Rust is among the most popular Steam games with ~100K concurrent players. Despite being in its 10th year, the game has received 375 content updates, with a guaranteed content patch every month, with no signs of slowing down. Following recent graphical updates, Rust features cutting-edge visual detail with over a dozen options to tweak quality/performance. Here’s our dedicated performance optimization guide for Rust (2024).
Windows/System Settings to Optimize
- Enable Resizable BAR.
- Turn on Game Mode.
- Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) and Windowed Optimizations.
- Use the Windows “High Performance” power profile and set your GPU power management mode to the same.
- Overclock your GPU if you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark.
- Ensure you use the proper XMP/EXPO memory profile (if available).
- Here’s a guide with more detailed instructions.
Rust PC System Requirements
Rust requires a Core i7-3770 (quad-core Ivy Bridge) or an AMD FX-9590 (the last Bulldozer) alongside a GTX 1050 and 10 GB of system memory to run at the lowest setting, targeting 30 FPS.
For 1080p 60 FPS using the High/Very High setting, you’ll need a Core i7 or a Ryzen 5 2600 paired with a GeForce RTX 3060 or a Radeon RX 570. The memory requirement runs up to 16 GB with 35 GB of SSD storage.
Test Bench
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.
- Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360 AIO.
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4070 FE.
- Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E Carbon WiFi.
- Memory: 8 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.
Rust Resolution Scaling & Graphics Presets
Rust scales remarkably well with resolution, averaging 55 FPS at 4K, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 1080p using the “Ultra” quality preset. A 2.3x performance delta between the HD and UHD implies that the game is GPU-bound with few CPU bottlenecks.
Unfortunately, the performance doesn’t scale much with the graphics preset. This is because the settings mostly change the LOD of different visual aspects, including shadows, grass, trees, shaders, etc. That said, the framerates vary wildly depending on your location.
For example, a dense forest will significantly load your GPU, while beaches and shorelines will be much more forgiving. Daytime is also more performant than night when lighting becomes more complex.
Shadow Quality, Cascades, and Range
Rust features five different graphics settings to tweak the quality, draw distance, cascades, and density of in-game shadows. The simplest is “Shadow Quality” which controls the resolution of the shadow maps. Higher options produce more detailed shadows while the lower options make them blurry and less defined. The highest setting is 6-7% slower than the lowest.
Shadow cascades are used to divide a large map into different zones per the proximity to the player. The nearest maps will be the most detailed, gradually decreasing in quality as the distance increases. Generally, more cascades are better as they lead to a smooth transition between the various quality maps. The highest “4” value is 7-8% slower than the lowest “0.”
Shadow Lights sets the number of (light) casting sources that can simultaneously cast shadows onscreen. This setting is mainly relevant at night, not affecting performance or quality during daytime. The highest setting “3” is 7% slower than the lowest “0.”
Shadow distance affects the distance at which shadow maps lose detail or are completely culled from the scene. It has a 7-8% impact on framerates, and anything close to or higher than 500 is decent.
Rust has a separate setting to disable grass shadows, and I’d advise against it no matter the scenario. It makes the scene flat and lifeless for a 6% FPS gain. Grass displacement doesn’t have a notable impact on performance.
Water Quality and Reflections
Water quality sets the detail and complexity of water waves and light displacement (underwater). It has a surprisingly high-performance impact close to water bodies, with a dip of 14.5% at the highest “3” quality setting.
Water reflections enable screen space reflections (SSR) for water bodies. The lowest setting “0” completely disables them while the “1” and “2” set it to medium and high-quality. The high-quality “2” setting can be up to 10% slower than off “0.”
Draw Distance (LOD) and Shader Quality
Draw distance sets the distance at which objects are culled from view, primarily trees, grass, and concrete structures. It reduces performance by nearly 20% at the highest value (2500). We recommend setting it to 1000 or above for the best experience.
Shader quality adjusts the detail of the ground, including green patches, sand, wood, and concrete slabs. Despite drastically affecting the visual fidelity, it only reduces framerates by 4-5% at the highest setting “600.”
Particle and Object Quality
Particle quality adjusts the visual fidelity of particle effects, including smoke, embers, fire, and explosions. The highest value “100” is 6-7% slower than the lowest. This setting affects the realism of fire and its associated effects.
Object quality adjusts the detail of player-made structures, wooden canisters, and other metallic objects. It has a nominal impact on framerates, with the mid-values producing similar performance as the lowest.
Tree Meshes and Grass Quality
Tree quality sets the geometric or polygon detail of tree trunks and branches, getting more detailed at higher values. This can significantly reduce your performance in densely forested areas, with FPS dropping by over 35%. The apparent impact on quality is less pronounced than expected.
Maximum tree meshes set the amount of trees that get the higher quality meshes in the area surrounding the player. It can reduce framerates by 15-20% without having a notable impact on the image quality.
Grass quality adjusts the distance at which grass meshes/textures get culled in detail. It mostly affects the lows, reducing them by roughly 10% at the higher quality values. We recommend maxing this out on most PCs.
Terrain Quality and Decor
Terrain quality is used to adjust the geometric detail of the ground, primarily by employing tesselation. It has a limited impact on visuals while reducing FPS by up to 10% at the highest setting “100.”
Decor sets the quality of certain player craftables. Strangely, its impact on performance and quality is negligible.
Parallax Mapping
Parallax mapping is a technique that adds depth to textures without increasing the polygon count. It involves modifying textures in such a way that it gives the illusion of depth. It doesn’t reduce FPS by a notable degree.
Ambient Occlusion and Texture Filtering
Ambient occlusion is among the basics of computer graphics, and a must in most games. It makes the scene look “3D” by adding shadows to corners, crevices, and edges. It reduces performance by nearly 10% and is almost always best left enabled.
Texture filtering or anisotropic filtering is another fundamental of video game graphics. It makes textures opposite to the screen look crisp and detailed by continuously sampling texture maps. It has a modest 6-7% impact on performance.
Bloom, Occlusion Culling, Contact Shadows, and Sun Shafts
- Bloom makes the scene lifelike by making luminous objects “bleed” their color into the surroundings.
- Sunshafts enable godrays or volumetric lighting that bends around tree branches and concrete structures.
- Occlusion culling omits the rendering of objects hidden behind a wall, cliff, or floor.
- All the above effects have a nominal impact on performance.
Contact shadows improve shadow quality by producing fuller shadows that are more grounded. Unfortunately, it reduces framerates by 8-10% for a subtle visual upgrade.
Global Rendering (Long Distance LOD)
Global rendering enables the rendering of objects far away from the player. This affects CPU usage, and FPS lows, rendering the geometric detail in the distance. In certain scenarios (along the coastline), global rendering can reduce the frametime lows by up to 14%.
Varying the render distance (from 500 to 1500) doesn’t have a noteworthy effect on lows.
Anti-aliasing and Upscaling (DLSS)
Rust offers three anti-aliasing options and NVIDIA DLSS (upscaling). TSSAA (temporal supersampling) produces the best quality, smoothening edges, and complex geometry, while FXAA can be useful at lower resolutions. SMAA misses transparent textures, especially grass and vegetation, both quite abundant in the game.
DLSS is a superior alternative for NVIDIA RTX users, improving framerates by over 50% without negatively affecting visual quality and detail. The lack of FSR support is unfortunate, as it boosts performance for AMD and mobile iGPU gamers.
Rust VRAM Usage
Rust uses close to 12 GB of graphics memory at 1440p “Ultra,” settling at 9.4 GB at “Very High,” 6 GB at “High” and 4.3 GB at “Low.”
Scaling the resolution to 4K increases the VRAM consumption to 14 GB while reducing it to 1080p cuts it down to 9.5 GB.
Rust CPU Bottlenecks
Rust is well-optimized for modern CPUs, running GPU-bound in almost all scenarios. Even at the “Potato” preset (1440p), the game exhibits a GPU-Busy deviation of 3%, increasing to 7% at 1080p.
Best Graphics Settings for Rust in 2024
| Optimized Settings | High-end PC | Mid-Range PC | Low-end PC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4K (3840 × 2160) | 1440p (2560 x 1440) | 1080p (1920 x 1080) |
| Target FPS | 144 FPS | 144 FPS | 120 FPS |
| Shadow Quality | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Shadow Cascades | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Shadow Lights | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Shadow Distance | 1000 | 750 | 750 |
| Grass Shadows | On | On | On |
| Water Quality | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Water Reflections | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Draw Distance | 2500 | 1500 | 500 |
| Shader Quality | 600 | 600 | 200-400 |
| Particle Quality | 100 | 100 | 0-50 |
| Object Quality | 200 | 200 | 100 |
| Tree Quality | 100 | 50-100 | 0 |
| Max Tree Meshes | 100 | 50 | 0 |
| Terrain Detail | 100 | 50-100 | 50 |
| Decor Detail | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Ambient Occlusion | On | On | On |
| Texture Filtering | 16x AF | 16x AF | 16x AF |
| Contact Shadows | Off | Off | Off |
| Global Rendering | On | On | On |
| Global Rendering Distance | 1500 | 1500 | 1500 |
| Upscaling/Anti-aliasing | DLSS Performance | DLSS Balanced/Performance | DLSS Balanced/Quality |
Grass displacement, bloom, sun shafts, and occlusion culling don’t notably impact performance and are left to personal preference.
| High-end (4K) | Mid-range (1440p) | Low-end (1080p) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Core i9-12900K/Ryzen 7 7700X | Core i5-12400/Ryzen 5 5600 | Less than: Core i5-11400/Ryzen 5 3600 |
| GPU | RTX 4070 Ti Super/RX 7900 XT | RTX 4070/RX 7800 XT | RTX 3060/RTX 3060 Ti/RX 6600 |
| Memory | 32GB (dual-channel) | 16GB (dual-channel) | Less than: 16GB (dual-channel) |
Best Graphics Settings for Rust: Low-end PC (2024)
Here’s our add-on guide for budget and low-end PCs.
| Optimized Settings | RTX 3060 | RTX 4060 | RX 6600 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 1080p/1440p | 1080p/1440p | 1080p/1440p |
| Target FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS |
| Shadow Quality | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Shadow Cascades | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Shadow Lights | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Shadow Distance | 1000 | 1000 | 750 |
| Grass Shadows | On | On | On |
| Water Quality | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Water Reflections | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Draw Distance | 2500 | 2500 | 1500 |
| Shader Quality | 600 | 600 | 600 |
| Particle Quality | 100 | 100 | 50 |
| Object Quality | 200 | 200 | 100 |
| Tree Quality | 130/100 | 150/120 | 100 |
| Max Tree Meshes | 70/50 | 70/60 | 50 |
| Terrain Detail | 100/50 | 100 | 50 |
| Decor Detail | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Ambient Occlusion | On | On | On |
| Texture Filtering | 16x AF | 16x AF | 16x AF |
| Contact Shadows | Off | Off | Off |
| Global Rendering | On | On | On |
| Global Rendering Distance | 1500 | 1500 | 1500 |
| Upscaling/Anti-aliasing | DLSS Quality/Balanced | DLSS Quality/Balanced | TAA |
