Hard West

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the Intel Arc B390 delivers playable performance in Hard West only when settings and resolution are carefully managed. The data shows a turn-based tactics title that is far more demanding on the GPU than the CPU, and the Arc B390’s modest compute capabilities become the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The measured frame rates indicate that players should prioritize frame rate stability over visual fidelity, as the gap between Low and Ultra presets is substantial across all tested resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combo strongly suggests that the Low preset is the only reliable choice for a smooth experience at 1080p and 1440p. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 87 FPS, which is the highest score recorded in the entire dataset. This represents a 49% improvement over the High preset at the same resolution, which averages 55 FPS, and a 112% improvement over Ultra, which averages 41 FPS. The Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended starting point for most players.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset still delivers a respectable 55 FPS average, which is borderline playable for a turn-based game where twitch reflexes are not required. However, the Medium preset at 1440p drops to 45 FPS, and High falls to 35 FPS. For players who prefer higher visual quality, the Medium preset at 1440p offers a reasonable compromise, but the data indicates that the performance delta between Low and Medium is 18%, while the jump from Medium to High is another 22% loss. The Ultra preset at 1440p should be avoided entirely, as it averages only 26 FPS.

At 4K (3840x2160), the situation becomes untenable for all presets. The Low preset averages 29 FPS, which is technically playable for a turn-based game but far from smooth. The Medium preset drops to 24 FPS, High to 18 FPS, and Ultra to 14 FPS. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo is not a viable option, regardless of settings. Players with 4K displays should either run the game at a lower resolution or accept that the experience will be sub-30 FPS.

The Medium preset at 1080p deserves a mention as an alternative, averaging 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS. This configuration provides a smoother experience than High at the same resolution while offering better visuals than Low. However, given that Hard West is a turn-based tactics game where visual clarity is not critical for gameplay, the performance headroom offered by the Low preset makes it the most pragmatic choice. The data clearly shows diminishing returns on visual quality as settings increase, with the Ultra preset costing 53% of the Low preset’s performance at 1080p.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the clear limiting factor in this combo, and its specifications explain the measured frame rates. The GPU features a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output pipelines. The architecture is Xe3-LPG on a 3 nm process, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, indicating that it is a low-end part.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all NVIDIA products, with the GeForce GT 520MX scoring 1463 (1.3% higher), the GeForce 800M scoring 1460 (1.5% higher), the GeForce GT 625 OEM scoring 1446 (2.5% higher), and the GeForce GT 710 scoring 1443 (2.7% higher). These deltas are minimal, confirming that the Arc B390 sits at the very bottom of the performance spectrum. The GPU’s memory configuration is listed as "System Shared," meaning it relies on the CPU’s DDR5 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This shared memory architecture is a significant contributor to the performance degradation at higher resolutions, as the system memory bandwidth becomes a bottleneck.

The GPU’s FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s are modest figures that align with the measured FPS. In Hard West, the GPU’s limited rasterization and shading capabilities are exposed at 4K, where even the Low preset cannot maintain 30 FPS. The fact that the GPU’s boost clock of 2500 MHz is relatively high for a low-end part does not compensate for the low shader count and memory bandwidth constraints. The data indicates that the Arc B390 is best suited for 1080p gaming at low to medium settings, which is consistent with its overall ranking in the 9th percentile.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the Intel Arc B390 ranks 2614 out of 2949 tested combinations in Hard West, placing it in the bottom 11% of all combos. This ranking is primarily driven by the GPU’s poor performance, as the CPU is a capable part in its own right. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 48995 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (scoring 49196, 0.4% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (scoring 49228, 0.5% higher), the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (scoring 48698, 0.6% lower), and the Intel Core i5-14600K (scoring 48618, 0.8% lower). This indicates that the CPU is performing at a level comparable to high-end desktop processors, but the GPU drags the overall combo ranking down significantly.

The disparity between the CPU’s strong benchmark position and the combo’s low game ranking highlights the importance of GPU performance in Hard West. The game’s turn-based nature means that CPU-driven logic and AI calculations are relatively light, while the GPU must handle the rendering of environments and character models. The data shows that the combo rank in game is 2614 out of 2949, which is a clear indication that the Arc B390 is not capable of delivering a competitive experience in this title. For context, the combo’s position in the bottom 11% means that over 88% of tested combinations outperform it, making it a poor choice for players who prioritize graphical fidelity or high-resolution gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers the following average FPS across presets: Low at 87 FPS, Medium at 71 FPS (with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS), High at 55 FPS, and Ultra at 41 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 46 FPS, which represents a 53% performance drop. The Medium preset’s minimum of 61 FPS indicates that even the average can dip below 60 FPS in demanding scenes, but the overall experience is acceptable for a turn-based game.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to: Low at 55 FPS, Medium at 45 FPS (with a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 52 FPS), High at 35 FPS, and Ultra at 26 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 37% reduction for Low (from 87 to 55 FPS), a 37% reduction for Medium (from 71 to 45 FPS), a 36% reduction for High (from 55 to 35 FPS), and a 37% reduction for Ultra (from 41 to 26 FPS). This consistent ~37% drop across all presets indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the increased pixel count directly impacts rendering load.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS collapses to: Low at 29 FPS, Medium at 24 FPS (with a minimum of 20 FPS and a maximum of 27 FPS), High at 18 FPS, and Ultra at 14 FPS. The jump from 1440p to 4K results in a 47% reduction for Low (from 55 to 29 FPS), a 47% reduction for Medium (from 45 to 24 FPS), a 49% reduction for High (from 35 to 18 FPS), and a 46% reduction for Ultra (from 26 to 14 FPS). The 4K results are uniformly below 30 FPS, confirming that this resolution is not viable for this combo.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals that Hard West scales poorly with resolution when paired with the Arc B390. The transition from 1080p to 1440p incurs a consistent ~37% performance penalty across all presets, while the transition from 1440p to 4K incurs a slightly larger ~47% penalty. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth, which is system-shared and thus dependent on the CPU’s DDR5 memory, becomes increasingly strained at higher resolutions.

The consistent percentage drops across presets indicate that the GPU is the sole limiting component, as the CPU’s performance is unaffected by resolution changes. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU’s workload (game logic, AI, unit pathfinding) does not change with pixel count. Instead, the FPS drops proportionally with the pixel count increase, confirming that the Arc B390’s rendering capabilities are the limiting factor.

The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra presets widens slightly at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra is 53% slower than Low (87 vs 41 FPS). At 1440p, Ultra is 53% slower than Low (55 vs 26 FPS). At 4K, Ultra is 52% slower than Low (29 vs 14 FPS). This near-constant ratio indicates that the settings presets have a similar relative impact on GPU load regardless of resolution, which is typical for a game that primarily scales visual effects rather than adding new geometry at higher settings. The practical takeaway is that players should reduce resolution first before lowering settings, as the resolution penalty is more severe than the settings penalty.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It features a 24 MB shared L3 cache, 3 MB per-core L2 cache, and 192 KB per-core L1 cache. The CPU’s memory support is DDR5 with a dual-channel bus and a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, and it includes ECC memory support. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and a single-core score of 4648, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs.

In Hard West, the CPU’s role is minimal compared to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The game is turn-based, meaning that the CPU’s primary tasks are managing unit AI, calculating damage, and processing game state changes, which are not computationally intensive. The CPU’s high single-core performance (Cinebench R15 single-core score of 468) ensures that the game’s logic runs smoothly, but the measured FPS is entirely dictated by the GPU’s rendering speed. The CPU’s 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for this workload, and the data shows no signs of CPU-induced stuttering or frame drops, as the minimum FPS values are consistent with the averages.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database all have very similar average scores, with deltas of less than 1%, indicating that the Core Ultra 5 245 is well-matched against other high-end desktop processors. However, this performance headroom is wasted in Hard West because the GPU cannot keep up. The CPU’s 3 nm process node and 17,800 million transistors contribute to its efficiency, but the game does not benefit from these features. Ultimately, the CPU is not a bottleneck in this combination, and its strong benchmark scores are irrelevant to the measured FPS, which is constrained entirely by the Arc B390’s low-end GPU performance. Players with this combo should focus on GPU-side optimizations, such as lowering resolution and settings, rather than upgrading the CPU.