Medium is ideal: High produces 145 FPS and Medium produces 160 FPS, both above 144 FPS. At 1440p, only the Low preset reaches 147 FPS; Medium is 132 FPS and High is 102, so those would not feed a 144 Hz panel fully.

Q: How much does lowering the setting gain at 4K?

A: The 4K frame rate climbs from 40 FPS at Ultra to 53 FPS at High, 69 FPS at Medium, and 85 FPS at Low. That is a 45 FPS difference between Ultra and Low, meaning you get more than double the frame rate if you are willing to run Low at 4K.

Q: Is the CPU too weak to use the full RTX 3080 Ti?

A: At 1080p Low, the CPU produces a measured average of 172 FPS, which is the highest in the dataset and suggests it can still push the GPU to that level, but the CPU’s average benchmark sits at the 47th percentile and its nearest rivals are within ±0.4% in score, so it is not a high-end CPU. At 1080p High and Ultra the frame rates remain above 120 FPS, so the CPU is not a tragic bottleneck; it is the 4K resolution and the GPU that are decisive here.

Q: Is there a single preset that works well at all resolutions?

A: Medium is the most balanced setting. At 1080p it gives 160 FPS, at 1440p it gives 132 FPS with a minimum of 112 FPS, and at 4K it gives 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS. That average is near 60 at 4K, and only starts to drop below 60 at 4K and with High / Ultra. So Medium is the sweet spot for three different monitor types.

Q: How does the GPU compare to the GeForce RTX 5070 in average performance?

A: In the general GPU benchmarks, the RTX 3080 Ti has an average score of 41187 and the nearest rival list includes the RTX 5070 at 40650. The delta is 2.0%, meaning the 3080 Ti is slightly ahead in that particular comparison, but the difference is marginal.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates suggest a clear hierarchy for each of the three resolutions.

• 1080p – For a very high refresh rate panel, the Low preset (172 FPS) is the top option, but Medium at 160 FPS and High at 145 FPS are both excellent and look better while staying well above 120 FPS. Ultra at 120 FPS is still plenty for 120 Hz, but loses 40 FPS compared to Low.
• 1440p – If you have a 144 Hz screen, Low gives 147 FPS, which hits the ceiling. For 120 Hz, Medium (132 FPS) is better than Low because it has FPS headroom and gives a minimum of 112 FPS. High at 102 FPS is fine for 100 Hz or 60 Hz. Ultra is only 76 FPS, so it is best reserved for 60 Hz displays.
• 4K – Medium produces an average of 69 FPS and a minimum of 59 FPS, making it the only preset above the 60 FPS target among the four options. If you want more safety, Low hits 85 FPS, but it removes some visual quality. High (53 FPS) and Ultra (40 FPS) fall short of 60 FPS.

In order words, turning down from Ultra to Medium costs little visually at 1080p but unlocks the biggest FPS improvement at 4K. The data suggests that unless you own a 4K 144 Hz display – which these results show this configuration cannot drive anyway – the best experience comes from Medium at 1440p or 1080p, where the game stays at high frame rates in all measured scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full table from the measurement database is below. Medium rows include both minimum and maximum values; other presets only record average FPS.

| Resolution | Setting | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|---------|---------|---------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 53 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 93 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 69 | 59 | 87 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 80 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | High | 102 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 147 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 132 | 112 | 152 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 76 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | High | 145 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 172 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 160 | 136 | 184 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 120 | — | — |

Note the discrepancies are all zeros. Looking at the 4K column, the Medium preset is the only one that momentarily dips to 59 FPS; at 1440p Medium, the minimum is 112 FPS and maximum is 152 FPS, which is a useful range for understanding frame pacing. At 1080p Medium the range is 136 to 184 FPS, again only presenting a min/max for Medium. These values confirm that turning settings down yields both a higher average and a larger buffer above the minimum drop.

For a turn-based title, playability does not depend on reaching 144 FPS; it requires stable frame delivery during large camera or unit animations. The only row that risks dipping below 60 FPS is 4K Medium, whose min FPS is 59; the 4K High and Ultra averages also fall short, so they are best ignored on this combination if consistent smoothness is the goal.