Hard machining has grown in importance in recent years, due to the possibility of substituting cost and time intensive grinding processes, but also due to the development of heat and wear resistant cutting materials. Cemented carbide tools offer different substrate compositions, micro and macro geometries and the possibility to deposit a wide range of coatings. By the application of the High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) coating technology hard, dense and adhesive layers can be deposited. However, the impacting factors on the wear resistance of these coatings has thus far not been studied adequately. In this contribution cemented carbide cutting inserts in combination with different HiPIMS and Direct Current Magnetron Sputtering (DCMS) TiAlN films are studied with regards to their wear behavior in the machining of hardened steels.