Rust

Rust presents one of the more demanding survival experiences in the current benchmark pool, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT shows a clear, predictable scaling curve. At 1080p, the combo is rarely constrained, but as resolution climbs, the GPU begins to assert its dominance, particularly at higher presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep, consistent drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the Low preset, the average frame rate falls from 214.8 FPS at 1080p to 156.7 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of roughly 27%, and then to 94.1 FPS at 4K, another 40% drop. This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the system is still capable of feeding the GPU enough frames at 1080p to push well past the 200 FPS mark, but the GPU's rendering load becomes the limiting factor as pixel count climbs.

The scaling is more severe at higher presets. With High settings, the average FPS drops from 129.4 at 1080p to 88 at 1440p (a 32% decrease), and then to 53.1 at 4K (another 40% decrease). The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 99.8 FPS at 1080p, 64.2 at 1440p, and 38.3 at 4K. The relative consistency of the percentage drops across presets suggests that Rust's engine scales predictably with resolution, but the absolute numbers reveal where the bottleneck shifts.

At 1080p Low, the 214.8 FPS result strongly implies the CPU is keeping pace with the RX 9070 XT. However, at 4K Ultra, the 38.3 FPS figure shows a system that is firmly GPU-limited. The data suggests that for competitive or high-refresh play at 1440p, the Low preset at 156.7 FPS offers the best headroom, while the 4K Ultra result of 38.3 FPS is only viable for slower-paced, visually focused sessions. The gap between 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra is 115 FPS, indicating that the GPU has ample overhead at the lowest preset, but the CPU's role becomes more prominent as settings are lowered and resolution drops.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip, featuring 4096 shading units and 128 ROPs. Its boost clock is rated at 2970 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s, which is a substantial resource for Rust's large, persistent world and texture streaming demands.

The benchmark results show that the GPU's 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs is reflected in its ability to handle Rust's load. At 1440p High, the 88 FPS average is a strong result, but the 64.2 FPS at 1440p Ultra indicates that the most demanding settings can still stress the card. The 4K results are more telling: the jump from Medium (61.6 FPS) to High (53.1 FPS) to Ultra (38.3 FPS) shows a steep penalty for the highest quality options, suggesting the card's raw compute and memory bandwidth are being fully utilized at that resolution.

The GPU's 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 760.3 GTexel/s texture rate are substantial, but Rust's draw calls and object density appear to create a scenario where the 4K Ultra preset is beyond the card's comfort zone for smooth play. The data indicates that the RX 9070 XT is a capable 1440p-class card for this title, with 4K requiring settings compromises. The VRAM allocation of 16 GB is not a limiting factor in any of the measured rows, as the FPS drops are consistent with compute-bound scaling rather than memory capacity issues.

How This Combo Ranks

In the comprehensive benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT achieves a rank of 382 out of 1717 tested combos for Rust. This places the pairing in the top 22% of all systems tested, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU.

The CPU itself sits at the 88th percentile of all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 32508. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests include the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513, a 0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446, a 0.2% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584, a -0.2% delta). These scores indicate the i5-14400F is a solid performer, but its position in the Rust ranking is influenced by the GPU's contribution.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 39647, placing it at the 82nd percentile. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39703, a -0.1% delta) and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, a 0.2% delta). The rank of 382 combines these two components' capabilities, and the data shows that the combo outperforms a significant majority of systems. However, the gap between the 382nd rank and the top of the list suggests that systems with higher-tier CPUs, such as those with more cores or higher boost clocks, can extract more performance from the RX 9070 XT in Rust's CPU-sensitive scenes.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance of visual quality and frame rate for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 129.4 FPS is the best choice for most players, offering a significant improvement over Medium (152.3 FPS) but with better visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 99.8 FPS is playable and smooth for a survival game, but the 30 FPS drop from High to Ultra is substantial for the visual gains.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 104.4 FPS provides the best experience for fast-paced gameplay, as it stays above the 100 FPS threshold. The High preset at 88 FPS is also viable, but the Medium setting offers a 16.4 FPS advantage that can be felt in combat or when panning the camera. The Low preset at 156.7 FPS is recommended for competitive play where frame rate is paramount, but the visual compromise is steep.

For 4K, the data shows that the Medium preset at 61.6 FPS is the highest playable option, while the High preset at 53.1 FPS is borderline and the Ultra preset at 38.3 FPS is not recommended for anything other than screenshots. The Low preset at 94.1 FPS is the only option that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, indicating that 4K play requires a significant settings sacrifice to maintain smooth motion. The recommendation is to prioritize Medium at 4K for a balanced experience, or Low if frame rate consistency is more critical.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The exact measured average FPS values for this combo in Rust are as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 214.8 FPS, Medium delivers 152.3 FPS, High delivers 129.4 FPS, and Ultra delivers 99.8 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 115 FPS range, showing that the GPU has substantial headroom at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 156.7 FPS, Medium delivers 104.4 FPS, High delivers 88 FPS, and Ultra delivers 64.2 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 92.5 FPS, and the Ultra result falls below the 70 FPS mark, indicating a noticeable shift toward GPU limitation.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 94.1 FPS, Medium delivers 61.6 FPS, High delivers 53.1 FPS, and Ultra delivers 38.3 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that maintains a frame rate above 90 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls below 40 FPS, making it unsuitable for consistent gameplay. The data confirms that the 4K Ultra preset is the most demanding scenario, and the 38.3 FPS result is a clear indicator of the GPU's limits in this title.