Rust

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 presents a compelling case study in system balance for Rust. The data reveals a configuration that is heavily influenced by resolution, with the GPU taking on an increasing burden as pixel count rises, while the six-core CPU maintains a strong baseline. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across all tested settings, exploring the implications of each component's specifications and how this combo stacks up against a vast field of alternatives.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and dramatic scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers an average of 175 FPS, but this drops to 154 FPS at 1440p and further to 98 FPS at 4K. This represents a 44% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, suggesting that the GPU is the primary scaling factor at higher resolutions. The pattern is consistent across all settings presets, though the magnitude of the drop varies. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 136 at 1080p to 94 at 1440p, then to 55 at 4K — a 60% decline from the lowest to highest resolution. This steeper drop at higher quality settings indicates that the graphical workload is expanding faster than the GPU can compensate.

Looking at the Medium preset, which includes min and max FPS data, the scaling is equally telling. At 1080p, the average is 150 FPS with a range of 128 to 173. Moving to 1440p, the average drops to 111 FPS (range 94–128), and at 4K it falls to 66 FPS (range 56–75). The min FPS at 4K Medium is 56, which is barely above the average FPS of 55 at 4K High, indicating that the GPU is nearing its limits at this resolution. The frame time consistency also degrades, with the spread between min and max FPS narrowing as resolution increases, suggesting that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck and cannot maintain headroom for spikes.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling, with 104 FPS at 1080p dropping to 71 FPS at 1440p and just 42 FPS at 4K. This 60% drop from 1080p to 4K is the largest among all settings, confirming that the RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated by the combination of high resolution and maximum visual fidelity. The data implies that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is the limiting component, while at 1080p Low, the CPU's role becomes more prominent, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS difference between Low and Medium settings at that resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo can achieve in Rust?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 175, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only setting that exceeds the 170 FPS mark, with the next highest being 154 FPS at 1440p Low.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution with maximum settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 42, which is the lowest measured result in the entire dataset. This is below the 55 FPS average seen at 4K High, indicating that Ultra settings are not viable for smooth gameplay at this resolution.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Low and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: The data shows a difference of 25 FPS, with Low averaging 175 FPS and Medium averaging 150 FPS. This is a 14% reduction, suggesting that the Medium preset provides a substantial visual upgrade without a disproportionate performance penalty at 1080p.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The measured range is 94 to 128 FPS, with an average of 111 FPS. This is the only resolution and settings combination at 1440p that includes min and max data, showing a 34 FPS spread.

Q: How does the 4K Low setting compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: 4K Low averages 98 FPS, while 1080p Ultra averages 104 FPS. This is a surprisingly small difference of 6 FPS, indicating that the GPU is capable of handling 4K at lower settings nearly as well as 1080p at maximum settings.

Q: At which resolution does the FPS drop below 60 on average?

A: The only resolution where the average FPS falls below 60 is 3840x2160, specifically at High settings (55 FPS) and Ultra settings (42 FPS). All other resolution and settings combinations maintain an average above 66 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the dominant component in this system, and its specifications directly correlate with the measured performance in Rust. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is crucial for Rust, which is known for its large textures and complex environments. The 4K High result of 55 FPS suggests that the memory bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GPU's 6144 shading units, but the Ultra preset's drop to 42 FPS indicates that the 12 GB capacity may be hit at maximum settings, potentially causing texture thrashing.

The GPU's clock speeds are base 2325 MHz and boost 2512 MHz, which are relatively high for a 50-series card. The boost clock is what the GPU sustains under load, and the scaling from 175 FPS at 1080p Low to 98 FPS at 4K Low suggests that the boost clock is well-utilized at lower resolutions. However, the 44% drop in FPS from 1080p to 4K at Low settings implies that the pixel fill rate is the limiting factor rather than the clock speed. The GPU's pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s is capable of handling 1080p easily, but 4K requires four times the pixels, which explains the significant reduction.

The RTX 5070's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores do not appear to have a direct impact on these results, as Rust does not heavily utilize ray tracing in the measured presets. The FP32 performance of 30.87 TFLOPS is the raw compute power, and the data suggests that this is sufficient for medium settings at 1440p (111 FPS) but insufficient for Ultra at 4K (42 FPS). The GPU's 80 ROPs are responsible for final pixel output, and the 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS indicates that the ROPs are the bottleneck at maximum settings. Compared to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 5070 scores 40377 on average, which is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 580 and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, but 1.2% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5300. This places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, confirming its high-end status.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering 150 FPS average with a range of 128 to 173 FPS. This is only 25 FPS lower than Low (175 FPS) but provides significantly better visual quality. The High preset at 136 FPS is also viable, but the Medium preset's min FPS of 128 ensures smoother frame delivery. The Ultra preset at 104 FPS is playable but not recommended for competitive play, as the 71 FPS drop from Medium to Ultra is substantial.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the clear winner, with 111 FPS average and a range of 94 to 128 FPS. The Low preset at 154 FPS is the only higher-performing option, but the visual compromise is significant. The High preset at 94 FPS is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 71 FPS may cause noticeable stuttering in fast-paced scenarios. For the best experience at 1440p, Medium provides a 17 FPS advantage over High and a 40 FPS advantage over Ultra, making it the sweet spot for this resolution.

At 4K, the data suggests that Low settings are the only viable option, with 98 FPS average. The Medium preset at 66 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider minimum for smooth gameplay, and the High preset at 55 FPS further compounds this issue. The Ultra preset at 42 FPS is essentially unplayable for most users. Therefore, for 4K gaming, sticking to Low settings is recommended, as it provides a 32 FPS improvement over Medium and a 56 FPS improvement over Ultra. The data also indicates that the min FPS at 4K Medium is 56, which is lower than the average FPS at 4K Low, reinforcing that Low is the best choice at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 175 FPS, Medium averages 150 FPS (range 128–173), High averages 136 FPS, and Ultra averages 104 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 71 FPS drop, representing a 41% reduction in performance. The Medium preset's min FPS of 128 is higher than the High preset's average of 136, indicating that Medium provides more consistent frame delivery than High.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 154 FPS, Medium averages 111 FPS (range 94–128), High averages 94 FPS, and Ultra averages 71 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 83 FPS, a 54% reduction. The Medium preset's range of 94–128 FPS is notable because the min FPS matches the High preset's average exactly, suggesting that Medium is more stable than High. The Ultra preset at 71 FPS is the only 1440p setting below 90 FPS, indicating a significant performance cliff.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 98 FPS, Medium averages 66 FPS (range 56–75), High averages 55 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 56 FPS, a 57% reduction. This is the largest percentage drop across all resolutions, confirming that 4K is the most demanding. The Medium preset's min FPS of 56 is just 1 FPS higher than the High preset's average, showing that the GPU is severely constrained at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 42 FPS is the lowest result in the entire dataset, and the gap between High and Ultra is 13 FPS, which is less than the 23 FPS gap between Medium and High, suggesting that diminishing returns set in at the highest settings.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently provides the highest FPS, with 175 at 1080p, 154 at 1440p, and 98 at 4K. The Medium preset is the most balanced, offering 150, 111, and 66 FPS respectively. The High preset drops to 136, 94, and 55 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 104, 71, and 42 FPS. This data clearly shows that the GPU's performance is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings, while the CPU is capable of maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. In the context of Rust, this CPU provides adequate processing power, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low (175 FPS) and 1440p Low (154 FPS). The CPU's 12 threads are sufficient for Rust's multi-threaded workload, and the boost clock of 4.40 GHz ensures responsive single-thread performance. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache is beneficial for game logic and entity management, which are common bottlenecks in survival games.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17177. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7H12, scores 17120, a 0.3% difference, while the Intel Core i5-12450H scores 17239, a 0.4% difference. These close margins indicate that the i5-11400F is well-positioned in its performance class. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14340 and single-core score of 2024 demonstrate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities, respectively. The Geekbench multicore score of 7737 further confirms its balanced performance.

In Rust, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings, where the GPU is not fully utilized. At 1080p Low, the 175 FPS average is likely near the CPU's maximum frame output, as increasing settings to Medium only drops the FPS to 150, a 14% reduction. This suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low, while the GPU takes over as the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The 6-core configuration is adequate for Rust, but the data shows that the CPU cannot push frame rates above 175 FPS in this game, regardless of GPU headroom. The 65W TDP indicates efficient power consumption, but this does not directly affect gaming performance. The DDR4 memory support with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for Rust, though it may limit performance compared to newer DDR5 platforms.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination ranks 843rd out of 3723 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the top 22.6% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the system's ability to handle the game at various settings, with the high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p Low/Medium settings balancing out the lower performance at 4K Ultra. The rank of 843 is respectable but not elite, as the CPU's mid-range class prevents it from competing with top-tier processors in CPU-bound scenarios.

The combo's ranking is influenced by the significant performance gap between the CPU and GPU. The RTX 5070 ranks in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, while the i5-11400F ranks in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. This 11-percentage point gap suggests that the CPU is the weaker link in this pairing, potentially holding back the GPU in certain scenarios. The data supports this, as the 1080p Low result of 175 FPS is likely CPU-limited, while the GPU could potentially deliver higher frame rates if paired with a stronger processor.

Compared to other combos in the database, this system's 843rd rank out of 3723 indicates that it outperforms 77.4% of tested configurations. This is a strong showing, particularly for a CPU that was released in 2021 and is now end-of-life. However, the ranking also reveals that there are 842 combos that perform better in Rust, many of which likely feature newer processors with higher core counts. The GPU's 12 GB memory is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but may struggle at 4K Ultra, as evidenced by the 42 FPS result, which is one of the factors contributing to the overall rank. The combo's performance is consistent with its component specifications, and the data suggests that upgrading the CPU would yield diminishing returns at 1080p but could improve performance at higher resolutions if the GPU is not already the bottleneck.