Rust is very demanding, especially if you set every available setting to the maximum. Players who want to play Rust on high FPS are having issues achieving that since, except for the game being resource-intensive, the engine is not well optimized.

Below I will go over everything you need to know about Rust graphics, user interface, screen, and sound settings. If you’ve played Rust for any time, you should have released that the default settings don’t allow you to play at your best potential.

Sticking to the default settings will disadvantage you no matter how good you are. So we will improve all the settings to get you the most benefits. Especially Rust graphics settings are really important to make the game clear and for you to be able to spot enemies instantly.

Also, at the end of this post, you’ll find resources to optimize your PC to achieve higher performance, fps, less input lag, and less latency in Rocket League and any other game you might be playing.

Best Rust Settings

I will go on the Rust settings tabs one by one starting from the top one to the bottom one.

I will give you my recommendations plus a short description of the most impactful settings so you can set them according to your needs and hardware.

Best Rust Options settings

• Gameplay
  • Field of View: 90.0
  • Head Bob: Off
  • Crosshair: Off
  • Hit Cross: On
  • Hurt Flash: On
  • Compass Visibility: On
  • FPS Counter: Basic
  • Rich Presence: On

• Censorship
  • Nudity: Underwear
  • Hide signs: Off
  • Show Blood: On
  • Internet Audio Streams: On
  • Censor Recordings: Off
  • Limit Flashing: Off
  • Streamer Mode: Off

• Physics
  • Max Gibs: 0 – 1000. The performance hit of this setting may not be noticeable when destroying a small base, but on Raids, you will definitely feel it.
    • On low-End PC: 0. Please set it to 0 for the best performance possible.
    • On Med-End PCs: 0 – 500.
    • On High-End PCs: 1000

Best Rust User Interface settings

These settings will not impact your performance in any way, so it’s mostly a personal preference. Below you can find my recommendations to give you a starting point.

• User Interface Scale: 1.0
• Show HUD: On
• Show Chat: On
• Mute Global Chat: Off
• Auto-Switch Chat Channels: On
• Show Nametags: On
• Game Tips: Off
• Inventory Player Model: On

Best Rust Audio Settings

With the following audio settings, we want to make sure that we can clearly hear footsteps and important in-game sounds.

• Master Volume: 1.0
• Music Volume: 0.0
• Menu Music Volume: 0.0
• Voices Volume: 3.0
• Game Sounds Volume: 1.0
• Instruments Volume: 1.0

If you want to hear footsteps even better, then do the following:

• Navigate to your Windows search bar, type “Change System Sounds”, and click on the option available.
• Next, navigate to the “Playback” tab and right-click on your Headphones / Speakers, and click on properties.
• Go to the “Enhancements” tab, and tick the option “Loudness Equalization“—Click “Apply” and “Ok“.

Best Rust Screen Settings

Crucial settings that you want to make sure everything is set correctly.

• Resolution: Native resolution of your monitor.
• Mode: Exclusive Full Screen. ( Gives you the best FPS, input lag, and latency)
• Vsync: Off
• FPS Limit: 0. If you set FPS Limit to 0, it means there is no FPS limit.

Best Rust Graphic Settings

These settings either make or break your game. So pay close attention and read everything to make sure you set everything correctly. We want to set these settings to be the best for the highest fps, PVP, and good-looking graphics.

Note that these settings are what I found to be a mix of the best performance possible while keeping the graphics beautiful. Because every system is different, you will have to also experiment by yourself to find what suits you the most.

• Graphics Quality
  • Graphics Quality: 6 ( Lower this setting if you don’t have enough Vram)
  • Shadow Quality: 1 ( You can disable this on low-end systems)
  • Shadow Cascades: Two Cascades ( You can set it on No Cascades for the best performance possible)
  • Max Shadow Lights: 1 ( You can disable them on a low-end system)
  • Water Quality: 0
  • Water Reflections: 0
  • World Reflections: 0
  • Shader Level: 500
  • Draw Distance: 1000
  • Shadow Distance: 50
  • Anisotropic Filtering: 1
  • Parallax Mapping: 0
  • Grass Displacement: Off
  • NVidia Reflex Mode: On+Boost

• Mesh Quality ( You can lower any of these settings if you are really struggling with your FPS)
  • Particle Quality: 50
  • Object Quality: 100
  • Tree Quality: 100
  • Max Tree Meshes: 100
  • Terrain Quality: 50
  • Grass Quality: 0
  • Decor Quality: 50

Best Rust Image Effects Settings

On this tab, I recommend turning off almost everything since the performance hit is insane if you enable everything, and also, some of these settings make the game harder to play when it comes to PvP.

• Anti-Aliasing: FXAA ( You can disable this on low-end systems)
• Depth Of Field: Off
• Ambient Occlusion: Off
• High-Quality Bloom: Off
• Lens Dirt: Off
• Motion Blur: Off
• Sun Shafts: Off
• Sharpen: Off
• Vignetting: Off

Best Experimental settings for Rust

Same like the image effects tab, mostly turn off everything for the best performance.

• Occlusion Culling: Off
• Grass Shadows: Off
• Contact Shadows: Off
• Sustain Pedal Support: Off

Best Rust Launch Options

The following Steam Launch Options will give you an FPS & Performance boost in Rust. I will explain how to configure each of them depending on your hardware.

-high -maxMem=X -malloc=system -cpuCount=X -exThreads=X -force-d3d11-no-singlethreaded

• -high
  • Gives the game CPU priority over the rest of the apps.

• -maxMem= Change X depending on your RAM.
  • 4GB RAM = 3074
  • 8GB RAM = 6194
  • 16GB RAM = 14000
  • 24GB RAM = 22000
  • 32GB RAM = 30000
  • 48GB RAM = 46000
  • 64GB RAM = 62000

So let’s say you have 16GB of ram installed on your Computer, the final command should be -maxMem=14000.

cpuCount=X . Your CPU cores number should replace the X. To check how many CPU cores you can follow the steps below:

On your Keyboard, press -> Ctrl + Shift + Esc. This will open the Task Manager. Navigate to the Performance tab, and click on CPU. On the bottom right side, you should see your Cores.

For me it’s 6, to the command will be cpuCount=6.

Next, we have -exThreads=X, where X is the number of our CPU threads. To find that number, we do the same process like on the CPU cores, and under your CPU cores, you should see Logical processors, copy that number and swap it with the X.

So for me the number is 12, and the command will be -exThreads=12.

So the final best startup options for Rust(In my case) will be:

-high -maxMem=14000 -malloc=system -force-feature-level-11-0 -cpuCount=6 -exThreads=12 -force-d3d11-no-singlethreaded

Ensure everything is set correctly, add the commands in your Steam launch options, and click okay. Now you are ready to go back and enjoy your game!

Enhance your gaming experience

If, after following this guide, you still can’t optimize Rust or you feel like your PC is underperforming, you can book a PC Optimization appointment with me, and I will be more than happy to help you out and solve all your problems and dramatically improve your pc performance.