Hard West

# Hard West Performance Analysis: Intel Core i7-13700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The benchmark data for Hard West with the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination reveals a title that scales predictably with resolution and settings, though with some notable behavior at the extremes. This turn-based tactics game, released in late 2015, presents a workload that the modern hardware handles with substantial headroom, yet the measured frame rates across four settings presets and three resolutions show distinct patterns worth examining. The combo ranks 18th out of 2,949 tested configurations, placing it in the top 0.6% of all recorded systems, which aligns with the CPU's 89th percentile standing among all processors and the GPU's 92nd percentile among all graphics cards.

Resolution Scaling

Examining how frame rates drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the relationship between the CPU and GPU in this workload. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 249 at 1920x1080 to 158 at 2560x1440, then to 83 at 3840x2160. This represents a 36.5% reduction moving from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 47.5% reduction moving from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K is 66.7%, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises.

The Low settings preset shows a similar pattern but with even steeper relative declines. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 307 FPS, falling to 251 at 1440p (an 18.2% reduction) and then to 131 at 4K (a 47.8% reduction from 1440p). The total decline from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 57.3%, which is less severe than at High settings. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is more involved in maintaining high frame rates, and the GPU bottleneck becomes more pronounced only at 4K.

For Medium settings, the measured averages are 286 FPS at 1080p, 205 at 1440p, and 108 at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 28.3%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 47.3%. The Ultra preset delivers 187 FPS at 1080p, 118 at 1440p, and 62 at 4K, with reductions of 36.9% and 47.5% respectively. Across all settings, the 1440p-to-4K transition consistently produces roughly a 47-48% reduction, which points to a stable GPU-bound scaling relationship at higher resolutions.

The data indicates that 1080p performance is largely CPU-limited, as evidenced by the relatively small gaps between Low and High settings at that resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (307 FPS) and High (249 FPS) is only 18.9%, while at 4K, the same comparison shows a 36.6% gap (131 vs 83 FPS). This widening delta at higher resolutions confirms that the RTX 5090 D's rendering workload scales with both resolution and settings, while the i7-13700K provides sufficient throughput to avoid becoming the primary constraint until very high frame rates are demanded.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hard West?

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 at High settings provides 158 FPS average, which is well above display refresh rates for most monitors. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 62 FPS, which is still playable but noticeably lower. The 1440p High configuration offers a strong balance between visual quality and performance.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB VRAM affect Hard West performance?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is far beyond what Hard West requires, given its 2015 release. The benchmark data shows no signs of memory-related performance degradation at any resolution or settings combination, meaning VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in this game.

Q: Is the i7-13700K a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 D in this game?

A: At 1080p, the data suggests some CPU limitation, as frame rates cap around 307 FPS at Low settings despite the GPU's capabilities. However, at 1440p and 4K, the frame rates scale consistently with resolution, indicating the CPU provides adequate throughput for these workloads. The CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads with a 5.40 GHz boost clock appear sufficient for Hard West's turn-based mechanics.

Q: What performance difference exists between Medium and High settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Medium settings deliver 108 FPS average (with 92 min and 124 max), while High settings deliver 83 FPS average. This 30.1% improvement from High to Medium represents a substantial gain, making Medium a strong choice for 4K gameplay if higher frame rates are preferred.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings produce 158 FPS average, while Ultra produces 118 FPS. The 25.3% reduction moving from High to Ultra may not justify the visual gains, depending on the user's preference for frame rate over graphical fidelity.

Q: Does the game show stable frame times across settings?

A: Only the Medium preset includes min and max FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the range spans 243 to 329 FPS around a 286 average. At 1440p Medium, the range is 174 to 236 around 205. At 4K Medium, the range is 92 to 124 around 108. These ranges suggest consistent frame pacing with no severe stuttering indicated.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, provides overwhelming compute resources for a 2015 turn-based tactics title. The GPU's 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines deliver a theoretical FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS. The boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz represent the operating frequencies during benchmark execution.

Memory bandwidth plays a significant role in higher-resolution rendering. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which at 4K resolutions helps maintain the 83 FPS average at High settings. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s support the rendering workloads demanded by Hard West's visual environments without becoming limiting factors.

The GPU's benchmark scores reflect its positioning: a Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,915 and OpenCL score of 310,674 indicate strong compute capabilities. These figures place the GPU in the 92nd percentile among all graphics cards, though the nearest rival comparisons show the RTX 5090 D trailing the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT by 1.6% and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 2.4% in average benchmark scores, while leading the RX 6650M XT by 1.1%.

In Hard West specifically, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at 4K resolution. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (62 FPS) versus 4K Low (131 FPS) shows a 52.7% performance difference, demonstrating that the game's visual effects at Ultra settings substantially increase the GPU workload. The 4K Medium result of 108 FPS, with a minimum of 92 and maximum of 124, indicates that even at this high resolution, the GPU maintains frame rates well above 60 FPS for the Medium preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range was tested. Low settings produce an average of 307 FPS, Medium delivers 286 FPS (with a minimum of 243 and maximum of 329), High achieves 249 FPS, and Ultra reaches 187 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 120 FPS, representing a 39.1% reduction from the lowest to highest quality preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured averages are 251 FPS at Low, 205 FPS at Medium (min 174, max 236), 158 FPS at High, and 118 FPS at Ultra. The reduction from Low to Ultra at this resolution is 133 FPS, or 53.0%, showing that the settings impact grows with resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 131 FPS at Low, 108 FPS at Medium (min 92, max 124), 83 FPS at High, and 62 FPS at Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra gap here is 69 FPS, or 52.7%, maintaining a similar proportional difference to 1440p. The 4K Ultra result of 62 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that users seeking 60+ FPS at 4K should opt for High settings or lower.

Comparing across resolutions for each settings tier, the High preset shows the largest absolute drop from 1080p to 4K at 166 FPS (249 to 83). The Low preset drops by 176 FPS (307 to 131), Medium by 178 FPS (286 to 108), and Ultra by 125 FPS (187 to 62). These figures indicate that the Medium preset experiences the greatest absolute performance loss when scaling to 4K, while Ultra shows the smallest absolute change due to its already lower 1080p baseline.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal configuration depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p displays, all settings presets deliver well above 144 FPS, with even Ultra achieving 187 FPS average. The Medium preset at 1080p provides 286 FPS with a minimum of 243, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors up to 240 Hz. High at 1080p offers 249 FPS, which still exceeds most display capabilities, while Ultra at 187 FPS remains viable for 144 Hz panels.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 158 FPS average, which comfortably supports 144 Hz displays. Medium at 205 FPS provides additional headroom for 165 Hz or 240 Hz monitors, though the visual difference may not be substantial. Ultra at 118 FPS remains above 60 FPS and could be chosen for maximum visual quality on 120 Hz panels. Low at 251 FPS is unnecessary for typical displays but demonstrates the hardware's capability.

For 4K, the High preset at 83 FPS offers a good balance for 60-90 Hz displays, while Medium at 108 FPS supports 100 Hz panels. Ultra at 62 FPS barely exceeds 60 FPS and may exhibit occasional dips, as suggested by the pattern of minimum FPS being roughly 15% below average in the Medium data. The Medium preset's measured minimum of 92 FPS at 4K indicates that even this setting maintains comfortable margins above 60 FPS.

The data suggests that High settings at 1440p provide the best overall experience for most users, combining 158 FPS average performance with presumably higher visual fidelity than Medium. For 4K users, High settings at 83 FPS is recommended over Ultra, as the 25.3% performance improvement from Ultra to High likely outweighs the visual differences in a turn-based tactics game where smooth camera movement benefits from higher frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K, with its 16 cores (8 performance and 8 efficiency) and 24 threads, provides substantial processing capability for Hard West. The CPU's 3.40 GHz base clock and 5.40 GHz boost clock, combined with 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core, deliver strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The 3DMark scores show a progression from 1,136 single-thread to 12,412 max-threads, indicating effective scaling across cores.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-13700K achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 30,745 and single-core score of 2,116. The Geekbench multicore score of 19,429 and single-core score of 2,529 further confirm its capabilities. The Passmark multithread score of 45,887 and single-thread score of 4,333 place the CPU in the 89th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 46,881.

The nearest rival comparisons show the i7-13700K trailing the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 by 0.3%, while leading the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX and Intel Xeon w3-2535 by 0.5% each. These minuscule differences indicate that the CPU's performance is competitive with other high-end processors, though none of these rivals were tested with the same GPU configuration in this game.

For Hard West specifically, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at resolutions above 1080p. The evidence lies in the scaling behavior: if the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect frame rates at 1080p to cap at similar values across settings, but instead we see a 120 FPS difference between Low and Ultra. However, at 1080p Low, the 307 FPS ceiling suggests the CPU does impose some upper bound, as this is an exceptionally high frame rate for any game. The turn-based nature of Hard West means that AI calculations and game logic may run between turns rather than continuously, reducing the CPU load during active gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 18th out of 2,949 tested configurations for Hard West, placing it in the top 0.6% of all recorded systems. This ranking is consistent with the individual component standings: the CPU at the 89th percentile and the GPU at the 92nd percentile among their respective categories.

The ranking suggests that while this combo is exceptionally fast, there are 17 other configurations that achieve higher frame rates in this game. Given the CPU's nearest rivals show performance differences of less than 0.5%, the ranking differentiation likely comes from the GPU side or from combinations with slightly more favorable CPU-GPU pairings. The GPU's nearest rivals, including the RX 6850M XT and Tesla P100 variants, show score differences of 1-2%, which could account for the ranking variation.

For context, the combo's 4K High result of 83 FPS and 1440p High result of 158 FPS demonstrate that this system is capable of high-refresh-rate gameplay even at demanding resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 62 FPS shows that maximum settings at 4K are achievable, though with minimal headroom. The 1080p results, exceeding 300 FPS at Low settings, indicate that for competitive or high-refresh-rate scenarios, this combo provides exceptional performance.

The rank of 18 out of 2,949 also implies that the vast majority of tested systems deliver lower performance, making this a top-tier configuration for Hard West. The combination of a strong 13th-gen Intel CPU with the latest Blackwell GPU architecture ensures that neither component becomes a limiting factor in this turn-based tactics title, except at the most extreme settings combinations.