Rust

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Rust with the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 reveals a clear hierarchy across presets, but the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 63.8 FPS average, which is the only setting in the entire dataset that crosses the 60 FPS threshold. This is a decisive advantage over Medium (42.6 FPS), High (35.6 FPS), and Ultra (27.5 FPS). For players prioritizing smoothness at 1080p, Low is the only viable preset for competitive play, and the jump from Low to Medium costs 21.2 FPS — a 33% drop that is far steeper than the visual fidelity gain typically justifies on this hardware.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. Low delivers 46.2 FPS, which remains the best option, while Medium drops to 31.3 FPS and High falls to 27.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 1440p is 14.9 FPS, again a substantial penalty. Ultra at this resolution produces 21.6 FPS, which is marginal for any interactive use. At 3840x2160, all presets are below 30 FPS — Low reaches 29.2 FPS, while High (17.5 FPS), Medium (17.3 FPS), and Ultra (13.2 FPS) are all effectively unplayable. The data suggests that Low is the only preset worth considering across all resolutions, with the caveat that 4K remains out of reach even at the lowest settings.

The measured rows indicate a significant performance cliff between Low and Medium at every resolution. At 1080p, the difference is 21.2 FPS; at 1440p, it is 14.9 FPS; at 4K, it is 11.9 FPS. This consistent pattern implies that the Medium preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately tax this GPU. Since the data shows no preset above Low achieving even 50 FPS at any resolution, the recommendation is unambiguous: use Low for any playable experience, and accept that 4K is not feasible with this combination.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This is a Comet Lake part on the 14 nm process, and its benchmark profile shows strong scaling from single-thread to multi-thread workloads. The 3dmark single-thread score of 688 and the 2-thread score of 1350 indicate that the architecture's per-core efficiency is modest, but the 4-thread score of 2560 and 8-thread score of 3929 show good parallelism scaling. The max-thread score of 4735 is nearly identical to the 16-thread score of 4748, suggesting that the 12 threads are fully utilized and additional threads would not help.

In the context of Rust, which is known for demanding CPU performance due to its entity-heavy world simulation, the 10400F's multi-threaded capability is relevant. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297 and Passmark multithread score of 12115 place this CPU in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, which is respectable for a mid-range desktop part. The nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% higher average score) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% lower), indicating that the 10400F sits in a tightly contested performance band.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in Rust at lower resolutions, where the GPU is more likely to limit frame rates. However, at 1080p Low, the 63.8 FPS result is close to what the CPU can feed the GPU, and the fact that Ultra at 1080p drops to 27.5 FPS — the same as High at 1440p — hints that the GPU is the limiting factor rather than the CPU. The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) provide adequate memory bandwidth for the game's streaming needs, but the data does not indicate any CPU-specific bottleneck that would manifest differently across settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is a Turing-based part with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1485 MHz with a boost of 1665 MHz, and it has 896 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 7880 places it in the 43rd percentile among all GPUs, which is notably lower than the CPU's 73rd percentile. This disparity is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting component in this pairing.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical constraint in Rust, which is a game that can consume significant memory for textures and world data. The measured frame rates show a dramatic collapse at 4K: even Low drops to 29.2 FPS, while High, Medium, and Ultra all fall below 18 FPS. This pattern aligns with the GPU running out of both memory bandwidth and capacity at higher resolutions. The 128.1 GB/s bandwidth is modest, and at 4K the pixel throughput requirements (53.28 GPixel/s fill rate) become overwhelming.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the GTX 1650's average benchmark score of 8713 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (0.4% higher) and the AMD Radeon 550X (0.4% lower). This indicates that the GTX 1650 is performing exactly as expected for its class. The GPU's 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is sufficient for 1080p gaming at Low settings, as evidenced by the 63.8 FPS result, but the data clearly shows that this GPU cannot sustain playable frame rates at 4K under any preset.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ranks 1639 out of 1717 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations. This is a poor ranking that reflects the GPU's limitations more than the CPU's capabilities. Given that the CPU is in the 73rd percentile while the GPU is in the 43rd percentile, the combo's low rank is almost entirely attributable to the GTX 1650.

The rank of 1639 out of 1717 means that only 78 combos perform worse in this game. This is a strong signal that users of this hardware should expect significant compromises. The nearest CPU rivals — such as the AMD EPYC 7552 and Intel Core i5-8500 — would likely produce similar results when paired with the same GPU, because the GPU is the bottleneck. The data does not include alternative GPU pairings for this CPU, but the performance pattern across resolutions is consistent with GPU-bound behavior: frame rates scale inversely with resolution and settings in a way that tracks the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute limits.

For context, the combo rank implies that even modest GPUs from the same era would substantially outperform this pairing in Rust. The CPU's 12 threads and 4.30 GHz boost clock are not the issue; rather, the GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for a game like Rust that demands consistent memory throughput. Users considering this combo should focus on the GPU as the upgrade path.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 63.8. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 46.2, a 27.6% reduction (17.6 FPS loss). Moving to 4K Low further drops to 29.2, which is a 36.8% reduction from 1440p (17.0 FPS loss) and a 54.2% reduction from 1080p overall. This scaling is non-linear and steep, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth is being saturated as pixel count increases.

For the High preset, the scaling is even more dramatic: 1080p High yields 35.6 FPS, 1440p High yields 27.5 FPS (22.8% drop), and 4K High yields 17.5 FPS (36.4% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows the worst absolute performance: 1080p Ultra at 27.5 FPS, 1440p Ultra at 21.6 FPS, and 4K Ultra at 13.2 FPS. The fact that 1080p Ultra (27.5 FPS) matches 1440p High (27.5 FPS) exactly suggests that the GPU is equally stressed by these two different combinations of resolution and settings — a sign that both are hitting the same hardware ceiling.

The resolution scaling analysis points to the GPU as the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively flat across resolutions at a given setting, since the CPU workload does not change with resolution. Instead, the steep drops from 1080p to 4K (over 50% for Low) demonstrate that the GPU's fill rate, pixel rate, and memory bandwidth are the constraining factors. The 128.1 GB/s bandwidth simply cannot feed the 8.3 million pixels at 4K at acceptable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces the following average FPS values: Low at 63.8 FPS, Medium at 42.6 FPS, High at 35.6 FPS, and Ultra at 27.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 36.3 FPS, with each step up in settings costing roughly 7-8 FPS on average, though the Low-to-Medium drop of 21.2 FPS is the largest single-step penalty.

At 2560x1440, the values are: Low at 46.2 FPS, Medium at 31.3 FPS, High at 27.5 FPS, and Ultra at 21.6 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 14.9 FPS, and the total spread is 24.6 FPS. Notably, High at 1440p produces the same 27.5 FPS as Ultra at 1080p, reinforcing the idea that the GPU is maxed out in both scenarios.

At 3840x2160, the values are: Low at 29.2 FPS, Medium at 17.3 FPS, High at 17.5 FPS, and Ultra at 13.2 FPS. Interestingly, Medium (17.3 FPS) and High (17.5 FPS) are nearly identical, suggesting that the GPU has hit a hard performance floor where additional settings changes have negligible impact. The total spread at 4K is 16.0 FPS, the smallest of any resolution, because even Low is already severely constrained.

The data shows that no resolution/settings combination achieves a 60 FPS average except 1080p Low. The only other combination above 46 FPS is 1440p Low at 46.2 FPS. This means that for a smooth experience, users must accept 1080p Low, and for 1440p, they must accept frame rates in the mid-40s at best. At 4K, all presets are below 30 FPS, making the game effectively unplayable.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this CPU/GPU combo in Rust?

A: The data shows that the Low preset is the only one achieving playable frame rates at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 63.8, while Medium drops to 42.6 FPS. At 1440p Low, it is 46.2 FPS, and at 4K Low, it is 29.2 FPS. No other preset reaches 50 FPS at any resolution.

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Rust?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset produces only 29.2 FPS average, which is below the generally accepted 30 FPS minimum for playability. Higher settings at 4K are worse: High at 17.5 FPS, Medium at 17.3 FPS, and Ultra at 13.2 FPS.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 43rd percentile. The resolution scaling data confirms this, as frame rates drop by over 50% from 1080p to 4K, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its nearest rivals in benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1650's average benchmark score of 8713 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (0.4% higher) and the AMD Radeon 550X (0.4% lower). It also sits close to the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (0.5% higher) and AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (0.5% lower).

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the measured average FPS is 42.6. This is substantially lower than the 63.8 FPS at Low, representing a 33% performance penalty for moving up one settings tier.

Q: Does the CPU's 12-thread capability help in Rust?

A: The CPU's multi-threaded performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297 and a Passmark multithread score of 12115. However, since the GPU is the limiting factor in this combo, the CPU's 12 threads do not translate into higher frame rates in Rust, as the GPU cannot keep up with the CPU's output.