Rust

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER produces a distinctive performance profile in Rust, one that is heavily dictated by the game's unique demands. The CPU, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, offering substantial processing headroom. The GPU, built on the Turing architecture, provides 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The benchmark data for this combination, which places it at rank 1264 out of 1717 tested combos, reveals a system that behaves differently depending on resolution and quality settings, with the CPU's strength becoming more apparent at lower resolutions and the GPU's limitations emerging at higher ones.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. Its high boost clock of 5.30 GHz is pivotal for a title like Rust, which is known for its demanding game logic and world simulation. The benchmark results for this CPU show a strong single-thread performance, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2778 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4643. This capability is crucial, as the game's server-side calculations and physics often rely heavily on a few fast cores.

The 125 W TDP processor holds a percentile ranking of 93 when compared to all CPUs, placing it in the top 7% of processors in the database. Its average benchmark score of 49367 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The data shows it is 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, while being 0.5% behind the AMD EPYC 4345P. This indicates that the i5-14600KF is a top-tier performer for gaming workloads, and its high clock speeds are likely a primary reason why the system is able to achieve high frame rates when the graphical load is light.

In the context of Rust, the CPU's role is to process the game's world state, entity interactions, and player actions. With a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, this processor is well-equipped to handle these tasks. The performance data suggests that at lower resolutions, the frame rate is often high enough to suggest that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck, allowing the GPU to work as fast as it can. However, as resolution and settings increase, the demand on the GPU grows, shifting the bottleneck. The CPU's impressive single-threaded power, as evidenced by its Cinebench R15 single-core score of 468, is a key asset for this game, where a single thread can often dictate overall performance in complex scenes with many entities.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 134.9 FPS. This is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo and demonstrates the CPU's ability to feed the GPU effectively when graphical settings are not demanding.

Q: What is the frame rate impact of moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The data shows a significant drop in performance. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 76.9 at 1080p to 54.6 at 1440p, and finally to 34.8 at 4K. This substantial decrease indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as the pixel count increases.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K?

A: The benchmark data shows that the Intel Core i5-14600KF has an average score of 49367, which is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K's score of 49166. This makes the two processors effectively equal in overall performance.

Q: What is the best performance result for this system?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 134.9 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The lowest is 23.7 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Is this a high-performing CPU in the grand scheme of all processors?

A: Yes, the Intel Core i5-14600KF holds an 93rd percentile ranking against all CPUs in the database. This indicates that it outperforms the vast majority of other processors in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Does the GPU's ranking suggest it is a high-end part?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER has a percentile ranking of 63 against all GPUs. This places it in the upper-middle tier of graphics cards, indicating it is a capable but not top-tier GPU in the database.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a crystal-clear story about system bottlenecks as resolution scales. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces 134.9 FPS. This high frame rate is a strong indicator that the CPU is doing its job, providing enough data to the GPU to keep it busy. Moving up to 2560x1440 at the same Low settings, the frame rate drops to 94.8 FPS, a decrease of 40.1 FPS. This is a substantial drop that suggests the GPU is starting to become more of a limiting factor, though the CPU still has headroom.

The trend becomes even more pronounced at 3840x2160. At Low settings, the average FPS falls to 54.1. This is less than half the 1080p figure. The scaling pattern is typical of a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The RTX 2060 SUPER, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, is being tasked with rendering many more pixels, and its performance scales down accordingly.

This behavior is further confirmed when looking at the High settings. The frame rate drops from 76.9 FPS at 1080p to 54.6 FPS at 1440p, and then to 34.8 FPS at 4K. The relative drop from 1440p to 4K is a 36% reduction, which is in line with the massive increase in pixel count. These results confirm a classic configuration: the i5-14600KF is powerful enough to prevent the frame rate from being CPU-limited at most settings, but the RTX 2060 SUPER's performance ceiling is reached as resolution increases. The data strongly suggests that for 4K gaming, this GPU is the limiting component, while at 1080p, the system is more balanced.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of this combo's performance across twelve different scenarios. At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its best performance. With Low settings, it achieves an average of 134.9 FPS. Medium settings yield 91.7 FPS, while High settings produce 76.9 FPS. The most demanding setting, Ultra, drops the average to 60.3 FPS. This scaling shows that even at 1080p, the Ultra preset can reduce performance by more than half compared to Low.

Moving to 2560x1440, the impact of increased resolution is clear. Low settings average 94.8 FPS, which is still a very playable frame rate. Medium settings drop to 64.2 FPS, and High settings produce 54.6 FPS. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls to 39.7 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 55.1 FPS, highlighting the significant cost of the Ultra preset.

At the demanding 3840x2160 resolution, the system's limits are exposed. Low settings yield an average of 54.1 FPS. Medium settings drop to 37.9 FPS, and High settings produce 34.8 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most punishing, with an average of just 23.7 FPS. This final figure is the lowest recorded for the combo and demonstrates that 4K Ultra is not a viable option for this hardware. The data shows that the range of performance is wide, from a very smooth 134.9 FPS at 1080p Low to a stutter-prone 23.7 FPS at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the benchmark database for Rust, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is ranked 1264 out of 1717 tested combos. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the rankings, which is a crucial context for interpreting the FPS data. While the system can achieve high frame rates at lower resolutions, its overall standing is dragged down by its performance at higher settings and resolutions.

This ranking of 1264 out of 1717 means that a significant portion of the other tested systems perform better in this specific game. This is not surprising given the GPU's mid-tier status (63rd percentile) compared to the CPU's high-tier status (93rd percentile). The system's performance is likely limited by the RTX 2060 SUPER, which cannot keep pace with the CPU's capabilities in more demanding scenarios. The combo's rank suggests that while it is a capable 1080p machine, it is not competitive with higher-end configurations that include more powerful graphics cards.

The data indicates that the i5-14600KF has the potential to push much higher frame rates if paired with a stronger GPU, as its own performance metrics are excellent. However, as tested, the RTX 2060 SUPER holds the system back. The 63rd percentile of the GPU, when compared to all GPUs, indicates that it is an above-average part, but in the context of a demanding game like Rust, it is not enough to place the combo in a higher ranking. The 1264 rank is a direct consequence of the GPU's performance ceiling, particularly at 1440p and 4K resolutions where the frame rates dip below 60 FPS for most settings. This ranking serves as a clear indicator that the GPU is the primary bottleneck in this pairing.