Hard West

The pairing of a six-core, six-thread Intel Core i5-9400 with the mighty NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER presents a fascinating study in bottleneck dynamics within the turn-based tactics title, Hard West. The benchmark data reveals a system where the GPU's immense raw power is frequently restrained by older CPU architecture, yet the game’s engine still manages to deliver exceptionally high frame rates across all tested configurations. This analysis explores the measured FPS data, contextualizes the component roles, and examines how this specific combination ranks among the thousands of tested setups.

FAQ

*Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested systems in Hard West?*

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 + RTX 4080 SUPER combination is ranked 478th out of 1699 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all configurations for this specific game.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is a 0.2% delta over the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (score 53489) and a 2.9% delta over the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (score 52086).

Q: What is the best average frame rate achieved by this combo at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 resolution, the highest average FPS is 171, achieved with the Low settings preset. The Ultra preset still delivers a very playable 133.4 average FPS.

Q: Does the CPU's benchmark score place it above or below its direct rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400's average score of 2305 is slightly above the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300, 0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299, 0.2% delta), but it is 0.6% below the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319).

Q: What is the most demanding configuration tested for this combo?

A: The most demanding scenario is at 3840x2160 (4K) resolution with the Ultra settings preset, which yields an average FPS of 54.2. This is the only tested configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much faster is the GPU at 1080p Low compared to 4K Ultra?

A: The average FPS at 1080p Low (171 FPS) is significantly higher than at 4K Ultra (54.2 FPS), representing a performance drop of over 68% when moving to the highest resolution and settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a behemoth of a graphics card, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. It boasts 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a massive 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The card's compute capabilities are staggering, with 10240 shading units and 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 34245 in Passmark G3D and 6600 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, edging out the Radeon RX 6900 XT by a mere 0.2% average score.

However, the data from Hard West suggests the GPU is not fully utilized at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rate difference between Low (171 FPS) and Ultra (133.4 FPS) is a relatively modest 37.6 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is likely the limiting factor, preventing the GPU from stretching its legs fully. The GPU's true potential begins to show at higher resolutions. At 4K, the gap between Low (109.3 FPS) and Ultra (54.2 FPS) widens dramatically, with a 55.1 FPS difference. This is where the rasterization horsepower and memory bandwidth of the RTX 4080 SUPER come into play, as the increased pixel count and texture detail place a heavier load on the graphics card, allowing it to become the primary bottleneck and demonstrating its raw capability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake-era processor from 2018, featuring 6 cores and 6 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has a 9 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. Its synthetic performance is modest, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125. It sits in the 50th percentile of all CPUs, with its average benchmark score of 2305 being nearly identical to the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% delta).

In the context of Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's single-threaded performance is often more critical than multi-core muscle. While the game is not as demanding as a real-time strategy title, the data reveals a clear CPU limitation at lower resolutions. The fact that the average FPS at 1080p Low (171) does not scale linearly with the GPU's massive headroom suggests the 4.10 GHz boost clock and older architecture are capping performance. The 2.90 GHz base clock, while adequate, highlights the age of the platform. Even at 1080p Ultra (133.4 FPS), the frame rate is nearly the same as the 1440p Ultra result (96.2 FPS) is a larger drop, but the 1080p to 1440p scaling shows the CPU can still push a high number of frames, but the GPU is not the sole limiting factor until 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 1699 tested combinations for Hard West, this specific pairing of the i5-9400 and RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a rank of 478. This placement is notable because it demonstrates that a high-end GPU cannot fully compensate for an older mid-range CPU in this title. The rank reflects the average performance across all settings and resolutions, and while the frame rates are impressive, they are likely held back from the top tier by the CPU's limitations.

Considering the CPU's benchmark profile, which is nearly tied with the Intel Core i3-10305 and only 0.6% behind the Core i7-8809G, we can infer that the system's performance is heavily influenced by this processor's capabilities. The GPU's 88th percentile ranking contrasts sharply with the CPU's 50th percentile, creating an imbalance. This rank of 478 suggests that many systems with more balanced or newer CPU-GPU pairings achieve better overall scores in this game, as the i5-9400 creates a performance ceiling that the RTX 4080 SUPER cannot bypass at lower resolutions, dragging down the average FPS across the test matrix.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across a matrix of resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers excellent performance. The Low preset yields an average of 171 FPS, which is the highest in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 158.2 FPS, High settings reach 142.4 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains a smooth 133.4 FPS average.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains very high but begins to show the impact of increased pixel count. The Low preset produces an average of 149 FPS. Medium settings follow at 135.6 FPS, and High settings deliver 125.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at this resolution still provides a highly playable 96.2 FPS average.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the load shifts decisively to the GPU. The Low settings preset achieves an average of 109.3 FPS, which is still very good. Medium settings drop to 86.7 FPS, and High settings average 70.1 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only configuration that struggles, delivering an average of 54.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience depends heavily on the user's display resolution and preference for visual fidelity. For 1080p displays, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation. The 133.4 FPS average is far above the threshold for smooth gameplay, and it provides the highest level of visual detail without any meaningful performance compromise. The headroom is so vast that even at Ultra, the system is likely CPU-bound, meaning there is no penalty for choosing maximum settings.

For 1440p displays, the Ultra preset remains a viable option with an average of 96.2 FPS. This is an excellent result for high-refresh-rate monitors. If a user prefers to maximize frame rates for a 144Hz or higher display, dropping to High settings yields a 125.8 FPS average, a significant 30.7% increase over Ultra with a likely minor visual trade-off.

At 4K resolution, the situation changes. The Ultra preset's 54.2 FPS average is not ideal for fast-paced action, though it may be acceptable for a turn-based game. To ensure a consistently smooth experience above 60 FPS, the High settings preset is the best choice, offering an average of 70.1 FPS. This provides a good balance between visual quality and performance, making it the recommended configuration for 4K gaming with this hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K provides critical insight into the system's bottleneck. At the Low settings preset, the frame rate drops from 171 FPS at 1080p to 149 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 109.3 FPS at 4K. This represents only a 36% drop in performance from 1080p to 4K. This relatively modest decline suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is the primary limiting factor even at 4K, as the GPU has enough spare capacity to handle the increased resolution without a massive frame rate hit.

The scaling pattern changes dramatically at the Ultra settings preset. The frame rate drops from 133.4 FPS at 1080p to 96.2 FPS at 1440p (a 27.9% drop), and then to 54.2 FPS at 4K (a further 43.7% drop from 1440p). This steeper decline at 4K Ultra indicates that the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. The game's engine, when pushed with maximum texture and shading quality, demands more from the RTX 4080 SUPER's 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth and 10240 shading units. The data clearly shows that the i5-9400 can feed the GPU enough data for high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the raw pixel throughput required at 4K Ultra finally saturates the graphics card, revealing its true performance limits in this title.