Rust

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a highly constrained gaming experience in Rust, where performance is starkly limited by the graphics card. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings reveal a system that struggles to maintain playable smoothness, with the data indicating that the GPU is the unequivocal bottleneck in virtually every scenario. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, component roles, and ranking of this combination against the broader benchmark database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a severe and consistent drop as resolution increases, a classic symptom of a GPU-bound system. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination achieves an average of 68.5 FPS, which is the only measured configuration that approaches a comfortable gaming threshold. Moving to 1440p at the same Low settings drops the average to 44 FPS, a 35.8% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 29.8 FPS, representing a 56.5% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline indicates that the GTX 1650's rendering throughput is exhausted quickly as pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern becomes even more pronounced at higher quality presets. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 35.1 FPS at 1080p to 25.5 FPS at 1440p (a 27.4% loss) and then to 16.8 FPS at 4K (a 52.1% loss from 1080p). The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 26.1 FPS at 1080p, 22.8 FPS at 1440p, and a nearly unplayable 10.3 FPS at 4K. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is particularly telling—29.8 FPS versus 10.3 FPS—showing that the GPU's fill rate and shading capabilities are completely overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and demanding effects.

What this scaling reveals is that the limiting component is unambiguously the GPU. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see frame rates remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the processor would saturate regardless of pixel count. Instead, the data shows a linear degradation tied directly to resolution, which is the signature of a graphics card that has hit its memory bandwidth ceiling. The GTX 1650's 128.1 GB/s bandwidth and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory are simply insufficient for Rust's large, open-world environments at higher resolutions. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, has ample headroom to feed the GPU, but the graphics card cannot translate that data into frames.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance, scoring 21,914 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 25,783 in Passmark multithread. Its single-thread performance is also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,093 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3,723. These figures place the CPU in the 88th percentile among all tested processors, indicating that it is a capable mid-range part.

In Rust, however, the CPU's role is largely secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would typically have the most influence, the system only manages 68.5 FPS. This is far below what the i5-14400F could theoretically deliver in a less GPU-limited scenario. The processor's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core provide decent memory locality for the game's asset streaming, but the GPU's 4 GB VRAM capacity becomes a more significant constraint as textures and draw distances increase.

The CPU's benchmark scores suggest it is not the bottleneck. For example, its Passmark physics score of 1,594 and data compression score of 317,725 indicate strong computational throughput. Yet, the frame rates in Rust do not reflect this capability, because the GTX 1650's 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the limiting factor. The i5-14400F's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-12800H (deltaPct 0) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (deltaPct 0.2), show nearly identical average benchmark scores, confirming that the CPU is performing at its expected level. The data simply shows that this level is more than sufficient for the GPU to keep pace, which it fails to do.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is a Turing-architecture GPU built on a 12 nm process, with 896 shading units and 32 ROPs. Its base clock is 1,485 MHz with a boost clock of 1,665 MHz, and it has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. In synthetic tests, the GPU scores 7,880 on Passmark G3D and 39,112 on Geekbench OpenCL, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs. This is a low-midrange part, and its nearest rivals—the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (deltaPct -0.4) and AMD Radeon 550X (deltaPct -0.4)—have nearly identical average scores, confirming that the GTX 1650 is performing at its expected level.

The GPU's role in Rust is decisive and negative. The data shows that the GTX 1650 cannot sustain 60 FPS at any resolution or quality setting, with the sole exception of 1080p Low at 68.5 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 41.8 FPS, and at 1080p High it falls to 35.1 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are quickly saturated as quality settings increase. The 4 GB VRAM is particularly problematic for Rust, which is known for its large, persistent world and high-resolution textures; at Ultra settings, the GPU likely runs out of memory, causing asset thrashing and the observed 26.1 FPS at 1080p Ultra.

The GPU's memory clock of 2,001 MHz (8 Gbps effective) and pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s are simply too low for Rust's demanding rendering pipeline. The scaling data supports this: going from Low to Ultra at 4K results in a 65.4% performance drop (29.8 FPS to 10.3 FPS), which is a much larger relative penalty than the CPU would impose. The GTX 1650's DirectX 12 score of 35 on Passmark indicates weak feature-level performance, and its Vulkan score of 35,966 on Geekbench suggests that while the API is supported, the hardware cannot execute it efficiently. In essence, the GPU is the sole arbiter of frame rates in this configuration.

FAQ

Q: What is the best-case performance for this combination in Rust?

A: The highest average frame rate measured is 68.5 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At any other resolution or quality preset, the average FPS falls below 44, indicating that this is the only configuration that approaches a playable threshold.

Q: How does the GPU's memory capacity affect performance in Rust?

A: The GTX 1650 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, which is a critical limitation. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 26.1 at 1080p, 22.8 at 1440p, and 10.3 at 4K. The data suggests that the memory bus width of 128 bit and bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s are insufficient for Rust's high-resolution textures, leading to severe performance degradation.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The data clearly indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The i5-14400F's benchmark scores (e.g., 21,914 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 3,093 in single-core) position it in the 88th percentile of CPUs, while the GTX 1650 sits in the 43rd percentile of GPUs. The frame rate scaling with resolution and settings—where FPS drops sharply as GPU load increases—confirms that the GPU is the limiting component.

Q: How does this combination rank against other tested combos in Rust?

A: The combination ranks 1,663 out of 1,717 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the bottom 3% of all configurations. This low ranking is consistent with the measured frame rates, which are below 70 FPS in all scenarios and often below 30 FPS at higher settings.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS drops from 68.5 on Low to 26.1 on Ultra, a 61.9% reduction. The intermediate settings show a gradual decline: 41.8 FPS on Medium and 35.1 FPS on High, indicating that the GPU's shading units are progressively overwhelmed by increased quality effects.

Q: Does the CPU's core count help in Rust?

A: The i5-14400F has 10 cores and 16 threads, which provides ample multi-threading capability for Rust's simulation logic. However, the data shows that this CPU capability does not translate into higher frame rates because the GPU cannot process frames fast enough. The CPU's Passmark multithread score of 25,783 is high, but the GTX 1650's low fill rate means the CPU often waits idle.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is ranked 1,663 out of 1,717 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the bottom 3.1% of all configurations. This is a remarkably low ranking, driven almost entirely by the GPU's limitations. The CPU, by contrast, is a strong performer—its average benchmark score of 32,508 places it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals (Intel Core i7-12800H, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645) have nearly identical scores. The GPU, however, has an average benchmark score of 8,713 and sits in the 43rd percentile, which drags the entire system down.

The ranking reflects the reality of the measured FPS data. In Rust, this combo cannot achieve 60 FPS at any resolution above 1080p Low, and even at 1080p, only the Low preset breaks the 60 FPS barrier. The 4K Ultra score of 10.3 FPS is nearly unplayable, and the 1440p High score of 25.5 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. When compared to other combos in the database, this system is in the bottom tier, outperforming only 54 other configurations. This is not a reflection of the CPU's capability—the i5-14400F is a solid mid-range processor—but rather the GTX 1650's inability to handle Rust's demanding graphics workload. The data is clear: this combo is severely GPU-bound, and the ranking confirms that it is among the weakest tested for this game.