Rust

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is a solid 1080p and capable 1440p combination for Rust, but it falls short of the 60 FPS playable threshold at 4K. The data confirms this pairing delivers its best experience at 1920x1080 with High settings, where it averages 75.5 FPS, while 4K Ultra is effectively unplayable at 22.6 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo demonstrates clear headroom across most presets. Low settings produce an average of 135.8 FPS, which is more than double the playable threshold of 60 FPS. Medium settings still deliver a very comfortable 90.1 FPS average, indicating that the hardware is not heavily stressed at this resolution. High settings bring the average down to 75.5 FPS, which remains well above the 60 FPS target. The most demanding preset, Ultra, drops to 56.7 FPS average, falling just below the playable threshold—a notable gap that suggests Ultra is too demanding for consistent smoothness at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance curve steepens. Low settings still provide a strong 93.4 FPS average, keeping the experience fluid. Medium settings average 66.2 FPS, which just clears the 60 FPS bar, making it the highest playable preset at this resolution. High settings fall to 55.3 FPS, a 16.5% reduction from Medium, and Ultra plunges to 40.2 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p (10.9 FPS) is larger than the corresponding gap at 1080p (14.6 FPS difference between Medium and High), indicating that the GPU is becoming a more significant limiting factor as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles across the board. Low settings yield 54.4 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings drop to 39.0 FPS, and High falls further to 34.1 FPS. Ultra is the worst performer at 22.6 FPS, which is less than half of the Low preset's average. None of the 4K presets reach the playable threshold, confirming that this resolution is outside the practical range for this hardware combination in Rust.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each resolution step up from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reduces performance by roughly 30-40% at identical settings. For example, High settings go from 75.5 FPS at 1080p to 55.3 FPS at 1440p (a 26.7% drop) and then to 34.1 FPS at 4K (a 38.3% drop from 1440p). This scaling suggests that the RX 6600 XT's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p but insufficient for the pixel throughput demands of 4K.

CPU and GPU Roles

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-12400F plays a more prominent role relative to the GPU. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, provide sufficient single-thread performance for Rust's simulation-heavy gameplay. Evidence of CPU influence appears in the scaling from Low to Medium (135.8 to 90.1 FPS, a 33.7% drop) versus Medium to High (90.1 to 75.5 FPS, a 16.2% drop). The smaller penalty from Medium to High suggests the GPU is beginning to limit, but the CPU still has headroom. The CPU's benchmark scores—including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380 and single-core score of 1680—indicate strong multi-threaded capability that helps maintain stable framerates in busy game scenes.

At 2560x1440, the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. The transition from Low to Medium (93.4 to 66.2 FPS, a 29.1% drop) is steeper than the same transition at 1080p, confirming that the RX 6600 XT's rendering load is rising. The GPU's FP32 performance of 10.60 TFLOPS and 2048 shading units are being pushed harder, while the CPU's workload remains relatively constant. The fact that Medium stays playable at 66.2 FPS while High drops to 55.3 FPS indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s) and 64 ROPs are the limiting factors at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is unequivocally the bottleneck. Even Low settings only reach 54.4 FPS, and the scaling from Low to Medium (54.4 to 39.0 FPS, a 28.3% drop) shows the GPU struggling with the 8.3 million pixel output. The CPU's role diminishes further, as evidenced by the minimal difference between High (34.1 FPS) and Ultra (22.6 FPS) at 4K—a 33.7% drop that is purely GPU-driven. The RX 6600 XT's 8 GB frame buffer is also a constraint at this resolution, as Rust's asset streaming demands exceed what the memory can efficiently handle.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 2730th out of 3723 tested combos for Rust, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the benchmark database. This percentile positioning—the CPU sits at the 73rd percentile against all CPUs, and the GPU at the 70th percentile against all GPUs—might suggest a more favorable outcome, but the game-specific data reveals that Rust's optimization favors higher-end hardware. The combo's rank means that roughly 73% of tested combinations deliver better average FPS in this game, which aligns with the measured results showing limited 4K capability and only moderate 1440p performance.

The rank is more indicative of the GPU's limitations than the CPU's. The i5-12400F's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (0% delta) and Intel Core 3 201E (0.1% faster), showing the CPU is competitive with mid-range options. The RX 6600 XT, however, sits near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (0.7% faster) and Intel Arc A350M (0.8% slower) in average benchmark scores, which places it below many mainstream competitors. In Rust specifically, the combo's rank reflects that the GPU is the weaker link in the pairing.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Rust at 60 FPS on High settings at 1080p?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 75.5 FPS, which is 15.5 FPS above the 60 FPS playable threshold. High is the best playable preset at this resolution.

Q: What is the highest resolution where this combo achieves 60 FPS?

A: The highest resolution with a playable preset is 2560x1440, where Medium settings average 66.2 FPS. Low settings at 1440p also work at 93.4 FPS, but Medium is the most demanding option that stays above 60 FPS.

Q: Is 4K playable with any settings?

A: No. All 4K presets—Low at 54.4 FPS, Medium at 39.0 FPS, High at 34.1 FPS, and Ultra at 22.6 FPS—fall below the 60 FPS threshold. The best 4K option is Low, but it still misses the target by 5.6 FPS.

Q: How much faster is Low versus Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 93.4 FPS while Ultra averages 40.2 FPS. Low is 53.2 FPS faster, representing a 132% performance advantage over Ultra.

Q: Which component limits performance more in this game?

A: The GPU limits more at higher resolutions. At 1080p the CPU has more influence, but at 1440p and 4K the RX 6600 XT's rendering capabilities and 8 GB memory are the primary constraints, as shown by the steep FPS drops at identical settings across resolutions.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 2730th out of 3723 total combos tested for Rust, placing it in the lower 27% of the database.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the Intel Core i5-12400F's nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (0% delta, score 19047) and the Intel Core 3 201E (0.1% slower, score 19056). These processors would behave almost identically in Rust, providing similar single-thread and multi-thread performance. The Intel Core i5-1335U (0.3% faster, score 18982) and AMD EPYC 7773X (0.3% faster, score 18979) are also within a negligible margin, meaning any of these CPUs paired with the RX 6600 XT would produce nearly indistinguishable framerates.

For the GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (0.7% faster, score 24277), Intel Arc A350M (0.8% slower, score 24647), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (0.8% faster, score 24236). The most notable comparison is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% faster, score 24170), which is a significantly more powerful card in other contexts but scores nearly the same in the aggregate benchmark. In Rust, swapping the RX 6600 XT for any of these GPUs while keeping the i5-12400F would yield similar measured FPS within roughly 1% of the values reported here.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the best playable preset is High, which averages 75.5 FPS. This is the most demanding setting that stays above the 60 FPS threshold, offering a 15.5 FPS margin over the playable limit. Ultra at 56.7 FPS is not recommended, as it falls 3.3 FPS short of the target.

At 2560x1440, the best playable preset is Medium, averaging 66.2 FPS. This provides a 6.2 FPS buffer above 60 FPS. High at 55.3 FPS misses the threshold by 4.7 FPS, making Medium the optimal choice for visual quality at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches the 60 FPS threshold. The closest option is Low at 54.4 FPS, which is 5.6 FPS below playable. Given this shortfall, the data indicates that 4K should be avoided entirely for this combo in Rust, with users better served by dropping to 1440p Medium for a smooth experience.