Rust

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Rust with the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 143 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 98 FPS, a 31% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 58 FPS, which is 59% below the 1080p Low figure. This scaling curve is steep but not uniform, suggesting the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as pixel count increases.

The High settings tier tells a similar story. At 1080p High, the average is 81 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 56 FPS, a 31% decline. At 4K High, the average falls to 33 FPS, which is 59% below the 1080p High result. The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High settings indicates that resolution scaling in Rust is largely independent of the quality preset. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is roughly the same as the gap between 1440p and 4K in relative terms, though the absolute FPS losses are smaller at higher resolutions.

The Medium settings tier includes min and max FPS data, providing additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 96 FPS with a range from 82 to 110 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 66 FPS, with a range from 56 to 76 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 39 FPS, with a range from 33 to 45 FPS. The spread between min and max FPS narrows as resolution increases, from 28 FPS at 1080p to 20 FPS at 1440p to 12 FPS at 4K. This tightening suggests that at lower resolutions, CPU-side frame time variation creates more pronounced FPS swings, while at 4K the GPU is so heavily loaded that frame pacing becomes more consistent.

The Ultra settings tier shows the heaviest load. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 62 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 42 FPS, a 32% reduction. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 25 FPS, which is 60% below the 1080p Ultra result. The 4K Ultra figure of 25 FPS is the lowest recorded in the entire dataset, indicating that this combination struggles to maintain playable frame rates at the highest quality and resolution settings simultaneously.

What does this scaling behavior say about the limiting component? The fact that FPS drops by roughly 30% from 1080p to 1440p and another 40% from 1440p to 4K across all settings points to a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between resolutions, particularly at Low settings where the GPU has less work per pixel. Instead, the consistent percentage drops indicate that the Radeon RX 6650 XT is the primary constraint as resolution increases. However, the min FPS data at Medium settings suggests the CPU still plays a role at 1080p, where the 82 FPS minimum is notably lower than the 96 FPS average, implying frame time spikes that are less visible at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process node from TSMC. It packs 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, with a transistor density of 46.7 million per square millimeter. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2055 MHz, a game clock of 2410 MHz, and a boost clock of 2635 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 280.3 GB/s of bandwidth at an effective 17.5 Gbps memory clock. The GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 32 ray tracing cores. Its compute capabilities are rated at 10.79 TFLOPS for FP32 and 21.59 TFLOPS for FP16, with pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19765. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, which scores 19885 (0.6% higher), and the AMD FirePro D300, which scores 19637 (0.7% lower). The RX 6650 XT sits close to these professional-grade cards, though direct gaming comparisons are limited. The GPU's passmark G3D score is 17166, with a DirectX 12 score of 62 and a DirectX 11 score of 169, indicating strong performance in legacy APIs but relatively modest results in the latest DirectX 12 workloads.

In Rust, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions and quality settings. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but at 4K Ultra, the combination of high-resolution textures and complex shading may strain memory bandwidth. The 280.3 GB/s memory bandwidth is modest by modern standards, and the 4K Ultra result of 25 FPS suggests the GPU is heavily constrained. The boost clock of 2635 MHz is reasonably high, which helps at 1080p where the GPU can run closer to its maximum frequency, but at 4K the thermal and power headroom may limit sustained clocks. The GPU's TDP is rated at 176 W, with a suggested PSU of 450 W, and it uses a single 8-pin power connector. The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides adequate bandwidth for this card, though the x8 lane width is worth noting for older platforms.

The GPU's ray tracing cores (32 of them) do not appear to provide a measurable benefit in Rust, which is primarily a rasterization-heavy game. The FP32 throughput of 10.79 TFLOPS is solid for traditional rendering, and the texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s helps with the large open-world environments Rust presents. The GPU's production status is end-of-life, and its launch MSRP was 399 USD. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the GPU is not the limiting factor, as the 143 FPS average is well above what would indicate GPU saturation. But at 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with the 25 FPS result being the lowest across all configurations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a TDP of 58 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700. The processor has PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes (CPU only), and it does not include integrated graphics. Its launch MSRP was $97, and the production status is active.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a mixed profile. In Cinebench R23, it scores 11860 in multi-core and 1674 in single-core. In Geekbench, it scores 7252 multi-core and 1932 single-core. The 3DMark tests show 4051 in 16-thread, 1659 in 2-thread, 2859 in 4-thread, 4026 in 8-thread, and 4023 in max-thread. The passmark multi-thread score is 14015, with a single-thread score of 3444. The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 68, with an average benchmark score of 13494. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core 3 N355, which scores 13492 (0% delta), and the Intel Core i5-9500, which scores 13452 (0.3% higher). The Core i7-1250U scores 13351 (1.1% lower), and the Core 5 120UL scores 13594 (0.7% higher).

In Rust, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is not fully saturated. At 1080p Low, the 143 FPS average indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, but the min FPS data at Medium settings (82 FPS at 1080p) suggests occasional CPU-side frame time spikes. Rust is known for its server-side and world simulation logic, which can be demanding on single-thread performance. The Core i3-12100F's single-core performance, as evidenced by the 1674 Cinebench R23 single-core score and 893 3DMark single-thread score, is strong for a budget 4-core part, but the limited thread count may cause issues in Rust's more complex scenes.

The 4-core, 8-thread configuration is a double-edged sword. The 8 threads allow for decent multi-threading in workloads that scale, as shown by the 11860 Cinebench R23 multi-core score. However, Rust's engine may not fully utilize all 8 threads, and the modest L3 cache of 12 MB could be a constraint in large worlds with many entities. The data shows that at 1440p and 4K, the CPU becomes less relevant, as the GPU takes over as the primary bottleneck. At 1080p Ultra, the 62 FPS average is likely a combination of CPU and GPU limitations, with the CPU unable to maintain higher frame rates due to the heavy draw call and physics load. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is a mid-range performer, and the 0% delta from the Core 3 N355 suggests they are effectively equivalent in average performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), for a total of 12 configurations. The Medium settings include min and max FPS values; other settings only have average FPS.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 143 FPS, Medium averages 96 FPS with a range of 82 to 110 FPS, High averages 81 FPS, and Ultra averages 62 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 57% reduction in average FPS, from 143 to 62 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 47 FPS, which is the largest single-step drop, indicating that the Medium preset adds significant graphical load. The gap between Medium and High is 15 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 19 FPS. The min FPS at Medium is 82 FPS, which is close to the High average of 81 FPS, suggesting that even at Medium settings, there are moments where performance drops to the level of higher settings.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low averages 98 FPS, Medium averages 66 FPS with a range of 56 to 76 FPS, High averages 56 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 57% reduction, from 98 to 42 FPS, mirroring the 1080p percentage drop. The gap between Low and Medium is 32 FPS, between Medium and High is 10 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 14 FPS. The min FPS at Medium is 56 FPS, which exactly matches the High average, indicating that Medium settings can occasionally dip to the same performance as High settings on average.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low averages 58 FPS, Medium averages 39 FPS with a range of 33 to 45 FPS, High averages 33 FPS, and Ultra averages 25 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 57% reduction, from 58 to 25 FPS, consistent with the other resolutions. The gap between Low and Medium is 19 FPS, between Medium and High is 6 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 8 FPS. The min FPS at Medium is 33 FPS, which matches the High average exactly. This consistency across resolutions suggests that the relative cost of each settings tier is stable, regardless of pixel count.

The data reveals an interesting pattern: the percentage reduction from Low to Ultra is consistently 57% across all three resolutions. This means the relative performance scaling is resolution-independent. However, the absolute FPS values vary widely. At 1080p Ultra, the 62 FPS average is playable for most users. At 1440p Ultra, the 42 FPS average is borderline. At 4K Ultra, the 25 FPS average is not comfortably playable. The Medium settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance, with 96 FPS at 1080p, 66 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K. For competitive play, 1080p Low at 143 FPS is the clear choice, while 4K Low at 58 FPS is the minimum playable threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F + AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination ranks 2438 out of 3723 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the 34.5th percentile of all tested combinations. This means that roughly two-thirds of all tested combos outperform this pairing in Rust. The rank of 2438 indicates that while this is not a bottom-tier setup, it is firmly in the lower half of performance. The combo's ranking is likely dragged down by the CPU's limited core count, as the GPU is a mid-range part that performs adequately at lower resolutions.

The combo's rank in Rust reflects the game's demanding nature. Rust is a survival game with large open worlds, complex physics, and significant CPU overhead for server-side simulation. The 4-core i3-12100F, despite its strong single-thread performance, may struggle to maintain high frame rates in Rust's most populated areas. The 8 threads help with background tasks, but the game's main thread is likely the bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 143 FPS average suggests the combo can handle light loads, but the min FPS data at Medium (82 FPS) indicates that frame pacing can suffer in demanding scenes.

When compared to other combos, this pairing's rank of 2438 out of 3723 means it falls just above the bottom third. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking and the CPU's 68th percentile ranking individually suggest a mid-pack performer, but their combination in Rust results in a lower percentile due to the game's specific CPU demands. The data indicates that the GPU is capable of higher performance in less CPU-intensive games, but Rust's engine limits the combo's overall effectiveness. The rank suggests that users seeking higher frame rates in Rust would benefit from a CPU with more cores, even if the GPU remains the same.

The combo's relative performance is best at 1080p, where the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the combo's rank would likely improve relative to other combos with stronger CPUs but weaker GPUs. However, the overall rank of 2438 is a summary statistic that reflects performance across all settings and resolutions. The data shows that this combo is a balanced but entry-level pairing for Rust, capable of delivering playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with adjusted settings, but falling short at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: The average FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings is 143 FPS.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 25 FPS, which is the lowest recorded in the dataset.

Q: What is the FPS range at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 66 FPS, with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13494, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core 3 N355 at 13492, a 0% delta.

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

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT ranks in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19765.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combos in Rust?

A: This combination ranks 2438 out of 3723 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the lower half of tested configurations.