Rust

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a performance profile in Rust that is heavily dictated by resolution and graphics settings. The data shows a configuration that can handle the game at 1080p with ease, but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, particularly on higher presets. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, the role of each component, and what the scaling patterns reveal about system bottlenecks.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings is 104.4. This is the highest frame rate recorded across all tested configurations, indicating that the system is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at this resolution and settings level.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 7900X compare to its nearest rival in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X has an average benchmark score of 50556, which places it 0.1% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (avgScore 50598). It is also 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT and 0.5% behind the Intel Core i7-13850HX, showing a very tight grouping at the top of the performance stack.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER falls in the 55th percentile when compared to all GPUs. This indicates it sits slightly above the median, offering a mid-range level of performance relative to the entire GPU market.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the measured average FPS drops from 74.1 on Low settings to 30.7 on Ultra settings. This represents a significant performance cost of 43.4 FPS for the visual fidelity improvements offered by the Ultra preset.

Q: What is the launch MSRP for the CPU and GPU in this configuration?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X has a launch MSRP of $549. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER has a launch MSRP of 229 USD.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER's benchmark score compare to the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 14286, which is 0.7% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT's score of 14389. The performance difference between the two is minimal based on the provided data.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process. Its base clock is 4.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. With a large 64 MB of shared L3 cache, this CPU is engineered for high-throughput workloads. In Rust, a game known for its complex world simulation and physics, the CPU's role is critical. The high core count and strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43695, provide ample headroom for the game's server-side and client-side logic. The PassMark multithread score of 51406 further confirms its capability in heavily threaded scenarios.

The CPU's performance relative to its peers is exceptional, as it sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 50556 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with a negligible delta of -0.1% compared to the Intel Core Ultra 5 235. This places the 7900X at the very top of the desktop performance tier. The single-threaded performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6168, which is important for game logic that is often not perfectly parallelized. This combination of high multi-core and single-core performance ensures that the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor in most gaming scenarios, allowing the GPU to work to its full potential. The data indicates that for Rust, the 7900X provides a powerful foundation, ensuring that frame rates are primarily dictated by the GPU's capabilities, except in situations with extremely high frame rates where the CPU's frame pacing could become a factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is based on the Turing architecture but lacks the dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores found in some of its contemporaries. It operates with a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz. The GPU is equipped with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is a key factor for gaming performance. The GPU's overall performance places it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 14286 is very close to its nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, which it trails by only 0.7%. This suggests the GTX 1660 SUPER is a solid mid-range option.

In Rust, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution and graphical settings increase. The 6 GB VRAM capacity and 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the GPU's raw compute power, measured at 5.027 TFLOPS, begins to show its limits at higher resolutions. The data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, where the average frame rates drop below 45 FPS even on Low settings. The performance gap between this GPU and its nearest rivals is minimal, meaning users can expect similar performance from these competing cards. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 12699 and its DirectX 12 score of 50 highlight its capabilities in modern APIs, but its age is evident in demanding scenarios. The GTX 1660 SUPER is a capable 1080p performer, but it is not designed for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how this system handles Rust across different resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the configuration performs admirably. On Low settings, the average FPS is 104.4, which is the best result in the entire dataset. This drops to 70.5 on Medium and 60.3 on High, showing a steady decline as visual fidelity increases. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields an average of 46.1 FPS, which is still playable but represents a significant performance hit compared to the lower presets.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates show a notable decrease. The Low preset maintains a strong average of 74.1 FPS. The Medium preset averages 47.8 FPS, while High drops to 42.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces a more demanding workload, resulting in an average of just 30.7 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is starting to struggle with the increased pixel count, and the higher settings exacerbate this issue.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the system's limitations are clearly exposed. The Low preset yields an average FPS of 43.5, which is the only 4K result above 30 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 27.6 FPS, and High falls to 24.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding configuration tested, producing an average of just 20.9 FPS. These results clearly show that the GTX 1660 SUPER is not suitable for 4K gaming in Rust, as even the lowest settings fail to provide a consistently smooth experience. The data shows a clear pattern: the system is well-suited for 1080p, acceptable for 1440p at lower settings, and inadequate for 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the system's bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 104.4 at 1080p to 74.1 at 1440p, a 29% decrease. The further drop to 43.5 at 4K represents a 58% decrease from the 1440p figure and a 58% decrease from the 1080p figure. This steep decline in performance as resolution increases is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound scenario. The GTX 1660 SUPER's rendering pipeline is being overwhelmed by the sheer number of pixels, and the CPU's strong performance is not enough to compensate.

The scaling pattern is similar on higher settings, though the absolute frame rates are lower. On Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 46.1 at 1080p to 30.7 at 1440p, a 33% decrease, and then to 20.9 at 4K, a 32% decrease from 1440p. While the percentage drops are slightly less severe at Ultra, the overall performance is still primarily limited by the GPU. The fact that the frame rate is nearly halved when moving from 1080p to 4K at all settings confirms that the GPU is the limiting component. The Ryzen 9 7900X, with its high core count and top-tier benchmark scores, has more than enough headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but at 4K, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the decisive factors. The data strongly suggests that to improve 4K performance, a more powerful GPU would be required, as the CPU is not the source of the bottleneck.