Rust

The benchmark data for Rust, paired with the Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 570, reveals a system where the GPU is the definitive constraint across all tested configurations. The measured frames per second (FPS) across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions indicate that while the CPU is exceptionally capable, the graphics card determines the playability ceiling for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear hierarchy of performance across the four tested presets, with the choice of settings being a direct trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 67.9 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset to exceed the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay. This is a substantial lead over the next fastest setting at that resolution; the Medium preset achieves 47.1 FPS, which is 44% slower than Low. The High preset at 1080p produces 40.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 26.9 FPS, representing a 60% reduction compared to the Low preset.

For users prioritizing a responsive experience, the Low preset at 1080p is the only viable option based on the data. The step from Low to Medium at 1080p incurs a significant performance penalty of 20.8 FPS, suggesting that the graphical enhancements between these presets are costly for the RX 570. The High preset offers a marginal improvement over Medium in terms of visual quality but only delivers 40.9 FPS, which is below the 48.7 FPS seen at Medium in 1440p. This indicates that resolution scaling can sometimes be a more efficient way to utilize the hardware than increasing the preset level. Given the data, the Low preset is the recommended starting point for any playable frame rate, with Medium being a compromise only if the user accepts a sub-60 FPS experience. The Ultra preset is not recommended for active play, as its highest average FPS across all resolutions is 26.9, which is on par with the worst-case 4K results.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration. The data shows that the GPU's performance, as measured by its average benchmark score of 30158, places it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, have average scores that are nearly identical, with deltaPct values of 0.2% and 0.2% respectively. This indicates that the RX 570's raw compute capability is on par with those modern cards in synthetic benchmarks, yet its memory configuration and age limit its real-world gaming performance.

The GPU features a 4 GB GDDR5 memory pool on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, with an effective data rate of 7 Gbps. The 4 GB frame buffer is a critical limitation in Rust, which is a game known for heavy texture streaming and asset loading. The measured FPS drops are consistent with a card running out of memory or memory bandwidth, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The core clocks are set at a base of 1168 MHz with a boost clock of 1244 MHz, and the card's 150 W TDP suggests it is a modestly powered part. The data indicates that the GPU's shading units (2048) and texture mapping units (128) are insufficient to handle the load at higher presets, as the frame rate collapses from 67.9 FPS at 1080p Low to 9.6 FPS at 4K Ultra, a 86% reduction in performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions provides a clear picture of the system's scaling behavior and confirms the GPU-bound nature of the benchmark. At the Low preset, the average FPS falls from 67.9 at 1920x1080 to 48.7 at 2560x1440, a 28% drop. Continuing to 3840x2160, the average FPS further drops to 27.2, which is a 44% decrease from the 1440p result and a 60% decrease from the 1080p result. This steep decline with each resolution step is characteristic of a system where the GPU is saturated.

At the High preset, the scaling is similar but starts from a lower base. The average FPS goes from 40.9 at 1080p to 26.6 at 1440p, a 35% reduction. At 4K, the High preset yields only 15.1 FPS, which is a 43% drop from the 1440p figure. The Medium preset follows the same pattern, with 47.1 FPS at 1080p falling to 29.3 FPS at 1440p (a 38% drop) and then to 17.0 FPS at 4K (a 42% drop). The data shows that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is significant, but the jump to 4K is catastrophic for playability. The fact that the 1080p Medium result (47.1 FPS) is comparable to the 1440p Low result (48.7 FPS) suggests that the game engine is scaling the rendering load almost linearly with pixel count, with the RX 570's fixed computational resources being the limiting factor. The CPU's role is minimal in this scaling, as its high single-thread performance (a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040) is more than adequate to feed the GPU at these frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this hardware combination?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 67.9 FPS, which is achieved at the 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. No other combination in the dataset exceeds this value.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 67.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset delivers 26.9 FPS. This means the Low preset is approximately 2.5 times faster than Ultra at that resolution.

Q: Is the system capable of maintaining a 60 FPS experience at 1440p?

A: No. The data shows that no settings preset at 2560x1440 reaches an average of 60 FPS. The highest average at this resolution is 48.7 FPS, which is achieved with the Low preset.

Q: Which component is the limiting factor for performance in Rust?

A: The data indicates the AMD Radeon RX 570 GPU is the primary bottleneck. The frame rates decrease dramatically as resolution and settings increase, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation. The Intel Core i9-14900K, with its high benchmark scores, is not the constraint.

Q: How does the RX 570's performance compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158. Its nearest rivals, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, have average scores of 30109 and 30097, respectively. The RX 570 is slightly ahead of the RTX 5060 by 0.2% and ahead of the RX 7700 XT by 0.2%.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Medium and High presets at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset achieves an average of 17.0 FPS, while the High preset achieves 15.1 FPS. The difference is 1.9 FPS, indicating that the GPU is so heavily saturated at this resolution that the preset choice has a minimal impact on the final frame rate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a high-end desktop processor with 24 cores and 32 threads, capable of boosting up to 6.00 GHz from a base clock of 3.20 GHz. Its benchmark results place it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79824. This places it in a statistical tie with its closest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7413 (deltaPct of -0.3%) and the Intel Core i9-14900KF (deltaPct of 0.7%). The processor's single-core performance is exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3064, which are critical for game logic and physics in Rust.

In this specific game benchmark, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data. The measured FPS results show that even at the lowest settings and resolution, the frame rate is limited by the GPU, not the CPU. For instance, at 1080p Low, the 67.9 FPS average is far below what the i9-14900K is capable of supporting in other scenarios. The CPU's high multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872, is also not a factor here, as Rust's core usage is not the bottleneck. The data shows that the combination of this CPU and GPU results in a system where the CPU is effectively idle, with the RX 570 working at 100% capacity to produce the measured frame rates. Even with a less powerful CPU, the frame rates in this dataset would likely be identical, confirming that the i9-14900K is not the limiting component in this pairing.