Rust

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces a distinctive performance profile in Rust, one that shifts from GPU-bound at 4K to increasingly CPU-sensitive at lower resolutions. The dataset shows a clear hierarchy across four settings presets and three resolutions, with the most significant finding being the relatively modest scaling between 1440p and 1080p compared to the jump from 4K to 1440p. This combination ranks 74th out of 2953 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.5% of all configurations, yet the frame rate data reveals that the CPU is frequently the limiting factor despite the presence of a flagship GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data demonstrates that resolution scaling in Rust is not linear, and the degree of impact varies substantially depending on the selected graphics preset. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 150 FPS at 1920x1080 to 103 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 47 FPS, and then further to 61 FPS at 3840x2160, another 42 FPS decline. This pattern indicates that the GPU is being progressively more stressed as pixel count increases, but the absolute values remain high enough to suggest that even at 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 D is not fully saturated in this title.

The Low preset tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the average is 217 FPS, which drops to 192 FPS at 1440p and then to 141 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 1440p is only 25 FPS (11.5% reduction), while the delta between 1440p and 4K is 51 FPS (26.6% reduction). This suggests that at lower settings, the CPU begins to impose a ceiling on performance at 1080p and 1440p, because the GPU has ample headroom to render more pixels but the frame rate does not scale proportionally. The fact that 1080p Low only reaches 217 FPS, rather than a much higher figure, is a strong indicator that the i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads are the bottleneck in this scenario.

For Medium settings, the scaling is more consistent: 187 FPS at 1080p, 161 FPS at 1440p, and 95 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result of 95 FPS is notably close to the 4K High result of 80 FPS, suggesting that the GPU workload differences between Medium and High at 4K are relatively small compared to the jump from High to Ultra, which drops to 61 FPS. This implies that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that are disproportionately expensive at high pixel counts, likely related to shadow quality and draw distance, though the data does not specify which settings are changed.

The High preset exhibits the most balanced scaling: 176 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 80 FPS at 4K. This represents a 22.7% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 41.2% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The 4K High figure of 80 FPS is playable for most users, but the 61 FPS at 4K Ultra pushes into marginal territory for high-refresh-rate displays. Overall, the resolution scaling data indicates that the RTX 5090 D is the dominant factor at 4K, but the i5-14400F becomes increasingly relevant as resolution drops, particularly at Low and Medium presets where the GPU is underutilized.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear basis for recommending presets based on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 150 FPS, which is only 26 FPS below the Low preset's 217 FPS but offers substantially better visual quality. Given that the 1080p Ultra result is still well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on gaming monitors, this is the optimal choice for users with high-refresh 1080p displays. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 187 FPS, which is a reasonable middle ground, but the 37 FPS difference between Medium and Ultra is unlikely to be perceptible on most monitors, making Ultra the better value in terms of experience per measured frame.

At 2560x1440, the situation is more nuanced. The Ultra preset averages 103 FPS, which is adequate for 60 Hz displays and most 120 Hz panels, but the High preset achieves 136 FPS, a 33 FPS improvement that could be meaningful for competitive play. The data shows that High at 1440p provides 136 FPS, which is 32 FPS higher than Ultra at the same resolution, while the visual penalty is likely modest given the proximity of the two presets in the settings hierarchy. For users prioritizing smoothness, High is the recommended preset at 1440p; for those who want maximum visual fidelity and can tolerate lower frame rates, Ultra is acceptable but not ideal for fast-paced gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the recommendations become more constrained. The Ultra preset averages 61 FPS, which is borderline for 60 Hz displays and will cause noticeable judder on higher refresh panels. The High preset at 80 FPS is the best measured result at 4K that balances visual quality with playability, offering a 19 FPS improvement over Ultra. The Medium preset at 95 FPS is also viable, but the incremental gain over High is only 15 FPS, which may not justify the reduction in visual fidelity. The Low preset at 141 FPS is technically the smoothest 4K option, but the visual degradation is likely severe enough that most users would prefer High or Medium. For 4K, the data supports High as the recommended preset, with Medium as a fallback for those who prioritize frame rate over visuals.

FAQ

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D bottleneck the i5-14400F in Rust?

A: At 4K resolution, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the 80 FPS average at High settings and 61 FPS at Ultra. However, at 1080p Low, the 217 FPS average is likely constrained by the CPU, because the GPU is capable of much higher frame rates in less demanding scenarios.

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p 144 Hz monitor?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 136 FPS, which is close to the 144 Hz refresh rate. The Ultra preset drops to 103 FPS, which would not fully utilize a 144 Hz display, making High the better choice for this hardware combination.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average frame rate decreases from 176 FPS at 1920x1080 to 80 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 54.5% reduction in performance. This indicates that the GPU workload increases dramatically with resolution at the High preset.

Q: Is the 32 GB VRAM on the RTX 5090 D necessary for Rust?

A: The measured FPS data does not indicate any VRAM-related performance issues, even at 4K Ultra. The 32 GB capacity is far beyond what Rust requires, but the GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are likely contributing factors to the strong 4K performance.

Q: How does the i5-14400F's 10-core configuration affect Rust's performance?

A: The 10 cores and 16 threads provide sufficient parallelism for Rust's multi-threaded rendering, but the 1080p Low result of 217 FPS suggests that the CPU limits maximum frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios. The 4.70 GHz boost clock helps maintain single-thread performance for game logic.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: The Low preset averages 141 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 61 FPS, a difference of 80 FPS. This substantial gap indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a significant GPU load at 4K, likely due to advanced effects that are not present in the Low preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 217 FPS for Low, 187 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 159 FPS and maximum of 215 FPS), 176 FPS for High, and 150 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 159 FPS shows that even at 1080p, there are frame time spikes that can affect smoothness, though the average remains high. The gap between Low and Ultra is 67 FPS, which is the largest spread across all resolutions, suggesting that at 1080p the GPU has sufficient headroom to render all presets at high speeds, but the CPU begins to limit the Low preset's maximum output.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 192 FPS for Low, 161 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 136 FPS and maximum of 185 FPS), 136 FPS for High, and 103 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 136 FPS is notably lower than the 159 FPS minimum at 1080p, indicating that the increased pixel count affects frame consistency. The spread between Low and Ultra is 89 FPS, which is larger than at 1080p, showing that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 141 FPS for Low, 95 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 81 FPS and maximum of 109 FPS), 80 FPS for High, and 61 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 81 FPS, which is close to the High preset's average of 80 FPS, suggesting that frame pacing is inconsistent even at Medium settings. The spread between Low and Ultra is 80 FPS, which is similar to the 1080p spread but at much lower absolute values, confirming that the GPU is heavily stressed at 4K.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data across all three resolutions, providing insight into frame consistency. At 1080p, the range is 159-215 FPS (56 FPS spread), at 1440p it is 136-185 FPS (49 FPS spread), and at 4K it is 81-109 FPS (28 FPS spread). The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes more consistently utilized, reducing the likelihood of frame rate spikes but also lowering the peak performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is extremely high by any standard. The base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and the memory operates at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed. The GPU has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores.

In Rust, the GPU's massive memory bandwidth appears to be a significant advantage. The 4K High preset achieves 80 FPS, and the 4K Medium preset reaches 95 FPS, both of which are strong results for a game known for its large, open-world environments with long draw distances. The 32 GB VRAM is far more than Rust currently requires, but the GDDR7 memory's speed likely helps with texture streaming and asset loading in this survival game, where the world is persistent and heavily modified by player actions.

The boost clock of 2407 MHz is relatively modest for a flagship GPU, but the raw compute power of 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 ensures that the card can handle the pixel fill rate demands at 4K. The measured FPS data at 4K Ultra (61 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset may include features like higher-resolution shadows or ambient occlusion that stress the ROPs and texture units, but the GPU still delivers playable performance. The benchmark scores for the RTX 5090 D, including a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 and a Passmark G3D score of 44,065, place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, confirming its high-end positioning.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. It has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it has a 65 W TDP. Its benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21,645 and a single-core score of 3,055, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 11,268 and a single-core score of 2,058.

In Rust, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings. The 1080p Low preset produces 217 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the dataset, but it is not significantly higher than the 1080p Medium result of 187 FPS. This suggests that the CPU is becoming a limiting factor at these frame rates, as the GPU could likely render more frames if the processor could feed it faster. The 4.70 GHz boost clock is important for single-threaded game logic, which Rust relies on for its simulation and physics, and the 10 cores provide adequate multi-threading for the rendering pipeline.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 83rd overall places it above the majority of processors, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (0.1% faster), Intel Core i9-11900 (0.2% faster), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (0.2% slower). The i5-14400F's multi-threaded performance is strong enough to avoid severe bottlenecks in Rust, but the 1080p Low result of 217 FPS indicates that frame rates above this threshold would require a more powerful CPU. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over as the primary bottleneck, and the CPU's limitations become less relevant.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 74th out of 2,953 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the top 2.5% of all configurations. This rank reflects the overall performance across all tested settings and resolutions, weighted by the measured FPS data. The high ranking is primarily driven by the GPU's exceptional performance at 4K, where it achieves playable frame rates even at Ultra settings, and the CPU's adequate multi-threading that prevents severe bottlenecks at lower resolutions.

Compared to other combos that might pair the same GPU with a higher-end CPU, this configuration likely sacrifices some performance at 1080p and 1440p Low settings, where the CPU is the limiting factor. However, the rank of 74 out of 2,953 suggests that the i5-14400F is still a capable partner for the RTX 5090 D in Rust, particularly for users who play at 1440p or 4K where the GPU is more heavily utilized. The CPU's 83rd percentile ranking and the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking indicate that both components are above average, but the GPU's higher relative performance contributes more to the combo's overall rank.

The data shows that the combo's weakest performance is at 4K Ultra, where the 61 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold that many users consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. However, the 4K High result of 80 FPS is a more realistic target for this hardware, and the 1440p High result of 136 FPS is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming. Overall, this combo ranks highly because it delivers strong performance across a wide range of settings, with the only notable weakness being the CPU limiting frame rates at 1080p Low, which is an extreme scenario that few users would prioritize.