Rust

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Rust across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a system that scales predictably, but with some notable inflection points. At 1080p Low, the combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers an average of 190.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 128.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 32%. Pushing further to 4K Low yields 77.3 FPS, which is another 40% decline from the 1440p figure. This steep drop-off pattern indicates that at lower quality settings, the GPU is becoming the primary limiter as pixel count rises, though the CPU still has headroom to feed frames at 1080p.

The scaling behavior changes when quality settings are increased. At High settings, the frame rate goes from 108.2 FPS at 1080p, to 72.4 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 43.2 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops here are more uniform, around 33% for each step, suggesting a more balanced load between the CPU and GPU. The 4K High result of 43.2 FPS is just below the 45 FPS threshold often considered the minimum for a smooth experience, indicating that this combination is not ideal for 4K gaming at elevated quality.

Ultra settings tell the clearest story about the GPU's limits. The 4K Ultra average of 31.3 FPS is the lowest recorded figure in the entire dataset. This is a 61% reduction from the 1080p Ultra result of 80.6 FPS. The gap between Medium and Ultra at 4K is also revealing: 53.2 FPS versus 31.3 FPS, a difference of 22 FPS. This wide spread indicates that the Ultra preset's additional effects, likely including heavier shadows and draw-distance calculations, place a significant strain on the RX 7700 XT's 12 GB of VRAM and 96 ROPs.

The data shows that resolution scaling is not linear. The transition from 1440p to 4K consistently produces larger absolute FPS losses than the transition from 1080p to 1440p. For instance, at Medium settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 43.1 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 31.4 FPS. This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s and its pixel throughput of 244.2 GPixel/s are being saturated at 4K, making the higher resolution the dominant bottleneck regardless of the quality preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this CPU-GPU combination in Rust?

A: The highest average FPS is 190.9, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only result in the dataset that approaches the 200 FPS mark, demonstrating that the combo can deliver very high frame rates when the graphical load is minimized.

Q: How does the RX 7700 XT compare to its closest rival in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 30097, placing it at the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, scores 30109, which is a delta of 0.0%. This indicates that the two cards are statistically indistinguishable in synthetic testing.

Q: Is the Core i5-13400F a strong performer for multi-threaded workloads?

A: Benchmark results show the CPU scores 21279 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 8937 in Cinebench R20 multicore. It sits at the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25236. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, scores 25365, a deltaPct of -0.5%, meaning the i5-13400F is marginally behind that chip.

Q: What is the impact of switching from High to Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings produce 72.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 56.8 FPS. This is a reduction of 15.6 FPS, or approximately 21.5%. The data shows that the Ultra preset's additional fidelity costs a significant portion of the frame rate, making High a more practical choice for smoother gameplay at this resolution.

Q: How does the GPU's memory configuration influence Rust performance?

A: The RX 7700 XT features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. The measured FPS at 4K ranges from 31.3 FPS on Ultra to 77.3 FPS on Low, indicating that the memory subsystem is sufficient for lower presets but becomes a constraint at higher resolutions and quality levels.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It packs 28,100 million transistors into a 346 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 81.2M per mm². The GPU operates at a base clock of 1435 MHz, with a game clock of 2171 MHz and a boost clock of 2544 MHz. This clock profile allows the card to ramp up performance under load, which is critical for a game like Rust that can be demanding on both the rasterizer and the shader units.

The memory configuration consists of 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, running at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed. This yields a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. In Rust, this memory capacity is not a limiting factor at 1080p or 1440p, as evidenced by the frame rates staying above 56 FPS even at Ultra settings. However, at 4K Ultra, the 31.3 FPS result suggests that the card is hitting a wall, likely due to a combination of bandwidth saturation and the shading units being fully occupied.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial: 3456 shading units, 216 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are high figures that support the strong 1080p performance. The FP32 throughput of 35.17 TFLOPS is the raw compute horsepower that drives the High and Medium preset results. The card also has 54 ray tracing cores, though Rust's implementation of ray tracing is not a factor in this dataset.

The RX 7700 XT sits at the 73rd percentile of all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average score of 30097. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5060, is a dead heat at 0.0% delta. The data shows that in Rust, this GPU is the primary component determining the upper bound of frame rates at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K where the Ultra preset yields just 31.3 FPS. For gamers targeting 1440p High, the 72.4 FPS result is solid, but for 4K, the card is better suited to Low or Medium settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread across quality presets. Low settings produce the highest average at 190.9 FPS, which is nearly double the 108.2 FPS achieved on High. Medium sits between at 127.7 FPS, while Ultra drops to 80.6 FPS. This ordering is expected, but the magnitude of the difference between Low and High is notable: 82.7 FPS. This suggests that the High preset in Rust introduces significant shader and texture work that the RX 7700 XT must process, even at the lowest resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates compress. Low delivers 128.8 FPS, Medium 84.6 FPS, High 72.4 FPS, and Ultra 56.8 FPS. The gap between Low and High shrinks to 56.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as resolution increases. The 1440p Ultra result of 56.8 FPS is still playable for most users, but it is a 30% drop from the Medium preset.

At 3840x2160, the performance cliff becomes evident. Low yields 77.3 FPS, Medium 53.2 FPS, High 43.2 FPS, and Ultra 31.3 FPS. The Ultra result is the only figure in the entire dataset that falls below 35 FPS, making it unsuitable for competitive play. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 46 FPS, which is less than the 110 FPS difference at 1080p. This compression indicates that the GPU is saturated at 4K, and further quality increases yield diminishing returns.

The combo's overall rank in Rust is 702 out of 1717 tested combinations, placing it in the upper tier. The measured data confirms that this system is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates on most presets. At 4K, users should stick to Low or Medium settings to maintain acceptable performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration is designed to handle both single-threaded responsiveness and multi-threaded workloads, which is relevant for Rust's simulation and server-side logic.

Benchmark results show the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 and a Geekbench multicore score of 10971. The single-core performance is also strong, with Cinebench R23 single-core scoring 3004 and Geekbench single-core at 2301. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7314 is nearly identical to the max-thread score of 7307, indicating that the processor scales well up to its full thread count. This is important for Rust, which can utilize multiple cores for physics and world updates.

The CPU sits at the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25236. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13620H, scores 25201, a deltaPct of 0.1%, meaning the i5-13400F is statistically tied with that mobile chip. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D scores 25365, a delta of -0.5%, showing the i5-13400F is marginally slower than that gaming-focused processor.

In Rust, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and quality settings. At 1080p Low, the 190.9 FPS result indicates that the i5-13400F can feed frames to the GPU at a very high rate without bottlenecking. However, at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 80.6 FPS, which is a 58% reduction. This suggests that while the CPU is capable, the GPU becomes the limiting factor when graphical effects are maxed out, even at 1080p. The data does not show a scenario where the CPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the frame rates consistently drop with increased resolution and quality, pointing to the GPU as the primary constraint in this pairing.