Rust

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Rust on the Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile reveals a predictable progression of performance degradation as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is highly dependent on the selected quality preset. At the Low preset, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 reduces average FPS from 145 to 100, a decline that continues to 59 at 3840x2160. This represents a 31% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 41% drop from 1440p to 4K. The Low preset’s total reduction of approximately 59% from 1080p to 4K indicates that even at minimal graphical load, the rendering pipeline is heavily influenced by pixel count.

At the High preset, the scaling behavior shifts noticeably. The average FPS falls from 82 at 1080p to 57 at 1440p and then to 33 at 4K. The percentage declines are 30% and 42% respectively, closely mirroring the Low preset’s relative drops. However, the absolute values are much lower, suggesting that the High preset introduces additional shading and texture work that consumes GPU resources before resolution scaling becomes the primary bottleneck. The Medium preset shows a similar pattern, with averages of 98, 67, and 40 at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The step from Medium to High at each resolution costs roughly 15-17 FPS, while the step from Low to Medium costs 45-47 FPS at 1080p, 33 FPS at 1440p, and 19 FPS at 4K.

The Ultra preset delivers the lowest performance across all resolutions, with averages of 63, 43, and 25 at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The relative scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 32% reduction, and from 1440p to 4K a 42% reduction. This consistency in relative scaling across all four presets—roughly 30-32% for the first step and 41-42% for the second—strongly suggests that the RTX 4060 Mobile’s memory subsystem and pixel throughput are the limiting factors. The GPU’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes increasingly stressed as resolution increases, since Rust’s large open-world environments require substantial texture and geometry data to be resident in VRAM.

The fact that the Low preset at 4K (59 FPS) still outperforms the High preset at 1440p (57 FPS) by a small margin is particularly telling. This indicates that the CPU is not the primary constraint at higher resolutions; if it were, the Low preset would not gain such a large advantage from reduced pixel workload. Instead, the data points to a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 4060 Mobile’s 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs are saturated by the increased pixel count, regardless of the complexity of the scene. The 4K Ultra result of 25 FPS is below playable thresholds, while 4K Low at 59 FPS approaches acceptable smoothness. For competitive play, the 1080p Low result of 145 FPS offers the headroom needed for high-refresh displays.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if aiming for 60 FPS or higher?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at Low settings achieves 100 FPS, while 1920x1080 at High settings reaches 82 FPS. For a strict 60 FPS baseline, 1440p Medium (67 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (63 FPS) both suffice, but 4K only reaches 60 FPS at Low (59 FPS) which is slightly below the target.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 Mobile compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 Mobile’s average benchmark score is 22729, placing it 0.7% behind the RTX 2080 (22895) and 1.3% behind the Intel Arc B580 (23021). It is 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (22549) and 1.3% ahead of the RTX 5060 Mobile (22435).

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo produces 145 FPS, which is higher than any other settings/resolution combination. The Core Ultra 7 265HX’s multithreaded score of 47985 in PassMark suggests it has ample headroom; the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent performance drop with increasing pixel count.

Q: What memory configuration does the CPU use, and does it affect gaming?

A: The Core Ultra 7 265HX supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth. The 30 MB L3 cache helps reduce memory latency in game logic, but the GPU’s 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is more critical for texture streaming in Rust.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at any resolution?

A: At 1080p, Ultra delivers 63 FPS which is playable. At 1440p, it drops to 43 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 25 FPS. The frame time data for Medium shows minimums of 83, 57, and 34 FPS at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, indicating that Ultra at 1440p would likely have minimums below 40 FPS.

Q: How does this combo’s rank in Rust compare to all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2282 out of 3723 tested combos, placing it in the lower half of the database. This is consistent with the RTX 4060 Mobile’s 67th percentile among all GPUs and the CPU’s 93rd percentile among all CPUs, suggesting the GPU is the limiting factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, fabricated on TSMC’s 3 nm process. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz provide substantial single-thread performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5737. In Rust, which relies heavily on physics calculations and entity updates across its multiplayer world, this single-thread strength is crucial. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4500 places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, indicating that it can handle the game’s simulation thread without becoming a bottleneck.

The multithreaded performance is equally robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 40642 and a PassMark multithread score of 47985. Rust’s server-side logic, including building integrity checks and resource gathering, can leverage multiple cores, but the client-side render thread is typically single-threaded. The data from the measured FPS supports this; at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 145 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this game. The fact that increasing resolution to 1440p Low reduces FPS to 100, a 31% drop, indicates that the GPU is taking over as the limiting factor beyond 1080p.

The CPU’s 30 MB L3 cache (shared) and 3 MB L2 cache per core help reduce memory latency, which is important for Rust’s frequent data access patterns. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for feeding the CPU’s 20 cores, though the GPU’s separate 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is more critical for texture streaming. In Cinebench R20, the CPU scores 17069 multi-core and 2409 single-core, while in the older R15 test it scores 4096 multi-core and 578 single-core. These scores indicate a balanced architecture that excels at both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads.

The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13790F, has an average benchmark score of 63080, which is 0.1% higher than the Core Ultra 7 265HX’s 63173. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G is 0.2% lower, the AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P185 is 0.5% higher, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX is 0.7% higher. These differences are within the margin of error, suggesting that the 265HX offers no meaningful CPU advantage over its direct competitors in Rust. The game’s performance is therefore more dependent on the GPU pairing and resolution choices than on the CPU model.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a clear hierarchy among presets. The Low preset delivers 145 FPS average, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. The Medium preset produces 98 FPS with a minimum of 83 and maximum of 112, indicating stable frame times. The High preset drops to 82 FPS, and the Ultra preset reaches 63 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 82 FPS, a 57% reduction, which demonstrates that each quality tier adds significant GPU workload at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still maintains triple-digit performance at 100 FPS. The Medium preset averages 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 77, which is a 32% decline from its 1080p counterpart. The High preset falls to 57 FPS, exactly half of the Low preset’s value at this resolution. The Ultra preset drops to 43 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold preferred by many players. The relative ordering remains consistent, but the gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 57 FPS (57% reduction), matching the 1080p percentage.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops become more dramatic. The Low preset manages 59 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46, showing significant frame time variance that could cause stutter in fast-paced combat. The High preset drops to 33 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 25 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K is 34 FPS (58% reduction), consistent with the other resolutions. However, the absolute values are all below desirable playability levels except for Low.

The Medium preset’s minimum FPS values provide insight into frame pacing. At 1080p, the minimum of 83 FPS is 85% of the average, indicating smooth performance. At 1440p, the minimum of 57 FPS is 85% of the average of 67. At 4K, the minimum of 34 FPS is 85% of the average of 40. This consistent 85% ratio suggests that the GPU’s frame rendering time scales linearly with resolution, and that there are no sudden CPU-side hitches. The maximum FPS values follow a similar pattern, with 112, 77, and 46 at each resolution respectively.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD107 chip, fabricated on TSMC’s 5 nm process. Its 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 11.61 TFLOPS. The boost clock of 1890 MHz and base clock of 1545 MHz are moderate for the mobile segment, but the GPU’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is the most likely bottleneck in Rust at higher resolutions, as the game’s large textures and draw distances require frequent VRAM access.

The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 17469 places it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable but not high-end. Its nearest rival, the RTX 2080, scores 22895 in the average benchmark, a 0.7% advantage. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is 0.8% behind, the Intel Arc B580 is 1.3% ahead, and the RTX 5060 Mobile is 1.3% behind. These rival comparisons suggest that the RTX 4060 Mobile is positioned in the mid-range tier, which aligns with its measured performance in Rust.

The GPU’s ray tracing capabilities, with 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores, are not directly tested in the measured FPS data, but they contribute to the overall feature set. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility mean that Rust’s rendering path can take advantage of modern APIs. The PassMark DirectX 12 score of 73 and DirectX 11 score of 157 indicate that the GPU handles newer APIs efficiently, though Rust’s API usage may vary.

The memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is the key differentiator when moving from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p Low, the GPU can maintain 145 FPS because the pixel count (2.07 million) is manageable. At 4K (8.29 million pixels), the same settings yield 59 FPS, a 59% reduction. This scaling closely matches the 4x increase in pixel count, confirming that the GPU’s pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints. The 48 ROPs provide a pixel rate of 90.72 GPixel/s, which at 4K limits the fill rate to roughly 11 frames per millisecond of pixel work, explaining the 25 FPS Ultra result.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user’s target frame rate and resolution. For 1080p displays, the Medium preset (98 FPS) offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The jump from Low to Medium costs 47 FPS, but the visual improvements in texture quality and shadow detail are substantial. The High preset (82 FPS) is also viable for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate, while Ultra (63 FPS) is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

At 1440p, the Low preset (100 FPS) is the only option that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The Medium preset (67 FPS) is acceptable for most players, but the minimum of 57 FPS may cause noticeable dips in busy areas. The High preset (57 FPS) is borderline, and Ultra (43 FPS) is not recommended for competitive play. For 1440p users, the data suggests that Medium is the highest preset that maintains playable performance, with Low being the choice for high-refresh monitors.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset (59 FPS) is the only setting that approaches 60 FPS, and even it falls slightly short. The Medium preset (40 FPS) is playable for slower-paced exploration but will struggle in combat. The High preset (33 FPS) and Ultra preset (25 FPS) are not recommended for any gameplay type. Given these results, 4K users should either accept Low settings or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p for a better experience.

The Medium preset’s measured frame times show a consistent 85% minimum-to-average ratio across all resolutions, indicating that it provides the most stable performance profile. This makes Medium the safest recommendation for users who want a predictable experience without the visual sacrifices of Low. For users with high-refresh monitors (120 Hz or above), the 1080p Low preset (145 FPS) is the only measured configuration that fully utilizes such displays. The 1440p Low preset (100 FPS) is suitable for 100 Hz monitors but will not saturate 144 Hz panels.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile ranks 2282 out of 3723 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the 61st percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the mid-range nature of the GPU, as the CPU is in the 93rd percentile of all processors. The disconnect between CPU and GPU performance tiers is evident in the measured FPS data; the CPU could support higher frame rates, but the RTX 4060 Mobile limits the combo to the observed values.

Among the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 4060 Mobile’s average benchmark score of 22729 is closely matched by the RTX 2080 (22895), RX 7700 XT (22549), Arc B580 (23021), and RTX 5060 Mobile (22435). The maximum delta among these rivals is just 1.3%, meaning that swapping to any of these GPUs would likely produce nearly identical Rust performance. The combo’s rank is therefore more dependent on the CPU pairing than on the GPU choice, though the CPU’s rivals are equally close in performance.

The CPU’s rivals show even smaller deltas: the Core i7-13790F is 0.1% higher, the Ryzen AI 7 450G is 0.2% lower, the Ryzen AI Embedded P185 is 0.5% higher, and the Core Ultra 7 255HX is 0.7% higher. This tight clustering suggests that the combo’s rank of 2282 is representative of a broad set of mid-range configurations, and that users with similar hardware would see comparable results. The 3723 total combos include many high-end desktop systems with RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 GPUs, which explains why this mobile combo sits in the lower half.

The data indicates that this combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Rust, with acceptable performance at 4K only on Low settings. The GPU’s 67th percentile ranking and the CPU’s 93rd percentile ranking create an imbalance where the CPU is underutilized at higher resolutions. For users considering upgrades, the measured data suggests that replacing the RTX 4060 Mobile with a higher-tier GPU would yield the most significant FPS improvements, while the CPU would not need replacement for several generations.