Hard West

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers a playable, if not consistently smooth, experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The data shows a system that is firmly CPU-limited at lower resolutions, with the GPU becoming the primary constraint only at 4K Ultra settings. The measured results place this pairing at rank 2324 out of 2949 tested combos, indicating a mid-to-lower-tier standing for this specific game.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Hard West with this hardware?*

A: Based on the measured average FPS, 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution. At this setting, even the Ultra preset achieves an average of 67 FPS, while High and Medium presets reach 90 FPS and 117 FPS respectively, ensuring smooth gameplay.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K resolution in Hard West?*

A: The RTX 2060 can produce a playable frame rate at 3840x2160, but only with significant graphical compromises. The Low preset averages 47 FPS, and Medium averages 39 FPS. However, the High preset drops to 30 FPS, and Ultra falls to 22 FPS, which are not ideal for a responsive experience.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F?

A: The benchmark data shows the Core Ultra 7 265 has an average benchmark score of 64640, which is 0.3% higher than the Core Ultra 7 265F's score of 64438. This makes the 265 essentially identical in performance to its F-series counterpart.

Q: What is the performance difference between the RTX 2060 and the AMD Radeon RX 7600?

A: In the GPU benchmark averages, the RTX 2060 scores 15290, while the AMD Radeon RX 7600 scores 15171. This represents a negligible 0.8% performance advantage for the RTX 2060, placing the two cards in a similar performance tier based on the provided data.

Q: What are the core and thread specifications of the CPU in this test combo?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 features 20 cores and 20 threads. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and can boost up to 5.30 GHz, with a thermal design power (TDP) of 65 watts.

Q: Is the 6 GB VRAM of the RTX 2060 a limiting factor at 1440p?

A: The measured data does not indicate VRAM as a specific bottleneck. At 2560x1440, the system achieves 74 FPS on Medium settings and 57 FPS on High, which suggests that the 6 GB frame buffer is sufficient for this game at this resolution, as performance scales predictably with preset changes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture with a TU106 chip. It operates with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz. The card is equipped with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. This configuration provides a solid foundation for a game released in 2015.

The GPU's role in Hard West becomes increasingly important as resolution increases. The frame rate data shows a clear correlation between graphical load and performance. At 1920x1080, the GPU is not the primary limiting factor, as the CPU can feed it enough data to reach high frame rates. The average FPS at 1080p on Low settings is 143, which is exceptionally high and suggests the game is not heavily taxing the graphics card.

However, at 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. The 4K results show a significant performance drop, with the Ultra preset averaging only 22 FPS. This is a 66% reduction from the 1080p Medium preset's 117 FPS. The data indicates that the RTX 2060's compute and memory resources are saturated at 4K, particularly with the higher visual fidelity presets. The card's 6.451 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at this resolution in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2324 out of 2949 tested configurations for Hard West. This places the pairing in the 21st percentile of all tested combos, meaning roughly 79% of tested systems deliver higher frame rates. This lower ranking is likely due to the RTX 2060 being a mid-range GPU from the previous generation, which may struggle with the higher graphical presets.

The CPU itself is a high-performing part, ranking in the 93rd percentile against all CPUs. Its performance is nearly identical to its closest rivals, with a 0.3% difference from the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and a -0.3% difference from the AMD EPYC 4464P. This indicates that the processor is not the bottleneck in most scenarios. The system's overall ranking in this game is therefore more indicative of the GPU's capabilities than the CPU's. The data suggests that the GPU is holding the system back from achieving higher frame rates, especially at higher resolutions, which aligns with the measured FPS breakdown.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the optimal choice. This setting delivers an average of 117 FPS, with a minimum of 99 FPS and a maximum of 135 FPS, providing a smooth and consistent frame rate for the turn-based gameplay. The High preset also performs well at 90 FPS, but the Medium setting offers a significant frame rate headroom that ensures no stutters.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 57 FPS is playable, but the Medium preset at 74 FPS provides a more comfortable margin. The Medium preset at 1440p also shows a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS, indicating good frame time consistency. For users prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate, the High preset is viable, but Medium is the safer choice for a smoother experience.

For 4K resolution, the Low preset is the only viable option for a playable frame rate, averaging 47 FPS. The Medium preset at 39 FPS is borderline, and the High and Ultra presets are not recommended due to their low average frame rates of 30 FPS and 22 FPS, respectively. The data clearly shows that the Ultra preset at any resolution offers a suboptimal experience, with the 1080p Ultra setting only reaching 67 FPS, which is lower than the 1440p Medium setting.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a clear picture of performance across a matrix of resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system performs admirably. The Low preset achieves an average of 143 FPS. The Medium preset averages 117 FPS, with a minimum of 99 and a maximum of 135 FPS. The High preset averages 90 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 67 FPS. This shows a linear progression where each step up in quality costs roughly 20-25 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are more pronounced. The Low preset averages 90 FPS. The Medium preset averages 74 FPS, with a minimum of 63 and a maximum of 85 FPS. The High preset averages 57 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 43 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs about 37% of the frame rate on the Low preset (143 to 90 FPS), indicating a growing GPU load.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. The Low preset averages 47 FPS. The Medium preset averages 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 45 FPS. The High preset drops to 30 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 22 FPS. The data shows a clear pattern: the game becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution scales, and the RTX 2060's limits are exposed at 4K, particularly on higher settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The CPU's performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and a single-core score of 5960. This processing power is more than sufficient for Hard West, a turn-based tactics game that does not demand high CPU throughput.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this system for Hard West. At 1080p, the system achieves 143 FPS on Low settings, which is a high frame rate that suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at a fast pace. The game's turn-based nature likely does not stress the CPU with complex AI or physics calculations, especially compared to real-time strategy or first-person shooters.

Compared to its rivals, the Core Ultra 7 265 shows a negligible performance difference. It is 0.3% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and 0.7% faster than the AMD EPYC 7343, while being 0.3% slower than the AMD EPYC 4464P and 0.7% slower than the AMD EPYC 9124. These deltaPct values are within the margin of error, indicating that the CPU's performance is on par with its closest competitors. This reinforces the conclusion that the GPU, not the CPU, is the primary determinant of frame rates in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides insight into the system's bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 143 at 1080p to 90 at 1440p, a 37% decrease. The further drop from 1440p to 4K is to 47 FPS, a 48% decrease. This steep decline at 4K on the lowest settings suggests that the GPU is beginning to hit its performance ceiling.

At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 117 FPS at 1080p to 74 FPS at 1440p (a 37% decrease) and then to 39 FPS at 4K (a 47% decrease). The pattern is consistent, with a roughly 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 47-48% drop from 1440p to 4K. This indicates that the GPU is scaling as expected with resolution, but the absolute performance at 4K is too low for a smooth experience.

The High settings show a similar trend, with 90 FPS at 1080p dropping to 57 FPS at 1440p (a 37% decrease) and then to 30 FPS at 4K (a 47% decrease). The Ultra preset follows suit, with 67 FPS at 1080p dropping to 43 FPS at 1440p (a 36% decrease) and then to 22 FPS at 4K (a 49% decrease). The consistent percentage drops across all presets indicate that the system is scaling in a predictable, linear fashion.

This scaling pattern reveals that the system is balanced at 1080p, where neither component is severely bottlenecked. However, as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The proportional FPS loss from 1440p to 4K is much larger than the loss from 1080p to 1440p, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 2060's 6 GB of VRAM and 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth are not sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, even on the Low preset, which averages only 47 FPS. The data confirms that this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming in Hard West, with 4K requiring significant graphical compromises.