Rust

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Rust with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 shows a significant performance drop as resolution increases, but the pattern is not uniform across all settings presets. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 results in a drop from 274 FPS to 129 FPS, a reduction of 145 FPS or roughly 53%. This indicates that at lower graphical loads, the system is still heavily CPU-bound even at 4K, as the RTX 4090 is not being fully utilized.

Moving to Medium settings, the frame rate falls from 214 FPS at 1080p to 147 FPS at 1440p, and further to 87 FPS at 4K. The scaling here is more pronounced than at Low settings, suggesting that the GPU begins to take a more active role as the preset complexity increases. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 67 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 60 FPS, showing a fairly linear degradation.

At High settings, the measured averages are 180 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 31% from 1080p to 1440p, and 41% from 1440p to 4K. This steeper relative drop at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting component, as the RTX 4090's rendering load increases disproportionately with pixel count.

Ultra settings produce the most dramatic scaling. The average FPS is 137 at 1080p, 94 at 1440p, and 56 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 81 FPS, or 59%. This is the largest absolute and relative reduction across all presets, confirming that at Ultra the RTX 4090 is the primary bottleneck. The data shows that the combo delivers playable frame rates at every resolution, even at Ultra 4K with 56 FPS, but the margin shrinks considerably.

The limiting component analysis is clear: at Low and Medium settings, the Ryzen 9 9900X with its 12 cores and 24 threads keeps the frame rate high even at 4K, but the ceiling is capped by CPU performance. At High and Ultra, the GPU's workload dominates, and the scaling pattern reflects the RTX 4090's raw compute limits rather than any CPU constraint. The 4K Ultra result of 56 FPS is the only measured point where the system falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that for this game, the GPU is the definitive limiting factor at maximum settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The database records this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 as achieving rank 69 out of 3723 tested combos for Rust. This places the system in the top 1.9% of all recorded configurations, which is a strong result given the game's demanding nature and the wide variety of hardware combinations in the database.

The ranking reflects the synergy between the CPU and GPU. The Ryzen 9 9900X's benchmark scores are competitive with its nearest rivals: it sits 0.1% below the AMD EPYC 9015, 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 7313, 1.1% below the Intel Core i9-14900, and 1.4% below the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M in average benchmark score. This places the CPU in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 92% of processors in the database.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4090 holds the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a 0% delta, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 with a 0.3% delta (the RTX 4090 is slightly ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M with a -2.5% delta (the RTX 4090 is ahead), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 with a 2.9% delta (the RTX 4090 is behind). These close deltas indicate that while the RTX 4090 is a top-tier consumer GPU, its synthetic benchmark scores are narrowly clustered with professional workstation cards.

The rank of 69 out of 3723 is driven by the fact that Rust is a title that can be highly sensitive to both single-threaded CPU performance and GPU rasterization. The Ryzen 9 9900X's single-thread score of 2253 in Cinebench R23 and 3010 in Geekbench single-core supports strong per-core performance, which is crucial for Rust's simulation and entity update loops. The RTX 4090's 16384 shading units and 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance provide ample graphics throughput for the game's environment rendering.

Compared to lower-ranked combos, this configuration likely benefits from the CPU's high boost clock of 5.60 GHz and the GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, which prevents memory capacity or bandwidth bottlenecks at 4K. The ranking also indicates that only 68 other combinations in the database achieve higher average FPS across the measured settings, and those are likely to include even more specialized or overclocked hardware.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is built on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge, and manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and a 64 MB L3 cache. This configuration is well-suited for Rust, which often exhibits variable thread utilization depending on server population and base complexity.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32172 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 22174. These scores are consistent with a 12-core, 24-thread processor that can handle parallel workloads effectively. However, the single-threaded scores are equally important for Rust, where the main game loop and physics calculations are often serialized. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2253 and Geekbench single-core score of 3010 indicate that the Ryzen 9 9900X has excellent per-core throughput.

The CPU's 3DMark scores reveal its scaling behavior: 2519 for 2 threads, 4886 for 4 threads, 9114 for 8 threads, 12552 for 16 threads, and 13929 for max threads. The scaling from 2 to 4 threads is 94% (2519 to 4886), from 4 to 8 threads is 87% (4886 to 9114), and from 8 to 16 threads is 38% (9114 to 12552). This diminishing return at higher thread counts suggests that Rust may not fully utilize all 24 threads, but the CPU's high per-core performance compensates.

The memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support are sufficient for the game's data streaming needs. The CPU's TDP of 120 W is modest for a 12-core part, indicating that thermal throttling is unlikely during extended gaming sessions. The 64 MB L3 cache is particularly beneficial for Rust's procedural world generation and item lookup operations, as it reduces the latency of frequently accessed data.

In the measured FPS results, the CPU's role is most evident at Low settings, where the frame rates at 1080p (274 FPS) and 1440p (219 FPS) are very high, suggesting that the CPU can feed the GPU with draw calls faster than the GPU can render them. Even at 4K Low, the 129 FPS result indicates that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at lower graphical loads. The Ryzen 9 9900X's architecture, with its 4 nm process and high clock speeds, provides the headroom needed to maintain high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database contains 12 measured FPS entries for this combo, covering four resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). All entries report average FPS, with only the Medium preset providing minimum and maximum FPS values.

For 1920x1080, the results are: Low at 274 FPS, Medium at 214 FPS (with a min of 182 and max of 246), High at 180 FPS, and Ultra at 137 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 137 FPS, and each step up in settings costs approximately 37 FPS on average. The Medium preset's min and max values show a 64 FPS range, indicating some frame time variance but no severe stuttering.

For 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 219 FPS, Medium at 147 FPS (min 125, max 169), High at 124 FPS, and Ultra at 94 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 72 FPS, which is larger than the 60 FPS drop from Medium to High, and the 30 FPS drop from High to Ultra. The Medium preset's 44 FPS range (125 to 169) is tighter than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU's workload is becoming more consistent.

For 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 129 FPS, Medium at 87 FPS (min 74, max 100), High at 73 FPS, and Ultra at 56 FPS. The Medium preset shows a 26 FPS range, which is the narrowest of any resolution, indicating that at 4K the frame pacing is more stable. The Ultra setting at 56 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire dataset, but it is still playable for a survival game where reaction times are less critical than in competitive shooters.

Cross-referencing the settings, the Low preset at 4K (129 FPS) is faster than the Ultra preset at 1080p (137 FPS), which demonstrates that the GPU's workload at 4K Low is less demanding than the CPU's workload at 1080p Ultra. The High preset at 1440p (124 FPS) is nearly identical to the Low preset at 4K (129 FPS), showing that the combination of resolution and settings can produce similar frame rates through different bottlenecks.

The Medium preset provides the only min/max data across all resolutions, allowing for frame time analysis. At 1080p Medium, the average is 214 FPS with a 182 FPS minimum, meaning the worst-case frame is 85% of the average. At 1440p Medium, the average is 147 FPS with a 125 FPS minimum, or 85% of the average. At 4K Medium, the average is 87 FPS with a 74 FPS minimum, or 85% of the average. This consistent 85% ratio suggests that frame drops are proportional to the average FPS, not caused by any specific resolution or setting issue.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 274, recorded at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Does this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, the average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 56, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much faster is the 1080p Low result compared to the 4K Low result?

A: The 1080p Low result is 274 FPS, while the 4K Low result is 129 FPS, making the 1080p result 145 FPS faster, or approximately 112% higher.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all CPUs in the database?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 92% of processors.

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

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms 88% of graphics cards.

Q: Which measured setting provides the most stable frame times, based on the available min/max data?

A: The Medium preset provides min/max data at all resolutions. The 4K Medium preset has the narrowest range, from 74 to 100 FPS, a 26 FPS spread, indicating the most consistent frame pacing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for selecting the optimal settings preset for this combo in Rust, depending on the user's target resolution and frame rate preference.

For 1920x1080, the Low preset at 274 FPS is far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, and the Medium preset at 214 FPS is still exceptionally high. The High preset at 180 FPS and Ultra at 137 FPS both provide smooth gameplay for standard 144 Hz displays. Given that the Medium preset includes min/max data (182 to 246 FPS), it offers a good balance between visual fidelity and performance, with the minimum still exceeding 144 FPS. For users with 240 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors, the Low preset is the only one that can fully saturate such displays. For typical 144 Hz monitors, Medium or High are both viable, with High providing better visuals at 180 FPS.

For 2560x1440, the Low preset at 219 FPS can still drive 144 Hz monitors, but the Medium preset at 147 FPS (min 125) is the recommended choice for a balance of quality and performance. The High preset at 124 FPS is also playable, but it dips slightly below 144 FPS, which may be noticeable on high refresh rate panels. The Ultra preset at 94 FPS is acceptable for 60 Hz or 75 Hz monitors but may not fully utilize 120 Hz+ displays. The Medium preset's min of 125 FPS ensures that frame drops do not fall below the 120 FPS threshold, making it the most consistent option at this resolution.

For 3840x2160, the Low preset at 129 FPS is the only setting that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS by a large margin. The Medium preset at 87 FPS (min 74) is well above 60 FPS and provides a substantial visual improvement over Low. The High preset at 73 FPS is still above 60 FPS and offers better image quality, but the margin is thinner. The Ultra preset at 56 FPS is the only measured result below 60 FPS, and while it is playable, it may result in occasional perceived stutter. The recommended choice for 4K is the Medium preset, which delivers 87 FPS average and a minimum of 74 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay while maintaining a reasonable level of graphical detail. For users who prioritize visuals over frame rate, the High preset at 73 FPS is a viable alternative, but the Medium preset provides the best combination of performance and stability based on the recorded data.