Rust

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across the three tested resolutions reveal a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling in Rust. At 1080p with Low settings, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination delivers an average of 151.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that figure to 102.3 FPS, a reduction of approximately 32% from the 1080p result. At 4K, the average falls further to 61.6 FPS, which is roughly 40% below the 1440p figure and 59% below the 1080p baseline. This steep decline indicates that as pixel count rises, the rendering load scales aggressively, placing increasing strain on the graphics pipeline.

The pattern shifts when examining higher quality presets. With High settings, the 1080p average is 86.2 FPS, dropping to 61.5 FPS at 1440p and then to 37 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p here is about 29%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is roughly 40%. Ultra settings show a similar trajectory: 64.9 FPS at 1080p, 42.8 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. The consistent pattern across presets—where the 1440p-to-4K transition causes a larger relative loss than the 1080p-to-1440p transition—suggests that 4K resolution pushes the GPU into a region where pixel throughput becomes the dominant bottleneck.

Notably, the gap between Low and Medium settings narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low produces 151.1 FPS while Medium produces 99.6 FPS, a difference of 51.5 FPS. At 1440p, Low yields 102.3 FPS and Medium yields 69.2 FPS, a difference of 33.1 FPS. At 4K, the spread shrinks to 22.2 FPS (61.6 vs. 39.4). This convergence indicates that at higher resolutions, the additional shading and texture work from Medium settings becomes relatively less costly compared to the sheer fill-rate demands of 4K output. The limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU's rasterization and memory bandwidth capacity, not the CPU or the complexity of the game's effects.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process. It carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory operates at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective transfer. The GPU's base clock is 1605 MHz, boosting to 1770 MHz. It contains 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, along with 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The pixel rate is listed at 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate at 283.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS.

In the context of Rust, the measured results show that the GPU's memory subsystem plays a critical role. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the tested presets, as no texture streaming or out-of-memory symptoms are indicated in the data. The bandwidth figure of 448.0 GB/s becomes particularly relevant at 4K, where the Ultra preset averages just 25 FPS. That result, compared to 37 FPS on High and 39.4 FPS on Medium at the same resolution, suggests that Ultra's additional memory traffic and shader complexity overwhelm the available bandwidth. The GPU's benchmark percentile of 65 places it above the median of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 22206 is within 0.5% of the NVIDIA RTX A400 (score 22307) and 0.9% of the GTX TITAN Z (score 22006). The RTX 2070 SUPER sits 2.3% behind the RTX 4060 Mobile (score 22729) and 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (score 21670).

The DirectX 12 benchmark score of 67, compared to 151 for DirectX 11, indicates that Rust's rendering engine may not fully exploit the newer API's features. This could explain why the GPU's raw compute potential is not fully translated into frame rates at lower resolutions, where CPU overhead becomes more visible. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651 further contextualizes the GPU's modern workload performance. The card's dual-slot design, 215 W TDP, and 550 W suggested PSU are consistent with its mid-high tier positioning.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (codename Vermeer), fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The L3 cache is 32 MB, with 64 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU's TDP is 65 W, and it supports PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes.

In Rust, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 151.1 FPS. This high frame rate indicates that the Ryzen 5 5600X can feed the GPU with enough draw calls and game logic updates to avoid becoming a limiting factor at this level. The 3DMark single-thread score of 917 and multi-thread scores (5582 for 16 threads, 5588 for max threads) suggest strong per-core performance, which is crucial for Rust's simulation-heavy nature. The Cinebench R23 scores—18578 multicore and 2622 single-core—reinforce the CPU's balanced capability.

The percentile of 78 among all CPUs places the 5600X above the majority of processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT with an average score of 20740 (delta -0.3%), the Intel Core i7-10700 at 20746 (delta -0.3%), the Intel Core i5-12490F at 20794 (delta -0.5%), and the Intel Xeon 6325P at 20538 (delta +0.7%). The 5600X's average benchmark score is 20680, indicating it sits within a tight cluster of comparable performance. These margins are small enough that in game-specific scenarios, architectural differences in cache and instruction handling could shift the balance.

At 1080p with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 64.9, which is still well above the 4K Ultra figure of 25 FPS. The fact that 1080p Ultra is more than 2.5 times faster than 4K Ultra shows that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions. Conversely, at 1080p Low, the 151.1 FPS result suggests the CPU is capable of sustaining high frame rates when GPU load is light. The PassMark multi-thread score of 21858 and single-thread score of 3364 provide additional evidence of the CPU's ability to handle both heavily threaded workloads (like Rust's entity updates) and latency-sensitive single-thread tasks (like physics and input handling).

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance for optimal settings based on target resolution and desired smoothness. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 151.1 FPS, which is suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the jump to Medium costs about 34% of that performance, yielding 99.6 FPS—still above 60 FPS. High at 86.2 FPS offers a solid balance, while Ultra at 64.9 FPS remains playable but approaches the edge of what many would consider smooth.

At 1440p, the situation tightens. Low produces 102.3 FPS, which is excellent for 1440p gaming. Medium at 69.2 FPS is comfortably above 60 FPS. High at 61.5 FPS is just above the 60 FPS threshold, but any scene complexity beyond the average could push it lower. Ultra at 42.8 FPS falls short of smooth gameplay and is not recommended for competitive play. For 1440p users, Medium provides the best combination of visual fidelity and headroom, with High being viable for those who prioritize image quality over a safety margin.

At 4K, the recommendations become more restrictive. Low is the only preset that averages above 60 FPS, at 61.6 FPS. Medium at 39.4 FPS and High at 37 FPS are playable for slower-paced exploration but will feel sluggish in combat. Ultra at 25 FPS is effectively unplayable for most users. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this hardware requires Low settings to maintain a playable frame rate, and even then, the average of 61.6 FPS leaves little room for frame time spikes. The measured combo rank of 1044 out of 1717 combos places this pairing in the lower-middle tier for Rust specifically, reinforcing that 4K is not this system's strong suit.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Rust?

A: The 1080p resolution with Medium or High settings provides the best balance, with averages of 99.6 FPS and 86.2 FPS respectively. This avoids the steep performance penalties seen at 4K while maintaining solid visual quality.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Rust?

A: Only with Low settings, where it averages 61.6 FPS. Medium drops to 39.4 FPS, High to 37 FPS, and Ultra to 25 FPS. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for higher presets at 4K.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600X compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The 5600X has an average benchmark score of 20680, placing it 0.3% behind the Ryzen 5 5600GT (20740) and Core i7-10700 (20746), 0.5% behind the Core i5-12490F (20794), and 0.7% ahead of the Xeon 6325P (20538). These are negligible differences in synthetic tests.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER a good match for the 5600X in Rust?

A: The pairing ranks 1044 out of 1717 combos, indicating it is below average for Rust specifically. The GPU's percentile of 65 and CPU's percentile of 78 show the CPU is relatively stronger, so Rust's GPU-heavy nature at higher resolutions limits the combo.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low averages 151.1 FPS while Ultra averages 64.9 FPS, a difference of 86.2 FPS. Ultra is 57% slower than Low, reflecting the significant cost of the highest-quality shadows, textures, and post-processing.

Q: Does the game benefit more from CPU or GPU upgrades?

A: The data shows the GPU is the limiting factor at 1440p and 4K, where FPS drops sharply with resolution. At 1080p Low, the CPU keeps pace, but upgrading the GPU would yield larger gains across resolutions given the RTX 2070 SUPER's 65th percentile ranking.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 151.1 FPS average
• Medium: 99.6 FPS average
• High: 86.2 FPS average
• Ultra: 64.9 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 102.3 FPS average
• Medium: 69.2 FPS average
• High: 61.5 FPS average
• Ultra: 42.8 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 61.6 FPS average
• Medium: 39.4 FPS average
• High: 37 FPS average
• Ultra: 25 FPS average

The data shows a consistent ordering across all resolutions: Low > Medium > High > Ultra. The performance gap between Low and Ultra widens from 86.2 FPS at 1080p to 59.5 FPS at 1440p and 36.6 FPS at 4K, indicating that higher resolutions compress the absolute differences between presets. However, the relative cost of Ultra remains steep, with Ultra at 4K delivering only 41% of the Low preset's frame rate at that resolution. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 9.062 TFLOPS FP32 performance and the Ryzen 5 5600X's 3DMark 16-thread score of 5582 provide the hardware context for these measured results.