Rust

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates for Rust with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 reveal a clear hierarchy across presets, but the optimal choice depends heavily on target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 204.4 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire dataset. However, this comes at the cost of visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 174.9 FPS, still well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors, while High reaches 162.8 FPS. Ultra at 1080p drops to 137.6 FPS, which remains playable but represents a 32.8% reduction from Low.

For most users at 1080p, the High preset offers the best balance, as the 162.8 FPS average is only 20.4% below Low but provides substantially better visual quality. The data indicates that the gap between Medium and High is relatively small — 174.9 versus 162.8 FPS — suggesting that High is the more sensible choice for users who want both performance and image quality.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low produces 178.2 FPS, Medium 147.5 FPS, High 123.9 FPS, and Ultra 95 FPS. The High preset at 1440p still delivers a smooth experience for most displays, but users with 144Hz monitors may prefer Medium, which offers 147.5 FPS — a 19.0% uplift over High. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 95 FPS, is the first point where the experience becomes noticeably less fluid, though it remains above 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. Low yields 132.2 FPS, Medium 88.1 FPS, High 72 FPS, and Ultra falls to 57.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire dataset that drops below 60 FPS, making it marginal for smooth gameplay. Medium at 4K provides 88.1 FPS, which is a reasonable compromise, but High at 72 FPS is still acceptable for many users. The recommendation for 4K is Medium, as it offers a 22.3% improvement over High while maintaining a playable frame rate.

The overall best experience per the measured rows is the High preset at 2560x1440, which delivers 123.9 FPS. This configuration balances visual quality with performance, staying comfortably above the 60 FPS baseline while avoiding the steep performance penalties of Ultra. For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, Low at 1080p at 204.4 FPS is the top performer, but the data suggests that High at 1440p is the sweet spot for most gaming scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These specifications position the RTX 4090 as a high-end solution, and the benchmark results confirm its capability in Rust.

The GPU's role in Rust becomes evident when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 204.4 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 132.2 FPS — a 35.3% reduction. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the CPU (AMD Ryzen 9 5950X) has ample headroom with its 16 cores and 32 threads. The Ryzen 9 5950X's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 38607 and a single-core score of 5450, suggest it can feed the GPU effectively at lower resolutions.

At 4K Ultra, the frame rate falls to 57.8 FPS, which is a 71.7% drop from 1080p Low. This steep decline is consistent with the RTX 4090's pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s being taxed by the increased workload. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS is substantial, yet Rust's rendering demands at 4K Ultra exceed what even this flagship can sustain at high frame rates.

The 24 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for Rust at any resolution, as the game's texture and geometry data do not approach this limit. The 384-bit memory bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensure that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck, even at 4K. The data shows that the RTX 4090's raw compute power is the determining factor in frame rate, particularly at higher settings where the shading units (16384) and RT cores (128) are fully utilized.

Interestingly, the GPU's benchmark percentile of 91 places it above the vast majority of GPUs, yet its nearest rivals — such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 with an average score of 66733 and a deltaPct of -0.4% — are not typical gaming cards. This underscores that the RTX 4090 is an outlier in performance, and the measured Rust results reflect its top-tier positioning.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average frame rate is 204.4 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: Does the system maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra?

A: No, at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 57.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 5950X's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance in Rust?

A: Rust benefits from both, but the CPU's single-thread score of 5450 in Cinebench R23 and multi-core score of 38607 indicate strong performance in both areas, though the game is not heavily multi-threaded.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 2560x1440?

A: At 1440p, Low averages 178.2 FPS while Ultra averages 95 FPS, resulting in a difference of 83.2 FPS, or a 46.7% reduction from Low to Ultra.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM a limiting factor in Rust?

A: No, the 24 GB VRAM is more than adequate for Rust at any resolution and setting, as the game does not approach this memory capacity.

Q: Which preset at 4K offers the best balance of performance and quality?

A: The Medium preset at 4K, with an average of 88.1 FPS, offers the best balance, as it provides a significant improvement over High (72 FPS) while maintaining smooth gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for Rust across all resolutions and settings are as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 204.4 FPS, Medium averages 174.9 FPS, High averages 162.8 FPS, and Ultra averages 137.6 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline, with the largest drop occurring between Medium and High (12.1 FPS) and the smallest between High and Ultra (25.2 FPS). The total reduction from Low to Ultra is 66.8 FPS, representing a 32.7% decrease.

At 2560x1440, the pattern is similar but with steeper declines. Low averages 178.2 FPS, Medium 147.5 FPS, High 123.9 FPS, and Ultra 95 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 30.7 FPS, between Medium and High is 23.6 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 28.9 FPS. From Low to Ultra, the total drop is 83.2 FPS, a 46.7% reduction. This indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are significantly lower. Low averages 132.2 FPS, Medium 88.1 FPS, High 72 FPS, and Ultra 57.8 FPS. The gaps between settings are larger: 44.1 FPS between Low and Medium, 16.1 FPS between Medium and High, and 14.2 FPS between High and Ultra. The overall reduction from Low to Ultra is 74.4 FPS, a 56.3% decrease. This is the most substantial percentage drop across all resolutions, highlighting the GPU's workload at 4K.

Comparing settings across resolutions, the 1080p Low score of 204.4 FPS is the highest in the dataset, while the 4K Ultra score of 57.8 FPS is the lowest. The data shows that at any given preset, the frame rate decreases as resolution increases, but the rate of decrease is not uniform. For example, 1080p High (162.8 FPS) is closer to 1440p Low (178.2 FPS) than to 1440p High (123.9 FPS), suggesting that resolution has a more significant impact than preset at these levels.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck. At the Low preset, the 1080p average is 204.4 FPS, which drops to 178.2 FPS at 1440p (a 12.8% reduction) and further to 132.2 FPS at 4K (a 35.3% reduction from 1080p). The decline from 1440p to 4K is 46 FPS, or 25.8% of the 1440p score. This pattern indicates that the GPU is increasingly stressed at higher resolutions, but the CPU is still able to provide sufficient frame data.

At the Medium preset, the progression is 174.9 FPS at 1080p, 147.5 FPS at 1440p, and 88.1 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27.4 FPS (15.7%), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 59.4 FPS (40.3%). The larger reduction at 4K suggests that the GPU's rendering workload grows disproportionately with resolution.

The High preset shows 162.8 FPS at 1080p, 123.9 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is 38.9 FPS (23.9%), and from 1440p to 4K is 51.9 FPS (41.9%). At the Ultra preset, the scores are 137.6 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 57.8 FPS at 4K, with reductions of 42.6 FPS (31.0%) and 37.2 FPS (39.2%) respectively.

The data reveals that the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K increases with higher settings: 35.3% for Low, 49.6% for Medium, 55.8% for High, and 58.0% for Ultra. This trend indicates that as settings increase, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, as the additional visual effects and geometry place greater demands on the RTX 4090's compute resources. The CPU, with its strong single-thread performance (5450 in Cinebench R23), appears sufficient to keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions, but at 4K Ultra, the system is clearly GPU-bound. The overall combo rank of 71 out of 1717 tested combinations further confirms that this configuration is well above average for Rust, with the resolution scaling behavior pointing to the GPU as the primary constraint at higher resolutions.