Hard West

Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015, and the measured performance of the Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 shows a combination that is heavily influenced by the game’s age and the demands of its settings. The data indicates a system capable of delivering high frame rates at mainstream resolutions, but one that faces significant challenges when pushed to maximum quality at 4K. This analysis breaks down the specific roles of the CPU and GPU, the combo’s overall standing, and the detailed FPS measurements that define this pairing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, which provides substantial single-thread headroom for older game engines. In synthetic benchmarks, the chip scores 1136 in 3dmark_single_thread and 5505 in cinebench_r23_singlecore, indicating strong per-core performance that is often more critical for turn-based strategy logic than raw core counts. The processor’s 30 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory further ensure that game data is readily accessible.

For a game like Hard West, which was released several years before this CPU’s 2022 launch, the core count is less of a factor than clock speed and IPC. The benchmark results show the i7-13700K achieves a score of 12412 in 3dmark_max_threads, but the game’s engine likely does not utilize all 24 threads effectively. The measured FPS data suggests that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU is not the primary bottleneck; however, its performance consistency ensures that frame pacing remains stable even when the GPU is under load. The processor’s 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 47282, places it in the top tier of desktop processors, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700KF, is statistically identical with a deltaPct of -0.1%. This indicates that the CPU’s performance headroom is more than sufficient for Hard West’s computational requirements.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is an Ampere-architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. It features 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines. The GPU’s boost clock is rated at 1725 MHz, with a base clock of 1500 MHz, and its memory runs at an effective speed of 14 Gbps. In terms of raw compute, the card delivers 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical specification for Hard West, as the game’s texture-heavy environments and character models can consume significant memory at higher settings, particularly at 4K resolution.

The RTX 3070’s benchmark results show a passmark_g3d score of 22214 and a 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 3162, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, is only 0.9% behind in average benchmark score, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti is 1% behind, according to the deltaPct values. For Hard West, the GPU’s role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings are raised. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 210.4 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to just 32.1 FPS. This scaling pattern points directly to the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute limits being the primary constraint in the most demanding scenarios, especially when the 8 GB VRAM buffer is likely exceeded by Ultra settings at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Hard West, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 780th out of 1699 total combos. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all tested systems, which is a reasonable position for a mid-to-high-end desktop configuration. The rank is not higher because the CPU is overqualified for the task, while the GPU, though capable, is not a top-tier card by modern standards. The combination’s strength lies in its balance at 1440p, where it achieves a High settings average of 84.5 FPS, but it falls short of the top ranks due to its performance collapse at 4K Ultra.

The rank of 780 also reflects that many other tested combos feature more powerful GPUs, such as those with larger memory pools or higher core counts. The i7-13700K’s 93rd percentile CPU ranking suggests that the processor is not holding the system back; rather, the GPU’s 72nd percentile ranking is the limiting factor. In comparison to other combos, this system is likely outperformed by those with RTX 3080 or RTX 3090-class GPUs, but it also outranks many systems with older CPUs or lower-tier GPUs. The data indicates that this combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p and smooth 60+ FPS gaming at 1440p, but it is not optimized for 4K Ultra gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the system delivers excellent results: Low settings produce an average of 210.4 FPS, Medium yields 172.9 FPS, High achieves 134.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 102.7 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is never CPU-bound, and the GPU has ample headroom to maintain high frame rates even at the highest preset. The transition from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a performance reduction of approximately 51%, which is a significant but expected drop given the increased graphical fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but begin to show the GPU’s strain. Low settings average 133.9 FPS, Medium averages 107.2 FPS, High averages 84.5 FPS, and Ultra averages 62.6 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra at 1440p is about 26%, which is a smaller relative decline than at 1080p, but the absolute numbers are lower. At 3840x2160, the system’s limitations become apparent: Low settings average 72.6 FPS, Medium averages 56.5 FPS, High averages 42.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 32.1 FPS. The 4K results show that the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as even Low settings cannot maintain a 90 FPS average, and Ultra falls well below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of this combo reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. From 1080p to 4K at High settings, the average FPS drops from 134.8 to 42.9, which is a 68% reduction in performance. This is a steep decline that underscores the GPU’s inability to handle the increased pixel count and memory pressure at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the drop is from 210.4 FPS at 1080p to 72.6 FPS at 4K, representing a 65% reduction. The similarity in these percentages suggests that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth limits are the primary factors, regardless of the quality preset.

The data also shows that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this scaling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively constant across resolutions, but the observed drops are substantial, indicating that the RTX 3070 is being pushed to its limits. The 8 GB VRAM is likely a contributing factor at 4K Ultra, where texture data may exceed the available memory, causing the GPU to rely on slower system memory. This is evident in the Ultra preset, where the 4K average of 32.1 FPS is barely playable, while the 1080p Ultra average of 102.7 FPS shows that the system is well-balanced at lower resolutions. Ultimately, the resolution scaling analysis indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates with smooth performance, but it is not a viable 4K Ultra solution.