Hard West

This analysis covers the measured performance of the Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title released in 2015. The data set includes average FPS at three resolutions and four quality settings, along with component benchmark scores and ranking information. The combination ranks 400th out of 1,699 tested combos, placing it in the top 24% of systems. The CPU and GPU both sit in high percentiles individually, and the measured frame rates reflect a well-balanced pairing for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear GPU-bound pattern. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 162.1 at 1920x1080 to 102.3 at 2560x1440, a 36.9% reduction, and then to 53.7 at 3840x2160, a 66.9% drop from 1080p. The same pattern holds across all settings: Low goes from 254.4 to 160.8 (36.8% drop) to 86.8 (65.9% drop), Medium from 211.3 to 135.7 (35.8% drop) to 69.1 (67.3% drop), and Ultra from 119.9 to 78.6 (34.4% drop) to 38.9 (67.6% drop). The consistency of these percentages—roughly a one-third reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a two-thirds reduction from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the GPU is the primary limiter as resolution increases. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the FPS does not drop to a quarter; it drops to about one-third, meaning the GPU still has some headroom at 4K, but the scaling is dominated by the GPU's fill rate and compute capacity. At 1080p, the high frame rates (e.g., 254.4 on Low) suggest the CPU can feed the GPU without bottlenecking, but the GPU still caps the output. The data shows that for this turn-based tactics game, the GPU is the component that determines playable settings at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo holds rank 400 out of 1,699 tested combinations, placing it in the 76.5th percentile of all systems tested. This is a strong result for a game that does not demand extreme hardware. The CPU alone sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. The combination of a high-percentile CPU and GPU yields a top-quartile system for Hard West. The rank reflects the measured FPS across all settings and resolutions, so it is a comprehensive measure of the combo's capability. The fact that the combo outperforms 76.5% of tested systems indicates that most other configurations—likely including lower-end CPUs or GPUs—cannot match the frame rates seen here. The rank also suggests that the i7-14700F and RTX 3080 Ti are well matched for this title, with neither component dragging the other down.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080 Ti features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1365 MHz and boost clock 1665 MHz, with memory clock at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The GPU has 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, along with 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. Its FP32 performance is 34.10 TFLOPS. In Hard West, the GPU's role is evident in the FPS scaling with settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 38.9, indicating the GPU is heavily loaded. At 4K Low, it reaches 86.8 FPS, showing that reducing settings can more than double performance. The GPU's average benchmark score is 41,224, with a percentile of 83. Its nearest rivals in average score are the RTX 3090 (delta -0.5%), Radeon Pro 5300 (-0.9%), RTX 5070 (-1.1%), and Tesla M40 (-1.6%). The 3080 Ti sits just below the RTX 3090 in synthetic benchmarks, but in this game, the measured FPS are what matter. The 12 GB VRAM is ample for Hard West, which is a 2015 title, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The GPU's launch MSRP is 1,199 USD. The high memory bandwidth and compute throughput allow the GPU to maintain playable frame rates at 1440p and even at 4K with medium settings, as the data shows.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 254.4 FPS on Low, 211.3 on Medium, 162.1 on High, and 119.9 on Ultra. All settings exceed 100 FPS, with Low nearly hitting 255 FPS. At 2560x1440, the results are 160.8 (Low), 135.7 (Medium), 102.3 (High), and 78.6 (Ultra). The 1440p Ultra still maintains a playable 78.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, the FPS drops to 86.8 (Low), 69.1 (Medium), 53.7 (High), and 38.9 (Ultra). Only Low and Medium at 4K stay above 60 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: each step up in settings reduces FPS by roughly 20-30% at a given resolution. For example, at 1080p, moving from Low to Medium reduces FPS by 43.1 (254.4 to 211.3), from Medium to High by 49.2, and from High to Ultra by 42.2. At 4K, the differences are 17.7 (Low to Medium), 15.4 (Medium to High), and 14.8 (High to Ultra). The absolute FPS drops are smaller at 4K because the baseline is lower. The 1080p numbers are high enough to support high-refresh-rate displays, while 1440p Ultra is still smooth. For 4K, players would need to use Medium settings to maintain 60 FPS, as the data shows 69.1 FPS on Medium.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F has 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It features 33 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Its TDP is 65 W. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 35,443 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5,003 in single-core, 16,571 in Geekbench multi-core and 2,711 in single-core, and 41,765 in Passmark multithread with a single-thread score of 4,261. The CPU's percentile is 94, meaning it outperforms 94% of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X (delta -0.6%), Ryzen 9 9900X3D (-1.1%), Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (+1.2%), and AMD EPYC 7313P (+1.7%). The CPU's launch MSRP is $359. For Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU load is likely modest. The high boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance, which is important for game logic and AI. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (254.4) suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck, as the frame rate is far above typical display refresh rates. The 20 cores are more than sufficient for this title, and the CPU's performance headroom is evident. The single-thread score of 5,003 in Cinebench R23 indicates that the CPU can handle any per-frame calculations the game requires, while the multi-thread score of 35,443 shows that even if the game were to use multiple threads, the CPU would not be a limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p High settings?

A: The average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 162.1.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Hard West?

A: It ranks 400th out of 1,699 tested combos, placing it in the top 24% of systems.

Q: What is the GPU's memory size and type?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus.

Q: What is the CPU's boost clock speed?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F has a boost clock of 5.40 GHz.

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 38.9.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all CPUs?

A: The i7-14700F is in the 94th percentile, meaning it outperforms 94% of all CPUs.