Rust

# FAQ

Q: What is the comboRankInGame for this CPU/GPU pairing in Rust?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800M ranks 1958 out of 2953 tested combos in Rust, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database.

Q: How much VRAM does the RX 7800M have, and what type is it?

A: The GPU comes with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What is the boost clock of the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H?

A: The CPU has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with 16 cores and 22 threads.

Q: What are the measured FPS results at 1080p with Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 140 FPS, which is the highest measured average across all tested configurations.

Q: How does the RX 7800M compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20?

A: The RX 7800M has an average benchmark score of 27883, which is 0.2% higher than the Radeon Pro Vega 20's score of 27839, making them statistically near-identical.

Q: What is the process node for both the CPU and GPU?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is built on Intel's 7 nm process, while the AMD Radeon RX 7800M uses TSMC's 5 nm process.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800M is the primary graphics driver in this combo, and its specifications directly shape Rust's performance across the tested resolutions. The GPU is built on the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, featuring 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines. It also includes 60 ray tracing cores, which, while not heavily utilized in Rust's typical gameplay, contribute to its DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) feature set.

The memory subsystem is particularly relevant for Rust, a game known for large, persistent worlds and frequent asset streaming. With 12 GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 192-bit bus, the GPU delivers 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is ample for the game's texture and geometry data at 1080p and 1440p, and it remains sufficient at 4K, though the compute load becomes more demanding there. The memory clock runs at 2250 MHz, translating to 18 Gbps effective, which helps maintain consistent frame pacing in complex scenes with many player-built structures.

Clock speeds also play a role. The GPU's base clock is 1295 MHz, with a game clock of 2145 MHz and a boost clock of 2335 MHz. The boost behavior is what allows the card to reach higher frame rates in less demanding scenes, while the sustained game clock ensures stability during prolonged sessions. The pixel rate is 224.2 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 560.4 GTexel/s, meaning the card can fill and shade pixels quickly when settings are lowered.

In Rust specifically, the data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and quality presets. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 25, which is a clear sign that the RX 7800M is saturated. Conversely, at 1080p Low, the average hits 140 FPS, indicating that the GPU has headroom when the workload is reduced. The GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs is 73, and its average benchmark score is 27883, with nearest rivals including the Radeon Pro Vega 20 (0.2% faster), Radeon Pro W5500X (0.3% slower), and GeForce GTX 980 Ti (0.5% slower). This places it in a competitive mid-range tier, adequate for smooth 1080p and playable 1440p in Rust.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases, which highlights where the bottleneck lies. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo averages 140 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low drops that to 96 FPS, a reduction of 44 FPS (about 31% lower). At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 57 FPS, which is 59% below the 1080p Low result. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, as the CPU has fewer instructions per frame to process relative to the pixel count.

The trend persists across all settings. For High settings, the averages are 79 FPS at 1080p, 55 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are similar: 30% from 1080p to 1440p, and 42% from 1440p to 4K. Medium settings follow the same pattern: 94 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings show the most dramatic falloff, from 60 FPS at 1080p to 42 FPS at 1440p (30% drop), and then to 25 FPS at 4K (40% drop from 1440p).

These numbers suggest that Rust is heavily GPU-bound at 4K, especially on higher presets. The 12 GB VRAM and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient, but the compute throughput (35.87 TFLOPS FP32) is not enough to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra, where 25 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p, the combo is more balanced: even at Ultra, 42 FPS is borderline but playable, while High and Medium (55 and 65 FPS) are comfortable. The 1080p results show that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, as the frame rates scale nearly linearly with resolution when the settings are lowered.

The data indicates that for Rust, this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming with high refresh rates, or 1440p with moderate settings. The 4K results, particularly at Ultra, are below the 30 FPS threshold, making them only suitable for slow-paced exploration rather than competitive play.

# How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 1958 out of 2953 places this pairing in the 66th percentile of all tested combinations in Rust, meaning roughly one-third of combos perform worse. This is a modest ranking, reflecting that while the RX 7800M is a competent GPU, it is not top-tier, and the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, while powerful, is not the absolute fastest mobile CPU.

In the context of Rust's performance, the ranking is influenced by the game's CPU-heavy nature in certain scenarios, such as large bases or high player counts, where the 16-core, 22-thread CPU can help. However, the GPU's mid-range position (73rd percentile among all GPUs) holds the combo back from higher rankings. The nearest CPU rivals show a tight cluster: the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 is just 0.1% faster, the Intel Core 7 250H is 0.2% faster, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 is 0.4% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is 0.7% faster. These small deltas mean that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would have negligible impact on Rust's frame rates, reinforcing that the GPU is the dominant factor in this game.

The GPU's nearest rivals similarly show close scores: the Radeon Pro Vega 20 is 0.2% faster, the Radeon Pro W5500X is 0.3% slower, and the GeForce GTX 980 Ti is 0.5% slower. This suggests that the RX 7800M is positioned in a performance tier where small differences in driver optimization or thermal headroom could shift the ranking. The combo's overall rank of 1958 is thus a reflection of the GPU's mid-pack performance, with the CPU providing adequate support but not improving the combo into the top quartile.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a Meteor Lake architecture processor with 16 cores and 22 threads, running at a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It has a 45 W TDP, which is typical for a high-end mobile chip, and is built on Intel's 7 nm process. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3, which helps with data locality in CPU-intensive tasks.

In Rust, the CPU's role is significant for game logic, physics, and entity updates, especially on servers with many players and structures. The multi-threaded performance is strong, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 11657. The single-thread performance, while lower, is still respectable with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1810.5 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1794. This balance allows the CPU to handle both the main game thread (which is typically single-threaded) and background tasks (which benefit from multi-threading).

The boost clock of 5.10 GHz is crucial for the primary game thread, as Rust's simulation often bottlenecks on a single core. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (140 FPS) suggests that the CPU can sustain high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor. However, at higher resolutions, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, and the CPU's contribution becomes less visible in the FPS numbers.

The CPU's percentile ranking among all CPUs is 85, indicating it is in the top 15% of processors. Its average benchmark score is 35670, with the nearest rivals being within 0.7% of each other. This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, the Core Ultra 9 185H will perform nearly identically to its closest competitors, such as the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 or the Ryzen 7 7700X. For Rust, this means that the CPU is unlikely to be the reason for low FPS; instead, the GPU's mid-range performance will determine the final frame rates.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four quality settings. Here is the exact breakdown:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 140 FPS (no min/max reported)
• Medium: Average 94 FPS, with min 80 FPS and max 108 FPS
• High: Average 79 FPS (no min/max reported)
• Ultra: Average 60 FPS (no min/max reported)

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 96 FPS (no min/max reported)
• Medium: Average 65 FPS, with min 55 FPS and max 74 FPS
• High: Average 55 FPS (no min/max reported)
• Ultra: Average 42 FPS (no min/max reported)

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 57 FPS (no min/max reported)
• Medium: Average 38 FPS, with min 32 FPS and max 44 FPS
• High: Average 32 FPS (no min/max reported)
• Ultra: Average 25 FPS (no min/max reported)

The Medium settings at each resolution are the only ones with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, providing a sense of frame time variance. At 1080p Medium, the range is 80 to 108 FPS, which is a 28 FPS spread, indicating some inconsistency but generally smooth gameplay. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 55 to 74 FPS (19 FPS spread), showing more stability. At 4K Medium, the range is 32 to 44 FPS (12 FPS spread), which is tight but at a low average.

The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent performance cost. At 1080p, the drop from Low to Ultra is 80 FPS (140 to 60), a 57% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is 54 FPS (96 to 42), a 56% reduction. At 4K, the drop is 32 FPS (57 to 25), a 56% reduction. This consistency suggests that the quality settings impose a similar relative cost regardless of resolution, though the absolute FPS at 4K makes Ultra impractical.

For players targeting 60 FPS, the combo achieves this at 1080p on all settings (Low 140, Medium 94, High 79, Ultra 60). At 1440p, only Low (96 FPS) and Medium (65 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, while High falls short at 55 FPS. At 4K, no setting reaches 60 FPS, with Low being the only playable option at 57 FPS. These numbers indicate that the RX 7800M is best used at 1080p for high refresh rates or 1440p for balanced visuals, with 4K reserved for less demanding titles or lower presets.