Rust

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data for Rust with the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 covers three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 113 FPS, the highest figure recorded for this combination. Medium follows with an average of 76 FPS, with a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 87 FPS. High drops to an average of 64 FPS, while Ultra falls below the playable threshold at 49 FPS. At this resolution, the step from Medium to High costs 12 FPS on average, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 15 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset produces an average of 78 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium averages 52 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 44 FPS and maximum of 60 FPS. High averages 44 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium at this resolution represents a 26 FPS drop, which is a substantial penalty for modest visual gains. The gap between Medium and High is smaller at 8 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 11 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the picture is significantly weaker. Low averages 46 FPS, Medium averages 31 FPS, High averages 26 FPS, and Ultra averages 20 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has the only complete min/max data in this resolution: 26 FPS minimum and 35 FPS maximum. The Low to Medium transition at 4K costs 15 FPS, while the Medium to High transition costs only 5 FPS, and High to Ultra costs another 6 FPS. None of these 4K presets come close to the 60 FPS threshold.

The resolution scaling shows a clear pattern. At Low settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces the average from 113 to 78 FPS, a 35 FPS loss. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low further reduces the average from 78 to 46 FPS, another 32 FPS loss. At High settings, the scaling is 64 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that the GTX 1070 becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops proportionally more than the pixel count increases.

Best Settings per Resolution

The verdict data identifies the most demanding preset that maintains at least 60 FPS average at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the best playable setting is High, which achieves an average of 64 FPS. This is the highest quality preset that clears the threshold at this resolution. Ultra at 1080p averages 49 FPS, which falls short. Medium and Low also clear the threshold, but High represents the maximum quality within the playable envelope.

At 2560x1440, only the Low preset is playable, with an average of 78 FPS. Medium averages 52 FPS, which misses the 60 FPS target by 8 FPS. High and Ultra are further behind at 44 and 33 FPS respectively. The jump from Low to Medium at this resolution is steep, so users seeking higher quality must accept a significant frame rate penalty.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves the 60 FPS threshold. The highest average recorded is 46 FPS at Low, which is 14 FPS short of the playable threshold. The verdict data explicitly lists no playable settings at 4K, with a null best setting and no average FPS at best. This means the combination cannot sustain 60 FPS at 4K under any tested preset.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU and GPU each have nearest rivals in the database, based on average benchmark scores. For the Intel Core i5-10400F, the closest performers are the Intel Xeon 6756E with a delta of 0.2 percent, the Intel Core 7 160UL with a delta of -0.3 percent, the AMD EPYC 7552 with a delta of 0.5 percent, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C with a delta of -0.6 percent. These deltas are all within one percent of the i5-10400F's average benchmark score of 14185. The practical implication is that swapping the i5-10400F for any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical CPU-bound performance in Rust, assuming the GPU remains constant.

For the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, the nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro W5000 with a delta of -0.2 percent, the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M with a delta of -0.5 percent, the NVIDIA Tesla M10 with a delta of 0.6 percent, and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 with a delta of 0.7 percent. These deltas are also within one percent of the GTX 1070's average benchmark score of 9780. In practice, a system with any of these GPUs paired with the i5-10400F would produce similar frame rates in Rust, though the professional and workstation cards may have different driver characteristics that are not captured in the benchmark averages.

The data suggests that the CPU has more headroom than the GPU, since the i5-10400F sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, while the GTX 1070 sits at the 47th percentile among all GPUs. The GPU is closer to the midpoint of the performance distribution, meaning that most GPUs in the database are faster, whereas the CPU is above average. This asymmetry matters for the scaling behavior observed in the measured FPS data.

FAQ

Q: Can this combination run Rust at 1080p with High settings?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 64 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS playable threshold. This is the most demanding preset that maintains playable performance at this resolution.

Q: What is the best playable preset at 1440p?

A: The only playable preset at 2560x1440 is Low, which averages 78 FPS. Medium averages 52 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, so it is not considered playable.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with this hardware in Rust?

A: No. The verdict data lists no playable settings at 3840x2160. The highest average FPS at 4K is 46 FPS on Low settings, which falls 14 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings?

A: At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 113 at 1920x1080 to 78 at 2560x1440. This represents a 35 FPS reduction, or roughly a 31 percent decrease in frame rate.

Q: What are the closest GPUs in performance to the GTX 1070?

A: The nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro W5000, NVIDIA Quadro M2000M, NVIDIA Tesla M10, and NVIDIA Tesla C2070. All of these have average benchmark scores within 0.7 percent of the GTX 1070's score.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K. The CPU sits at the 68th percentile, while the GPU sits at the 47th percentile. At 4K Low settings, the average FPS is 46, which is far below the 60 FPS threshold, and the frame rate scales down significantly as resolution increases even at the same settings.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded data shows a clear division of labor between the CPU and GPU in Rust. At 1920x1080, the CPU has more influence on frame rates, since the GPU has spare capacity at lower pixel counts. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 113 FPS, which indicates that the GTX 1070 is capable of rendering frames faster than the i5-10400F can feed it in some scenarios. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking supports this interpretation, as it has enough single-thread and multi-thread performance to keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions.

As resolution increases to 2560x1440 and then to 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the dominant factor. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 78 FPS, and at 4K Low, it drops to 46 FPS. This scaling is consistent with the GPU's pixel throughput limits. The GTX 1070 has 1920 shading units and a 256-bit memory bus with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth. The higher resolution demands more pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth, which the GPU cannot supply at the same rate as at 1080p.

The settings scaling reinforces this pattern. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 64 FPS (113 to 49). At 1440p, the same settings span is 45 FPS (78 to 33). At 4K, the span narrows to 26 FPS (46 to 20). This narrowing indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even lowering settings cannot recover playable frame rates. The CPU's role diminishes because the GPU becomes the bottleneck well before the CPU's limits are reached.

The percentile data provides context. The CPU at the 68th percentile is well above average, while the GPU at the 47th percentile is slightly below average. In Rust, which is known for heavy CPU usage in populated servers, the i5-10400F's six cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide sufficient headroom. The GPU, however, is the limiting component at 1440p and above, as evidenced by the fact that only Low settings are playable at 1440p and no settings are playable at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 3082 out of 3723 tested combos in Rust. This places it in the lower portion of the database, specifically in the 17th percentile of tested combinations. The rank reflects the overall performance across all resolutions and settings, where the GPU's mid-range position limits the system's ability to run Rust at higher quality presets.

The rank is consistent with the measured FPS data. At 1080p, the combo performs adequately, with three out of four presets clearing the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p, only one preset clears the threshold. At 4K, none do. The overall rank of 3082 out of 3723 suggests that most other tested combos achieve higher frame rates or can run at higher quality settings at the same resolutions. The GPU's 47th percentile ranking is the primary contributor to this rank, as the CPU's 68th percentile ranking is comparatively stronger.

Compared to the nearest rival combos, the differences would be minimal based on the delta percentages. The CPU's nearest rivals are within 0.6 percent of its average score, and the GPU's nearest rivals are within 0.7 percent. This means that swapping either component for its nearest rival would change the combo rank by only a few positions at most. The combination's rank is therefore representative of a broad cluster of similar hardware.

The Verdict

This PC can run Rust, but the playable envelope is limited by resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the system clears the 60 FPS threshold at High settings with an average of 64 FPS, and it also clears at Medium (76 FPS) and Low (113 FPS). Ultra at 1080p falls short at 49 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low settings are playable, averaging 78 FPS. Medium at 1440p averages 52 FPS, which is below the threshold. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS; the highest average is 46 FPS at Low settings.

The verdict data confirms this assessment: playable settings are listed for 1080p (High, Low, Medium) and 1440p (Low), with no playable settings at 4K. The best settings per resolution are High at 1080p with 64 FPS and Low at 1440p with 78 FPS. For users targeting 1080p, this combination offers a solid experience at High quality. For 1440p, users must accept Low settings to maintain smooth gameplay. For 4K, the system is not viable for Rust at any tested preset. The GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides enough performance for the game's computational demands at 1080p and 1440p.