Hard West

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers a playable, though not uniformly smooth, experience in Hard West. The data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the substantial CPU resources remain largely underutilized in this turn-based tactics title. The following analysis breaks down the measured performance across the tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a steep and predictable decline as resolution increases, which is a classic indicator of GPU-bound performance. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 82.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that figure to 49.2 FPS, a reduction of roughly 40%. The jump to 4K is even more punishing, with the average falling to 30.2 FPS, which is a further 39% decline from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern strongly suggests that the GeForce GTX 1070 is the limiting component; the workload per pixel increases dramatically with resolution, and the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are not sufficient to maintain higher frame rates.

The pattern holds across all settings presets. At Low settings, the system achieves 130.5 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 81.4 FPS at 1440p and then to 43.3 FPS at 4K. The consistent halving of performance between 1080p and 4K across different quality levels confirms that the rendering pipeline is saturated by the pixel count rather than by CPU-side game logic. The Ultra preset tells a similar story, with a decline from 57.7 FPS at 1080p to 37.2 FPS at 1440p and finally to 22.5 FPS at 4K. These results indicate that while the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, the GPU’s rendering capabilities are exhausted well before the CPU becomes a bottleneck.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a high-end desktop processor with 20 cores and 28 threads, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its benchmark scores place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating a very strong processor capable of handling demanding workloads. In synthetic tests, it scores 35,443 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5,003 points in single-core, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 16,571. The processor’s boost clock of 5.40 GHz and substantial 33 MB of shared L3 cache provide ample single-threaded performance for game logic.

However, in the context of Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU’s immense parallel processing power is largely irrelevant. The game’s core simulation and AI decision-making typically rely on a limited number of threads, meaning the 20-core count offers no direct benefit. The data supports this; the frame rate scaling is almost entirely dependent on resolution and GPU settings, not on CPU load. The processor’s high single-core score of 5,003 in Cinebench R23 and 2,711 in Geekbench ensures that the primary game thread is never starved, allowing the GPU to operate at its maximum potential when not resolution-limited. The CPU’s role here is to provide a stable, high-frequency foundation that does not introduce frame pacing issues, which the data confirms by showing no unexpected dips that would indicate a CPU bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, based on the Pascal architecture, is the decisive factor in this system’s performance. It features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s. Its base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz, combined with 1,920 shading units, deliver a raw compute throughput of 6.463 TFLOPS. In the PassMark G3D benchmark, it scores 13,498, placing it in the 51st percentile of all GPUs, which indicates a mid-range part in the current landscape.

The benchmark results in Hard West directly reflect the GTX 1070’s capabilities. The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game at all tested settings, as there are no anomalies suggesting texture thrashing. The primary limitation is the raw shading power and memory bandwidth. At 1080p, the GPU is able to keep up with the rendering demands, yielding high frame rates. However, as the resolution increases, the number of fragments to be shaded grows quadratically, and the GTX 1070’s 202.0 GTexel/s texture rate and 107.7 GPixel/s pixel rate become the limiting factors. The low settings at 4K produce 43.3 FPS, which is only marginally better than the 30.2 FPS at High settings, showing that even reducing the quality preset cannot overcome the sheer pixel count at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the system’s performance across twelve distinct configurations.

At 1920x1080, the system performs admirably. Low settings yield an average of 130.5 FPS, providing a very smooth experience. Medium settings reduce this to 107.2 FPS, still well above the threshold for fluid gameplay. High settings drop the average to 82.3 FPS, which is comfortable for most displays. Ultra settings, however, bring the frame rate down to 57.7 FPS, which is the first sign of the GPU struggling but remains playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance cost is significant. Low settings produce 81.4 FPS, which is a substantial drop from the 1080p result. Medium settings yield 65.9 FPS, and High settings fall to 49.2 FPS. Ultra settings at this resolution produce only 37.2 FPS, which is approaching the lower bound of acceptable smoothness for many users.

At 3840x2160, the GTX 1070 is clearly overburdened. Low settings yield 43.3 FPS, which is marginal for a game that benefits from smooth camera panning. Medium settings drop to 35.8 FPS, and High settings fall to 30.2 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K produce a barely playable 22.5 FPS, indicating that this configuration is not suited for 4K gaming at high quality.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination ranks 1428th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the lower portion of the performance distribution, which is consistent with the GPU’s mid-range standing. The CPU is a high-end part that sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU’s 51st percentile ranking drags the overall combo down significantly.

This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU being the bottleneck. The data shows that the CPU is never the limiting factor, as its performance is far above what is needed for this title. The combo’s position relative to other tested systems is determined almost entirely by the GTX 1070’s capabilities. While the CPU contributes a strong foundation, the measured FPS values are a reflection of the GPU’s ability to render the scene. The result is a system that can handle 1080p gaming with high frame rates on lower settings, but struggles to maintain playable performance at 4K or with Ultra settings, ultimately justifying its low rank in the overall database.