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 17,177, placing it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. It sits within a razor-thin margin of its nearest rivals: it is 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17,120), 0.4% behind the Intel Core i5-12450H (17,239), and 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17,278). The data shows this chip is effectively in a dead heat with these alternatives.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other graphics cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves an average benchmark score of 54,209, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the standard RTX 4080, scores 54,247, which is just 0.1% higher. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% ahead at 54,828, while the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and Radeon 8060S are 2.7% and 2.8% ahead respectively, indicating the SUPER variant is closely matched with its peer group.

Q: How many frames per second does this combo deliver at 1080p on Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the combo produces an average of 150 FPS, with a minimum of 128 FPS and a maximum of 173 FPS. This places it well above the 144 Hz threshold, suggesting the pairing can drive high-refresh-rate monitors at this resolution and preset.

Q: Is there a significant performance gap between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: Yes, the data reveals a substantial drop. At 1920x1080 High, the average FPS is 141, while at 3840x2160 High, it falls to 66 FPS. This represents a 53% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as pixel count rises, while the CPU headroom at lower resolutions is no longer the limiting factor.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested system configurations for Rust?

A: This specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 565th out of 3,723 tested combos in Rust. This places it in the top 15% of all configurations, suggesting it is a high-performing match for this game.

Q: Does the CPU have integrated graphics for troubleshooting?

A: No, the Intel Core i5-11400F has no integrated graphics. The field for integratedGraphics is null, meaning a discrete GPU is mandatory for any display output, and this pairing relies entirely on the RTX 4080 SUPER for rendering.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the undisputed workhorse in this configuration, and its specifications explain the frame rates observed in Rust. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the card provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is ample for the game's texture streaming and world-loading demands. The memory clock runs at 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective), and the GPU core operates at a base clock of 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. This high boost clock is critical for sustained performance in Rust, a game known for frequent shader compilation and draw-call spikes.

The GPU's architecture is Ada Lovelace, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with 45,900 million transistors packed into a 379 mm² die. The 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs provide raw compute throughput of 52.22 TFLOPS FP32, which is more than sufficient for the game's lighting and particle effects. The 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are largely idle in Rust, as the game does not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS, but their presence ensures future-proofing.

Benchmark results show the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 34,245 in Passmark G3D and 19,822 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,600. These numbers place it at the 86th percentile globally. The data indicates that at 1080p, the GPU is often underutilized—the 175 FPS at Low settings suggests the CPU is the bottleneck. However, as resolution increases, the GPU's role expands. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 50, which aligns with the card's pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s, both of which are taxed by the 8.3 million pixels of 4K.

The VRAM capacity is a strong asset. Rust's large map and asset streaming can easily exceed 8 GB, and the 16 GB buffer prevents stuttering in extended sessions. The memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s ensures that texture uploads from system memory to VRAM are not a choke point, even when the game loads new areas dynamically.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER earns a rank of 565 out of 3,723 tested combinations in Rust. This places it in the 84.8th percentile of all pairings, meaning only about 15% of configurations outperform it. This is a strong showing, particularly given that the CPU is a mid-range 11th Gen part while the GPU is a high-end 40-series card.

The data suggests that the rank is heavily influenced by the GPU's dominance. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 86th percentile GPU score contrasts with the CPU's 71st percentile score, indicating an imbalance where the processor may hold back the graphics card in CPU-bound scenarios. Yet, the overall combo rank remains high because Rust's engine at higher resolutions shifts the load to the GPU.

Compared to rival pairings, this combo's strength lies in its balance. The CPU's nearest rivals—the EPYC 7H12, Core i5-12450H, and Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G—have nearly identical scores, so swapping the CPU would not dramatically change the rank. Conversely, the GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 4080, is only 0.1% behind, meaning that this combo is indistinguishable from a 4080-based build in practice. The rank of 565 reflects that this is a high-tier setup, but not an extreme one; users seeking higher ranks would need to pair a stronger CPU, such as a 12th or 13th Gen part, with this GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 175 FPS on Low, 150 FPS on Medium, 141 FPS on High, and 123 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 128 FPS and a maximum of 173 FPS, indicating that even the low frame rate remains well above 60 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 52 FPS, showing a 30% performance penalty for maxing out settings at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 154 FPS on Low, 132 FPS on Medium, 112 FPS on High, and 85 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset again shows a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 152 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is notable: 21 FPS on Low, 18 FPS on Medium, 29 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. This widening gap at higher presets highlights the GPU's increasing workload.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 116 FPS on Low, 78 FPS on Medium, 66 FPS on High, and 50 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. The 4K results show a dramatic shift: Low settings are still playable at 116 FPS, but Ultra dips to 50 FPS, which is just at the edge of smoothness for competitive play. The data reveals a clear pattern: the combo is overkill for 1080p, comfortable for 1440p, and only viable at 4K with reduced settings.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling analysis reveals where the bottleneck resides. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, FPS drops from 141 to 112, a 21% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High, it drops from 112 to 66, a 41% reduction. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High is 53%, which is less than the 75% increase in pixel count (2.07 million to 8.29 million). This sub-linear scaling suggests that the CPU is partially limiting performance at lower resolutions, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more telling. The FPS drops from 175 at 1080p to 154 at 1440p (12% drop) and then to 116 at 4K (25% drop from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 34%, which is much smaller than the pixel increase. This indicates that at Low settings, the game is heavily CPU-bound at 1080p, and the GPU has headroom to absorb the higher resolution load without a proportional FPS loss.

Conversely, at Ultra settings, the drop from 1080p to 4K is 59% (from 123 to 50 FPS), which is closer to the pixel count scaling. This suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is the primary limiter, and the CPU's role diminishes. The data implies that for this combo, users should expect CPU-bound behavior at 1080p and GPU-bound behavior at 4K, with a crossover point around 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and it has a 12 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes. The TDP is 65 W, making it a power-efficient part.

In Rust, the CPU's role is significant at lower resolutions. The game's server-side tick rate and entity processing rely heavily on single-thread performance. The i5-11400F scores 868 in 3DMark single-thread and 2,024 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which are modest numbers. However, its multi-threaded performance is solid: it scores 14,340 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5,652 in 3DMark max threads. The Passmark multithread score of 16,908 and physics score of 842 indicate that the CPU can handle the game's NPC and physics calculations.

The data shows that at 1080p Low, the 175 FPS is likely near the CPU's maximum frame rate for Rust, given its single-thread capabilities. The 52 FPS drop from Low to Ultra at 1080p is partly due to GPU load, but the fact that 4K Low (116 FPS) is lower than 1080p Ultra (123 FPS) suggests the CPU is not the sole bottleneck. The i5-11400F's 6 cores are adequate for Rust, but the 12 threads are not fully utilized, as the game typically scales to 4-6 threads.

The CPU's nearest rivals—the EPYC 7H12 and Core i5-12450H—have nearly identical average scores, confirming that the i5-11400F is not a weak link, but it also does not provide the headroom that a higher-end CPU would. For this combo, the CPU allows the GPU to stretch its legs at 1440p, but at 1080p, it caps performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset is the best balance, delivering 150 FPS average with a minimum of 128 FPS. This ensures smooth gameplay on 144 Hz monitors while maintaining visual fidelity. High settings at 1080p still offer 141 FPS, but the 9 FPS gain from Medium to High is not worth the extra GPU load if frame rate consistency is paramount.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is recommended, as it yields 112 FPS average, which is sufficient for 60-100 Hz displays. The Medium preset offers 132 FPS, but the visual improvement from Medium to High is substantial in Rust's environment, where foliage and draw distance matter. Ultra at 1440p drops to 85 FPS, which is playable but may cause stutter in dense areas.

For 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only viable option for smooth play, offering 116 FPS. Medium at 4K drops to 78 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced gameplay, but the minimum of 66 FPS in the data suggests potential dips below 60 FPS during heavy action. High and Ultra at 4K (66 and 50 FPS respectively) are not recommended for competitive play, though they are fine for cinematic exploration.

The data suggests that the best overall experience is at 1440p High, where the combo's strengths are balanced. At 1080p, the CPU limits the GPU, and at 4K, the GPU is stretched thin. The settings recommendation is to prioritize 1440p High for the most consistent performance without sacrificing visual quality.