Rust server RAM: how much do you need?
Rust memory is a question about the map, not the population. Going from a 4k map to a 5k one costs gigabytes; going from fifty players to a hundred costs a few hundred megabytes.
Recommendation
You need a server with at least
12GB
- Engine / Base OS:
- 6 GB
- Player Overhead:
- +2.5 GB
- Estimated Raw Usage:
- 8.5 GB
- Suggested cores:
- 4
- Disk to allow:
- 20 GB+
Very sensitive to single-core speed — this is where rubber-banding during firefights comes from.
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What uses the memory in Rust
The server generates and keeps the whole procedural world itself, so seed and map size fix your minimum before a single player joins. Then the wipe cycle adds to it: foundations, walls and deployables are all persistent entities, which means the server is at its largest the day before a wipe and at its smallest just after one.
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Where people get it wrong
Starting from the slot count. Decide on the map size first, allow for how much it will grow over a whole wipe, and treat slots as an afterthought — thirty players on a 5k map want more memory than a hundred on a 3k map.