Hard West

The measured combination of an Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a game-specific performance index of 36 at 4K Ultra, ranking 2164th out of 3722 tested hardware pairs for Hard — a turn-based tactics title that remains CPU-light but heavily GPU-sensitive. Across three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K) and four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), the data set shows a clear scaling pattern: the GPU saturates quickly at high resolutions, while the CPU sustains high frame rates in low‑setting 1080p scenarios. This analysis interprets those numbers within the context of the CPU’s thread-to-core ratio and the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM, then outputs actionable settings guidance based solely on measured frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the core count and boost clock of the processor in this combination?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F uses 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a maximum boost of 5.40 GHz.

Q: How much video memory does the GPU carry?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: At 1080p Medium, what is the average FPS and its typical range?

A: At 1920×1080 Medium the combo is rated at 141 FPS, with a minimum of 120 and maximum of 163.

Q: In the average benchmark, how does the CPU compare to the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X?

A: The i7-14700F average passmark score of 53620 beats the Ryzen 9 7900X’s 53288 by 0.6% (deltaPct 0.6).

Q: At which resolution does the 4K Low setting fall below 60 FPS?

A: At 3840×2160 Low it runs at 57 FPS average; all other 4K presets (Medium 47, High 36, Ultra 27) are worse.

Q: What fraction of the hardware’s potential is unlocked when running Low at 1080p?

A: The 173 FPS average at 1080 p Low outweighs the 141 FPS at Medium by 32 FPS, but both exceed 120 FPS. The jump to Ultra (81 FPS) still keeps a playable margin.

CPU Role

The i7-14700F, based on the Raptor Lake architecture and fabricated on Intel’s 10 nm process, contributes 20 physical cores and 28 logical threads. Its boost clock reaches 5.40 GHz, and all that computing power is packaged into a 65 W TDP. The L2 cache appears on a per-core basis (2 MB per core), while a shared 33 MB L3 cache handles inter-core traffic. In multi-threaded passmark tests, the CPU scores 41317, placing it in the 91st percentile of all tested CPUs. The nearest rival—the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X—has an average score of 53288, a margin of only 0.6% in favor of the i7‑14700F, while the AMD EPYC 7313P sits 0.8% behind.

Because Hard is a turn-based tactics game, its simulation logic and AI pathing depend less on raw core count than on single‑thread performance. The i7‑14700F’s single‑core Geekbench score is 2429, and its Cinebench R23 single‑core result is 4958. At high frame rates (1080p Low produced 173 FPS), the CPU is not the limiting factor. Instead, the CPU becomes relevant when framerate caps are not hit due to the GPU. At 4K Ultra (27 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (52 FPS), the GPU clearly dominates, but CPU stalls could appear only at Settings Low or Medium 1080p, where the GPU starves from low work load and the CPU must handle higher input demand—both measured results remain above 140 FPS, indicating the i7‑14700F readily supplies required single‑thread throughput.

GPU: Memory and Clock

The GPU is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, a Turing architecture chip with 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Its base clock is 1605 MHz with a boost to 1770 MHz, and the memory runs at their effective rate of 14 Gbps across a 256‑bit bus, creating a 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory is a critical factor for High and Ultra settings at 4K, which require beyond 3 GB of VRAM in many titles—Hard West’s measured 4K Ultra FPS of 27 indicates that the GPU’s capacity and fill rate are taxed to its limit.

From a performance percentile standpoint, the RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282. It trails the Intel Arc B570’s average score of 20556 by 1.3%, and the Quadro M4000M by 1.0% (delta‑1.0). At 1080p Low, the GPU provides 173 FPS, but the same GPU at 1440p High drops to 69 FPS, and at 2160p High it is 36 FPS—a clear indicator that the GPU’s memory capacity and arithmetic capability dominate. The 4K Medium result (40–54 FPS) demonstrates that the GPU can manage 4K only at reduced presets, whereas 1440p Medium 90 FPS (frame range 76–103) is solid.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summaries the average frame rates for every measured resolution and preset. The pack only provides avgFPS for all validation rows; min/max values are available for Medium presets:

| Resolution | Settings | avgFPS | minFPS | maxFPS |

|------------|----------|--------|--------|--------|

| 1920×1080 | Low | 173 |— |— |

| 1920×1080 | Medium | 141 | 120 | 163 |

| 1920×1080 | High | 109 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | Ultra | 81 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Low | 109 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Medium | 90 | 76 | 103 |

| 2560×1440 | High | 69 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Ultra | 52 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Low | 57 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Medium | 47 | 40 | 54 |

| 3840×2160 | High | 36 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Ultra | 27 | – | – |

For the 1080p resolutions, the system shows an outlier: Low runs at 173 FPS, Medium at 141 FPS (minimum 120), High 109, Ultra 81. At 1440p, the same settings scale proportionally: Low 109, Medium 90 (76–103), High 69, medium 52, while Ultra 52. At 4K all presets drop below 60 : Low 57, Medium 47 (40–54), High 36, Ultra 27.

The two settings range absolutely raise the niggle: At 1080p the difference between Ultra and Low is 92 FPS, whereas at 4K it is only 30  (from 27 to 57). This is classic GPU-limited behavior—the absolute performance ceiling narrows as the workload grows.

How This Combo Rank

The i7‑14700F + RTX 0207 SUPER appears as a combination rank of 2163 out of 3722 tested entries. That places it in the lower half of all possible builds, but still above the 1558 configurations that rank worse. The percentile context is important: the CPU is the 91st percentile processor and the GPU sits at the 65th percentile, yet the GPU holds the combo’s rank back because of its 8 GB memory and Turing compute does not match modern cards. A logical point of comparison is the closest GPU neighbor—the Intel Arc Å750 with an avg score of 20582 (delta‑1.5%)—but the gag would ignore the CPU’s contribution. In practice, the combination's placement reflects that most higher-ranked pairs use stronger GPUs (e.g., RTX 30 series) rather than stronger CPUs.

From the benchmark data, the RTX 2070 SUPER surpasses only 65% of GPUs, which means the GPU is the weaker link when targeting 4K or Ultra settings. At 1440p Ultra, the combo’s 52 FPS is marginally sufficient for 60Hz, but only if the player dials down to High.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the optimal preset depends on the target display.

• 1080p Display: For a 144Hz monitor, the ideal preset is Medium – it delivers 141 FPS (120–163 range) with a comfortable margin above the refresh. Low’s 173 FPS does not meaningfully improve smoothness, but the visual cost of that jump is and the Ultra’s 81 FPS is only 60‑high, so High 109 FPS is a better 120‑Hz alternative. For 165Hz, Medium is the maximum reliable setting.
• 1440p: The 1440p tier shows that Medium gives 90 FPS (average) with spikes to 103. High at 69 FPS is also within the GSYNC/Freesync range, but Ultra only 52 FPS is the frame pacing below 60. A balance between Medium and High will produce the most stable 70–90 FPS.
• 4K: At 4K all presets are below 60 FPS, with Low at 57, Medium at 47, High at 36, Ultra at 27. If 30 FPS is acceptable for a turn‑based game, Ultra is possible, but 31×240p Medium delivers 47 and keeps the frame range 40–54. For a strict 60  target, none are adequate; the GPU must be upgraded.

In summary, the measured data suggests a default of Medium for 1440p and High for 1080p as the best compromise between fluidity and visual fidelity. For a 60  target at 4K, Low is the only viable preset.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling quantifies the bottleneck: at 1080p High, the combo achieves 109 FPS; moving to 1440p High drops to 69 FPS, a reduction to 63.3% of the 1080 level (a 36.7% loss). Going to 4K High yields 36  (i.e., 52.2% of the 1440p value, a further 47.8% loss). Over the same steps, low previously 173 → 109 → 57 represents a 37% drop to 1440p and then 47.7% to 4K.

That’s the pattern we expect for a CPU‑light‑GPU‑soft title: the coefficient of draw depends almost entirely on the API’s pixel‑filling rate. When the CPU is forced to run 173 fps at 1080p it still has headroom—but the GPU’s 256‑bit bus and 8 GB quickly become the limit, so the performance scaling to 4K closely matches the pixel‑count scaling (4K has exactly 4.3× the pixels of 1080p). The observed 56% drop from 1080p to 4K not only softens, but frames fall consistently, which corroborates the linear relationship between resolution and GPU workload.

In short, the CPU is not limiting at any resolution; the GPU board is the constraining component. The effective “sweet spot” is 1440p Medium or High, while 4K can only be enjoyed at Low. The ranking – 2163rd of 3722 – is consistent with a mid‑range GPU (65th percentile) paired with a high‑end CPU (91th percentile), promising a non‑jacked‑up gameplay like trade of frame rate and resolution, but not high‑refresh 4K.