Hard West

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread desktop processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process node. It operates at a 3.20 GHz base clock and can boost up to 6.00 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The processor includes a substantial cache hierarchy: 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus, and it is unlocked for overclocking.

In synthetic workloads, the i9-14900K posts strong numbers: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and a single-core score of 7040, a Geekbench multi-core score of 20370, and a PassMark single-thread score of 4697. Its average benchmark score is 79824, which places it in the 97th percentile among all CPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7413, scores 80041, a delta of -0.3% relative to the i9-14900K; the Intel Core i9-14900KF trails by 0.7%, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF and 265K are also within 0.9% of this processor's average score.

For a turn-based tactics title like Hard West, the CPU's raw throughput is rarely the primary limiter. The game's logic, AI pathfinding, and turn resolution are typically light on multi-threaded demand. The i9-14900K's high single-core boost of 6.00 GHz and its Cinebench R15 single-core score of 709 indicate that it can handle any single-threaded bottleneck the game might present. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the measured average FPS is 145.2, which is well above any threshold where CPU-bound behavior would manifest. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly stressed, the CPU's performance headroom remains irrelevant to the frame rate outcome. The processor's 97th percentile ranking confirms it is far more capable than what this game's engine can leverage, making it a non-factor in the measured results.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is a Turing-architecture GPU built on TSMC's 12 nm process, featuring 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die. It has 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, along with 30 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). It is equipped with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its peak FP32 throughput is 6.451 TFLOPS, and the pixel rate is 80.64 GPixel/s.

The RTX 2060's average benchmark score is 16074, placing it in the 58th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7600S with an average score of 15996 (a delta of 0.5% from the RTX 2060) and the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700, both scoring 16351 (a delta of -1.7%). The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15786, which is 1.8% behind the RTX 2060. In DirectX 12 PassMark tests, the card scores 53, while its G3D score is 14111, and its GPU compute score is 5488.

In Hard West, the RTX 2060 is the limiting component across most settings and resolutions. The game's 2D, sprite-based art style and turn-based presentation do not demand the latest rendering features, but the GPU's modest VRAM capacity of 6 GB and its mid-range compute throughput directly dictate frame rates. The measured FPS spread across settings at a given resolution shows a clear pattern: from Low to Ultra, the average FPS drops consistently. At 1080p, the drop from 145.2 FPS on Low to 67.5 FPS on Ultra is a 53.5% reduction, indicating that the GPU is scaling with the increased shader and texture load. At 4K, the same comparison yields 49.3 FPS on Low versus 20.8 FPS on Ultra, a 57.8% reduction. This behavior is consistent with a GPU that is nearing its limits as resolution and settings increase, rather than a CPU or memory bottleneck.

FAQ

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

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 93.0, which sits between the Medium result of 119.8 and the Ultra result of 67.5.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 2060's average benchmark score is 16074. The AMD Radeon RX 7600S scores 15996, which is 0.5% higher, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 both score 16351, which is 1.7% lower than the RTX 2060's score.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo achieve its lowest measured FPS?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 20.8, achieved at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is 12.1 FPS below the next lowest result, which is 32.9 at 4K High.

Q: What is the CPU's single-core performance indicator?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K has a Cinebench R15 single-core score of 709 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040. Its PassMark single-thread score is 4697, and it boosts to 6.00 GHz.

Q: How much FPS is gained by moving from 1440p to 1080p at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS at 2560x1440 is 57.6, and at 1920x1080 it is 93.0. The difference is 35.4 FPS, which represents a 61.5% increase when dropping from 1440p to 1080p.

Q: Does the GPU's VRAM capacity appear to affect results in this game?

A: The RTX 2060 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 20.8, while 4K High is 32.9, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth and capacity are under heavy load at high resolutions, though no explicit VRAM usage data is provided in the measurements.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings tiers (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), with average FPS values only (no min or max values were recorded). The results show a consistent scaling pattern across the board.

At 1920x1080, the lowest settings yield the highest frame rates: Low produces an average of 145.2 FPS, Medium drops to 119.8, High comes in at 93.0, and Ultra falls to 67.5. The spread from Low to Ultra is 77.7 FPS, with each step up in settings costing a significant chunk of performance. The difference between Low and Medium is 25.4 FPS, between Medium and High is 26.8 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 25.5 FPS. This near-uniform decrement suggests a linear scaling of GPU load across these settings at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the same settings order yields: Low at 91.1 FPS, Medium at 76.2, High at 57.6, and Ultra at 41.9. The total drop from Low to Ultra is 49.2 FPS. The absolute gaps are smaller than at 1080p, but the relative cost of each settings tier remains similar. Low to Medium costs 14.9 FPS, Medium to High costs 18.6 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 15.7 FPS. At this resolution, even Low settings fail to reach 100 FPS, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the resolution pressure.

At 3840x2160, the results are markedly lower across the board: Low averages 49.3 FPS, Medium drops to 37.4, High comes in at 32.9, and Ultra falls to 20.8. The spread from Low to Ultra is 28.5 FPS. The settings scaling shows Low to Medium costing 11.9 FPS, Medium to High costing 4.5 FPS, and High to Ultra costing 12.1 FPS. The relatively small gap between Medium and High at 4K suggests that the GPU is hitting a memory bandwidth or ROP limit that makes the difference between those two settings less impactful than at lower resolutions.

The combo ranks 1354th out of 1699 total combinations for this game, placing it in the lower third of potential hardware pairings. This ranking is consistent with the measured FPS, which only exceeds 60 FPS at 1080p for Low, Medium, and High settings, and at 1440p for Low settings only.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 93.0 to 57.6, a 38.1% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the FPS falls from 57.6 to 32.9, a 42.9% reduction. The total drop from 1080p High to 4K High is from 93.0 to 32.9, a 64.6% decrease in frame rate.

At Low settings, the scaling is similar but with higher absolute values: 1080p Low produces 145.2 FPS, 1440p Low yields 91.1 (a 37.2% drop), and 4K Low results in 49.3 (a 45.9% drop from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 66.0%. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 67.5 at 1080p, 41.9 at 1440p (a 37.9% drop), and 20.8 at 4K (a 50.4% drop from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 69.2%.

The pattern across all settings is that the FPS penalty of going from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 37-38%, while the penalty from 1440p to 4K is larger, ranging from 42.9% at High to 50.4% at Ultra. This increasing penalty at higher resolutions indicates that the RTX 2060's memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s and its 48 ROPs are becoming progressively more saturated as the pixel count rises. The 6 GB VRAM buffer is also under pressure at 4K, particularly at Ultra settings where the frame rate falls to 20.8 FPS.

The data shows that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this scaling. The i9-14900K's single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040) is more than sufficient to feed the GPU at any resolution. The FPS drops are proportional to the pixel count increase, which is a hallmark of GPU-bound rendering. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU could theoretically become a bottleneck with a weaker processor, the i9-14900K's 6.00 GHz boost clock and high single-thread scores ensure that the GPU remains the constraint. The measured results at 4K Ultra, with a sub-30 FPS average of 20.8, confirm that the RTX 2060 is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.