Rust

This is a lopsided pairing on paper: a 6-core Zen 2 APU from 2020 driving the current flagship Blackwell GPU. The data shows that Rust’s frame rates are still very playable across most settings, but the CPU is clearly the limiting factor at lower resolutions and higher presets. Below is the breakdown of what this specific combo delivers, based strictly on the measured results.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows cover four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions. The best experience depends on your target frame rate and resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 155 FPS average, which is the highest raw number recorded for this combo. However, the Medium preset still hits 133 FPS average with a minimum of 113 FPS, offering a much better visual quality while staying comfortably above 100 FPS. For 1080p, Medium is the sweet spot — it trades 22 FPS against Low for substantially better image quality, and the minimum of 113 FPS keeps frame pacing smooth.

At 2560x1440, the story shifts. Medium delivers 118 FPS average with a 100 FPS minimum, while High drops to 111 FPS average. The gap between Medium and High is only 7 FPS, so High becomes the better choice at 1440p if you want more detail without sacrificing much smoothness. Ultra at 1440p still averages 97 FPS, which is fine for most displays, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 14 FPS and likely adds little perceptible benefit in Rust’s busy scenes.

At 3840x2160, the CPU and GPU are both under heavy load. Medium averages 89 FPS with a 76 FPS minimum, which is the only 4K row that includes min/max data. High drops to 75 FPS, and Ultra falls to 57 FPS. Low at 4K hits 115 FPS, but that preset removes too much visual information for a survival game where spotting distant players matters. For 4K, Medium is the recommended preset — it stays above 60 FPS on average and the 76 FPS minimum indicates tolerable dips during heavy load. Ultra at 4K is only for players who prioritize visual fidelity over responsiveness, given the 57 FPS average.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, with bandwidth rated at 1.79 TB/s. The memory clocks run at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed. These specifications are far beyond what Rust typically needs, and the measured results confirm that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. The GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, places it well above typical gaming hardware.

The RTX 5090’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% higher average score), the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (0.6% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (1.4% lower). These deltas are tiny, meaning the RTX 5090 sits in a performance class where small percentage differences separate it from workstation cards. In Rust, the GPU’s 21760 shading units and 680 texture mapping units are more than sufficient for the game’s draw calls and texture work.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are high, but Rust’s frame rates at 1080p and 1440p are more constrained by the CPU’s ability to feed the render thread. At 4K, the GPU finally becomes more relevant — the difference between Low (115 FPS) and Medium (89 FPS) at 3840x2160 shows how settings affect GPU load. The RTX 5090’s 32 GB VRAM is never a limiting factor in these measurements; Rust’s texture pools and map sizes are unlikely to exceed even half of that capacity.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It uses the Zen 2 architecture on a 7 nm process, with 8 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17507, places it in the mid-range tier. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (0.1% higher), the Intel Core 7 150U (0.6% higher), the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE (0.6% lower), and the Intel Core i3-14100T (0.8% lower). These are all compact or low-power chips, which says something about the 4600G’s positioning — it competes with efficient parts, not high-core-count monsters.

In Rust, the CPU’s single-thread performance matters more than its multi-core throughput. The 4600G scores 726 in 3dmark_single_thread and 1919 in cinebench_r23_singlecore. These are modest numbers for a 2020 chip. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 155 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra it drops to 114 FPS. This 41 FPS gap is largely due to the CPU having to process more draw calls and physics updates at higher settings, not because the GPU is struggling. The 4600G’s 6 cores and 12 threads are adequate for Rust’s multithreaded simulation, but the relatively low single-thread score caps the maximum frame rate.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s (dual-channel DDR4) is another limiting factor. Rust is memory-sensitive, and the 4600G’s memory controller is from the Zen 2 era. At 1080p Low, the 155 FPS average likely represents the CPU’s ceiling for this game engine. Moving to 1440p Low only drops to 137 FPS, and 4K Low still hits 115 FPS — this pattern shows that the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes more involved as resolution increases. The 4600G’s 8 MB L3 cache is small compared to modern chips, but Rust’s working set doesn’t seem to punish it severely, given the playable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 5 4600G and RTX 5090 ranks 686th out of 3723 tested combos in Rust. That places it in the top 18.4% of all tested pairings, which is respectable but not exceptional given the GPU’s flagship status. The ranking reflects the CPU’s limiting role — the RTX 5090 is capable of far higher frame rates, but the 4600G holds the combo back, especially at 1080p and in CPU-heavy scenes.

The rank of 686 out of 3723 means that 686 other combos produce higher average frame rates in Rust. Those combos likely pair the RTX 5090 with faster CPUs, which would explain the gap. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, this combo averages 57 FPS, while at 1080p Low it averages 155 FPS. The spread between best-case and worst-case settings is 98 FPS, which is a wide range and signals that the CPU is the variable that changes the most as settings shift.

For a builder considering this pairing, the ranking suggests that the RTX 5090 is wasted in terms of raw FPS potential. However, the combo still delivers smooth gameplay at 1440p High and 4K Medium, which are reasonable targets for a modern survival game. The 686th rank is not a failure — it is a reflection of the CPU’s age and tier relative to the GPU’s flagship status.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Rust?

A: The highest recorded average is 155 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: At 4K Ultra, what frame rate can I expect?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 57 FPS.

Q: Which preset offers the best balance of frame rate and visual quality at 1440p?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 average 111 FPS, which is only 7 FPS below Medium’s 118 FPS but provides better visual detail.

Q: Is the RTX 5090’s 32 GB VRAM ever a limitation in these measurements?

A: No. The measured FPS rows show no VRAM-related performance caps; the GPU’s memory capacity is far beyond Rust’s requirements at any tested setting.

Q: How does this combo’s rank compare to other tested pairings?

A: It ranks 686th out of 3723 combos, placing it in the top 18.4% of all tested configurations for Rust.

Q: Does the CPU hold back the GPU at 1080p?

A: Yes. The 1080p Low average of 155 FPS versus the 4K Low average of 115 FPS indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions, while the GPU has more headroom that cannot be utilized.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers the following averages: Low 155 FPS, Medium 133 FPS (minimum 113 FPS, maximum 153 FPS), High 126 FPS, and Ultra 114 FPS. The 1080p results show a clear step-down as settings increase, with a 41 FPS difference between Low and Ultra. The Medium row’s minimum of 113 FPS is the only 1080p row with min/max data, and it shows that dips are manageable even at medium visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 137 FPS, Medium 118 FPS (minimum 100 FPS, maximum 136 FPS), High 111 FPS, and Ultra 97 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 40 FPS, nearly identical to the 1080p spread. The Medium row’s minimum of 100 FPS is respectable for 1440p. The progression from Medium to High to Ultra shows diminishing returns — 7 FPS and then 14 FPS drops, respectively.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 115 FPS, Medium 89 FPS (minimum 76 FPS, maximum 102 FPS), High 75 FPS, and Ultra 57 FPS. The 4K results show the largest relative drop from Low to Ultra, a 58 FPS difference. The Medium row’s 76 FPS minimum is the lowest recorded minimum across all resolutions and settings, indicating that 4K Medium is the borderline for smooth gameplay. The High and Ultra rows have no min/max data, but their averages of 75 and 57 FPS suggest that 4K High is playable on a 60 Hz display, while 4K Ultra dips below that threshold on average.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the CPU limits the combo’s maximum frame rate, but the GPU ensures that higher resolutions remain viable. At 1080p, the CPU caps performance; at 4K, the GPU takes over and the settings scaling becomes more pronounced. For a player with a 1440p monitor, High settings provide the best experience; for 4K, Medium is the pragmatic choice. The RTX 5090’s massive compute resources are underutilized in this pairing, but the measured results still deliver a smooth Rust experience at most settings.