Hard West

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-12700K compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core i7-12700KF?

A: The i7-12700K posts an average benchmark score of 35,287, which is 0.2% lower than the i7-12700KF’s 35,365. The two chips are effectively identical in raw compute performance, with the KF lacking integrated graphics but otherwise matching the K’s core and thread configuration.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1920x1080?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 134 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 63 FPS average. That is a 71 FPS gap, or roughly 53% lower performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B570 better than the Intel Arc A750?

A: The B570’s average benchmark score is 20,556, which is 0.1% lower than the A750’s 20,582. The delta is negligible, placing both GPUs within the same performance tier in synthetic workloads.

Q: What resolution provides the best balance of frame rate and visual fidelity?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo achieves 53 FPS average. This sits above the 30 FPS threshold for playability while maintaining higher visual quality than the Low preset, which reaches 85 FPS but at reduced detail.

Q: How does the i7-12700K rank against all CPUs?

A: The i7-12700K sits in the 84th percentile among all CPUs tested, with a multi-threaded PassMark score of 34,404. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-13600T, scores 35,305, just 0.1% higher.

Q: What is the best preset for 3840x2160 gaming?

A: At 4K, the Medium preset yields 36 FPS average with a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 42 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that maintains an average above 30 FPS, making it the highest playable option at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 25 MB of shared L3 cache. The chip supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory through a dual-channel interface, and its 125 W TDP reflects a desktop-class design aimed at sustained high performance.

In this benchmark database, the i7-12700K achieves an average benchmark score of 35,287, placing it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i5-13600T, scores 35,305, a margin of just 0.1%. The i7-12700KF is 0.2% higher at 35,365, and the i7-13700T is 0.3% higher at 35,403. These deltas are minor, indicating that the i7-12700K sits at a performance plateau where generation and SKU differences yield only single-digit percentage changes.

For turn-based tactics like Hard West, the CPU’s role is less about raw frame-pushing and more about maintaining consistent logic and AI processing. The 12-core, 20-thread configuration provides ample headroom for background tasks, but the game’s results show that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 134 FPS, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently at lower graphical loads. The single-thread score of 1,850.5 in Cinebench R23 indicates strong per-core performance, which matters for game logic that often runs on a few threads.

The i7-12700K’s 3DMark scores reveal scaling across thread counts: 2,065 for 2 threads, 4,011 for 4 threads, 7,202 for 8 threads, and 9,276 for 16 threads. This near-linear scaling suggests the processor handles multi-threaded workloads well, though Hard West’s turn-based nature likely does not fully utilize all 20 threads. The max-thread score of 9,979 shows diminishing returns beyond 16 threads, which is typical for gaming scenarios.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i7-12700K’s performance is tightly clustered. The 0.1% delta to the i5-13600T and the 0.2% delta to the i7-12700KF mean that in real-world gaming, these chips would produce nearly identical results. The data shows that the i7-12700K is not a bottleneck for this GPU, as even at 1080p Low, the frame rate is constrained by the Arc B570 rather than the processor.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is a Battlemage-generation GPU built on TSMC’s 5 nm process, featuring 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. It has 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units, with 18 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base and boost clock of 2500 MHz, paired with 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The B570’s average benchmark score is 20,556, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, scores 20,534, a 0.1% difference. The Intel Arc A750 is 0.1% lower at 20,582, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% higher at 20,662. These deltas indicate that the B570 competes with mid-range mobile and previous-generation desktop parts.

In Hard West, the GPU’s role becomes evident when examining FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 134 FPS, but this drops to 84 FPS at High and 63 FPS at Ultra. At 2560x1440, the same presets yield 85 FPS, 53 FPS, and 40 FPS respectively. At 3840x2160, the numbers fall further: 44 FPS at Low, 28 FPS at High, and 21 FPS at Ultra. This scaling pattern shows that the B570’s 10 GB VRAM and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggle to maintain playable frame rates at 4K with high settings.

The GPU’s PassMark scores provide additional context. The DirectX 11 score of 118 is notably higher than the DirectX 12 score of 72, suggesting that older APIs perform better on this hardware. The G3D score of 14,195 and compute score of 7,281 indicate a mid-range part that excels in rasterization but is not optimized for the latest graphics features. The 2:1 FP16 ratio (23.04 TFLOPS) versus FP32 (11.52 TFLOPS) shows computational headroom for workloads that leverage reduced precision.

The B570’s memory configuration—10 GB at 19 Gbps effective—provides enough bandwidth for 1440p gaming, where the Medium preset delivers 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS. At 4K, the Medium preset’s 36 FPS average with a 31 FPS minimum suggests the memory bus becomes a bottleneck, as the 160-bit interface limits data throughput for higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2,360 out of 2,949 tested combos in Hard West. This places the pairing in the lower-middle tier of the database, roughly in the 20th percentile of all configurations. The rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning, as the CPU is a high-end part that scores in the 84th percentile of all processors.

The CPU’s performance is not the limiting factor, as its 35,287 average benchmark score is only 0.1% to 0.4% lower than its nearest rivals. The GPU’s 65th percentile standing, however, drags the combo down in the rankings. For a turn-based tactics game, this rank is acceptable because the genre does not demand high frame rates; the 4K Medium preset’s 36 FPS average is playable for a game where turns are discrete and reaction time is less critical.

Compared to combos with higher ranks, the data suggests that pairing the i7-12700K with a stronger GPU would yield significantly better results. The CPU has headroom to support faster graphics cards, as evidenced by its multi-threaded PassMark score of 34,404 and 20 threads. The current rank of 2,360 out of 2,949 indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can achieve 84 FPS and 53 FPS at High settings, respectively.

The delta between the combo’s CPU and GPU percentiles—84th for CPU versus 65th for GPU—highlights an imbalance. The i7-12700K is overqualified for the Arc B570 in this game, meaning that users looking to improve performance should focus on GPU upgrades first. The rank also suggests that the combo is not optimized for 4K, where even the Low preset only reaches 44 FPS, a figure that is below the threshold for smooth gameplay in most genres.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and the user’s preference for visual fidelity versus frame rate.

At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 84 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset drops to 63 FPS, still playable but with a 25% performance penalty. The Medium preset offers 110 FPS with a minimum of 93 FPS, making it the best choice for users who want a high refresh rate experience without sacrificing much visual quality. The Low preset at 134 FPS is excessive for most monitors and does not provide a meaningful gameplay advantage in a turn-based title.

At 2560x1440, the High preset yields 53 FPS average, which is acceptable for a tactics game but may feel slightly sluggish for users accustomed to 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 69 FPS with a 59 FPS minimum is the recommended choice, as it maintains smoothness while offering better visual quality than Low. The Ultra preset at 40 FPS is playable but not ideal, and the Low preset at 85 FPS is overly conservative for the visual improvements it sacrifices.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only viable option, delivering 36 FPS average with a 31 FPS minimum. The Low preset at 44 FPS is also playable, but the visual downgrade is significant. The High preset at 28 FPS and Ultra at 21 FPS are below the 30 FPS threshold for comfortable gameplay. For 4K, users should accept Medium settings or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p for a better experience.

The data indicates that the Medium preset provides the best balance of performance and visual quality across all resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 110 FPS; at 1440p, 69 FPS; and at 4K, 36 FPS. This preset also has the most consistent frame pacing, with minimums of 93 FPS, 59 FPS, and 31 FPS respectively, which is important for a turn-based game where camera pans and unit animations should remain fluid.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured FPS values show a clear progression from Low to Ultra. The Low preset achieves 44 FPS average, while Medium drops to 36 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 42 FPS. High falls to 28 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 21 FPS. The 23 FPS difference between Low and Ultra represents a 52% reduction in frame rate, indicating that 4K resolution is too demanding for this GPU at higher quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance improves significantly. Low reaches 85 FPS, Medium hits 69 FPS with a 59 FPS minimum and 80 FPS maximum, High delivers 53 FPS, and Ultra drops to 40 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 45 FPS, or 53%, which mirrors the 4K scaling pattern but at higher absolute values. The Medium preset’s 69 FPS average is the standout result, offering smooth gameplay with moderate visual quality.

At 1920x1080, the combo shows its best performance. Low achieves 134 FPS, Medium delivers 110 FPS with a 93 FPS minimum and 126 FPS maximum, High reaches 84 FPS, and Ultra manages 63 FPS. The 71 FPS difference between Low and Ultra represents a 53% reduction, consistent with the other resolutions. The Medium preset’s 110 FPS average and 93 FPS minimum make it the most robust option for high-refresh-rate displays, while High’s 84 FPS is still more than adequate for standard 60 Hz monitors.

Across all resolutions, the scaling from Low to Ultra follows a consistent pattern: roughly a 50% drop in average FPS when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings. The Medium preset consistently provides the best minimum FPS relative to its average, suggesting that this setting level is where the GPU’s resources are most efficiently utilized. The Ultra preset, by contrast, shows a disproportionate performance cost for the visual improvements it offers, making it the least recommended setting for this combo.