Rust

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER delivers a starkly scalable performance profile in Rust, where the gap between the lowest and highest settings at 4K is more than double the frame rate. This indicates a system that is heavily dependent on graphical load, with the CPU’s headroom becoming apparent only when the GPU is not saturated.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals a predictable yet pronounced scaling pattern as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 247.9 FPS, which drops to 184.7 FPS at 1440p and further to 107.9 FPS at 4K. This represents a 56.5% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K on Low settings, showing that even at the lowest graphical preset, the rendering resolution significantly impacts output.

The scaling becomes more severe at higher quality presets. With High settings, the average FPS falls from 150.6 at 1080p to 106.7 at 1440p and finally to 58.6 at 4K, a 61.1% drop from the starting resolution. The Ultra preset shows the steepest decline: 115.7 FPS at 1080p, 79.2 FPS at 1440p, and 45.3 FPS at 4K, representing a 60.8% reduction. This pattern suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 256-bit bus width are sufficient for the data throughput, but the raw shader processing demand at 4K Ultra pushes the GPU to its limits.

The delta between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution further illuminates the bottleneck. At 1080p, the spread is 132.2 FPS (247.9 vs 115.7), while at 4K it narrows to 62.6 FPS (107.9 vs 45.3). This compression indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor, as the frame rate ceiling is constrained by pixel throughput rather than CPU instruction execution. The 1080p Low result of 247.9 FPS suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than the graphics pipeline can render at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 151st out of 1717 tested combos for Rust, placing it in the top 8.8% of all configurations. This percentile placement is strong, but it does not reflect the absolute top tier, indicating that while the hardware is capable, there are configurations with higher measured average frame rates in this specific title.

The CPU itself holds a percentile of 93 against all CPUs in the database, while the GPU sits at the 86th percentile against all GPUs. The slight discrepancy between the CPU’s higher percentile and the GPU’s lower one suggests that in Rust, the graphics card is more likely to be the performance boundary. The combo rank of 151, when compared to the individual component percentiles, implies that the pairing is well-balanced but not perfectly optimized for Rust’s specific engine demands. A higher-ranked combo would likely feature a more powerful GPU to shift the balance further toward the graphics-bound side.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, running on the Intel Socket 1700 platform. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz can boost up to 5.30 GHz, and it features 24 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 2 MB of L2 cache per core. This configuration provides substantial single-thread performance, which is critical for Rust’s game logic and physics calculations. The processor’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642 and multi-core score of 32881 highlight its capability in both lightly threaded and heavily threaded workloads.

In the context of the measured FPS data, the CPU’s role becomes evident at lower resolutions. The 1080p Low setting result of 247.9 FPS demonstrates that the processor can sustain high frame rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck. However, the CPU’s influence diminishes as resolution increases; the 4K Ultra result of 45.3 FPS is clearly GPU-limited, given that the same processor can produce 115.7 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and game server processing, but Rust’s primary thread load appears well within the capabilities of the 6 performance cores. The processor’s PassMark single-thread score of 4270 reinforces its strength in the single-core operations that dominate this genre.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest performance. Low settings produce an average of 247.9 FPS, Medium drops to 177.1 FPS, and High settles at 150.6 FPS. Ultra is the most demanding preset, yielding 115.7 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system can easily drive high-refresh-rate monitors even with quality settings raised, though the step from Medium to High costs 26.5 FPS, and the jump to Ultra costs another 34.9 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain playable but show a clear reduction. Low settings average 184.7 FPS, Medium 121.6 FPS, and High 106.7 FPS. The Ultra preset drops below the 80 FPS threshold, averaging 79.2 FPS. The relative performance gap between Medium and High narrows to 14.9 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is beginning to feel the pressure of additional pixels.

At 3840x2160, the 4K results are the most constrained. Low settings still manage 107.9 FPS, which is smooth for most players, but Medium falls to 71.5 FPS and High to 58.6 FPS. Ultra is the only preset that dips below 60 FPS, averaging 45.3 FPS. This makes 4K Ultra unsuitable for competitive play, but the 58.6 FPS High result is borderline playable for a survival title. The data shows that for a consistent 60+ FPS experience at 4K, users should stick to Medium settings or lower, while 1440p allows for High settings with a 106.7 FPS average.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo can achieve in Rust?

A: The highest measured average is 247.9 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system run Rust at 4K with smooth performance?

A: At 4K, the system achieves 107.9 FPS on Low and 71.5 FPS on Medium. High settings produce 58.6 FPS, while Ultra drops to 45.3 FPS, so smooth 60+ FPS is only possible on Low or Medium presets.

Q: How does the CPU’s single-core performance compare to its multi-core?

A: The i5-14600K scores 4642 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 32881 in multi-core, showing strong performance in both areas, with the multi-core score being roughly 7.1 times higher.

Q: Is the GPU or the CPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1440p Ultra?

A: At 1440p Ultra, the average FPS is 79.2, which is notably lower than the 1080p Ultra result of 115.7 FPS. This drop indicates the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases, though the CPU still has headroom.

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

A: At 1080p, Low settings average 247.9 FPS while Ultra averages 115.7 FPS, a difference of 132.2 FPS or approximately 53.3% lower performance on Ultra.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 151st out of 1717 tested combos, placing it in the top 8.8% of all configurations tested for Rust.