Rust

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-11400F compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-11400F posts an average benchmark score of 17181, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. This puts it statistically tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (deltaPct 0), while it trails the Intel Core i7-1260P and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U by just 0.2%. It leads the Intel Core i5-1240U by a marginal 0.2%.

Q: What is the GTX 1650's performance class relative to other GPUs?

A: The GTX 1650 sits in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 8713. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile, scores 8746, which is only 0.4% higher. The AMD Radeon 550X and AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 are similarly close, at 0.4% and 0.5% offsets respectively, while the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 trails by 0.5%.

Q: What is the best preset for smooth gameplay at 1080p with this combo?

A: The data shows that the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers an average of 64.4 FPS, which is the only setting at this resolution that clears the 60 FPS threshold. Medium delivers 47.2 FPS, High drops to 36.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27.3 FPS.

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

A: No. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only manages an average of 26.1 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 13.4 FPS and 11.4 FPS respectively. Medium sits at 17.8 FPS. These results indicate the combination is not viable for 4K play.

Q: How significant is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K?

A: The drop is substantial. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 64.4 at 1080p to 46.1 at 1440p and then to 26.1 at 4K. This represents a reduction of about 59% from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

Q: Where does this combo rank among all tested systems for Rust?

A: This specific CPU and GPU pairing ranks 1659 out of 1717 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 4% of systems tested for Rust. This low ranking reflects the hardware's age and performance tier.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is built on the Turing architecture with a TU117 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process. It carries 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock runs at 1485 MHz, boosting to 1665 MHz, while memory operates at 2001 MHz with 8 Gbps effective speed. These specifications place the card firmly in the entry-level segment, and the benchmark data confirms this positioning in Rust.

The GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical constraint in Rust. The game's open-world survival environment with large draw distances and persistent structures demands significant memory. The card's 128-bit memory bus and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth become bottlenecks at higher resolutions and settings. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's limitations are most pronounced at 4K, where even Low settings only produce 26.1 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is stark: 26.1 FPS versus 11.4 FPS, a difference of 14.7 FPS that illustrates how quickly the card's shading units and memory bandwidth are overwhelmed by increased graphical loads.

The GPU's 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs are modest numbers by modern standards. The pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s are sufficient for 1080p at low-to-medium settings, but they struggle to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions. The card's FP32 performance of 2.984 TFLOPS is the ceiling for compute-heavy scenes, which Rust's dynamic lighting and shadow calculations can hit during complex base-building or combat scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Rust experience with this hardware. At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only viable option for smooth gameplay, producing an average of 64.4 FPS. This is the only preset that consistently stays above 60 FPS, which most players consider the minimum for responsive play in a survival game where quick reactions matter.

The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 47.2 FPS, which is playable but with noticeable frame pacing issues during intense scenes. High settings drop to 36.5 FPS, which is borderline for competitive play, while Ultra falls to 27.3 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. For players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, Medium at 1080p provides a reasonable compromise, but the data suggests that the performance penalty from Medium to High is steep at 10.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the situation worsens. Low settings produce 46.1 FPS, which is acceptable for casual play, but Medium drops to 31.7 FPS and High falls to 24 FPS. Ultra at 1440p is effectively unplayable at 23.2 FPS. The recommendation for 1440p users is to stick with Low settings, as the jump to Medium costs 14.4 FPS for diminishing visual returns.

For 4K, none of the presets deliver playable frame rates. The best case is Low at 26.1 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS minimum for most players. The data indicates that this combination should not be used for 4K gaming in Rust under any circumstances.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 combination ranks 1659 out of 1717 tested combos for Rust, putting it in the bottom 4% of all systems tested. This ranking reflects the significant performance gap between this entry-level pairing and more capable hardware. The CPU's 75th percentile standing among all processors (average benchmark score 17181) is undermined by the GPU's 43rd percentile ranking (average score 8713), showing that the graphics card is the primary bottleneck.

The CPU itself is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. Its 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, provide adequate processing power for Rust's simulation and physics calculations. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and single-core score of 2029 demonstrate solid CPU performance. However, the GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM and modest compute capabilities hold back the overall system, resulting in the low combo rank.

This ranking has practical implications. In a game like Rust where player counts, base complexity, and server-side factors can impact performance, this combo will struggle in populated servers. The low rank indicates that this system is best suited for modest settings and resolutions, and players should not expect to compete with higher-tier hardware in terms of visual quality or frame rate stability.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 64.4 FPS at 1080p to 46.1 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 18.3 FPS (28.4%). The drop from 1440p to 4K is even steeper, falling from 46.1 FPS to 26.1 FPS, a reduction of 20 FPS (43.4%). This accelerating decline indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power are exhausted as pixel count increases.

The same pattern holds across all settings. At High, the frame rate falls from 36.5 FPS at 1080p to 24 FPS at 1440p to 13.4 FPS at 4K. At Ultra, the sequence is 27.3 FPS at 1080p, 23.2 FPS at 1440p, and 11.4 FPS at 4K. The consistent pattern across presets confirms that resolution scaling is the dominant factor, not settings changes.

This behavior indicates that the GTX 1650 is the limiting component. The CPU's performance headroom, evidenced by its 75th percentile ranking, is not being fully utilized because the GPU cannot render frames fast enough at higher resolutions. The 128.1 GB/s memory bandwidth is a particular constraint, as 4K resolution requires significantly more data transfer per frame. The card's 4 GB VRAM capacity also becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions, potentially causing texture streaming issues.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across presets shows a clear hierarchy: Low delivers 64.4 FPS, Medium produces 47.2 FPS, High achieves 36.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 27.3 FPS. The performance drop from Low to Medium is 17.2 FPS, from Medium to High is 10.7 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 9.2 FPS. These diminishing returns suggest that the GPU's shading units are the primary constraint at this resolution, with each incremental setting increase requiring more compute.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 46.1 FPS for Low, 31.7 FPS for Medium, 24 FPS for High, and 23.2 FPS for Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 0.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU has hit a hard performance ceiling at this resolution. The drop from Low to Medium is 14.4 FPS, which is the largest single-settings penalty at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the results are 26.1 FPS for Low, 17.8 FPS for Medium, 13.4 FPS for High, and 11.4 FPS for Ultra. The difference between Low and Medium is 8.3 FPS, while Medium to High is 4.4 FPS and High to Ultra is 2 FPS. The decreasing deltas at 4K indicate that the GPU is completely saturated, and settings adjustments have minimal impact on frame rate.

The overall trend across all resolutions and settings shows that this combination delivers playable performance only at 1080p Low. The data supports a recommendation of 1080p Low for competitive play, with 1080p Medium as a visual compromise for players who can tolerate occasional frame drops.