Improving your FPS in Rust

Game running slow? Jerky? It could be your frames-per-second (FPS). This guide will attempt to help you, the player, discover methods for improving your FPS. First and foremost, you must know where you are starting from, a base point to determine if any changes improve your FPS or make it worse.

How to show your current FPS

The second method is to have your Rust client show your FPS.

• After starting the Rust client, select F1 and go to the console screen.

• Type “perf 1” (without the quotes) and hit ENTER.

Once you connect to a server, your FPS will be shown in the lower left corner, in a large white font. This is only for Rust and will not be shown for other games.

Causes of poor FPS.

There can be many overlapping causes for poor FPS, but hardware is the number one cause for low FPS. Upgrading your CPU, memory size or Graphics processor can have a MAJOR impact on your FPS and overall game play. If you can afford to go better, do so. If not, let us look at what can be done.

Getting Started

Start by closing other programs on your machine (a fresh reboot is never a bad idea). Next, set the game graphics settings to mid-range values. To make changes press the ESC key. Do this the first time before joining a server. Then select the options tab (looks like a gear). Here you will find five tabs labelled OPTIONS, GRAPHICS, INPUT, AUDIO and PERFORMANCE.

Three of these tabs, OPTIONS, INPUT and AUDIO, are mostly personal preferences. These settings have negligible effect on FPS. So let’s go over the important tabs, their options and suggested starting points. Change your settings to the low settings shown in parentheses after each item.

Graphics Tab

Graphics settings

Please note, the settings in the images do not reflect the highest performance, these are examples of the options.

Now you can join a server. Start with a no-pop or low-pop server. Build a small building and get inside. Do this so that you will be safe when you are in the menu making changes. But, realize this is Rust, and anything can happen.

It is recommended that you only make one change at a time. Then go play for a few minutes and see how the change affects your FPS and game play. Obviously if the change causes your FPS to drop dramatically, change it back. Many of these options are sliders, so if increasing something causes issues, try decreasing. Always try small increments at first.

This guide cannot cover every possible issue or every possible solution. Each computer, and its associated hardware and software create unique systems. Rust is still in active development and optimization is an ongoing process. Here's the good news: This is only temporary. Once enough features are in and more things become finalized, they will put more focus on optimization and this puppy should run smooth as gravy (or something like that).

More things to try

• First and foremost make sure everything is updated, both Windows side and driver side.

• Make sure you are using a 64-bit version of Windows 7 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.

• Check your temperatures, high temperatures may lead the thermal throttling.

• Close background applications that you aren't using.

• Even if you are on a desktop make sure Windows power settings are set to "high performance".

• Use task manager to measure RAM usage in game, as other programs outside of rust can cause memory leaks, even things like network driver applications and the like can cause them.

• Use "perf 2" in console to see accurate fps and memory usage in game (memory usage is only for the assets loaded for that game instance, rust uses memory for bootstrapping and the like, but in game is where the leaks occur).

• Change your graphics settings in game as apposed to just from the dropdown menu as it gives more options and tends to be more reliable (you can use console commands as well to change them, which I will cover further in the list).

• Ensure all your hardware is compatible and actually works.

• Try running rust in a lower resolution using the drop down menu.

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

• Use 'dev.netgraph 1" in console to see your bandwith usage and packet loss percentage (use "dev.netgraph 0" to turn off the overlay).

• If you are having network lag make sure you aren't still populating the server lists in the background.

• Use the command "global.timewarnings true" to have the console print any warnings related to loading times and the like in console.

• Use the command "net.log true" to enable your client to save a network info log file in your game directory.

• Turn down your animation quality and other settings (type "find animation" in console to see a list of animation variables).

• Type "find graphics" in console to see all graphics variables and what they are set to, to verify changes were saved, or there isn't an unlisted graphics option you want to change.

• Type "find terrain" and "find audio" to see all terrain variables and audio options.

• Save any console command changes to your config using "writecfg" in console (saves the vast majority of changes but some things won't be saved, mainly overlay stuff like perf 2)

• If you are stuck at receiving data for a long time, or some items are glitched out on your character, have a friend or admin kill your sleeper with all the glitched out items on it to fix the problem (usually fixes it anyway).