Rust

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 is positioned near the bottom of the performance hierarchy for Rust, ranking 1631 out of 1717 tested combos. This places the configuration in the 5th percentile of all measured systems, indicating that while it is capable of running the game, it will deliver frame rates well below what most modern setups achieve. The data shows a system that is fundamentally constrained by its components, making it suitable for low-resolution or low-detail play rather than a high-refresh-rate experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1631 out of 1717 places it in the bottom 5% of all tested configurations for Rust. This is a clear signal that the pairing is far from optimal for the game, which is known for its demanding procedural world generation and large-scale player interactions. The low rank is not surprising given the age and tier of both components, but the measured FPS data reveals that the system does have a usable performance window, particularly at 1080p with reduced settings.

At 1080p, the combo manages an average of 68 FPS on Low settings, which is the only configuration that approaches playable smoothness. Dropping to Medium brings the average down to 43.2 FPS, while High settings yield 37.6 FPS and Ultra drops to 30.1 FPS. These numbers indicate that the system can handle the game, but only with significant compromises to visual fidelity. At 1440p, the performance falls off a cliff, with even Low settings only achieving 45.3 FPS, and Ultra dropping to 17.8 FPS. At 4K, the system is effectively unplayable, with the highest average FPS being 29.6 on Low and the lowest at 13.9 on Ultra. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming with modest settings, as any increase in resolution or detail level results in a disproportionate loss of frame rate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU’s benchmark scores show a solid mid-range performer, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453. In the context of Rust, the CPU’s role is significant because the game’s physics and entity simulation are heavily single-threaded, but the 12 threads do help with background tasks and server communication.

The CPU’s percentile rank of 73 against all CPUs indicates that it is above average in general compute tasks, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552 and the Intel Core i5-8500, with performance deltas of 0.4% and -1.1% respectively. This means the i5-10400F is competitive with those parts, but for Rust, the bottleneck is rarely the CPU at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 68 FPS, which is more than double the 4K Low result of 29.6 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution scales. However, the CPU’s single-thread performance is adequate for the game’s core logic, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate drops are consistent with GPU load rather than CPU stalls.

The 3DMark scores further illustrate the CPU’s threading capabilities, with a 2-thread score of 1350 and an 8-thread score of 3929, showing good scaling up to 8 threads but diminishing returns beyond that. For Rust, which may not utilize all 12 threads efficiently, the CPU’s performance is sufficient to avoid being the main constraint, especially when compared to the GPU’s limitations at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a 14 nm Polaris 20 chip with 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. It has a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz, with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The GPU’s compute capability is rated at 5.095 TFLOPS, which is modest by modern standards but was respectable at its launch. The GPU’s percentile rank of 74 against all GPUs is surprisingly high, but this is likely due to the benchmark suite used, as its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which are much newer and more powerful parts. This suggests that the average benchmark score of 30158 is skewed, and the RX 570’s real-world gaming performance is far below those rivals.

In Rust, the GPU is clearly the dominant bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the GPU can deliver 68 FPS on Low, but this drops to 43.2 FPS on Medium, indicating a steep performance penalty for increased visual detail. At 4K, the GPU is overwhelmed, with the best result being 29.6 FPS on Low and the worst being 13.9 FPS on Ultra. The 4 GB VRAM is likely a limiting factor at higher resolutions, as Rust’s textures and world data can exceed this capacity, causing stuttering and reduced frame rates. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s is also insufficient for 4K rendering, as the data shows a 56% drop in FPS from 1080p Low to 4K Low (68 FPS to 29.6 FPS), which is consistent with memory bandwidth constraints.

The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla M60 with a deltaPct of 0.6%, are not gaming-focused parts, further highlighting that the RX 570’s benchmark score does not translate to modern gaming performance. For Rust, the GPU is the primary component to upgrade if higher resolutions or settings are desired, as the CPU is capable of keeping up at lower settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings for this combo in Rust?

A: The data shows that 1080p Low provides the highest average FPS at 68, making it the most playable configuration. Medium settings at 1080p yield 43.2 FPS, which is still playable but with noticeable drops.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K?

A: At 4K, the system is largely unplayable, with the highest average FPS being 29.6 on Low settings and the lowest at 13.9 on Ultra. Even the best 4K result is below the 30 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in Rust?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. The FPS drops from 68 at 1080p Low to 29.6 at 4K Low (a 56% decrease) while the CPU’s performance remains constant, showing that the GPU cannot handle the increased pixel load.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory configuration and how does it affect performance?

A: The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. This is insufficient for high-resolution textures, as the FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K, likely due to VRAM capacity and bandwidth limitations.

Q: How does the CPU’s thread count affect Rust’s performance?

A: The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, which is sufficient for Rust’s single-threaded core logic. The 3DMark scores show good scaling up to 8 threads, but the game’s performance is not CPU-limited at lower settings, as the FPS is instead constrained by the GPU.

Q: What is the combo’s rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1631 out of 1717 tested, placing it in the bottom 5% of all systems. This indicates that most other configurations will deliver significantly higher frame rates in Rust.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which is typical of a GPU-bound system. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 68 FPS, but this drops to 45.3 FPS at 1440p Low and 29.6 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 56% drop from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is consistent across all settings, with the 1080p to 4K drop being 56% for Low, 52% for Medium (43.2 to 16.4 FPS), 62% for High (37.6 to 14.1 FPS), and 54% for Ultra (30.1 to 13.9 FPS). This uniformity suggests that the GPU’s rendering capabilities are the limiting factor, as the CPU’s performance does not change with resolution.

The data also shows that the gap between settings narrows at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 37.9 FPS (68 vs 30.1), but at 4K, the difference shrinks to 15.7 FPS (29.6 vs 13.9). This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that the visual settings have less impact on performance, as the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become the primary constraints. The 4 GB VRAM is also a likely contributor, as higher settings at 4K may exceed the available memory, causing the GPU to rely on slower system memory. Overall, the scaling pattern confirms that the RX 570 is the bottleneck, and the i5-10400F is sufficient for Rust’s CPU demands at all tested resolutions.