Hard West

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a thoroughly playable experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title that proves far less demanding than modern AAA shooters. The data reveals a configuration that excels at high refresh rates at mainstream resolutions, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. This pairing sits comfortably within the 79th percentile of all tested combinations, indicating a robust, well-balanced setup for this genre.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a classic, predictable scaling curve that highlights the shift in system bottleneck from the CPU at lower resolutions to the GPU at higher ones. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combination produces an average of 121 FPS. Moving to 1440p with the same settings, the average drops to 76 FPS, a decrease of 45 frames. The jump to 4K sees a further reduction to 40 FPS, which is a 36-frame drop from the 1440p result. This pattern strongly indicates that the system is becoming increasingly GPU-bound as the pixel count rises.

The scaling is particularly revealing when comparing the Low preset across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves a massive 256 FPS average, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than it can render at higher settings. When resolution increases to 1440p Low, the average falls to 162 FPS, a 37% reduction. At 4K Low, the average is 85 FPS. This steep decline at Low settings, where the GPU workload is minimal, underscores that the RTX 4070's rendering throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, even when graphical features are dialed down.

The data suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot for this pairing. The performance drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant but manageable, yielding frame rates well above 60 FPS even on the Ultra preset. The transition to 4K, however, is punishing. The 4K High preset averages just 54 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for smooth gameplay in a genre where quick camera panning and unit selection benefit from higher fluidity. The scaling from 4K Medium (70 FPS) to 4K Ultra (40 FPS) is a 30 FPS difference, showing that the most demanding settings exact a heavy toll at the highest resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the defining component in this system's performance profile for Hard West. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for a game of this era and visual complexity. The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1920 MHz and a boost of 2475 MHz, are the primary drivers of the frame rates observed. The Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process, delivers the raw shader throughput necessary to handle the game's lighting and shadow effects.

The benchmark results show a clear correlation between the GPU's workload and the measured FPS. At 1080p, where the CPU can feed frames quickly, the GPU becomes the limiting factor only when settings are increased. The difference between 1080p Low (256 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (121 FPS) is 135 FPS, demonstrating the RTX 4070's capacity to handle the additional graphical load. However, the GPU's limitations become apparent at 4K. The 4K Ultra average of 40 FPS is a stark indicator that the card's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is stretched thin by the demands of 8.3 million pixels.

The VRAM capacity appears sufficient for this title. The lack of min FPS data for most presets suggests a stable experience without major stutters or texture thrashing. The only preset with recorded min/max data is Medium, which shows a 4K average of 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS. This range indicates the GPU can maintain a consistent frame pacing even when there are momentary fluctuations in scene complexity, a crucial trait for turn-based tactics where the camera often pans across detailed environments. The GPU's performance relative to its peers is solid, with its average benchmark score of 37648 placing it just 0.1% above the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% above the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56.

How This Combo Ranks

In the comprehensive database of tested hardware combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 621 out of 2949 combos for Hard West. This places it in the top 21% of all systems tested, a strong showing that underscores its capability in this title. While not a top-tier enthusiast setup, it clearly outperforms the vast majority of configurations, making it a very competent choice for this game.

The ranking is more a reflection of the GPU's strength than the CPU's, given the game's moderate thread requirements. The CPU's own benchmark percentile is high, sitting at 90th versus all CPUs, but its average score of 48995 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G is 0.4% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 is 0.5% slower. This suggests that the CPU has ample headroom for this game, and the overall combo rank is likely pulled down by the GPU's performance ceiling at 4K, which is a common bottleneck for many systems in the database.

The combo's rank of 621 indicates that it is a well-matched pair for a game like Hard West, where the visual fidelity is moderate. It outperforms 2328 other tested combinations, which is a significant margin. This position suggests that users with this hardware can expect a smooth, high-quality experience without needing to overclock or make significant compromises on settings. The system is not at the very top, but it is far from the middle of the pack, offering a level of performance that will satisfy most players.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings for this hardware depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. For players with a 1080p display, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation. The 121 FPS average is exceptionally smooth and fully utilizes the potential of high-refresh-rate monitors. The significant drop to 161 FPS on High shows that while there is headroom, the visual gains from Ultra are worth the performance cost, as the frame rate remains well above the 100 FPS threshold.

At 1440p, the High preset appears to be the sweet spot. The 102 FPS average is ideal for smooth gameplay, and it is a substantial 26 FPS improvement over the Ultra preset's 76 FPS. The visual difference between High and Ultra is often subtle in turn-based titles, and the performance gain favors High for a more consistent experience. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 133 FPS, but the High preset offers a better balance of visual quality and fluidity.

For 4K displays, the recommendation is more nuanced. The Medium preset, with its average of 70 FPS and a recorded minimum of 59 FPS, is the only 4K option that consistently stays above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset's 54 FPS average is playable but may feel less fluid during camera movements. The Ultra preset's 40 FPS average is not recommended for a game that benefits from quick, precise camera control. Players should prioritize the Medium preset at 4K to maintain a stable frame rate. The Low preset at 4K, while achieving 85 FPS, sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that is not graphically intense.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a clear picture of this combo's performance across all tested scenarios. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high. The Low preset achieves an average of 256 FPS. The Medium preset averages 210 FPS, with a minimum of 178 FPS and a maximum of 241 FPS. The High preset averages 161 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 121 FPS. This shows a linear and predictable decline in performance as graphical fidelity increases.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong. The Low preset averages 162 FPS. The Medium preset averages 133 FPS, with a minimum of 113 FPS and a maximum of 153 FPS. The High preset averages 102 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 76 FPS. The step from High to Ultra at this resolution is a 26 FPS drop, which is the largest percentage decrease between consecutive settings, indicating that the Ultra preset includes a particularly demanding feature set.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The Low preset averages 85 FPS. The Medium preset averages 70 FPS, with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS. The High preset averages 54 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 40 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on the Ultra preset shows a three-fold reduction in performance, from 121 FPS to 40 FPS, which is a direct result of the four-fold increase in pixel count.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 plays a supporting role in this configuration for Hard West. With 14 cores and 14 threads, it offers substantial parallel processing power, though this title likely does not utilize all of them effectively. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for game logic and AI calculations in turn-based tactics. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, though the game's reliance on this is not directly measurable from the provided data.

The CPU's benchmark scores confirm its high-end positioning. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and single-core score of 4648 are indicative of a powerful processor. The Passmark single-thread score of 4394 further validates its strength in tasks that rely on a single core. In a genre like turn-based tactics, where the CPU must process unit pathfinding and enemy AI between turns, this single-threaded performance is more critical than raw multi-core throughput.

The data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 256 FPS, a figure that is far beyond what most displays can show, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU with frames faster than it can render them. Even at higher settings, the CPU's role becomes less prominent as the GPU workload increases. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and AMD Ryzen 9 7900, have nearly identical average scores, with deltas of -0.4% and -0.5% respectively, showing that this Intel chip is firmly in the same performance class. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs further solidifies that its capabilities are more than sufficient for the demands of Hard West.