Hard West

# Hard West with Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

The pairing of Intel's 24-core Core i9-14900K with NVIDIA's RTX 4060 produces a predictable but instructive split in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. At 1080p, the combination delivers high triple-digit frame rates across most presets, with the CPU's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2262.5) allowing the GPU to stretch its legs. However, the data reveals a system that transitions from CPU-lean at low resolutions to heavily GPU-bound at 4K, where the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus of the RTX 4060 become the primary limiting factors. The measured results show a combo that ranks 2013 out of 3722 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle percentile of all pairings for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck shifts. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 117 FPS at 1920x1080 to 74 FPS at 2560x1440, then down to 39 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and another 47% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, and the steep decline at 4K indicates the RTX 4060 is running out of pixel throughput headroom despite its 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 compute.

Looking at Low settings, the pattern is even more revealing. At 1080p Low, the system hits 186 FPS, which drops to 118 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 62 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is actually lower than the 1440p Medium result (96 FPS) and barely above the 4K Medium result (51 FPS), suggesting that even with reduced graphics load, the memory bandwidth constraint (272.0 GB/s) and the 128-bit bus width create a hard wall at higher pixel counts. The game is clearly not CPU-limited at 4K, as the i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads are more than sufficient for a turn-based tactics title; instead, the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the dominant factor.

The scaling pattern between Medium and High at each resolution is also telling. At 1440p, Medium produces 96 FPS while High produces 74 FPS, a 23% penalty for the quality increase. At 4K, the same settings gap widens: 51 FPS vs 39 FPS, a 24% penalty. This consistency suggests that the graphics preset changes are affecting GPU workload proportionally across resolutions, but the absolute numbers at 4K are too low for smooth gameplay in any mode above Low. The Ultra preset at 4K yields only 29 FPS, which is a clear indication that this combination is not viable for maximum quality at 4K in Hard West.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves at 4K, and at what settings?

A: The highest 4K result is 62 FPS at Low settings. Medium drops to 51 FPS, High to 39 FPS, and Ultra to 29 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its closest rival in GPU benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 17639. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 7790, scores 17666, which is -0.2% relative deltaPct. The AMD Radeon 780M is 0.3% lower, and the AMD Radeon Pro 560 is 0.5% lower.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 1080p Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the system hits 152 FPS with a min FPS of 129 and max of 175. Given that the i9-14900K has strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2262.5) and the GPU is a mid-range part (percentile 61 vs all GPUs), the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations for Hard West?

A: This combination ranks 2013th out of 3722 tested combos, putting it in the 54th percentile of all pairings.

Q: What is the RTX 4060's memory configuration?

A: The RTX 4060 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s and a memory clock of 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective).

Q: How does the i9-14900K compare to its nearest rival in CPU benchmark score?

A: The i9-14900K has an average benchmark score of 79097. The Intel Core i9-14900KF scores 79371, a delta of -0.3%. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is -0.6% lower, and the AMD EPYC 7413 is -1.2% lower.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the best balance for this combination. At 1080p, Medium delivers 152 FPS with a min of 129 FPS and a max of 175 FPS, which is a solid margin above the 60 FPS threshold and leaves headroom for any scene complexity spikes. At 1440p, Medium still holds 96 FPS with a min of 82 FPS, which is playable and visually more detailed than Low. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 35 FPS (152 to 117), which is a 23% penalty for what is likely a modest visual upgrade in a turn-based game. Similarly, at 1440p, High (74 FPS) is still above 60, but the margin is thinner.

Low settings are the only viable option at 4K, producing 62 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a game where you might want to see the details of the supernatural Western environments. The Ultra preset is the least recommended: it only produces 88 FPS at 1080p, 55 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, with the 4K result being a significant drop from the 60 FPS target. Given that the game is a turn-based tactics title, frame rates above 60 FPS are less critical than in real-time genres, but the data shows that Medium at 1440p offers the best combination of visual fidelity and smoothness without leaving performance on the table.

For players with a 1080p monitor, High is a reasonable choice at 117 FPS, but Medium at 152 FPS offers a much larger buffer for any scene complexity. At 1440p, Medium is the clear sweet spot, as High at 74 FPS is acceptable but leaves less headroom for potential dips. At 4K, only Low is recommended, as Medium at 51 FPS and High at 39 FPS are below the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely, as it only delivers 29 FPS at 4K, which would be a poor experience for any game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2013 out of 3722 places this pairing in the lower half of all tested combinations for Hard West. That position is a direct reflection of the GPU's mid-tier standing: the RTX 4060 has a percentile of 61 among all GPUs, meaning 39% of GPUs are faster, while the i9-14900K is in the 95th percentile among all CPUs. The rank is not a measure of the CPU's capability—the i9-14900K is a top-tier processor with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39399.5—but rather an indication that the GPU is the performance limiter in this game, and the 4060 is a mainstream part. The rank is dragged down further by the fact that many combinations tested with Hard West likely include stronger GPUs paired with weaker CPUs, and the game's turn-based nature does not stress the CPU heavily, so the i9-14900K's 24-core advantage is not fully leveraged.

The rank of 2013rd means that 1709 combinations produced better results in this game. This is not a surprising outcome for a 2015 title running on a 2023 GPU, but it does indicate that the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are not sufficient for 4K Ultra settings, which only produce 29 FPS. The i9-14900K's high single-core performance (Geekbench single-core of 2655) ensures that the CPU is never the limiting factor, but the GPU's performance in this game is below the level of many other combos. The rank is also a reflection of the GPU's overall benchmark score: 17639 average, which is 61st percentile, versus the CPU's 95th percentile. In Hard West, the combo's rank is determined by the GPU, and the 4060 is a mid-range part.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060's role in Hard West is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 128-bit memory bus, the GPU has a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but insufficient for 4K at higher presets. The memory clock is 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective), and the 8 GB capacity is likely not fully exhausted at 1080p, but at 4K Ultra, the combination of texture data and geometry can stress the memory subsystem. The GPU's base clock is 1830 MHz with a boost clock of 2460 MHz, and it has 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p, but at 4K, the pixel workload becomes heavy.

The benchmark results show that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K, where even Low settings only yield 62 FPS, a drop of 124 FPS from the 1080p Low result (186 FPS). That 67% reduction in frame rate at 4K is not proportional to the pixel count increase (4x), which indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth is the constraining factor. The 128-bit bus is a known limitation of this class of GPU, and in a turn-based game with static scenes, the GPU is still required to render full frames, and the pixel throughput is the limit. The GPU's 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 compute is not fully utilized because the memory bandwidth is insufficient to feed the compute units at 4K.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 17639 is close to that of the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666), which is a much older GPU, indicating that the RTX 4060 is not a high-end performer in synthetic tests. Its percentile of 61 places it in the mid-range, and in Hard West, it is the reason why the combo ranks 2013rd. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is also a consideration: while not likely fully used in this 2015 game, the memory bus width is the more critical factor for the 4K performance degradation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo's performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low at 186 FPS, Medium at 152 FPS (min 129, max 175), High at 117 FPS, and Ultra at 88 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 98 FPS, indicating that the GPU has significant headroom at 1080p even at the highest settings. The minimum FPS for Medium at 1080p is 129, which is above the 60 FPS target, and even the Ultra preset at 88 FPS is smooth.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low at 118 FPS, Medium at 96 FPS (min 82, max 111), High at 74 FPS, and Ultra at 55 FPS. The Medium preset's min of 82 FPS is still above 60, but the Ultra preset at 55 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold. The drop from Low to Medium is 22 FPS, from Medium to High is 22 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 19 FPS, showing a consistent scaling pattern. At 4K, the results are: Low at 62 FPS, Medium at 51 FPS (min 43, max 58), High at 39 FPS, and Ultra at 29 FPS. The Medium preset has a min of 43 FPS, which is well below 60, and the Ultra preset's 29 FPS is not playable for most users.

The measured data shows that the performance is always GPU-bound at 4K, and the CPU's role is minimal. The i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads are not a factor at any resolution, as the game is not multithreaded in a way that leverages more than a few cores. The FPS differences between settings are consistent across resolutions, which indicates that the settings preset changes are GPU-heavy. The 1080p Low result of 186 FPS is the highest measured, and the 4K Ultra result of 29 FPS is the lowest, representing a 6.4x difference in performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core processor with 32 threads, a base clock of 3.20 GHz, and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its architecture is Raptor Lake-R on a 10 nm process, and it has a 36 MB L3 cache. In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is relatively minor, as the game's workload is primarily GPU-oriented. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2262.5, Geekbench single-core of 2655) ensures that it is not a bottleneck at any resolution. The measured FPS at 1080p Low of 186 FPS is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, but the GPU is still the limiting factor, as the CPU's single-core performance is high.

The CPU's multicore performance is extreme, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39399.5, but Hard West is not a game that uses many cores. The 24-core design is overkill for this title, but it does not hurt performance. The CPU's percentile rank of 95 indicates that it is faster than 95% of all CPUs, and its nearest rival is the Intel Core i9-14900KF with a delta of -0.3%. The CPU's average benchmark score of 79097 is slightly lower than the AMD EPYC 7413's score of 80041, but that is a server-class CPU. The i9-14900K's boost clock of 6.00 GHz is the highest clock speed among the rivals, which helps in single-threaded workloads.

In the context of Hard West, the CPU's role is to ensure that frame times are consistent, and the 6.00 GHz boost clock is sufficient to keep the frame times low. The CPU's 32 threads are not utilized, but the game's turn-based nature means that the CPU is not under stress during combat scenes. The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is a GPU-dependent pattern. The i9-14900K's L3 cache of 36 MB is ample for the game's data, and its 10 nm process node is efficient. The CPU's launch MSRP is $589, but that is not a factor in the performance analysis.