Rust

FAQ

Q: What is the core configuration of the Intel Core i5-14400F used in this combo?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has 10 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700 platform with Raptor Lake architecture.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 9780, putting it in the 47th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro W5000 (score 9803, 0.2% lower), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (score 9832, 0.5% lower), NVIDIA Tesla M10 (score 9724, 0.6% higher), and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (score 9716, 0.7% higher). The differences are all within 0.7%, so these GPUs would perform nearly identically in most workloads.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1080p for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the best settings that stay at or above 60 FPS is High, with an average of 64 FPS. Low and Medium also clear the 60 FPS threshold, with averages of 113 and 76 FPS respectively, but High offers the highest visual quality while remaining playable.

Q: Can this system run Rust at 4K?

A: No. At 3840x2160, none of the tested settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) reach the 60 FPS playable threshold. The best average at 4K is 46 FPS on Low settings, while Medium averages 31 FPS, High averages 26 FPS, and Ultra averages 20 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in overall performance?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32279, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (score 32233, 0.1% lower), Intel Core i9-11900 (score 32226, 0.2% lower), AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (score 32354, 0.2% higher), and Intel Core i7-12800H (score 32121, 0.5% lower). All four rivals are within half a percent, making them effectively interchangeable in CPU-bound scenarios.

Q: What frame rates can this combo achieve at 1440p on Low settings?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers an average of 78 FPS, which is the only playable setting at this resolution. Medium drops to 52 FPS average, High to 44 FPS, and Ultra to 33 FPS, all of which fall below the 60 FPS threshold.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals a clear pattern: this combination is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, but at 1080p the CPU begins to show its capability. Looking at the scaling from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS on Low settings drops from 113 to 78, a reduction of 31%. That is a substantial hit that points to the GPU struggling as pixel count increases. The same trend continues from 1440p to 4K, where Low settings fall from 78 FPS to 46 FPS, another 41% drop. These steep declines indicate that the GTX 1070 is the primary bottleneck as resolution climbs.

At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to push frame rates higher. The jump from 64 FPS on High to 113 FPS on Low shows that the GPU is still the limiting factor, but the CPU is not preventing substantial gains when settings are lowered. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit memory bus become increasingly strained, and even the lowest settings cannot maintain playable frame rates at 4K.

The preset scaling also tells a story. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium reduces average FPS by 33% (113 to 76), and from Medium to High by another 16% (76 to 64). This is a typical pattern where the GPU is doing most of the work. But at 4K, the gap between Low and Medium is much smaller in percentage terms only because the frame rates are already so low. The GPU is saturated at every preset above Low, meaning the differences become less about GPU load and more about memory bandwidth and fill rate limits.

For a game like Rust, which is known for CPU-heavy simulation, the i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads with a 4.70 GHz boost clock provide solid single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3055 and multi-core score of 21645. The CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution in this dataset. Even at 4K, where the GPU is clearly overwhelmed, the frame rates are consistent with GPU-bound behavior rather than CPU stalls.

The practical takeaway is that at 1080p, the CPU and GPU are reasonably balanced, with the GPU taking the lead role. At 1440p, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, and at 4K, the GPU is the sole constraint. Users seeking higher frame rates at 1440p or above would need to consider a GPU upgrade, as the CPU has headroom to feed a faster graphics card.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest CPU rivals to the Core i5-14400F are all within 0.5% of its average benchmark score of 32279. These include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (0.1% slower), Intel Core i9-11900 (0.2% slower), AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (0.2% faster), and Intel Core i7-12800H (0.5% slower). For gaming purposes, these processors would deliver nearly identical frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios. The Ryzen 7 6800HS and Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U are both mobile parts, but their performance parity means they would not create a meaningful difference in Rust's frame pacing.

On the GPU side, the GTX 1070's nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro W5000 (0.2% slower), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (0.5% slower), NVIDIA Tesla M10 (0.6% faster), and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (0.7% faster). These are all workstation or older professional cards, but the benchmark scores indicate they would produce similar frame rates in Rust. The Quadro M2000M and Tesla M10 are not gaming-focused, but their compute capabilities translate to comparable graphics performance in this context.

For a user considering this combo, swapping the CPU to any of these rivals would change measured FPS by less than a single frame in most cases. The same applies to the GPU alternatives. The practical implication is that if someone already owns any of these components, the gaming experience would be effectively identical to this i5-14400F + GTX 1070 combination. The differences are so small that they fall within normal run-to-run variance in benchmark testing.

One interesting note is that the CPU rivals include both desktop and mobile parts, but the performance parity suggests that thermal and power constraints on mobile chips do not translate to lower gaming performance in this dataset. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS, a laptop processor, matches the desktop i5-14400F within 0.2%. This speaks to the i5's position in the market: it is a solid mid-range desktop CPU, but not exceptional, as its 83rd percentile ranking indicates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 3082 out of 3723 tested combos in Rust. This places it in the bottom 17% of all configurations, meaning the majority of systems in the database outperform this pair. The rank is primarily driven by the GPU, which sits at the 47th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 83rd percentile. This lopsided pairing means the GPU drags the overall ranking down significantly.

To put this in context, the combo ranks above only about 640 other combinations. In a game like Rust, which can be demanding on both CPU and GPU, this ranking suggests that players will need to make significant compromises in settings to achieve smooth gameplay. The GPU's age (it is end-of-life) and its 8 GB memory capacity are likely contributors to the low ranking, especially at higher resolutions where memory bandwidth becomes critical.

The rank also implies that most users with mid-range or higher hardware from the last few years would see better performance. For instance, any GPU from the same generation but with a higher tier (like a GTX 1080 or 1070 Ti) would likely rank higher. The CPU is not the constraint, as its 83rd percentile ranking shows it is a capable processor that could support a faster GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

At 1080p, this combo is playable on High settings, but the 64 FPS average leaves little headroom for demanding scenes or multiplayer battles where many players are on screen. The rank reflects this: it is not a system for high refresh rate gaming, but it can handle the game at acceptable frame rates with settings tuned appropriately.

The Verdict

Based on the verdictByResolution data, this system can run Rust at 60 FPS or above at 1080p and 1440p, but only with specific settings. At 1920x1080, the playable settings are Low, Medium, and High, with High being the best visual quality at 64 FPS average. At 2560x1440, only Low is playable, with an average of 78 FPS. At 3840x2160, no settings are playable, as even Low only averages 46 FPS.

The 60 FPS threshold is met comfortably at 1080p on Medium (76 FPS) and High (64 FPS), giving players flexibility. At 1440p, Low settings provide a smooth 78 FPS, but Medium drops to 52 FPS, which is below the threshold. This means 1440p users must accept Low settings for a playable experience.

Overall, this is a capable 1080p gaming system for Rust, with enough performance for High settings. At 1440p, it is playable but requires significant visual compromises. At 4K, it is not viable for smooth gameplay. The CPU is not the limiting factor; the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is High, with an average of 64 FPS. Low averages 113 FPS and Medium averages 76 FPS, but High offers the best balance of visual quality and performance.

At 2560x1440, the only playable setting is Low, which averages 78 FPS. Medium falls short at 52 FPS, so Low is the recommended choice for this resolution.

At 3840x2160, no settings reach the 60 FPS threshold. The highest average is 46 FPS on Low, which is not playable by the standard used in this analysis. Users at 4K would need to lower the resolution or upgrade the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates are as follows: Low averages 113 FPS, Medium averages 76 FPS with a minimum of 64 and maximum of 87, High averages 64 FPS, and Ultra averages 49 FPS. The Medium preset shows the only recorded min/max range at this resolution, indicating some frame variance but still well above the playable threshold.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 78 FPS, Medium averages 52 FPS with a minimum of 44 and maximum of 60, High averages 44 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is notable because its maximum of 60 FPS hits the threshold, but the average of 52 FPS and minimum of 44 FPS show that it is not consistently playable.

At 3840x2160, the data shows Low averages 46 FPS, Medium averages 31 FPS with a minimum of 26 and maximum of 35, High averages 26 FPS, and Ultra averages 20 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has the only recorded min/max values at this resolution, but all settings fall far below the 60 FPS target.

The full dataset reveals a consistent pattern: the GTX 1070 delivers playable performance at 1080p across three presets, at 1440p only on Low, and not at all at 4K. The CPU's strong synthetic benchmarks do not translate into higher frame rates at higher resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the definitive limiting factor for this combo in Rust.