Hard West

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for Hard West show a clear hierarchy across the four quality presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 186 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. However, the Medium preset at 152 FPS represents a more balanced experience, offering a substantial frame rate while retaining visual quality. The High preset at 117 FPS remains comfortably above standard 60 FPS displays, while Ultra drops to 88 FPS, still playable but with diminishing returns relative to the frame rate cost.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low produces 118 FPS, Medium drops to 96 FPS, and High falls to 74 FPS. The Ultra preset at 55 FPS is the only setting at this resolution that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, making it a marginal choice for users with high-refresh displays. For most users at 1440p, the High preset at 74 FPS offers the best compromise between visual fidelity and fluidity, as the gap between High and Ultra is only 19 FPS while the quality jump is typically modest.

The 3840x2160 results reveal a different story entirely. Here, the Low preset manages 62 FPS, Medium drops to 51 FPS, High falls to 39 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 29 FPS. At 4K, only the Low preset clears the 60 FPS bar, and even that is marginal. The Medium preset at 51 FPS is the most viable option for users who prioritize visual quality over raw frame rate, as it maintains playability while offering better rendering than Low. The High and Ultra presets at this resolution are effectively unplayable for smooth gameplay, with averages in the 30-40 FPS range.

The data indicates that the best overall experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset at 1920x1080, which delivers 152 FPS average with a minimum of 129 FPS and maximum of 175 FPS. This combination provides headroom above 144 Hz displays while maintaining moderate visual quality. For users with 1440p monitors, High at 74 FPS is the sweet spot. For 4K displays, Medium at 51 FPS is the highest quality setting that remains within a playable range, though users seeking smoothness should consider Low at 62 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a 16-core, 22-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process node. Its base clock is 3.90 GHz with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, and it carries a 24 MB shared L3 cache alongside 2 MB L2 per core and 112 KB L1 per core. This processor ranks in the 85th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35670.

In the context of Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is less demanding than in real-time genres, but the data still shows meaningful scaling. The game's frame rate at 1920x1080 with Low settings reaches 186 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently at lower resolutions. The processor's single-core performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1810.5 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1794, is strong enough to handle the game's logic and AI calculations without becoming a bottleneck at standard refresh rates.

The nearest rivals for this CPU include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 with an average score of 35719 and a delta of -0.1%, the Intel Core 7 250H at 35728 with a delta of -0.2%, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 at 35802 with a delta of -0.4%, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X at 35909 with a delta of -0.7%. This places the Core Ultra 9 185H essentially at parity with these competitors, all within a 0.7% margin. For a game like Hard West, which is not heavily multithreaded, this level of CPU performance is more than sufficient, as evidenced by the high frame rates at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is more apparent.

The processor's multi-threaded capabilities, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 29376, provide ample headroom for background tasks and streaming. However, the measured FPS data suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as frame rates drop proportionally with resolution increases regardless of CPU capability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is a mobile GPU based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1920 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). It includes 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, 64 ROPs, 46 ray tracing cores, and 184 tensor cores, delivering 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

In Hard West, the GPU's role is critical, particularly at higher resolutions and quality settings. The data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p, the GPU can push very high frame rates, with Low at 186 FPS and Medium at 152 FPS. This indicates the GPU is well-utilized at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is minimal. As resolution increases to 1440p, frame rates scale predictably, with Low at 118 FPS and High at 74 FPS, showing a roughly 35-40% reduction from 1080p levels.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck. The Low preset at 62 FPS represents a 67% drop from 1080p Low, while High at 39 FPS is a 67% drop from 1080p High. The Ultra preset at 29 FPS at 4K is particularly telling, as it represents a 67% reduction from the 88 FPS at 1080p Ultra. This scaling behavior suggests that Hard West's rendering load scales heavily with pixel count, and the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient at lower resolutions but become insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K with higher quality settings.

The GPU ranks in the 81st percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37648. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla P4 at 37628 (0.1% delta), the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 at 37507 (0.4% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile at 38135 (-1.3% delta), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 at 37157 (1.3% delta). This places the RTX 4070 in a competitive position, though the measured FPS data in Hard West shows that even this level of performance cannot sustain 60 FPS at 4K with High or Ultra settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 with High settings delivers 74 FPS average, which comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. At 1920x1080, even Ultra settings at 88 FPS maintain a smooth experience. For 4K, only the Low preset at 62 FPS clears the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 4070's performance in Hard West compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37648, placing it 0.1% above the NVIDIA Tesla P4, 0.4% above the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, 1.3% above the AMD Radeon PRO W6400, and 1.3% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile. These deltas are minimal, indicating closely matched performance.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H sufficient for Hard West at high frame rates?

A: Yes. The CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads, with boost clocks up to 5.10 GHz, allow the game to reach 186 FPS at 1080p Low and 152 FPS at 1080p Medium. The processor ranks in the 85th percentile versus all CPUs, with single-core performance that easily handles turn-based tactics logic.

Q: Why does frame rate drop so significantly from 1080p to 4K?

A: The data shows a consistent 67% reduction in average FPS across all settings when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. This indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the rendering load scales with pixel count while CPU performance remains constant.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The only settings with recorded minimum FPS values are Medium presets. At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum is 129 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, it's 82 FPS. At 3840x2160 Medium, it drops to 43 FPS. Other settings have no recorded minimum values.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations for Hard West?

A: This combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 1574 out of 2949 total tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 47th percentile of all configurations tested for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions when holding settings constant. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops by approximately 37% across all presets. For example, Low goes from 186 to 118 FPS, Medium from 152 to 96 FPS, High from 117 to 74 FPS, and Ultra from 88 to 55 FPS. This consistent reduction suggests a rendering load that scales predictably with pixel count, indicating the GPU is the primary limiting factor in this resolution range.

The transition from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 produces an even more pronounced drop. Low falls from 118 to 62 FPS (a 47% reduction), Medium from 96 to 51 FPS (a 47% reduction), High from 74 to 39 FPS (a 47% reduction), and Ultra from 55 to 29 FPS (a 47% reduction). This steeper decline at 4K indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing capacity are being taxed more heavily, likely due to the 4K pixel count requiring more VRAM and fill rate.

Overall, moving from 1080p to 4K results in a 67% reduction in average FPS across all settings. This dramatic scaling behavior demonstrates that Hard West is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads providing more than enough processing headroom. The RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth become limiting factors at 4K, particularly at High and Ultra settings where frame rates fall below 40 FPS.

The scaling pattern also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 98 FPS (186 vs 88). At 1440p, it's 63 FPS (118 vs 55). At 4K, it narrows to 33 FPS (62 vs 29). This compression indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that quality settings have less relative impact on frame rate, as the pixel count becomes the dominant factor in rendering cost.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4070 delivers its strongest performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 186 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium produces 152 FPS average with a minimum of 129 FPS and maximum of 175 FPS, providing a solid margin above high-refresh displays. High drops to 117 FPS, still well above 100 FPS for smooth gameplay. Ultra at 88 FPS remains playable but shows the cost of maximum quality settings, a 53% reduction from Low.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but with noticeable reductions. Low averages 118 FPS, maintaining high-refresh capability. Medium delivers 96 FPS average with a minimum of 82 FPS and maximum of 111 FPS, keeping frame times consistent for smooth play. High at 74 FPS is suitable for 60-75 Hz displays. Ultra at 55 FPS is the only setting at this resolution that falls below 60 FPS, making it a marginal choice for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate stability.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limits become apparent. Low manages 62 FPS, just above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS and maximum of 58 FPS, indicating visible frame drops during demanding scenes. High falls to 39 FPS, which will feel sluggish for most players. Ultra bottoms out at 29 FPS, making it effectively unplayable for smooth gameplay. The 4K results show that this GPU is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring significant compromises in quality settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 1574 out of 2949 total tested combinations in Hard West. This places the combo in the 47th percentile of all configurations tested, meaning roughly 53% of tested systems perform better in this game. This mid-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the strong individual performance of both components, but it reflects the game's specific optimization and the wide range of hardware configurations tested.

The CPU's performance relative to its rivals is competitive, with the Core Ultra 9 185H sitting within 0.7% of its nearest competitors. The GPU similarly performs within 1.3% of its nearest rivals, indicating that both components are well-matched to their peers. However, the combo's overall ranking suggests that other factors, such as system memory configuration or driver optimization, may play a role in Hard West's performance that isn't captured by component-level benchmarks alone.

Given that the CPU ranks in the 85th percentile versus all CPUs and the GPU in the 81st percentile versus all GPUs, one might expect the combo to rank higher than the 47th percentile in-game. This discrepancy suggests that Hard West's performance characteristics may favor different hardware configurations, or that the game's turn-based nature places less emphasis on raw processing power than other titles. The measured FPS data confirms that even at 1080p Low, where the combo achieves 186 FPS, there is ample performance headroom, indicating that the game is not particularly demanding on modern hardware.