Rust

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces a fascinating benchmark profile in Rust, where the GPU’s immense power is frequently constrained by the processor. The data indicates that this combination ranks 445th out of 3723 tested combos, placing it in the top 12% of all configurations. This is a high overall standing, but the frame rate behavior across resolutions reveals a system that is not always GPU-bound, particularly at lower resolutions where the 6-core, 12-thread Rocket Lake chip becomes the limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and dramatic scaling pattern as resolution increases, which directly indicates where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with High settings, the combo delivers 141 FPS, but this is only 12% higher than the 4K High result of 73 FPS. This relatively small jump when moving to a resolution with nearly 4.5 times the pixel count signals that the system is heavily CPU-limited at 1080p. The RTX 4090 is capable of far more work, but the i5-11400F cannot feed the frames fast enough to utilize it fully.

The scaling becomes more pronounced when examining the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 175 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded across all settings. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces this to 154 FPS, a 12% decrease, and at 4K Low, the average falls to 129 FPS, a further 16% drop. This pattern—where FPS decreases significantly with each resolution step—suggests that the GPU begins to take on a more dominant role as the pixel workload increases, even at the lowest graphical settings.

The most revealing data point for bottleneck analysis comes from the Medium preset, which includes min and max FPS readings. At 1440p Medium, the average is 133 FPS with a min of 113 and max of 152. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 87 FPS with a min of 74 and max of 100. The spread between min and max FPS is relatively tight, indicating that frame delivery is consistent, but the substantial drop in average FPS from 1440p to 4K—a 35% reduction—confirms that the resolution increase is heavily taxing the GPU.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the system manages 128 FPS, which is only 9% lower than the 1080p High result. However, at 1440p Ultra, the average drops to 94 FPS, a 27% decline, and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 56 FPS, a 40% reduction from 1440p. This steep falloff at 4K Ultra suggests that the combination of the highest settings and 4K resolution finally overwhelms the RTX 4090’s capabilities, making the GPU the definitive limiting component at this extreme configuration.

Benchmark results indicate that the transition from 1080p to 1440p has a moderate impact on performance, while the jump to 4K causes a significant performance cliff, particularly at higher presets. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary constraint, as evidenced by the relatively flat FPS between Low and Ultra presets (175 FPS to 128 FPS). In contrast, at 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with a 56% difference between Low (129 FPS) and Ultra (56 FPS) settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications are exceptional. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This massive memory allocation is more than sufficient for Rust’s typical VRAM usage, ensuring that texture loading and asset streaming are not performance limitations. The GPU’s base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and its memory operates at an effective 21 Gbps, contributing to its extraordinary throughput.

The RTX 4090’s raw compute power is demonstrated by its FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS and its 16,384 shading units. These figures translate into the GPU’s ability to handle complex shading and post-processing effects at high resolutions. However, the benchmark data reveals that this power is only fully utilized at 4K resolution with the Ultra preset, where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. At this setting, the average FPS of 56 is the lowest recorded, but it still represents a playable frame rate for a demanding survival game.

The GPU’s benchmark scores further underscore its position. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 38194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223. Its percentile ranking against all GPUs is 88, placing it in the top 12% of all graphics cards tested. Interestingly, its nearest rivals in the database are not consumer gaming GPUs but rather professional workstation cards like the Intel Arc Pro A60 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, which have average scores within 0.3% of the RTX 4090. This suggests that the RTX 4090’s immense performance is somewhat isolated in the consumer space but is comparable to high-end professional offerings.

The data shows that the RTX 4090’s role in this combo is to provide headroom at lower resolutions, even if it cannot be fully utilized. At 1080p Low, the GPU is clearly idling, as the CPU limits the frame rate to 175 FPS. The GPU’s performance becomes more relevant as resolution increases, and it is only at 4K Ultra that the RTX 4090’s capabilities are truly stretched. The 24 GB VRAM is also a future-proofing asset, as Rust’s memory requirements are unlikely to exceed this capacity in the near term.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for this combination. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 141 FPS, which is only 9% lower than the Low preset’s 175 FPS. The Medium preset offers 150 FPS, striking a reasonable balance between visual quality and performance. However, the Ultra preset at 1080p yields 128 FPS, which is still highly playable but provides only a marginal visual improvement over High for a 9% performance cost.

At 1440p, the High preset is the optimal choice. It delivers 124 FPS, which is 24% higher than the Ultra preset’s 94 FPS, while providing substantially better visual fidelity than the Low preset’s 154 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p offers 133 FPS, but the additional visual features in High are worth the 7% performance reduction. The data shows that High at 1440p is the sweet spot, as it maintains a frame rate well above 60 FPS while leveraging the RTX 4090’s power for improved graphics.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It provides an average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience without dropping below 60 FPS. The High preset at 4K delivers 73 FPS, which is playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 4K, with its 56 FPS average, is not recommended for competitive or fast-paced gameplay, as frame dips could become noticeable. The Low preset at 4K, while offering 129 FPS, sacrifices too much visual quality for a game where environmental awareness is crucial.

Benchmark results indicate that the best experience per the measured rows is achieved by selecting the High preset at 1080p or 1440p, and the Medium preset at 4K. This approach maximizes visual quality while maintaining a minimum frame rate of at least 74 FPS in all cases. The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where the high frame rate masks the potential performance dips seen at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo in Rust?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 175, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset.

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

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average FPS of 56, which is the lowest recorded performance in the dataset.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No. The data shows that at 1080p, the frame rate varies only slightly between presets (128 FPS to 175 FPS), indicating the Intel Core i5-11400F is the limiting component.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: The minimum FPS for the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is 113, with an average of 133 FPS and a maximum of 152 FPS.

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 445th out of 3723 tested combos, placing it in the top 12% of all configurations.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 129 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 56 FPS, making Low 130% faster.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 445 out of 3723 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the top 12% of all configurations. This high ranking is primarily driven by the GPU’s exceptional performance, as the CPU is a mid-range part that sits in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. The i5-11400F’s average benchmark score is 17177, which is within 0.6% of its nearest rivals, including the AMD EPYC 7H12 and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U.

The RTX 4090’s average benchmark score of 60347 places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are professional workstation cards with scores within 2.9% of its own. This indicates that the GPU is performing at a level that is significantly above the average consumer graphics card, which contributes heavily to the combo’s strong overall rank.

Despite the CPU’s mid-range status, the combo’s rank of 445 suggests that it outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations. This is likely because many of the 3723 tested combos include less powerful GPUs, which cannot match the RTX 4090’s raw performance. The data shows that this combo is particularly strong at 1080p and 1440p, where the GPU’s power is sufficient to overcome the CPU’s limitations, resulting in high frame rates.

The rank also reflects the balance of the pairing. While the i5-11400F is not the ideal match for the RTX 4090, it is capable enough to avoid crippling the GPU entirely. The result is a combo that ranks in the top 12%, but it is clear that a more powerful CPU would likely push this configuration into the top 5% or higher. The data indicates that this is a viable high-performance setup, but it is not the absolute top-tier combination available.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache. This CPU is discontinued and was released in March 2021 with a launch MSRP of $157. Its benchmark scores show a single-thread performance of 868 in 3DMark and a multi-thread score of 5652, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14340.

In this game, the CPU’s role is to feed the RTX 4090 with draw calls and physics calculations. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, as the frame rates are relatively consistent across presets. The difference between Low (175 FPS) and Ultra (128 FPS) at 1080p is only 27%, which is a smaller gap than at 4K, where the difference is 130%. This indicates that the CPU cannot keep up with the GPU’s potential at lower resolutions.

The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are adequate for Rust’s single-threaded and lightly threaded workloads, but they are not optimal for a GPU as powerful as the RTX 4090. The processor’s 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is an average performer, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7H12 and the Intel Core i5-12450H, which have scores within 0.6% of its own. This mid-range positioning means that while the CPU is not a bottleneck at 4K, it does limit performance at 1080p.

The data indicates that the CPU’s clock speed of 4.40 GHz boost is sufficient to maintain decent frame rates, but the lack of higher core counts or newer architecture prevents it from fully unlocking the RTX 4090’s potential. At 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes, as the GPU becomes the primary constraint, and the frame rates are more dependent on graphical settings than on CPU throughput. Overall, the i5-11400F is a capable partner for the RTX 4090, but it is not the ideal match for maximizing frame rates at lower resolutions.