Rust

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Rust with the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER reveals a clear pattern of scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 210.4 FPS, which drops to 188.1 FPS at 1440p and then to 116.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 44.7% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU becomes progressively more strained as pixel count rises.

The scaling behavior changes notably with higher quality presets. At Ultra settings, the frame rate falls from 122.9 FPS at 1080p to 86.4 FPS at 1440p, and then to 50.1 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra is 42.0%, which is steeper than the 29.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that at Ultra settings, the game's more demanding visual effects amplify the resolution penalty, pushing the GPU closer to its limits.

Looking at High settings, the progression is 163.9 FPS at 1080p, 110.9 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The 1440p to 4K transition here shows a 41.4% decrease, similar to the Ultra pattern. Medium settings follow a comparable trend: 185.6 FPS at 1080p, 130.8 FPS at 1440p, and 79.2 FPS at 4K, with a 39.4% drop between 1440p and 4K.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU plays a more significant role in limiting performance. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 87.5 FPS (210.4 versus 122.9), which is narrower than the 66.3 FPS gap at 4K (116.4 versus 50.1). This narrower gap at lower resolution suggests that the i5-13400F is keeping the GPU well-fed, but the GPU headroom is not being fully utilized because the game engine's single-threaded performance becomes a bottleneck.

At 4K, the scaling from Low to Ultra shows a much wider spread, with Ultra delivering less than half the frame rate of Low. This confirms that at higher resolutions, the RTX 4080 SUPER's rendering workload dominates, and the CPU's role diminishes.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU boost clock is rated at 2550 MHz, and it has 10240 shading units. These specifications position it as a high-end card, ranking in the 88th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database.

The GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth are directly relevant to Rust's performance. Rust is known for its large, persistent worlds and complex entity rendering, which can tax VRAM. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo delivers only 50.1 FPS, suggesting that the 16 GB frame buffer is being pushed hard, though the exact VRAM utilization is not measured in this dataset. However, the fact that the GPU still manages 116.4 FPS at 4K Low indicates that memory bandwidth is sufficient to avoid catastrophic drops when settings are reduced.

In the benchmark database, the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 34245 in Passmark G3D, which places it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M. It is 2.1% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 7700S and 2.9% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. These deltas are modest, indicating that the 4080 SUPER is closely matched with its immediate rivals in synthetic tests, though actual game performance varies.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial, with 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput. This raw compute power helps with Rust's physics simulation and procedural terrain generation, which are computationally intensive. The 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores also support modern rendering features, though the measured data does not separate out ray-traced effects.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined configuration of the i5-13400F and RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 113th out of 1717 tested combos in Rust. This places it in the top 6.6% of all combinations in the database, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects not just the individual components' strengths but also how well they work together in this specific game.

The i5-13400F itself ranks in the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25236. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-13620H (0.1% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (0.5% behind), the AMD EPYC 9474F (0.5% ahead), and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (0.5% ahead). These small deltas suggest that the CPU's synthetic performance is tightly clustered with its competitors, but the real-world Rust results depend on how the game utilizes the 10 cores and 16 threads.

The GPU ranks in the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 53610. Its nearest rivals are all within 2.9% of its score, indicating that the 4080 SUPER is at the upper edge of a competitive band. The combo's overall rank of 113 suggests that the CPU does not significantly hold back the GPU in Rust, as the combination outperforms what either component alone would suggest.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear progression across settings. Low settings produce 210.4 FPS, Medium delivers 185.6 FPS, High drops to 163.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 122.9 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 87.5 FPS, or 41.6%. This indicates that at 1080p, even the highest settings remain playable, and the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower quality presets.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are 188.1 FPS (Low), 130.8 FPS (Medium), 110.9 FPS (High), and 86.4 FPS (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 10.6% at Low, 29.5% at Medium, 32.3% at High, and 29.7% at Ultra. The larger percentage drops at higher settings suggest that the GPU is becoming more involved as both resolution and quality increase.

At 3840x2160, the results are 116.4 FPS (Low), 79.2 FPS (Medium), 65 FPS (High), and 50.1 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result remains above 100 FPS, which is impressive, but the Ultra result drops below 60 FPS, which may be noticeable to players who prefer high refresh rates. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is a 56.9% reduction, indicating that the GPU is heavily loaded at this resolution.

Comparing settings across all resolutions, the largest absolute difference between Low and Ultra occurs at 1080p (87.5 FPS), while the largest percentage difference occurs at 4K (56.9%). This suggests that the GPU's rendering workload scales more aggressively with quality settings at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for different use cases. For players targeting 60 FPS as a minimum, the 4K Ultra preset is borderline at 50.1 FPS, so dropping to 4K High (65 FPS) or 4K Medium (79.2 FPS) is advisable. The 4K Medium setting offers a 58.2% improvement over Ultra while maintaining visual quality that is likely still impressive.

At 1440p, all four presets exceed 86 FPS, meaning even Ultra is viable for high-refresh-rate monitors up to 144Hz. The 1440p High preset at 110.9 FPS provides a good balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, while 1440p Low at 188.1 FPS would suit competitive players who prioritize frame rate over graphics.

For 1080p, every preset exceeds 120 FPS, so the choice depends on the display's refresh rate. The 1080p High setting at 163.9 FPS is well above 144Hz thresholds, and even Ultra at 122.9 FPS is smooth for most players. The 1080p Low setting at 210.4 FPS is ideal for esports-style play, though the visual trade-offs may be significant.

The data suggests that the most balanced experience across all resolutions is the High preset. At 1080p, it delivers 163.9 FPS; at 1440p, 110.9 FPS; and at 4K, 65 FPS. This preset provides consistent performance that scales predictably, making it a reliable default for players who do not want to tweak individual settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its L3 cache is 20 MB shared, and it has 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU is built on the Raptor Lake architecture using a 10 nm process, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-13400F scores 21279 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3004 in single-core. Its Passmark multithread score is 25032, and its single-thread score is 3634. These numbers indicate a strong balance between multi-threaded and single-threaded performance, which is relevant to Rust's engine that relies heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and world simulation.

The CPU's nearest rivals show that it is competitive with other mid-range and high-end processors. The Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.1% ahead in average score, while the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D is 0.5% behind. The AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 are both 0.5% ahead. These small deltas mean that the i5-13400F is not significantly outperformed or outperforming its peers in general-purpose workloads.

In the context of Rust, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p. The fact that the 1080p Low setting reaches 210.4 FPS suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough frames even at high rates. However, the 1080p Ultra result of 122.9 FPS indicates that the CPU may be limiting when the game's draw calls and physics calculations increase with higher settings. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p (87.5 FPS) is narrower than at 4K (66.3 FPS), but the percentage drop is smaller, confirming that the CPU is a more significant factor at lower resolutions.

The 65 W TDP of the i5-13400F is modest for a desktop CPU, and its PCIe Gen 5 support with 16 lanes ensures that the RTX 4080 SUPER is not bottlenecked by the bus interface. The CPU's 16 threads are well-suited to Rust's background tasks, such as server-side simulation and building integrity checks, which can run in parallel without interfering with the main render thread.