Thief

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable setting for this combination at 1920x1080?

A: The recorded data shows Medium as the best playable setting at 1920x1080, with an average of 66 FPS. Low also clears the 60 FPS threshold with an average of 86 FPS.

Q: Can this system run Thief at 2560x1440?

A: No. At 2560x1440, every preset falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The closest result is Low at 59 FPS average, followed by Medium at 45 FPS, High at 34 FPS, and Ultra at 33 FPS.

Q: What happens at 3840x2160?

A: The system struggles at 4K. Low averages 35 FPS, Medium averages 26 FPS, High averages 20 FPS, and Ultra averages 19 FPS. None of these reach 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 sits 1.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% above the GeForce 800M, 2.5% above the GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% above the GeForce GT 710 in the database's average benchmark score.

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 is 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS, 0.4% behind the Intel Core i9-11900KF, and 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 8540U in average benchmark scores.

Q: What is the system's overall rank in the database for this game?

A: The combination ranks 3307 out of 3720 tested combos for Thief, placing it in the lower portion of the database.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded data for Thief reveals a system where the GPU is the dominant constraint at every resolution. The Intel Arc B390, with its 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate, appears to be the limiting factor when resolution increases. The CPU, a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 4 part with a 5.10 GHz boost clock, is far more capable than the GPU in relative terms, ranking in the 78th percentile among all CPUs versus the GPU's 9th percentile among all GPUs.

At 1920x1080, the system shows a clear progression from Low to Ultra. Low averages 86 FPS, Medium drops to 66 FPS, High falls to 50 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 48 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 20 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 2 FPS. This suggests that the game's Ultra preset adds little visual return for the performance cost at 1080p, and the GPU is already nearing its ceiling at High.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 59 FPS, Medium 45 FPS, High 34 FPS, and Ultra 33 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is substantial: Low drops by 27 FPS (from 86 to 59), Medium by 21 FPS (from 66 to 45), High by 16 FPS (from 50 to 34), and Ultra by 15 FPS (from 48 to 33). The fact that the absolute drops shrink as settings increase indicates that the GPU is becoming saturated even at lower presets.

At 3840x2160, the system collapses. Low averages 35 FPS, Medium 26 FPS, High 20 FPS, and Ultra 19 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is only 16 FPS at 4K, compared to 38 FPS at 1080p. This compression of performance across presets strongly suggests the GPU is fully bound by pixel throughput at 4K, with settings having diminishing influence.

The CPU's role is minimal in this game at all tested resolutions. Given that the Ryzen 5 7600 scores 12,735 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,852 in single-core, it has ample headroom for a 2014 stealth title. The bottleneck is consistently the Arc B390, which is an integrated-class GPU (IGP, system shared memory) rather than a discrete solution. The database confirms this interpretation: the GPU's 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs contrasts sharply with the CPU's 78th percentile.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Medium, with an average of 66 FPS. Low also qualifies at 86 FPS, but Medium offers a higher visual quality while still clearing the playable threshold. High (50 FPS) and Ultra (48 FPS) fall short.

At 2560x1440, no preset reaches 60 FPS. The closest is Low at 59 FPS, which is just 1 FPS below the threshold. Medium averages 45 FPS, High 34 FPS, and Ultra 33 FPS. The verdict data confirms this: the playable settings list is empty at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the situation is worse. Low averages 35 FPS, Medium 26 FPS, High 20 FPS, and Ultra 19 FPS. No setting is playable, and the best average FPS at any preset is 35.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 3307 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief. This places the system in the bottom 13% of the database, which is consistent with the GPU's low percentile ranking. The CPU is not the issue; a Ryzen 5 7600 paired with a more capable GPU would rank far higher. The Arc B390's integrated nature, with system shared memory and system dependent bandwidth, cripples performance in a way that no amount of CPU headroom can overcome.

The rank implies that most other tested combinations deliver higher frame rates in Thief. For a game from 2014, this is a notable underperformance. The data suggests that the Arc B390 is simply not suited for this title at playable frame rates above 1080p.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals for both components provides context for what would behave similarly.

On the CPU side, the Ryzen 5 7600's nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its average benchmark score. The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (0.2% higher), AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (0.3% lower), Intel Core i9-11900KF (0.4% higher), and AMD Ryzen 5 8540U (0.5% higher) would all deliver effectively identical CPU performance in Thief. Swapping the CPU to any of these would not change the frame rate results, since the GPU is the bottleneck.

On the GPU side, the Arc B390's nearest rivals are dramatically slower in the database's average benchmark scores, which is unusual. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX is 1.3% lower, the GeForce 800M is 1.5% lower, the GeForce GT 625 OEM is 2.5% lower, and the GeForce GT 710 is 2.7% lower. However, these deltas are based on a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1482 for the Arc B390, and the rivals are all older, lower-end parts. In practice, the Arc B390 would perform similarly to these GPUs in Thief, meaning all of them would struggle to hit 60 FPS at 1440p or above.

A user considering alternatives should note that the CPU can be swapped freely without affecting Thief's performance, while the GPU is the component that determines playability. The database shows no GPU rival that would meaningfully improve the 1080p Medium result of 66 FPS.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Thief? The answer is conditional on resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, yes: Low and Medium both clear the 60 FPS threshold, with Medium being the best playable preset at 66 FPS average. At 2560x1440, no: the best result is Low at 59 FPS, which misses the 60 FPS mark by a single frame. At 3840x2160, no: the best result is Low at 35 FPS, far below playable.

The verdict data confirms this exactly. The playable settings list for 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 is empty, while 1920x1080 lists Low and Medium as playable, with Medium as the best setting at 66 FPS.

For a game released in 2014, the Arc B390's performance is underwhelming. The system is playable only at 1080p and only at Medium or lower presets. Anyone expecting 1440p or 4K playability would need a different GPU, as the CPU is more than sufficient.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the recorded measurements are as follows:

• Low: average 86 FPS, no min or max recorded
• Medium: average 66 FPS, minimum 56 FPS, maximum 75 FPS
• High: average 50 FPS, no min or max recorded
• Ultra: average 48 FPS, no min or max recorded

The Medium preset shows a 56 FPS minimum, which dips below the 60 FPS average but still holds above a 50 FPS floor. The 19 FPS difference between Low and Medium is the largest single-step drop in the 1080p set, indicating that Medium introduces significant GPU load.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: average 59 FPS, no min or max recorded
• Medium: average 45 FPS, minimum 38 FPS, maximum 52 FPS
• High: average 34 FPS, no min or max recorded
• Ultra: average 33 FPS, no min or max recorded

The Medium preset at 1440p has a 38 FPS minimum, which is 7 FPS below its average. This suggests frame time variance is noticeable at this resolution. Low at 59 FPS is tantalizingly close to the 60 FPS threshold, but the database does not record it as playable.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: average 35 FPS, no min or max recorded
• Medium: average 26 FPS, minimum 22 FPS, maximum 30 FPS
• High: average 20 FPS, no min or max recorded
• Ultra: average 19 FPS, no min or max recorded

The 4K results are uniformly poor. The Medium preset's 22 FPS minimum would be noticeable as stutter. The difference between High (20 FPS) and Ultra (19 FPS) is just 1 FPS, reinforcing that the GPU is completely pixel-bound at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low always delivers the highest average FPS, Ultra the lowest, and the gap between presets narrows as resolution increases. This is a textbook GPU-limited profile, and the CPU's influence is negligible throughout.