Rust

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT delivers a playable Rust experience at 1080p and 1440p, but falls short of the 60 FPS threshold at 4K with any preset above Low. Benchmark data shows this combination ranks 1804 out of 3723 tested combos, placing it in the 48th percentile overall — a mid-pack result that reflects its ability to handle the game at mainstream resolutions while struggling with the demands of 4K Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS results show a wide performance envelope across the four presets. Low settings produce an average of 173.9 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo in any configuration. Medium settings drop to 115.3 FPS, High settles at 96.9 FPS, and Ultra maintains 77.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 55.7% reduction in average frame rate, indicating that the GPU headroom at 1080p allows for substantial visual quality increases without falling below the playable threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern persists but with compressed margins. Low settings deliver 117.3 FPS, Medium produces 78.1 FPS, High achieves 68.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 53.3 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 9.4 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs 15.4 FPS — a steeper penalty that suggests the RX 6750 XT's 12 GB memory buffer and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth begin to strain under the combined load of higher resolution and more demanding shading work.

At 3840x2160, the results become more polarized. Low settings yield 68.4 FPS, which is the only playable configuration at this resolution. Medium falls to 45.7 FPS, High drops to 38.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 28.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 22.7 FPS, nearly double the 9.4 FPS gap observed between the same two settings at 1440p. This nonlinear scaling indicates that the GPU's compute resources — 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units — are saturated when rendering at 4K with higher-quality assets.

The data shows no min or max FPS values recorded, so all analysis relies on average frame rates. The absence of frame time variance data means the verdicts are based solely on sustained average performance rather than stutter or hitch behavior.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the best setting that clears 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 77.1 FPS. This is the most demanding preset tested, and it maintains a 17.1 FPS margin above the playable threshold. The data indicates that even the highest quality settings leave sufficient performance headroom for the game's simulation overhead, which is notable given Rust's CPU-heavy nature in large multiplayer servers.

For 2560x1440, the best setting is High, producing 68.7 FPS. This represents an 8.7 FPS margin above the threshold. Ultra at this resolution falls to 53.3 FPS, which is 6.7 FPS below the playable mark, so High is the clear ceiling for maintaining smooth gameplay. The step from High to Ultra at 1440p costs more than the step from Medium to High (15.4 FPS versus 9.4 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, only Low is viable, averaging 68.4 FPS. This is functionally identical to the High preset at 1440p (68.7 FPS), indicating that the resolution jump consumes nearly all the performance headroom gained from lowering settings. Medium at 4K misses the threshold by 14.3 FPS, and High misses by 21.7 FPS, making Low the only realistic option for 4K play.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results reveal a clear division of labor between the Intel Core i5-14400F and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the CPU's influence is more apparent because the GPU has ample headroom. The i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads, with a 4.70 GHz boost clock, are sufficient to feed the GPU at Low settings where the frame rate reaches 173.9 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium (58.6 FPS drop) and Medium to High (18.4 FPS drop) suggests that at lower settings, the GPU is still the primary limiter, but the CPU's single-thread performance — evidenced by a 3055 Cinebench R23 single-core score — prevents it from becoming a bottleneck even at high frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the balance shifts slightly toward the GPU. The frame rate drops from 117.3 FPS at Low to 68.7 FPS at High, a 41.4% reduction. This is a smaller relative drop than at 1080p, where the same preset change reduces FPS by 44.3%. The difference indicates that the GPU is becoming more saturated as pixel count increases, while the CPU's workload remains relatively constant. The i5-14400F's multi-core capability, reflected in a 21645 Cinebench R23 multi-core score, is more than adequate for Rust's server-side and world-simulation threads at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is unequivocally the dominant factor. The frame rate at Low (68.4 FPS) is nearly identical to High at 1440p (68.7 FPS), despite the 2.25x increase in pixel count. This flat response across resolutions at similar settings confirms that the RX 6750 XT's raw throughput — 13.31 TFLOPS FP32 performance — is the binding constraint. The CPU has no trouble keeping up at 4K, as evidenced by the fact that dropping from High to Low at 4K produces a 30.1 FPS improvement, whereas the same setting change at 1440p produces a 48.6 FPS improvement. The GPU's memory subsystem, with 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, is likely the limiting factor for the higher presets at 4K.

The Verdict

This PC can run Rust at 1920x1080 with all presets playable, including Ultra at 77.1 FPS. At 2560x1440, it can run High at 68.7 FPS, but Ultra falls short at 53.3 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low is playable at 68.4 FPS; Medium, High, and Ultra all miss the 60 FPS threshold by margins ranging from 14.3 to 31.3 FPS.

The data supports a clear verdict: this combination is a solid 1080p performer and a capable 1440p option, but it is not a 4K gaming solution for Rust beyond the lowest settings. The 68.4 FPS at 4K Low is technically playable, but the 45.7 FPS at Medium suggests that any attempt to increase visual fidelity at this resolution will result in a sub-60 FPS experience. For players prioritizing graphical quality at 1440p, the 53.3 FPS at Ultra is a compromise that falls below the playable threshold, making High the recommended ceiling.

The measured data also indicates that the i5-14400F is not the limiting factor in any configuration tested. The CPU's percentile rank of 83 among all CPUs, combined with the GPU's percentile rank of 71 among all GPUs, suggests that the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing for Rust specifically.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals provide context for what other processors would behave similarly. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U has an average benchmark score of 32233, which is 0.1% lower than the i5-14400F's 32279. The Intel Core i9-11900 scores 32226, a 0.2% difference. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS scores 32354, which is 0.2% higher. The Intel Core i7-12800H scores 32121, a 0.5% difference. All four rivals fall within a 0.5% band of the i5-14400F's average score, meaning any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in Rust when paired with the same GPU. None of these rivals would shift the bottleneck characteristics meaningfully at any resolution.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are less conventional comparisons. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X scores 25891, which is 0.5% below the RX 6750 XT's 26011. The AMD FirePro W7100 scores 25856, a 0.6% difference. The AMD FirePro D700 scores 25842, a 0.7% difference. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile scores 25740, which is 1.1% lower. These deltas are all under 1.2%, indicating that the RX 6750 XT's performance profile is closely matched by these alternatives. However, the R9 M395X and FirePro cards are older workstation or mobile parts with different feature sets, so their real-world Rust performance may vary despite similar aggregate scores.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT ranks 1804 out of 3723 tested combos in Rust. This places it in the 51.5th percentile of all combinations tested, meaning roughly half of all tested systems perform better and half perform worse. Given that this rank covers a wide range of possible hardware pairings, the mid-pack position is consistent with the measured FPS data: the combo is neither a top-tier 4K machine nor a low-end 1080p system, but rather a mainstream performer that excels at 1080p and handles 1440p well.

The rank of 1804 specifically reflects the combination's aggregate performance across all tested settings and resolutions. Since the CPU ranks in the 83rd percentile overall and the GPU ranks in the 71st percentile, the combo's overall position below both individual percentiles suggests that Rust's performance characteristics place additional weight on GPU capability. The measured FPS data supports this interpretation: at 4K, the GPU's limitations are the primary constraint, while at 1080p, the combo demonstrates that the CPU can sustain high frame rates without bottlenecking. Players with this exact configuration should expect a smooth 1080p experience at any preset, a solid 1440p experience at High or below, and a limited 4K experience restricted to Low settings.