Improving Your FPS In Rust

Is your game running slow? It could be your frames-per-second (FPS). This guide will help you, the player, see the impact and performance of specific settings and discover methods for improving your FPS.

Rust Console Click F1 Button On Keyboard And Type client_fps

FPS Counter In Options

How To Show Your Current FPS

You must be logged into a server to get an accurate FPS reading. The main menu is okay for changing settings but will not give you a precise performance reading.  

  • After loading into a server, select F1 and go to the console screen.

  • Type "client_fps" (without the quotes) and hit ENTER.

Move around a bit to see if looking at certain areas around you affects your FPS. You can enable the in-game FPS counter by opening up your Settings --> Options --> FPS counter.

  • Basic: FPS

  • Advance: FPS + HEAP + RAM

  • Advance: FPS + HEAP + RAM + Ping

Causes Of Poor FPS.

FPS can be affected by various factors. These can include your PC hardware, the number of background programs you have open and running, the server, the number of entities a particular server has, and your in-game settings.

  • Server Lag: Just like when your internet becomes slow at home, so does the network connecting You, Our Host, Steam Servers, and everywhere in between. These issues can affect an entire region or just a specific provider. These issues are temporary, and if they become more significant, we work directly with our host to make sure our players have the best experience. However, some issues are bigger than us, so please be nice to your local server Admins and Staff.     

Getting Started

Upon starting, the game-specific settings may be set to default values based on your system and external programs like Nvidia's Geforce Experience, Intel, or AMD and adjusted to what those programs interpret as "optimized" if you have auto-optimization enabled. No fear. You can always change them in the game if you don't know.

Options Tab

Graphics Tab

Options Tab

Physics

  • Max Gibs - Maximum amount of gibs (broken objects) that can exist at one time (Highly Recommend To Have At 0 Adds Nothing But Clutter And Drop FPS)  

  • Creation Effects - Do an animation when upgrading building blocks. (Cool Effect But Adds Nothing Some Experience FPS Drops)

Graphics Quality

  • Graphics Quality - Overall Quality

  • Render Scale - Render Picture To Resolution (1.0=Full Resolution, 0.5= Half Resolution) FPS Boost At The Cost Of Blurriness.

  • Nvidia DLSS - Newer Nvidia Cards Only -->NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is a neural graphics technology that multiplies performance using AI to create entirely new frames, display higher resolution through image reconstruction, and improve the image quality of intensive ray-traced content. In Rust, you get four options. They will increase FPS significantly, but may introduce minor graphic blurriness.  

    • Max Performance, Balanced, Max Quality, Ultra Performance

  • Shadow Quality - Overall Shadow Quality

  • Shadow Cascades - Afters Sun & Moon Shadows (Less Cascades Means More Performance)

  • Max Shadow Lights - Color Difference Caused By A Shadow

  • Water Quality - Water Surface Texture

  • Water Reflections - Reflects Players Or Objects In Water Surface

  • Shader Level - Depth Of Shadows

  • Draw Distance - Distance How Far Objects Are Rendered 360 Around You.

  • Shadow Distance - How far Shadows Are Casted

  • Anisotropic Filtering - Makes Textures Sharper When Viewed At An Angle Or Distance (Large Performance Impact)

  • Parallax Mapping - Gives Textures The Illusion Of Depth And Geometry (High Performance Impact)

  • Global Rendering - Shows Buildings & Cliffs Across The Map (Must Restart Game After Changing)

  • Global Render Distance - Affects Gpu Usage, Should Only Need To Decrease On Low End Systems

  • Grass Displacement - Displaces Grass When Walking Over It

  • Grass Shadows - Enables Shadow Casting On Grass Blades

  • Nvidia Reflex Mode - (Nvidia Cards Only) Enable Nvidia Reflex. Dynamically Reduces System Latency. In Rust, You Get 3 Options

    • Off, On, On + Boost (Will Effect Increase CPU + GPU Usage)

  • Nvidia Reflex Latency Marker - (Nvidia Cards Only) Enables The Use Of Latency Measurement Tools Like Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyzer And LDAT

Mesh Quality

  • Particle - Quality Of Embers, Smoke, Debris, Etc

  • Object Quality - Texture Of Object Mesh

  • Tree Quality - Fullness of Trees (Trees at Low Quality Are Harder To See-Through)

  • Max Tree Meshes - Effects The 3D Mesh Of Trees Lower Makes A 2D Effect  

  • Terrain Quality - Rocks & Cliffs Are Smoother And Less Detailed

  • Grass Quality - Grass & Bushes On The Ground Are Smoother

  • Decor Quality - Texture Of Base Deplyables Like Boxes And Furnaces

Image Effects Tab

Screen Tab

Image Effects

Image Effects significantly improve the look of the game. Some affect FPS, like Anti-aliasing, High-Quality Bloom, Ambient Occlusion, and Sun Shafts.   

  • Anti-Aliasing - Smoothes Jagged Edges Of The Scene (High-Performance Impact)

  • Depth Of Field - Make Stuff In The Distance Blurry. Looks Cool, Adds Nothing ( Highly Recommend To Turn Off)

  • Ambient Occlusion - Makes Crevices Darker, Giving The Scene More Depth

  • High-Quality Bloom - Makes Bright Lights Appear To Glow Realistically

  • Lens Dirt - Adds Dirt Overlay On Screen (Recommend To Turn Off)

  • Motion Blur - Adds Blur When Moving (If You're A Real Gamer Turn Off)

  • Sun Shafts - Adds Sun Rays To The Sun (Recommend To Turn Off)

  • Sharpen - Sharpens The Scene (No Performance Hit)

  • Vignetting - Adds Darken Edge To Screen (Recommend To Turn Off)

  • Hurt - Shows A Blood Screen Overlay Effect

  • Hurt Lighting - Applies Lighting To Hurt Overlay

Screen

  • Resolution - Your Screen Resolution (Changing Can Improve FPS but cause Blurriness)

  • Mode - Full Screen Or Windowed (If You Are Struggling Windowed Might Be Better)

  • Vsync - Help With Screen Tearing But Introduces Input Lag

  • FPS Limit - Adds A Cap To FPS

    • (Use the "fps.limit 0" in F1 Console without quotes to remove unintentional FPS limits.)

Experimental Tab

Experimental

  • Occlusion Culling -Enables hiding of objects behind walls. Disable if you notice any lag or frame rate drops while rotating the camera.

  • Contact Shadows -This adds contact shadows to improve shadow detail on the view model, players, and any areas that shadow maps may otherwise miss.

  • Optimized Loading - Faster loading into servers, especially on fast SSDs.

    • Turn this down or off if you are having problems loading.

    • You must restart the game to take effect.

  • GC Buffer (MB) - Controls the buffer amount before garbage collection occurs. Higher values will consume more memory but will reduce the frequency of GC. (Recommend to Keep Default Unless You have 32GB or More Of RAM)

More Things To Try

  • First and foremost, ensure everything is updated on both the Windows and the driver sides.

  • Make sure you are using a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or Newer.

  • Make sure you are using your dedicated GPU, not an integrated GPU.

  • Using under 8GB of RAM is NOT recommended.

  • Check your drivers manually to make sure they are updated; you can't always rely on an automatic system to update them.

  • Check your temperatures; high temperatures may lead to thermal throttling.

  • Close background applications that you aren't using.

  • Even on a desktop, ensure Windows power settings are set to "high performance."

  • Use the task manager to measure RAM usage in the game. Other programs outside of Rust can cause memory leaks, including network driver applications.

  • Ensure all your hardware is compatible and works.

  • Use the "fps.limit 0" without quotes to remove unintentional FPS limits.