Rust

# Rust: Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER — Measured Performance Analysis

The measured data for Rust with the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination spans four settings presets across three resolutions, providing a complete picture of how this hardware handles the survival title. The combination ranks 224th out of 1,717 tested configurations, placing it in the top 13% of all recorded hardware pairings for this game. The dataset shows a clear performance hierarchy: lower settings deliver dramatically higher frame rates, while the gap between presets widens as resolution increases, indicating a GPU-bound workload at higher pixel counts.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show that the Low preset consistently delivers the highest average frame rates at every resolution, with 251.1 FPS at 1920x1080, 173.5 FPS at 2560x1440, and 100.3 FPS at 3840x2160. These numbers represent a 44.7 FPS jump over the Medium preset at 1080p, a 59.3 FPS advantage at 1440p, and a 31.2 FPS improvement at 4K. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, Low is the only preset that pushes beyond 240 Hz at 1080p, which matters for displays with 240 Hz or higher refresh rates.

The Medium preset offers a balanced experience, delivering 170.8 FPS at 1080p, 114.2 FPS at 1440p, and 69.1 FPS at 4K. These figures suggest Medium is the most versatile choice for players targeting 144 Hz at 1440p, as the 114.2 FPS average falls short of 144 Hz but remains playable. At 4K, Medium's 69.1 FPS is the only preset besides Low that exceeds 60 FPS, making it the minimum recommended setting for 4K displays.

The High preset provides a visual upgrade over Medium but costs 29.1 FPS at 1080p (170.8 to 141.7), 18.7 FPS at 1440p (114.2 to 95.5), and 13 FPS at 4K (69.1 to 56.1). Ultra is the most demanding preset, dropping to 110 FPS at 1080p, 74.4 FPS at 1440p, and 43.4 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that High is the best compromise for visual fidelity at 1080p and 1440p, while Medium is the practical ceiling for 4K gaming on this hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. It features 36 MB of shared L3 cache and a 125 W TDP. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49,872 and a single-core score of 7,040, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 20,370 and single-core score of 3,064. The processor sits at the 97th percentile among all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 79,824 places it within 0.9% of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (79,102) and 0.7% of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (79,240).

In Rust, the CPU's influence is most visible at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p, the frame rate scales from 110 FPS at Ultra to 251.1 FPS at Low, a span of 141.1 FPS that suggests the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently even at high frame rates. The single-core performance of 7,040 in Cinebench R23 is particularly relevant for Rust's simulation-heavy gameplay, as the game's server-side and client-side logic often relies on single-threaded performance. The 24-core configuration provides ample headroom for background tasks and streaming, but the benchmark results indicate that the i9-14900K is not the limiting factor in this combination, especially at 4K where GPU load dominates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with an AD104 chip manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, with 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, while memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The card achieves a Passmark G3D score of 29,995 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4,627, placing it at the 84th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 42,576 is within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (42,723) and 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (42,653).

In Rust, the GPU's 12 GB VRAM capacity and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's texture-heavy environments, even at 4K Ultra where the average FPS drops to 43.4. The GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises: at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 141.1 FPS, but at 4K, that difference narrows to 56.9 FPS (100.3 to 43.4). This pattern indicates that at 4K, the RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary bottleneck, while at 1080p, the CPU and GPU share the load more evenly. The 2475 MHz boost clock helps maintain frame rates in GPU-bound scenarios, but the data suggests that Ultra settings at 4K exceed what this GPU can comfortably deliver.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination in Rust?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 offers the best balance, with 173.5 FPS at Low, 114.2 FPS at Medium, 95.5 FPS at High, and 74.4 FPS at Ultra. All presets except Ultra exceed 90 FPS at this resolution, while 4K only exceeds 100 FPS at Low settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals in Rust?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 42,576 is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (42,653) and 0.3% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (42,723). It outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% (41,991) and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6% (41,897).

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K a strong performer relative to other CPUs?

A: The i9-14900K ranks at the 97th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,824. It is 0.7% faster than the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79,245) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (79,240), and 0.9% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (79,102), while being 0.3% slower than the AMD EPYC 7413 (80,041).

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured data shows 141.7 FPS average at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is 31.2 FPS lower than Medium (170.8) and 31.7 FPS higher than Ultra (110).

Q: Does the RTX 4070 SUPER have enough VRAM for Rust at 4K?

A: The 12 GB GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth delivers 56.1 FPS at 4K High and 69.1 FPS at 4K Medium. The data indicates sufficient VRAM for these presets, though Ultra drops to 43.4 FPS, suggesting the GPU's compute limits rather than memory capacity are the primary constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 251.1 at 1080p to 173.5 at 1440p (a 77.6 FPS decrease, or 30.9%) and further to 100.3 at 4K (a 73.2 FPS decrease from 1440p, or 42.2%). This steep decline indicates GPU-bound behavior even at Low settings, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K while frame rate less than halves.

At High settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute values: 141.7 FPS at 1080p drops to 95.5 FPS at 1440p (a 46.2 FPS decrease) and 56.1 FPS at 4K (a 39.4 FPS decrease from 1440p). The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 60.4%, which is slightly less than the 60.1% drop at Low settings, suggesting that the CPU becomes relatively more important as settings increase, though the GPU still dominates.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 110 FPS at 1080p falls to 74.4 FPS at 1440p (35.6 FPS decrease) and 43.4 FPS at 4K (31 FPS decrease). The 1080p-to-4K drop of 60.5% is consistent with other presets, confirming that resolution scaling in Rust is predominantly GPU-limited across all settings. The data suggests that players targeting 4K should use Medium or Low, while 1440p offers the best combination of image quality and frame rate headroom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low at 251.1, Medium at 170.8, High at 141.7, and Ultra at 110. The step from Low to Medium represents a 80.3 FPS reduction, while Medium to High costs 29.1 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 31.7 FPS. The largest performance penalty occurs between Low and Medium, suggesting that the Medium preset enables significant visual features that impact GPU load.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low at 173.5, Medium at 114.2, High at 95.5, and Ultra at 74.4. The Low-to-Medium gap is 59.3 FPS, Medium-to-High is 18.7 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 21.1 FPS. Compared to 1080p, each preset loses roughly 30-35% of its frame rate, with Low dropping 77.6 FPS, Medium dropping 56.6 FPS, High dropping 46.2 FPS, and Ultra dropping 35.6 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low at 100.3, Medium at 69.1, High at 56.1, and Ultra at 43.4. The Low-to-Medium gap narrows to 31.2 FPS, Medium-to-High is 13 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 12.7 FPS. From 1440p to 4K, Low loses 73.2 FPS, Medium loses 45.1 FPS, High loses 39.4 FPS, and Ultra loses 31 FPS. The data shows that at 4K, only Low and Medium presets exceed 60 FPS, while High and Ultra fall below 60 FPS, making them less suitable for smooth gameplay on standard 60 Hz displays.