Rust

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti presents a clear picture of how a modern mid-range CPU interacts with an older high-end GPU in Rust. The measured frame rates across resolutions reveal a system that is heavily dependent on graphics settings, with the CPU showing its strength primarily at lower resolutions and the GPU becoming the dominant constraint as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 and then to 3840x2160 shows a predictable but steep decline in average frame rates, regardless of the quality preset. At Low settings, the system delivers 157.4 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 110 FPS at 1440p and further to 65.2 FPS at 4K. This represents a 30% reduction moving from 1080p to 1440p and another 41% drop when stepping up to 4K. The scaling is somewhat less aggressive at High settings, where the frame rate goes from 88.7 FPS at 1080p to 61.4 FPS at 1440p (a 31% decline) and then to 36.9 FPS at 4K (a 40% further drop).

The pattern indicates that at 1080p with Low or Medium presets, the system is likely CPU-bound. The i5-13400F, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, can push frame rates well above 100 FPS, suggesting the GPU is not the limiting factor at that resolution. However, the gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (47.4 FPS difference) is larger than the gap between 1440p and 4K (44.8 FPS difference), which hints at the GPU beginning to take over as the primary bottleneck as resolution increases.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more linear but the absolute numbers are low. The system achieves 65.3 FPS at 1080p, 44.2 FPS at 1440p, and 28 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is particularly telling, as it falls below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for playable performance. The data suggests that the GTX 1080 Ti, despite its 11 GB of GDDR5X memory and 484.4 GB/s bandwidth, simply cannot maintain smooth frame rates at 4K with maximum quality settings in Rust.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance across the four presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 157.4 FPS, Medium achieves 106.2 FPS, High reaches 88.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 65.3 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 51.2 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs only 17.5 FPS. The final step to Ultra costs another 23.4 FPS.

For players targeting high refresh rate monitors at 1080p, the Low preset is the only option that consistently stays above 144 FPS. The Medium preset, at 106.2 FPS, still provides a smooth experience for 100 Hz displays. The High preset, with 88.7 FPS, is a reasonable middle ground for 60-75 Hz monitors, offering better visual fidelity without sacrificing too much performance.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. The Low preset delivers 110 FPS, which is excellent for 1440p gaming, while Medium drops to 71.6 FPS and High to 61.4 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 44.2 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The data indicates that 1440p Medium is the sweet spot for this combination, providing a 71.6 FPS average that is well above the 60 FPS target while maintaining reasonable visual quality.

At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only manages 65.2 FPS, and Medium drops to 44.6 FPS. The High preset at 36.9 FPS and Ultra at 28 FPS are both below the 60 FPS mark. For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, the frame rate is not ideal for competitive play. The data suggests that this combination is better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, built on the Pascal architecture with a 16 nm process node, brings 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus, yielding 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock runs at 1481 MHz with a boost clock of 1582 MHz. The GPU has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 88 raster operations pipelines, producing a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 11.34 TFLOPS.

In Rust, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions. The frame rate difference between Low and Ultra presets at 1080p is 92.1 FPS, while at 4K it is 37.2 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is being pushed to its limits regardless of settings. The 11 GB of VRAM is likely sufficient for this game, as Rust's texture requirements are moderate, but the raw compute power of the GP102 chip is the limiting factor at 4K.

The GTX 1080 Ti sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 19402. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 with a delta of 0%, the AMD Radeon Pro 560X at -0.1%, and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp at +1.1%. This places the GTX 1080 Ti in a competitive position relative to older and newer cards, but its age shows in demanding scenarios like 4K Ultra in Rust.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ranks 979 out of 1717 tested combinations in Rust. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the ranking, which is somewhat surprising given the individual strengths of both components. The rank suggests that while the CPU is relatively modern and capable, the GPU's age holds this pairing back in a game like Rust that can be demanding on both CPU and GPU resources.

The CPU itself performs well in synthetic benchmarks, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 and a single-core score of 3004. Its 3DMark results show strong scaling from 1880 in the 2-thread test to 7314 in the 16-thread test. The i5-13400F's percentile ranking of 82 among all CPUs indicates it is well above average, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i7-13620H (delta 0.1%), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (delta -0.5%), and AMD EPYC 9474F (delta 0.5%). The GPU, however, sits at the 61st percentile, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 at a delta of 0%.

The combination's 979th rank out of 1717 indicates that there are many other pairings that perform better in Rust. This is likely due to the GPU's age, as newer cards with similar or better performance are available. The data suggests that users with this combination should focus on optimizing settings rather than expecting top-tier performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700.

In Rust, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p with lower settings. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 51.2 FPS, while the same settings change at 4K costs only 20.6 FPS. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is able to feed the GPU enough data to keep frame rates high, but as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by a Passmark single-thread score of 3634, is strong enough to handle Rust's physics and game logic, but the game may not be fully utilizing all 16 threads.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 25236 places it at the 82nd percentile, indicating that it performs better than most CPUs in the database. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13620H, has a nearly identical average score of 25201, with a delta of just 0.1%. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D is slightly faster at 25365, while the AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 are marginally slower. This shows that the i5-13400F is well-positioned among its peers, but its performance in Rust is constrained by the GPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combination achieves in Rust?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 157.4 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the combination perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rates range from 65.2 FPS at Low settings to 28 FPS at Ultra settings. The High preset delivers 36.9 FPS, and Medium achieves 44.6 FPS.

Q: What is the recommended settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 71.6 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target. The Low preset achieves 110 FPS, while High and Ultra produce 61.4 FPS and 44.2 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-13400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25236, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-13620H and 0.5% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D is slightly faster at 25365, a delta of -0.5%.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking and average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ranks at the 61st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19402. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780, has a delta of 0%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p with Low settings?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 157.4 FPS, which is well above typical refresh rates. This high frame rate suggests the CPU is capable of driving performance, and the GPU is not yet the primary bottleneck at this resolution and settings level.