Rust

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a 6-core, 6-thread Coffee Lake processor from 2018 combined with an Ampere-generation GPU from 2020. In Rust, this combination produces a wide spread of frame rates that depend heavily on both resolution and quality preset, with the data showing a clear pattern of GPU-bound behavior at demanding settings and CPU influence at lower loads.

FAQ

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its closest rival in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti's average benchmark score is 25120, which places it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180) and 0.5% behind both the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (25235) and AMD Radeon 890M (25246). It sits 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (25287).

Q: What is the CPU's standing relative to all tested processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile among all CPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 2305 is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299), while being 0.4% ahead of the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295). It trails the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319) by 0.6%.

Q: What is the best measured performance this combo achieves in Rust?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 137.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Medium settings yield 91.7 FPS, High yields 81.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 56.7 FPS.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have and what is its bandwidth?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective data rate.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all graphics cards?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti achieves a 69th percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score is 25120, and it has a PassMark G3D score of 20349 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2626.

Q: Does the combo's overall ranking in Rust suggest it is a top-tier performer?

A: No. The combination ranks 1208th out of 1717 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the lower third of all measured pairings. This indicates that while the components are individually capable, this specific pairing is not among the strongest for this particular game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1208 out of 1717 tested combinations in Rust places it in the 70th percentile position from the bottom, meaning roughly 70% of other CPU-GPU pairings tested in this game deliver higher frame rates. This is a notable result given that the GPU alone ranks at the 69th percentile among all graphics cards and the CPU sits at the 50th percentile among all processors.

The ranking gap between component-level percentiles and in-game performance suggests that Rust's engine and workload characteristics may not fully leverage the strengths of this pairing. The i5-9400's six cores and six threads with a 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clock may be a limiting factor in a game that is known for heavy single-thread and physics simulation demands, even when paired with a GPU that has 4864 shading units and 152 TMUs. The data indicates that the combo performs as a mid-to-lower-tier option for Rust, despite the RTX 3060 Ti's strong standalone benchmark scores like the 109075 Geekbench OpenCL result and the 107543 Vulkan score.

GPU Role

The RTX 3060 Ti brings substantial graphics horsepower to this pairing. Its GA104 chip, built on an 8 nm Samsung process, packs 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, delivering an FP32 throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS. With 80 ROPs and a pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s, the card is well-equipped for high-resolution rasterization.

The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a critical factor in Rust's performance at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo manages only 26.5 FPS, which suggests the memory subsystem and compute resources are being heavily taxed. Dropping to Low settings at the same resolution improves frame rates to 54.6 FPS, a 106% improvement that highlights how much of the GPU's resources are consumed by the game's visual effects and draw distances at higher presets. The GPU's 152 tensor cores and 38 RT cores are present but Rust does not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS in this measured data, so the traditional rasterization pipeline via the 4864 shading units carries the workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 137.2 FPS, which is the only preset that breaks the 100 FPS barrier. Medium settings yield 91.7 FPS, High settings produce 81.2 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 56.7 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 45.5 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 10.5 FPS, and High to Ultra costs another 24.5 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces disproportionately heavy rendering demands.

Moving to 2560x1440, all frame rates drop. Low settings average 94.7 FPS, which remains playable, but Medium falls to 63.1 FPS, High to 56.5 FPS, and Ultra to 40 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at this resolution is 31.6 FPS, and the difference between Medium and High is just 6.6 FPS. The Ultra preset at 40 FPS reveals a significant performance cliff relative to the 56.7 FPS at 1080p Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Low settings average 54.6 FPS, Medium 37.9 FPS, High 34.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 26.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 28.1 FPS at 4K, narrower than the 80.5 FPS spread at 1080p, indicating that at 4K the GPU is saturated even at Low settings. The minimum frame rates are not recorded in the data, but the averages show that only the 1080p Low preset provides a high-refresh-rate experience.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the relationship between resolution and the limiting component. At Low settings, the combo drops from 137.2 FPS at 1080p to 94.7 FPS at 1440p (a 31% reduction) and then to 54.6 FPS at 4K (another 42% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 60.2%, demonstrating that even at the lowest visual quality, the additional pixel count heavily impacts performance.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is steeper in absolute terms but similar in relative terms. The combo produces 56.7 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p (a 29.5% drop), and 26.5 FPS at 4K (a 33.8% drop from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 53.3%. The fact that the relative drops are similar across all presets indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti is the primary bottleneck at every resolution, as the CPU's six threads with 9 MB of shared L3 cache are not being pushed to their limit by the frame rates observed.

However, the absolute frame rates tell a different story. At 1080p Low, 137.2 FPS approaches the point where a 6-core, 6-thread processor might begin to constrain the GPU. The i5-9400's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 7969 and single-core score of 1125 place it in the mid-range, and Rust's simulation-heavy nature likely means that the CPU is contributing to the performance ceiling at lower resolutions and settings. At 4K, where the GPU is clearly saturated, the CPU has more headroom, as evidenced by the smaller percentage drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra compared to the drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low. The data suggests that users targeting 1440p or 4K should prioritize GPU settings, while 1080p gamers may find the CPU limiting at the highest refresh rates.