Rust is a highly addicting game that lets you experience the world from an extremely unique perspective. You are stranded on the silliest island ever, trying to figure stuff out on your own. Then you finally hear it, the sound of another idiot rushing at you like there is no tomorrow.
You get ready for a counterattack but your PC starts blowing fire while your FPS hit a brand new rock bottom. Such is the joy of being addicted to the unoptimized game called Rust.
An 8-year-old title causing your PC to overheat makes little to no sense. Especially when the game in question has the minimum system requirements of a toaster.
In Rust, you will barely get any more than 150-200 FPS depending on your configuration, but this number can go marginally lower if you are facing thermal issues.
If your PC has started overheating when running Rust, there are a few steps you can follow to identify and resolve the issue. Here are the factors that this guide will be focusing on:
- Understanding Thermals
- Optimizing Airflow
- Fixing your In-Game Settings
You should get an interrupted experience of the game you paid for. However, rather than waiting for Facepunch Studios to come up with a fix (Don’t expect it to be anytime soon), it is much better to come up with a solution on your own and we will help you do just that.
How To Fix Overheating Issues in Rust
Chipsets usually become more unstable under huge amounts of heat. There is always a chance to see them fail sooner than expected due to constant high thermals. Therefore, you should keep your PC well within the recommended temps for them to last long.
Understand How Computer Cooling Works
A computer cools its components by using air or water to dissipate heat. The fans in your PC facilitate airflow. They let fresh air inside the case and discharge the heat outside.
Fun Fact: Did you know that Rust originally started overheating computers due to a bug found in the game’s code?
Cooling is not limited to a single component, it is a complete system that propagates the heat generated by the components and exhausts them to the air outside. Your CPU and GPU blocks enable the heat to travel from the component to the air. Micro gaps are filled between the surfaces with the help of a thermal paste to facilitate heat discharge.
This process is systematic and your PC is smart enough to ramp up its fan speeds depending on the amount of heat it needs to dissipate. Here are the two main heat generating elements in your PC:
- CPU (Processor)
- GPU (Graphics Card)
How To Check Thermal Levels of Your PC?
To deduce a proper diagnosis, you need to check your PC’s thermal temperatures, but how do you go about measuring such obscure temperatures? Using a clinical thermometer is surely not gonna work.
Rust puts a significant load on your GPU causing it to always run hotter than your processor. That’s where the following application comes into play:
Simply open the sensors tab to get the real-time data for your specific graphics card.
Knowing Your Thermals
It is essential to identify whether there is a real underlying issue or not. Many GPUs have a threshold of 100-110C. Therefore, you shouldn’t be concerned with 70C temps or lower. They are usually slightly above average but not to the point where it gets dangerous.
Here are some of the factors that directly affect a PC’s thermal performance:
- Location
- Airflow
- Maintenance
- Power Delivery
Limit Your FPS
The main reason why your system is running so hot is due to the GPU doing its utmost to push as many frames as possible. It is common for computational chips to get hot under load. However, there is no real reason to push an absurd number of frames. This is because it will get harder to notice a difference after 144 FPS unless you have a monitor that can support higher refresh rates.
Related: How to Destroy a Wooden Door in Rust (6 Easy Ways)
With that said, you can look to reduce that load by limiting the number of frames your GPU has to push per second. You can tone them down to 60 or even 30 in extreme cases. The last issue you’ll ever have with Rust is having too many frames.
Lower Your In-Game Graphics
Gaming in 4k 60 FPS has always been a standard in the PC master race. However, there are times when you must make the necessary sacrifices to protect your hardware from damage. We have mentioned the best graphic settings for Rust below:
Graphics Settings
Here are the basic graphic settings you need to apply to lower your GPU temps.
- Graphics Quality: 0
- Water Quality: 0
- Max Shadow Lights: 0
- Shader Level: 100
- Draw Distance: 1500 (You can lower it till 1000 but not more than that)
- Shadow Cascades: No Cascades
- Shadow Distance: 100
- Anisotropic Filtering: 1
- Parallax Mapping: 0
Image Effects
You can scale most of these off to decrease the overall modifiers. This can further reduce the burden on your processing units.
- Depth of Field: Off
- Ambient Occlusion: Off
- Anti-aliasing: On
- High-Quality Bloom: Off
- Lens Dirt: Off
- Sun Shafts: Off
- Sharpen: Off
- Vignetting: Off
Performance and Quality
Forger about the existence of this panel. Lowering the workload should be your primary concern, the details can come later. Besides, these settings aren’t very optimized, and disabling them can save a decent chunk of potential computation.
- Max Gibs: 0
- Particle Quality: 0
- Object Quality: 0
- Tree Quality: 0
- Terrain Quality: 0
- Grass Quality: 0
- Decor Quality: 0
Experimental
Keep these off regardless of the severity of your issue. They are relatively useless and can only add needless computing for your GPU.
- Occlusion Culling: Off
- Grass Shadows: Off
- Contact Shadows: Off
- Sustain Pedal Support: Off
After changing the mentioned settings, re-run your game and test them out. If they work well for your system then you are good to go. We recommend you to play on an offline server or use a server with an extremely low population to lessen the load on your PC.
Overheating in Rust: Hardware Factors
The software has a major part of the blame, but certain hardware-related factors can add to increased thermals. Therefore, it is recommended to verify everything to ensure smooth gaming. Here is a list of the most common issues:
| Issue | Solution |
| Dysfunctional Fans | Nothing can be done here, just buy new ones. |
| Dust Buildup | Use a compressed air can to clean it. |
| Weak Cooler | Purchase a new one or underclock your PC. |
Underclocking Your PC
This is an extreme solution that can set your PC to the output below its current capabilities. While this can be good in the long run, it is usually not recommended for older GPUs since you might face low FPS issues in Rust.
Optimizing the Airflow
Airflow is a major factor when it comes to your PC’s thermal performance. Make sure to have your PC fans throwing air in harmony. You should have proper air intakes and outtakes. This essentially means that the fans should not be wrestling against each other for air.
The outermost fans should guide the air in and throw it towards the inner fans that can then guide it through the component fans towards the exhausts. Make sure your PC build isn’t impeding the inner airflow. If you have a prebuilt, make sure there are no extra HDD chassis or random components blocking the air from going through. Here is a basic blueprint to follow for better airflow:
If your case is airtight, you can consider purchasing a mesh chassis. However, your issue will continue to stay if the airflow is bad. Therefore, we recommend you put a greater emphasis on it.
Take Good Care of Your Computer
When it comes to computers, a poorly maintained system constantly underperforms its recommended limits. Therefore, it is recommended to perform the following practices in order to reduce thermal issues.
- Clean Your Computer: Fans can slow down by accumulating dust over time. The air chambers in your case can become smaller as well with the debris forming a blanket on the internal components. Therefore, use an air can to clean any dust present on a monthly basis.
- Check and Replace Thermal Paste: It is the link between your cooler and processing units. A thermal paste allows for smooth heat transfer by reducing the micro air pockets between the two surfaces. However, a thermal paste can dry with time. Therefore, it is recommended to change it once every few years.
Ultimately, the game is unoptimized and there is nothing that can be done to fix that. However, you can sacrifice a bit of performance from your end to ensure lower temps. High temps and thermal throttling hold different meanings. If your PC is thermal throttling then you should invest in new and better coolers.
You can follow the guide to optimize your heat outputs. It is worth understanding that you will be losing on good graphics. However, rust looks plenty breathtaking for an older game even on the lowest settings.