Online survival games are a dime a dozen nowadays. Yet, there are a few that still capture the intensity that made the genre famous, to begin with. Rust is the perfect example (and so is Ark: Survival Evolved, by the way).
Rust is a game about doing whatever it takes to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. You start with practically nothing and must scavenge the basics to survive: food, shelter, fire, and weapons. The world is full of savage beasts that will attack you on sight, but the real danger is other human players.
But how well can your Mac run Rust? How good is its native version? Can it run on M1 Macs?
Can you play Rust on Mac?
You can absolutely play Rust on your Mac, and that includes Intel and Apple Silicon Models. Even if the official system requirements don’t mention M1 or M2 Macs, our benchmarks confirm the game runs great on Apple Silicon Macs.
Rust uses the Unity engine and is as stable as can be expected from an open-world online game. Still, the game takes place in huge environments and requires decent hardware and a fast internet connection. Unless you have a high-end Mac, don’t expect it to run at max settings and high resolution smoothly. More on that below.
| Art | Game | Genre | 64-bit? | 64-bit | API | M1 Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Rust | Survival | Yes |  | Metal | Rosetta |
Rust on Mac: Everything you need to know
In Rust, you must find ways to use these to create better tools, build shelters, find food and survive the harsh environment. This includes vicious animals and, of course, other players who see you as a threat. And you are a threat. If you don’t want to go it alone, you can form clans with other players. But as you’d expect from a gaming community, those clans will break down, and everyone will just end up killing each other.
With over 679,000 Very Positive reviews (87%), it would be an understatement to call Rust popular. This is a game that usually sits in the Top 5 most-played games on Steam, and as can be seen from the quantity and quality of its user reviews, Rust has a massive and strong community. That’s quite an achievement.
In fact, the biggest complaint is about a sometimes toxic community that makes it difficult for newcomers. This is par for the course with survival games, and thus the recommendation to play with a party of friends to give yourself a better chance to survive.
Rust Mac requirements
These are the game’s official Mac requirements:
| Requirements | |
| OS: | 10.11 |
| Processor: | Intel Core i7 |
| Memory: | 10 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | AMD R9 280 or better |
| Hard Drive: | 20 GB |
| A 64-Bit OS and Metal support are required | |
How to play Rust on Mac
As mentioned before, Rust runs natively on Mac, and that includes Intel-based and M1 Macs.
The game does require Rosetta 2 to run on Apple Silicon Macs. But Rosetta 2 works so seamlessly (it installs automatically the first time it detects an Intel-based app), and it integrates so well with macOS, that the experience is virtually the same as running a native Apple Silicon Mac.
Running Rust on an M1 Mac
This means Rust can run on macOS without requiring any third-party software. Therefore, we won’t waste your time talking about Parallels, Crossover (both excellent tools, but only useful for Windows-exclusive games…), or Streaming services.
Can YOUR Mac run Rust? Benchmarks!
These are the Rust M1 benchmarks we have gathered so far (you can find more details about the game’s Apple Silicon version here):
| Game | Machine | Resolution | Settings | Other | FPS | Tester | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rust | 💻 M1 MacBook Pro 13", 8-core GPU, 8 GB | 1920x1080 | Max | 30 | MrMacRight | ||
| Rust | 💻 M1 MacBook Air 13", 7-core GPU, 8 GB | 1920x1080 | Max | 20 | Apple Silicon DB |
As a reminder, this is how we describe the different levels of performance:
- Below 20 FPS: Unplayable: Laggy gameplay, full of stutters and slowdowns.
- 20-30 FPS: Borderline: Can be OK in slow-paced games. Still, not optimal.
- 30-45 FPS: Playable: Acceptable for most (most gaming consoles do this).
- 45-60 FPS: Smooth: Fluid gameplay, with no perceivable stutters.
- 60+ FPS: Very Smooth: For hardcore and professional players, a luxury for most.
Can my Mac run Rust?
In spite of using the Unity engine, which is usually quite forgiving and performs well on macOS, Rust is a massive game with huge environments and complex online components. This is not an easy game to run on either Windows or macOS. In fact, when looking at our benchmark results, running the game on modest settings and resolution can lead to passable performance at 30 frames per second on M1 Macs (which perform much better than most Intel Macs).
If you happen to have an M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, or M2, you should be able to run this game just fine (medium settings at 45+FPS). If you don’t and just have an older Intel Mac, you’ll be better off skipping this one, and waiting to see if No Man’s Sky will be less demanding survival game…
Rust Mac download
You can download Rust on Steam.
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