Hard West

# Hard West with Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015, presents an interesting benchmark scenario for the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination. The measured frames-per-second data across resolutions and settings reveals a system that is heavily influenced by graphics load, yet the CPU's capabilities still play a role at lower resolutions. This analysis explores how the pairing behaves, where its strengths lie, and what the numbers indicate about the limiting component in this specific game.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, indicating that the RTX 5060 is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 125 FPS at 1920x1080 to 79 FPS at 2560x1440, a 37% decrease. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average drops to 41 FPS, which is a 67% reduction from the 1080p figure. This steep decline suggests that the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus are being saturated as pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 198 at 1080p to 125 at 1440p to 66 at 4K. The percentage drops are 37% and 47% respectively, showing that even at the lowest visual fidelity, the GPU workload grows rapidly with resolution. This is expected for a game from 2015, as it was designed before the era of high-refresh-rate monitors and 4K became mainstream.

At Ultra settings, the drop is even more pronounced: from 93 FPS at 1080p to 59 FPS at 1440p to 31 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 31 FPS is barely playable by modern standards, and the data indicates that the RTX 5060 simply does not have enough raw throughput or memory bandwidth to handle this combination smoothly. The pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are evidently insufficient for 4K Ultra in this title.

The medium preset at 4K shows a minimum FPS of 46 and a maximum of 62, with an average of 54. This range suggests some variance in scene complexity, but the overall trend is clear. The limiting component at 4K is unambiguously the GPU, as the CPU's 14 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock are unlikely to be challenged by a turn-based tactics game, even one with complex lighting effects.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 162 FPS, with a minimum of 138 and maximum of 187. This is a smooth experience that takes advantage of the RTX 5060's capabilities without pushing the GPU to its limits. The 138 FPS minimum ensures that even in heavy scenes, the frame rate stays well above the threshold for comfortable gameplay.

At 2560x1440, Medium delivers an average of 103 FPS, with a minimum of 87 and maximum of 118. This is still highly playable and represents a significant improvement over High settings, which average 79 FPS at this resolution. The 87 FPS minimum is acceptable for a tactical game where precise timing is not critical, making Medium the clear choice for 1440p users.

For 4K, the situation is different. Medium averages 54 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. High settings at 4K average 41 FPS, while Low averages 66 FPS. Given that the game is turn-based, the lower frame rates at High might be tolerable for some players, but the data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is 12 FPS (66 vs 54), while the difference between Medium and High is 13 FPS (54 vs 41). This indicates that Medium is a reasonable compromise, as it maintains a playable average while offering better visuals than Low.

Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution above 1080p. At 1440p, Ultra averages 59 FPS, which is borderline, but the 4K result of 31 FPS is too low for a consistent experience. The data clearly shows that Ultra is designed for lower resolutions or more powerful GPUs.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hard West?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides the highest average FPS (162) while maintaining a minimum of 138 FPS. This resolution also allows for High settings at 125 FPS average, making it the most flexible option.

Q: Is the RTX 5060 capable of running Hard West at 4K?

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 66, and at Medium it is 54. However, High drops to 41 and Ultra to 31, indicating that only Low or Medium presets are viable for consistent performance.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance in Hard West?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has 14 cores and 14 threads with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. In a turn-based tactics game, the CPU workload is generally light, so the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the high frame rates suggest the CPU is not a bottleneck.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations?

A: This combo ranks 1288 out of 2949 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all systems tested.

Q: Does the GPU's memory size matter for this game?

A: The RTX 5060 has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory with a 128-bit bus and 448 GB/s bandwidth. The significant FPS drops at 4K suggest that memory capacity or bandwidth may be a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1288 out of 2949 tested combinations in Hard West, placing it in the lower half of all systems. This ranking reflects the game's age and the fact that modern GPUs are not optimized for a 2015 title. The RTX 5060's percentile versus all GPUs is 72, meaning it outperforms 72% of GPUs in general benchmarks, but its performance in Hard West is less impressive due to the game's specific rendering requirements.

The CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 89, indicating that the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a strong processor by general standards. However, the combo's overall rank in Hard West is likely dragged down by the GPU's performance at high resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 125 FPS on High settings, which is excellent, but the 4K results show that the GPU is not capable of handling the game's demands at that resolution.

The rank of 1288 out of 2949 suggests that there are many other combinations that perform better in this specific title. This could be due to the game's reliance on single-core CPU performance or its preference for older graphics architectures. The data does not include comparisons to specific rival combos, but the GPU's nearest rivals in general benchmarks include the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, which has a deltaPct of 1.2, indicating slightly higher average scores.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed. The GPU has a base clock of 2280 MHz and a boost clock of 2497 MHz, with 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. These specifications are derived from the Blackwell 2.0 architecture on a 5 nm process.

In Hard West, the GPU's role becomes dominant at resolutions above 1080p. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 31, which is a 67% reduction from the 1080p Ultra result of 93 FPS. This steep drop suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth or pixel fill rate is insufficient for the game's demands at high resolutions. The pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are likely the limiting factors.

The GPU's general benchmark scores include a Passmark G3D score of 20891 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 112787. These scores place the GPU in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. However, the game's performance does not scale linearly with these synthetic benchmarks, likely due to the game's age and its reliance on different rendering techniques. The GPU's 8 GB memory is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results indicate that larger memory pools or faster bandwidth would be beneficial.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across 12 configurations. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 198 at Low settings to 93 at Ultra. The Medium preset averages 162 FPS with a minimum of 138 and maximum of 187, while High averages 125 FPS. These numbers indicate that the RTX 5060 is well-suited for 1080p gaming, even with the CPU's 14 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock providing ample processing power.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 125 FPS at Low, 103 FPS at Medium, 79 FPS at High, and 59 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 87 and maximum of 118, showing a consistent performance range. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, with High settings losing 46 FPS (125 to 79) and Ultra losing 34 FPS (93 to 59). This indicates that the GPU is becoming a bottleneck at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 66 FPS at Low, 54 FPS at Medium, 41 FPS at High, and 31 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 46 and maximum of 62, which is a wide range that suggests varying scene complexity. The 4K results show that only Low and Medium settings are playable, with High and Ultra falling below the 45 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay.

The data also reveals that the frame rate scaling is not perfectly linear. From 1080p to 1440p, the High preset drops 37%, but from 1440p to 4K, it drops another 48%. This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth becomes increasingly strained as resolution increases, as the 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus may not be sufficient for the larger framebuffers required at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's TDP is 65 W, making it a power-efficient choice for a desktop system. Its benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14769 and a single-core score of 2085, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs.

In Hard West, the CPU's role is less critical than the GPU's, as the game is turn-based and does not require high frame rates for responsiveness. However, the CPU's performance at 1080p suggests it is not a bottleneck. The average FPS of 198 at Low settings and 162 at Medium indicates that the CPU can easily feed the GPU with enough data to achieve high frame rates. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4516 is robust, which is important for a game that may rely on single-threaded performance for game logic.

The CPU's nearest rivals in general benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, with a deltaPct of 0.1, and the Intel Core i9-13900HX, with a deltaPct of -0.1. These are close scores, indicating that the Ultra 5 235 is competitive with high-end mobile and desktop processors. In Hard West, the CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for the game's AI and turn-based mechanics, which likely do not utilize more than a few threads.

The data does not indicate any CPU-related bottlenecks in Hard West. The frame rates at 1080p are high enough that even a weaker CPU would likely produce similar results. However, the CPU's strong single-core performance and high boost clock ensure that it can handle any potential CPU-bound scenarios, such as complex turn calculations or pathfinding, without causing frame drops. The CPU's 24 MB of L3 cache and DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth also contribute to smooth performance, though these factors are less critical for a game from 2015.