Rust

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a wide range of performance across Rust’s four quality presets, scaling from 43.4 FPS at 4K Ultra to 251.1 FPS at 1080p Low. The measured data shows that this combination is highly capable at 1080p and 1440p, where every preset clears the 60 FPS playability threshold, while 4K requires dropping to Medium or Low settings to maintain smooth gameplay. This analysis breaks down the component roles, exact frame rates, and how this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks among thousands of tested combinations.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Rust at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combination reaches an average of 251.1 FPS. Medium settings produce 170.8 FPS, High settings yield 141.7 FPS, and Ultra settings maintain 110 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER bottlenecked by the i9-14900K at 1440p?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. At 2560x1440, average FPS drops from 173.5 on Low to 95.5 on High and 74.4 on Ultra, showing expected GPU-bound scaling rather than CPU limitation, given the i9-14900K’s 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

Q: Can this system run Rust at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only on Medium or Low presets. The measured 4K averages are 69.1 FPS on Medium and 100.3 FPS on Low. High settings at 3840x2160 produce 56.1 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra drops to 43.4 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER scores 43223 in its average benchmark, sitting within 1% of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43262), the RTX 5050 Mobile (43268), and the Quadro M6000 (43301). The RTX 4090 Mobile leads this group at 43667, a 1% delta.

Q: What is the best 1440p preset that stays above 60 FPS?

A: All four presets at 2560x1440 clear the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra settings deliver the highest quality with an average of 74.4 FPS, followed by High at 95.5 FPS, Medium at 114.2 FPS, and Low at 173.5 FPS.

Q: What CPU alternatives perform nearly identically to the i9-14900K?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900KF has an average score of 79371, which is 0.3% lower. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus scores 79574 (0.6% lower), and the AMD EPYC 7413 scores 80041 (1.2% lower). The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 scores 77740, which is 1.7% higher.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER becomes clearer when examining FPS scaling across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the CPU’s strength is evident: the i9-14900K ranks in the 95th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 79097, and its single-thread performance (2262.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core) supports high frame rates. The data shows 1080p Low producing 251.1 FPS, a figure that relies heavily on the CPU feeding frames quickly.

Moving to 2560x1440, the GPU begins to assert dominance. The RTX 4070 SUPER, with its 7168 shading units and 12 GB GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivering 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, scales predictably with resolution. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 173.5 FPS, a 31% reduction from 1080p Low. This pattern continues at High settings, where 1440p yields 95.5 FPS versus 141.7 FPS at 1080p, a 33% decrease. The consistent percentage drops across presets indicate GPU-bound behavior at these resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the overwhelming bottleneck. The RTX 4070 SUPER produces 100.3 FPS on Low at 4K, compared to 173.5 FPS at 1440p Low — a 42% reduction. On Ultra settings, 4K averages 43.4 FPS versus 74.4 FPS at 1440p, a 42% decline. The 4K Medium preset (69.1 FPS) falls between these extremes. The CPU’s role diminishes further at 4K, as even the fastest desktop processors cannot compensate for the GPU’s pixel throughput limits.

Preset scaling within each resolution reinforces this analysis. At 1080p, the gap between Low (251.1 FPS) and Ultra (110 FPS) is 141.1 FPS, indicating substantial headroom for settings changes. At 1440p, the same spread is 99.1 FPS (173.5 to 74.4). At 4K, the spread narrows to 56.9 FPS (100.3 to 43.4). This compression at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the determining factors, while the CPU’s 24 cores and 32 threads provide ample processing headroom even at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers twelve configurations: three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) across four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). All values represent average FPS, with no minimum or maximum frame data provided.

At 1920x1080, the performance envelope is broad. Low settings achieve 251.1 FPS, the highest number in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 170.8 FPS, High settings reach 141.7 FPS, and Ultra settings hold at 110 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 56% reduction in frame rate, yet even the most demanding preset at 1080p remains nearly double the 60 FPS playability threshold.

The 2560x1440 results show a predictable downward shift. Low settings deliver 173.5 FPS, Medium reaches 114.2 FPS, High achieves 95.5 FPS, and Ultra maintains 74.4 FPS. Each preset step at 1440p reduces performance by roughly 20-35 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (59.3 FPS). All four presets comfortably exceed the 60 FPS threshold, with Ultra retaining a 14.4 FPS margin.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals the system’s limits. Low settings produce 100.3 FPS, Medium reaches 69.1 FPS, High drops to 56.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 43.4 FPS. The Medium result is notable: it clears the 60 FPS threshold by 9.1 FPS, making it the highest-quality playable preset at 4K. High and Ultra both fall below playability, with deficits of 3.9 FPS and 16.6 FPS respectively.

Cross-resolution comparisons highlight the GPU’s scaling behavior. At Low settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by 31%, and from 1440p to 4K by 42%. At Ultra settings, the same transitions produce drops of 32% and 42%. This consistent scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are the governing constraints at higher resolutions.

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s benchmark profile supports these findings. Its PassMark G3D score of 29995 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627 place it in the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. The GPU’s 35.48 TFLOPS FP32 throughput provides ample compute for Rust’s rendering workloads, while the 12 GB GDDR6X frame buffer accommodates 4K textures without exceeding memory capacity.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i9-14900K provide insight into CPU-side alternatives that would produce nearly identical results in Rust. The Intel Core i9-14900KF scores 79371 on average, a 0.3% deficit that falls within run-to-run variance. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus scores 79574 (0.6% lower), and the AMD EPYC 7413 scores 80041 (1.2% lower). On the other side, the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 scores 77740, which is 1.7% higher than the i9-14900K’s 79097. Any of these CPUs paired with the RTX 4070 SUPER would yield FPS figures within a few percent of the measured results, as Rust’s frame rates at 1440p and 4K are largely GPU-limited.

For the GPU side, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s nearest rivals cluster tightly around its 43223 average benchmark score. The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB scores 43262 (0.1% lower), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile scores 43268 (0.1% lower), and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 scores 43301 (0.2% lower). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile leads this group at 43667, a 1% delta. These small differences mean that swapping the RTX 4070 SUPER for any of these GPUs would produce nearly identical Rust performance, with expected FPS deltas under 1-2 frames at most settings.

The practical implication is that this combo’s measured FPS values represent a stable performance plateau. A system builder choosing the i9-14900KF instead of the i9-14900K would save the difference in launch MSRP ($589 for the i9-14900K) while losing less than 1% performance. Similarly, the RTX 5050 Mobile’s near-identical benchmark score suggests that laptop configurations with that GPU could approach desktop RTX 4070 SUPER performance in Rust, though thermal and power constraints in mobile platforms would likely reduce sustained frame rates.

The Verdict

This PC configuration can run Rust, but the playable envelope depends heavily on resolution. At 1920x1080, every preset clears the 60 FPS threshold with substantial headroom. Ultra settings deliver 110 FPS, which is 83% above the playability threshold. Medium reaches 170.8 FPS, and Low hits 251.1 FPS. The 1080p experience is smooth across all quality levels.

At 2560x1440, the verdict remains positive for all presets. Ultra settings maintain 74.4 FPS, providing a 24% margin above the 60 FPS threshold. High achieves 95.5 FPS, Medium reaches 114.2 FPS, and Low produces 173.5 FPS. Gamers prioritizing visual fidelity can enable Ultra at 1440p without compromising playability, while competitive players seeking maximum frame rates can drop to Low for 173.5 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the verdict is conditional. Medium settings produce 69.1 FPS, clearing the threshold by 15%. Low settings reach 100.3 FPS, providing a 67% margin. However, High settings fall to 56.1 FPS, which is 3.9 FPS below the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra drops to 43.4 FPS, a 28% deficit. Players targeting 4K must accept Medium as the maximum quality preset, sacrificing some visual fidelity for playable frame rates.

The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it delivers excellent performance across all settings. At 4K, it remains viable with settings adjustments, but the GPU’s 220 W TDP and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth limit its ability to handle Ultra settings at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 541st out of 3723 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the top 14.5% of all configurations in the database. This percentile ranking reflects the strength of both components: the CPU’s 95th percentile standing among all processors and the GPU’s 83rd percentile among all graphics cards.

The rank of 541 out of 3723 indicates that this combo outperforms the vast majority of tested systems, but it does not sit at the absolute top tier. Combos ranking higher likely pair the RTX 4070 SUPER with even faster CPUs or pair higher-tier GPUs like the RTX 4090 Mobile (which scores 43667) with flagship processors. The 3723-combo pool includes a wide range of hardware, from entry-level integrated graphics to multi-GPU workstation setups, so a top-15% placement represents strong gaming performance.

The rank also contextualizes the measured FPS data. The 541st placement aligns with the observed 4K limitations: the combo delivers playable frame rates at 4K only on Medium and Low settings, while excelling at 1080p and 1440p. Systems ranking higher likely maintain higher FPS at 4K Ultra, which the RTX 4070 SUPER cannot achieve due to its 12 GB memory capacity and 192-bit bus width.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the best settings are Ultra, delivering 110 FPS average. This preset provides maximum visual quality while maintaining a 50 FPS margin above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The 110 FPS figure also ensures compatibility with high-refresh-rate displays up to 110 Hz, and the headroom allows for potential frame rate drops without falling below playability.

At 2560x1440, the best settings are Ultra, producing 74.4 FPS average. This represents the highest quality preset that stays above 60 FPS, with a 14.4 FPS safety margin. The 74.4 FPS average suggests that most scenes will remain above 60 FPS, though demanding areas with dense bases or large player populations could approach the threshold.

At 3840x2160, the best settings are Medium, achieving 69.1 FPS average. This preset balances visual quality with playability, maintaining a 9.1 FPS margin above the threshold. The 69.1 FPS figure indicates that the system can handle 4K gaming with adjusted settings, though the margin is slimmer than at lower resolutions. Players seeking more consistent 4K performance may prefer Low settings, which produce 100.3 FPS and provide a 40.3 FPS safety buffer.