Rust

The Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT pairing presents a classic study in balance for Rust. The data indicates that the RX 5700 XT becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution climbs, while the 14400F provides ample headroom at lower settings. This combo sits in the 1294th position out of 1717 tested configurations, placing it in the lower-mid tier of the database, a ranking driven by the GPU's age rather than the CPU's capability.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern: performance degrades significantly as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 138.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 94.3 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 53.8 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 61% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the RX 5700 XT's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated by the increased pixel count.

The High settings row tells a similar story. At 1080p, the combo achieves 78.8 FPS, which drops to 52.6 FPS at 1440p, and then plummets to 29.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is below the 30 FPS threshold often considered the minimum for playability, indicating this resolution is only viable at Low settings. The gap between Low and High settings widens at higher resolutions, demonstrating that the GPU's compute resources—its 9.754 TFLOPS FP32 performance—are stretched thin when both resolution and visual fidelity increase simultaneously.

At 1080p, the i5-14400F's strength becomes apparent. The 138.5 FPS Low result suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the frame rate scales well with reduced GPU load. The 14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads, along with its 20 MB shared L3 cache, are sufficient to feed the RX 5700 XT at this resolution. However, the data shows that at 4K, even the Low preset yields only 53.8 FPS, confirming that the GPU's 256-bit memory bus and RDNA 1.0 architecture are the limiting factors at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where this combo reliably exceeds 60 FPS across all tested presets. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset achieves 94.3 FPS, while Medium drops to 60.8 FPS and High falls to 52.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS, with the highest being Low at 53.8 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 5700 XT compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 24731 places it nearly identical to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, which scores 24763 with a deltaPct of -0.1. It is slightly ahead of the Intel Arc A350M, which scores 24647 with a deltaPct of 0.3, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile, scoring 24592 with a deltaPct of 0.6.

Q: Is there a CPU bottleneck at 1080p with the Low preset?

A: No, the data suggests the opposite. The 138.5 FPS result at 1080p Low is the highest measured score for this combo, indicating the i5-14400F is keeping up with the GPU's output. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and single-core score of 3093 provide enough headroom for the RX 5700 XT to operate near its limit.

Q: What is the ranking of this combo among all tested configurations?

A: This specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is ranked 1294 out of 1717 total combinations tested in Rust. This places it in the 75th percentile of tested combos, meaning roughly 25% of configurations perform worse.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The measured data shows that at 3840x2160, the Ultra preset yields only 25.7 FPS, while High produces 29.4 FPS. This significant drop compared to 1440p results—where High achieves 52.6 FPS—indicates the 8 GB frame buffer is likely exhausted at 4K with higher presets, forcing the GPU to manage memory more inefficiently.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-14400F's average benchmark score of 32508 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-12800H, which scores 32513 with a deltaPct of 0. It is 0.2% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446) and 0.2% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584) and Intel Core i7-13705H (32586).

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth experience, the data strongly favors the Medium preset at 1080p. This yields 88.5 FPS, which is a 12% improvement over High (78.8 FPS) while still providing a significant visual upgrade over Low (138.5 FPS). The Medium preset at 1440p also hits the 60 FPS mark at 60.8 FPS, making it the highest resolution and quality combination that stays above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 1440p, High is playable at 52.6 FPS, but the frame rate is approaching the lower bound of what most players would consider smooth. The Ultra preset at 1080p produces 61.3 FPS, which is playable but offers diminishing returns over Medium given the 31% performance cost. For 4K gaming, the data indicates that only the Low preset (53.8 FPS) is viable, as Medium drops to 37 FPS and High to 29.4 FPS.

The optimal balance between visual quality and frame rate is the Medium preset at 1440p. This configuration leverages the i5-14400F's single-core performance—evidenced by its Geekbench single-core score of 2333—while keeping the RX 5700 XT within its comfort zone. Players prioritizing competitive gameplay should select Low at 1080p for the maximum 138.5 FPS, but those favoring visuals will find Medium at 1440p the best compromise.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1294 out of 1717 tested combinations in Rust, placing it firmly in the lower half of the database. This ranking is more a reflection of the GPU's age than the CPU's capability. The RX 5700 XT, with its percentileVsAllGpus of 68, is an older RDNA 1.0 part that has been superseded by multiple generations. In contrast, the i5-14400F boasts a percentileVsAllCpus of 88, indicating it outperforms 88% of all CPUs in the database.

The delta between the CPU and GPU percentiles reveals an imbalance: the 14400F is a modern, high-performing processor paired with a mid-range GPU from 2019. This is evident in the measured FPS data, where the CPU never appears to be the limiting factor. Even at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 138.5 FPS, which is respectable but not exceptional, suggesting the GPU caps performance before the CPU can fully stretch its legs.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing is positioned near configurations that likely use older or weaker GPUs with similar modern CPUs. The 423-position gap between this combo's rank and the bottom of the list indicates there is substantial headroom for improvement, primarily by upgrading the GPU to a more modern part with higher memory bandwidth and newer architecture.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT plays the decisive role in determining this combo's gaming performance, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a constraint at 4K. The GPU's clock speeds—a base of 1605 MHz, game clock of 1755 MHz, and boost of 1905 MHz—are fixed, and the data shows they cannot compensate for the resolution increase.

The GPU's compute capabilities, rated at 9.754 TFLOPS FP32, are modest by modern standards. This is reflected in the benchmark scores: a Passmark G3D score of 16277 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2134. These scores place the RX 5700 XT at the 68th percentile of all GPUs, indicating it is outclassed by roughly a third of the database. The GPU's nearest rivals in terms of average score are mobile workstation parts, which suggests it is competing with a different performance class than desktop gaming GPUs.

The VRAM capacity is the most critical factor in Rust. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 25.7 FPS, a 59% drop from 1080p Ultra's 61.3 FPS. This severe degradation points to the 8 GB frame buffer being overwhelmed, as Rust's large open-world environments and texture streaming require substantial memory. The GPU's 64 ROPs and 160 TMUs are also under strain at 4K, as evidenced by the pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s, which cannot keep up with the pixel count demands of 3840x2160.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. The Low preset achieves 138.5 FPS, Medium produces 88.5 FPS, High reaches 78.8 FPS, and Ultra manages 61.3 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 77.2 FPS, showing that the GPU has significant overhead at this resolution and can handle all quality levels above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, performance drops across all presets. Low yields 94.3 FPS, Medium 60.8 FPS, High 52.6 FPS, and Ultra 40.9 FPS. The Medium preset barely clears the 60 FPS mark, while High and Ultra fall below it. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 32% at Low, 31% at Medium, 33% at High, and 33% at Ultra, indicating consistent GPU-bound behavior.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations are fully exposed. Low produces 53.8 FPS, Medium 37 FPS, High 29.4 FPS, and Ultra 25.7 FPS. None of these results reach the 60 FPS threshold, and only Low is comfortably above 30 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is substantial: Low loses 40.5 FPS, Medium 23.8 FPS, High 23.2 FPS, and Ultra 15.2 FPS. The diminishing returns between High and Ultra at 4K (a difference of only 3.7 FPS) suggest the GPU is fully saturated and the VRAM is the limiting factor, as increasing settings no longer produces meaningful performance changes.