Rust

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a highly playable Rust experience across most resolutions, but the settings preset you choose dramatically alters the outcome. The measured data shows that the Low preset is the clear winner for maximizing frame rate, pushing the combo to 139.9 FPS at 1080p, 115.6 FPS at 1440p, and 64.4 FPS at 4K. While the Medium preset offers a solid middle ground with 111 FPS at 1080p and 77.7 FPS at 1440p, the jump to High and Ultra introduces significant performance penalties that make them less appealing for competitive play, especially at higher resolutions. For the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot, as it maintains a high frame rate while avoiding the steep drop-off seen in the High preset.

Settings Recommendations

The data indicates a clear hierarchy in performance scaling across presets. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 139.9 FPS, which is 28.9 frames higher than Medium’s 111 FPS. This gap widens as resolution increases, with Low at 115.6 FPS at 1440p versus Medium’s 77.7 FPS. The High preset is particularly punishing, delivering only 96.9 FPS at 1080p and dropping to 67.8 FPS at 1440p. Ultra is the most demanding, yielding just 71.4 FPS at 1080p and 46.4 FPS at 1440p.

For players prioritizing frame rate above all else, the Low preset is the only choice that guarantees a consistently high refresh rate experience, especially since it is the only preset that manages to exceed 60 FPS at 4K with 64.4 FPS. However, the Medium preset offers a more balanced experience, providing a 44.2 FPS average at 4K, which is still playable for a survival title. The High preset’s 39 FPS at 4K and 67.8 FPS at 1440p suggest it is best avoided unless visual quality is paramount and the user can tolerate sub-60 FPS performance. The Ultra preset, with 30.2 FPS at 4K, is essentially unplayable for anything but static screenshots. The recommendation is to start with Medium at 1440p or 1080p, and only drop to Low if chasing maximum frame rates for competitive engagements.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is a substantial piece of hardware, featuring 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 2321 MHz and boost clock of 2581 MHz, with a game clock of 2424 MHz, provide the raw compute power needed for Rust’s demanding rendering. The GPU’s 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs are directly responsible for the pixel throughput, and its 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is a strong indicator of its rasterization capability.

The data shows that the GPU is heavily taxed at higher settings and resolutions. The transition from Low to Ultra at 1080p results in a 68.5 FPS drop (from 139.9 to 71.4), which is a 49% performance reduction. This suggests that the RX 6700 XT is capable of handling the game’s geometry and textures, but the Ultra preset’s additional effects, such as ambient occlusion and shadows, place a significant load on the GPU. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as even the Low preset only manages 64.4 FPS, indicating that the 12 GB frame buffer is sufficient, but the computational load at that resolution overwhelms the card’s shader units. The GPU’s percentile rank of 77 versus all GPUs indicates it is a strong performer, but Rust’s engine can still saturate it at maximum settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for the highest frame rate at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves the highest average FPS at 1080p with 139.9 FPS, significantly outperforming Medium’s 111 FPS and High’s 96.9 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Rust?

A: Yes, but only at the Low preset, which yields 64.4 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 44.2 FPS, and High and Ultra fall to 39 FPS and 30.2 FPS respectively, making them less viable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 6700 XT’s memory configuration affect performance?

A: The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for Rust’s textures, but the data shows that the GPU’s compute units are the limiting factor at higher settings, not the memory capacity.

Q: What is the performance difference between the High and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: The High preset delivers 67.8 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 46.4 FPS, a difference of 21.4 frames, indicating that Ultra’s additional effects are highly demanding.

Q: Is the i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RX 6700 XT in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, but at 1080p with Low settings, the CPU’s 6 cores and 6 threads may be challenged, as the frame rate ceiling appears capped around 140 FPS.

Q: What does the combo’s rank of 975 out of 1717 combos imply?

A: It places this pairing in the middle of the pack, suggesting that while it is capable, many other CPU-GPU combinations offer higher performance in Rust.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset leads with 139.9 FPS, followed by Medium at 111 FPS, High at 96.9 FPS, and Ultra at 71.4 FPS. This shows a consistent degradation of 25-40 FPS per preset step, with the largest drop occurring between Medium and Low.

At 2560x1440, the ranking remains the same but the margins tighten. Low achieves 115.6 FPS, Medium 77.7 FPS, High 67.8 FPS, and Ultra 46.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium widens to 37.9 FPS, indicating that the higher resolution amplifies the cost of quality settings. The drop from High to Ultra is 21.4 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 1080p difference.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes challenging for all presets. Low still leads with 64.4 FPS, but Medium falls to 44.2 FPS, High to 39 FPS, and Ultra to 30.2 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 20.2 FPS, and the difference between High and Ultra is 8.8 FPS, showing that the GPU is nearing its limits. The data confirms that 4K gaming is only practical on the Low preset, and even then, it barely clears the 60 FPS threshold.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the GPU is stressed by pixel count. At Low settings, the drop from 139.9 FPS at 1080p to 115.6 FPS at 1440p is a 17.4% reduction, and further to 64.4 FPS at 4K is a 54% reduction from 1080p. This suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and shading units are the limiting factor, as the 12 GB frame buffer does not appear to be exhausted.

At Medium settings, the scaling is steeper: 111 FPS at 1080p falls to 77.7 FPS at 1440p (30% drop) and then to 44.2 FPS at 4K (60% drop). High settings show a similar pattern, with 96.9 FPS at 1080p dropping to 67.8 FPS at 1440p (30% drop) and 39 FPS at 4K (60% drop). Ultra is the most resolution-sensitive, with 71.4 FPS at 1080p dropping to 46.4 FPS at 1440p (35% drop) and 30.2 FPS at 4K (58% drop).

The consistent 30-35% performance penalty from 1080p to 1440p across all settings indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU’s workload does not scale with resolution. The larger drop from 1440p to 4K, which ranges from 44% to 57%, reinforces that the RX 6700 XT is near its limits at 4K, with the core count and clock speeds of the GPU being the decisive factors.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but the CPU’s benchmark scores, such as 7969 in Cinebench R23 multicore, place it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs.

In Rust, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, world simulation, and draw calls. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the frame rate reaches 139.9 FPS, which is likely close to the CPU’s limit for this game, given its 6 threads. The drop to 115.6 FPS at 1440p Low suggests that the GPU is still capable, but the CPU is not the primary constraint at higher resolutions. However, at 1080p with Ultra settings, the frame rate falls to 71.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is now the bottleneck, as the CPU’s workload does not increase with visual quality. The i5-9400’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305 with a 0.2% higher avg score, show that this CPU is competitive with newer budget parts, but its lack of multi-threading may limit performance in CPU-intensive scenarios like large player bases or complex builds.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks 975 out of 1717 tested combinations in Rust, placing it in the 57th percentile of all tested systems. This mid-tier ranking is consistent with the CPU’s 50th percentile standing and the GPU’s 77th percentile standing, indicating that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing. The rank suggests that while this combo delivers solid performance, there are many other configurations that offer higher frame rates, particularly those with newer CPUs that have more cores or higher clock speeds.

The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6800 with a 0.7% higher avg score, show that the RX 6700 XT is closely matched with a higher-tier card, but the CPU’s rivals, including the Intel Core i7-8809G with a -0.6% delta, indicate that the i5-9400 is slightly below some competitors. In Rust, the combo’s rank implies that players seeking maximum performance would benefit from a CPU upgrade, as the GPU is capable of driving higher frame rates at 1080p, but the CPU’s 6 threads may limit the upper ceiling in demanding scenes. Overall, this pairing is a balanced mid-range solution that excels at 1440p with Medium settings, but it does not break into the top tier of performance rankings.