Rust

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K reveal a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling, but with some notable deviations that point to specific bottlenecks in Rust. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 149.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 131.8 FPS, a 11.8% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 109.9 FPS, another 16.6% reduction from 1440p. This scaling curve is relatively shallow, suggesting that even at the lowest settings, the Ryzen 5 3600 is beginning to assert itself as a limiting factor before the GPU is fully saturated.

The High preset tells a different story. At 1080p, the average is 122.6 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 104.5 FPS, a 14.8% reduction. Then at 4K, it falls to 60 FPS — a 42.6% reduction from 1440p. That steep cliff between 1440p and 4K is the signature of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's rendering load finally outstripping what the frame buffer and shader array can deliver. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 672.3 GB/s bandwidth are ample for these resolutions, but the pixel throughput requirement at 3840x2160 is quadruple that of 1080p, and the measured data shows the card hitting its practical ceiling.

The Medium preset follows a similar trajectory: 126.6 FPS at 1080p, 114.4 FPS at 1440p (a 9.6% drop), and then 70.3 FPS at 4K (a 38.6% drop). Ultra is the most demanding, with 109 FPS at 1080p, 76.8 FPS at 1440p (a 29.5% drop), and 50.1 FPS at 4K (a 34.8% drop). The Ultra numbers indicate that even at 1440p, this preset is pushing the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER to its limits — 76.8 FPS is playable but not high-refresh territory. At 4K Ultra, the 50.1 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold that many would consider the baseline for smooth gameplay.

What the scaling data reveals overall: the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the dominant component at 4K across all settings, with the CPU becoming more relevant as resolution drops. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 40.4 FPS (149.4 vs 109), while at 4K that same gap is 59.8 FPS (109.9 vs 50.1). This widening spread at higher resolution is expected — the GPU is doing more work per frame, and the settings have a larger absolute impact.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC. Its base clock is 2340 MHz with a boost clock of 2610 MHz, and the memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications translate into measurable performance in Rust, where the game's large, persistent world and frequent texture streaming benefit from both the memory capacity and the bandwidth.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48704. Its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA CMP 50HX (avg score 49071, deltaPct -0.7), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 (47915, +1.6), the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (47743, +2), and the Intel Arc A550M (49737, -2.1). The fact that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER sits within 2% of these scores — some of which are professional or mobile parts — shows how competitive this desktop card is in raw compute. In Rust, the data shows the GPU handling 4K Low at 109.9 FPS with headroom to spare, but 4K Ultra at 50.1 FPS reveals the frame rate dropping below the 60 FPS line.

The VRAM situation is worth noting. Rust has a reputation for using significant memory, and the 16 GB allocation appears sufficient for all tested settings at all resolutions — there is no evidence in the data of a memory capacity cliff. The bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s is the more relevant constraint, particularly at 4K Ultra where the pixel fill rate and texture fetch demands spike. The 96 ROPs and 264 TMUs are the units that handle those operations, and the measured FPS drop from High (60) to Ultra (50.1) at 4K — a 16.5% reduction — aligns with the increased shading and texture work.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for settings selection. At 1080p, Low gives 149.4 FPS, Medium gives 126.6, High gives 122.6, and Ultra gives 109. The difference between Medium and High is only 4 FPS, while the jump from Low to Medium costs 22.8 FPS. For competitive play or high-refresh monitors, Low is the clear choice at 1080p. For visual quality, High offers a 13.6 FPS advantage over Ultra while looking nearly identical in most scenarios — the data does not justify the performance hit of Ultra.

At 1440p, the picture shifts. Low is 131.8 FPS, Medium is 114.4, High is 104.5, and Ultra is 76.8. The gap between Medium and High is 9.9 FPS, and between High and Ultra it widens to 27.7 FPS. This suggests that High is the sweet spot at 1440p — it retains 104.5 FPS while providing most of the visual fidelity that Ultra offers, but at a 27.7 FPS savings. Medium is also viable if the user prioritizes frame rate over visuals, since the 114.4 FPS mark is more comfortable for a 144Hz display.

At 4K, the data shows a different reality. Low is 109.9 FPS, Medium is 70.3, High is 60, and Ultra is 50.1. Low is the only setting that clears 100 FPS, and it does so decisively. Medium dips below 72 FPS, which is marginal for a 60Hz display but not ideal. High hits exactly 60 FPS, which is the floor for smooth gameplay on a standard monitor. Ultra falls to 50.1 FPS, which is noticeably stutter-prone. For 4K, the recommendation is Low for high-refresh displays, Medium for a balance, and High only if the user accepts 60 FPS as the target. Ultra is not recommended at 4K based on the measured 50.1 FPS average.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full spread of settings yields: Low 149.4 FPS, Medium 126.6 FPS, High 122.6 FPS, and Ultra 109 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 27.1% reduction, which is modest for a game like Rust that is often CPU-bound at lower resolutions. The 1080p results show that the Ryzen 5 3600's single-thread performance — a 3dmark single-thread score of 696 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2124 — is sufficient to feed the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER without dropping below 109 FPS even at Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 131.8 FPS, Medium 114.4 FPS, High 104.5 FPS, and Ultra 76.8 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 17.4 FPS, from Medium to High is 9.9 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 27.7 FPS. The Ultra penalty at 1440p is severe — it costs 27.7 FPS over High, which is a 26.5% reduction. This is the largest single-setting jump in the entire dataset, indicating that Ultra enables rendering features that disproportionately tax the GPU at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 109.9 FPS, Medium 70.3 FPS, High 60 FPS, and Ultra 50.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium is a 39.6 FPS drop, which is the largest absolute drop in the dataset. From Medium to High is 10.3 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 9.9 FPS. The 4K data shows that Low is in a different performance class than the other settings — 109.9 FPS versus 70.3 for Medium. This suggests that Low disables certain GPU-heavy features that have an outsized impact at 4K pixel counts.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combination ranks 443rd out of 1717 tested combos in Rust. This places it in the 74th percentile of all tested combinations — a solidly above-average result, but not in the top tier. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU in this game's workload. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a high-end GPU (86th percentile of all GPUs), while the Ryzen 5 3600 is a mid-range CPU (76th percentile of all CPUs). The combination lands between those two percentiles, which is logical for a game that uses both components.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context. The Intel Core i5-11400 has an average benchmark score of 18150, a deltaPct of -0.1 versus the Ryzen 5 3600's 18129. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 18101 (+0.2), the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 scores 18158 (-0.2), and the AMD EPYC 9274F scores 18189 (-0.3). These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, meaning the Ryzen 5 3600 is effectively tied with these parts in general compute. In Rust, the 443rd rank out of 1717 reflects that the combo is competitive with other mid-range CPU + high-end GPU pairings, but it does not crack the top 400.

The GPU's nearest rivals, as noted earlier, are all within 2% of its average benchmark score. This tight clustering suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's performance in Rust is representative of its class — it is not an outlier in either direction. The 443rd rank is therefore more a function of the CPU's standing than any GPU anomaly.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture (Matisse), built on TSMC's 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel operation and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU supports PCIe Gen 4 with 16 lanes.

In Rust, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p. The difference between Low (149.4 FPS) and Ultra (109 FPS) at 1080p is 40.4 FPS, but the CPU's single-thread performance — a 3dmark single-thread score of 696 and a Passmark single-thread score of 2562 — is what prevents the frame rate from climbing higher on Low. The 149.4 FPS at 1080p Low is likely near the ceiling for this CPU in Rust's simulation-heavy gameplay.

The multi-threaded performance is also relevant. The CPU scores 4605 in 3dmark 16-thread tests and 4603 in max-thread tests, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15045. Rust can utilize multiple cores for world simulation and entity updates, and the 6 cores / 12 threads provide adequate throughput. The Passmark multithread score of 17700 and the passmark physics score of 1152 indicate that the CPU handles the physics and logic workloads without becoming a hard bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, where the GPU is the limiting factor.

The 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die with a 76th percentile ranking among all CPUs show that the Ryzen 5 3600 is a competent but not exceptional part for this game. The deltaPct values against its nearest rivals — all within -0.3 to +0.2 percent — confirm that swapping to a comparable Intel or AMD chip would produce nearly identical Rust performance. The CPU's 65W TDP and 4.20 GHz boost clock are the practical limits; the data shows that at 4K Low, the 109.9 FPS is likely CPU-limited because the GPU has ample headroom at that resolution and settings combination.