Hard West

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination delivers a wide performance envelope in Hard West, ranging from a highly playable 40.3 FPS at 4K Ultra to a blistering 276.8 FPS at 1080p Low. The measured data reveals a system that is almost always GPU-limited at higher resolutions, but which shifts toward CPU-bound behavior at 1080p, where frame rates exceed what the GPU alone would typically sustain. This analysis walks through the measured rows to determine the optimal settings, addressing common questions and breaking down the FPS results by resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate across all four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset produces an average of 127.3 FPS, which is already far above the threshold for smooth gameplay in a turn-based tactics title. Moving down to High raises this to 175.6 FPS, while Medium reaches 224.7 FPS and Low peaks at 276.8 FPS. Because Hard West is a turn-based game where reaction time is less critical than in action genres, the 127.3 FPS at Ultra is arguably the best experience at this resolution, as it provides the highest visual quality without sacrificing responsiveness.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset drops to 84.7 FPS, still comfortably smooth, while High delivers 111.4 FPS and Medium achieves 142.4 FPS. The gap between Medium and High here is notable: a 31 FPS difference, suggesting that the High preset offers a substantial improvement over Medium for a modest performance cost relative to Ultra. For most users at 1440p, the High preset represents the sweet spot, balancing visual detail with a 111.4 FPS average that leaves headroom for demanding scenes.

The 4K results tell a different story. At 3840x2160, Ultra falls to 40.3 FPS, which is playable but noticeably below the 60 FPS target many users prefer. High improves this to 55.3 FPS, while Medium reaches 73.9 FPS and Low hits 90.7 FPS. The data indicates that at 4K, the High preset is the best compromise: it delivers 55.3 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS mark, and the step to Medium only adds 18.6 FPS while reducing visual quality. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire measured set that drops below 50 FPS, making it the least desirable choice unless the user prioritizes maximum detail over frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate measured for this combination?

A: The highest measured average is 276.8 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at 4K compared to 1080p?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 40.3 FPS, which is less than a third of the 127.3 FPS measured at 1920x1080 with the same settings.

Q: Is the system capable of 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, but only with the Medium preset, which averages 73.9 FPS, or the Low preset at 90.7 FPS. The High preset falls just short at 55.3 FPS, and Ultra is well below at 40.3 FPS.

Q: Which resolution shows the smallest performance gap between Low and Ultra?

A: The smallest gap is at 2560x1440, where the difference between Low (176.3 FPS) and Ultra (84.7 FPS) is 91.6 FPS. At 1080p, the gap is 149.5 FPS, and at 4K it is 50.4 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combination ranks 315th out of 1699 tested combos, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations.

Q: Does the data show a linear scaling in FPS as settings are reduced?

A: No, the scaling is not linear. For example, at 1080p, moving from Ultra (127.3 FPS) to High (175.6 FPS) yields a 48.3 FPS gain, but the step from High to Medium (224.7 FPS) yields a 49.1 FPS gain, and from Medium to Low (276.8 FPS) a 52.1 FPS gain, showing diminishing returns as settings are lowered further.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary driver of performance in Hard West, but its role varies significantly by resolution. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s, which is ample for this 2015 turn-based tactics title. The boost clock of 2512 MHz, combined with 6144 shading units, gives the card substantial raw compute headroom, as evidenced by its 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 performance.

At 1080p, the data shows that the GPU is less of a bottleneck. The jump from Ultra (127.3 FPS) to Low (276.8 FPS) represents a 117% improvement, which is substantial but not purely GPU-bound; the CPU's high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6290) helps push frame rates higher. The RTX 5070's 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs in the benchmark database supports its capability here, but the measured FPS at 1080p Low exceeds what the GPU's raw benchmark scores would suggest, indicating that the CPU is contributing to the ceiling.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The 40.3 FPS at Ultra versus 90.7 FPS at Low shows a 125% scaling range, but the absolute numbers are constrained by the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth. The pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s are the relevant metrics here, and the data suggests that at 3840x2160, the RTX 5070 is working near its limits on the Ultra preset. The 12 GB VRAM is not a constraint in this game, as the texture sizes from 2015 are unlikely to exceed even 4 GB, but the sheer pixel count at 4K drives the performance drop.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and RTX 5070 combination ranks 315th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 18.5% of all configurations. This is a strong showing for a mid-to-high-end pairing, though the rank reflects the fact that turn-based tactics games like Hard West are not particularly demanding on modern hardware, and many higher-end combos with newer GPUs or faster CPUs will outperform it.

The CPU itself is a high performer, ranking in the 96th percentile among all CPUs in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score of 70104 places it nearly even with the Intel Core i7-14700K (deltaPct of 0), and slightly ahead of the AMD EPYC 9115 (deltaPct of 0.3). The GPU, meanwhile, ranks in the 83rd percentile, with an average score of 41687, which is close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (deltaPct of 0.6). This combination of a top-tier CPU and a strong GPU results in a combo rank that is better than the GPU's percentile alone would suggest, indicating that the CPU is not holding back the system in this game.

The rank of 315 out of 1699 also implies that there are many combinations that achieve higher frame rates, but the data shows this combo still delivers excellent playability at all tested resolutions except 4K Ultra. The gap between this combo and the top-ranked systems is likely due to newer GPUs with higher memory bandwidth or more shading units, but for the vast majority of users, the measured performance is more than sufficient.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is significant and reveals the limiting component. At the Ultra preset, the average FPS falls from 127.3 at 1920x1080 to 84.7 at 2560x1440 (a 33.5% drop), and then to 40.3 at 3840x2160 (a 52.4% drop from 1440p). This non-linear scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario: as pixel count increases, the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth become the bottleneck, and the performance penalty grows disproportionately.

At the Low preset, the scaling is different. From 1080p (276.8 FPS) to 1440p (176.3 FPS), the drop is 36.3%, and from 1440p to 4K (90.7 FPS), the drop is 48.6%. The fact that the Low preset still shows a steep decline at 4K suggests that even with minimal settings, the pixel count is the dominant factor. However, the 1080p Low result of 276.8 FPS is so high that it indicates the CPU is capable of driving frame rates well beyond what the GPU can sustain at higher resolutions, confirming that the RTX 5070 is the limiting component as resolution increases.

The data also shows that the performance gap between Low and Ultra widens at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the difference is 149.5 FPS (276.8 vs 127.3), while at 4K it narrows to 50.4 FPS (90.7 vs 40.3). This is a classic sign of CPU limitation at 1080p: the CPU can push frame rates higher with lighter settings, but at 4K, the GPU's workload dominates, and reducing settings has a smaller absolute impact.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are: Low 276.8 FPS, Medium 224.7 FPS, High 175.6 FPS, and Ultra 127.3 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent degradation, with the largest single-step drop occurring from High to Ultra (48.3 FPS). This resolution offers the widest range of performance, making it ideal for users with high-refresh-rate displays, as even the Ultra preset clears the 120 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 176.3 FPS, Medium 142.4 FPS, High 111.4 FPS, and Ultra 84.7 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 33.9 FPS, from Medium to High is 31.0 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 26.7 FPS. The nearly uniform step-down suggests that each preset tier has a similar computational cost at this resolution, with the GPU beginning to feel the pressure of the higher pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 90.7 FPS, Medium 73.9 FPS, High 55.3 FPS, and Ultra 40.3 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 16.8 FPS, from Medium to High is 18.6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 15.0 FPS. The relatively consistent drops of roughly 15-19 FPS per tier indicate that the GPU is handling each preset's additional workload similarly, but the absolute values are lower, confirming that 4K is the most demanding scenario. Notably, the High preset at 55.3 FPS is the only configuration besides 4K Ultra that falls below 60 FPS, making it the threshold for smooth playability at this resolution.