Thief

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data for Thief with this combination of AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and Intel Arc B390 shows a clear pattern: playable performance exists only at 1080p, and even then only at reduced settings. At 3840x2160, High settings deliver an average of 20 FPS, which is far below the 60 FPS playability threshold. Dropping to Medium at 4K raises the average to 26 FPS, with recorded minimum and maximum values of 22 and 30 FPS respectively. Low settings at 4K improve the average to 35 FPS, while Ultra drops to 19 FPS. None of these 4K configurations approach playable territory.

Moving to 2560x1440, the situation improves but remains short of the target. High settings produce an average of 34 FPS, Medium reaches 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 and maximum of 52, Low hits 59 FPS, and Ultra sits at 33 FPS. The 59 FPS average at Low is tantalizingly close to 60 but does not clear it, meaning 1440p cannot be classified as playable under any preset. The best 1440p result still leaves the system roughly one frame short of the threshold.

At 1920x1080, the story changes. Low settings deliver an average of 86 FPS, which is comfortably above the playability line. Medium settings produce 66 FPS on average, with minimum and maximum readings of 56 and 75 FPS. High settings fall to 50 FPS, and Ultra drops to 48 FPS. The data shows a steep performance cliff between Medium and High at 1080p, a drop of 16 FPS on average. This suggests that the heavier shading and texture workloads in High and Ultra presets overwhelm the Intel Arc B390's limited 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and its 24 ROPs.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3720 tested CPU and GPU combinations in the database, this pairing ranks 3307th for Thief. That places it in the bottom 11 percent of all tested combos, a low standing driven almost entirely by the graphics side. The CPU is not the limiting factor in absolute terms; the Ryzen 5 8400F sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with a multi-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 20851. The GPU, meanwhile, sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. That enormous gap between CPU capability and GPU capability defines this combo's ranking.

The ranking reflects real gameplay outcomes. A combo ranked 3307 out of 3720 will struggle with any modern or near-modern title at high resolutions. Thief, released in early 2014, is not a particularly demanding game by current standards, yet this GPU still cannot push it past 60 FPS at 1440p. The measured FPS data confirms that the rank is not an artifact of CPU limitations but rather a direct consequence of GPU throughput. The Arc B390's 1536 shading units and 48 TMUs are simply too few for high-resolution rasterization work.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Arc B390, based on average benchmark scores, are all NVIDIA entry-level parts from a much older era. The GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463, which is 1.3 percent lower than the Arc B390. The GeForce 800M scores 1460, 1.5 percent lower. The GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446, 2.5 percent lower. The GeForce GT 710 scores 1443, 2.7 percent lower. In practical terms, the Arc B390 performs within a few percentage points of these legacy NVIDIA parts in synthetic benchmarks, which explains why Thief runs poorly at high presets. Anyone considering a system with one of those older NVIDIA cards should expect nearly identical frame rates in this game, all of them below the playable threshold at 1440p and above.

On the CPU side, the Ryzen 5 8400F has close neighbors that would not change the Thief experience. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F scores 24964, just 0.2 percent higher. The Intel Core i7-11850H scores 24935, 0.3 percent higher. The Intel Core i7-13620H scores 24911, 0.4 percent higher. The AMD EPYC 9474F scores 25103, 0.4 percent higher. All four alternatives deliver effectively identical CPU performance in synthetic tests, meaning swapping the CPU for any of these would not alter Thief's frame rates in any measurable way. The GPU remains the bottleneck in every configuration.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Thief? The answer depends entirely on resolution and settings. At 3840x2160, no preset clears 60 FPS. The highest average recorded at 4K is 35 FPS on Low, and the lowest is 19 FPS on Ultra. The verdict list for 4K is empty, meaning no playable settings exist. At 2560x1440, the same verdict applies: no settings are playable. The closest result is 59 FPS at Low, which still misses the 60 FPS target. The database classifies 1440p as unplayable for this combo in Thief.

At 1920x1080, the system clears the threshold with two presets. Low settings average 86 FPS, and Medium averages 66 FPS. The best playable configuration is Medium at 1080p, with an average of 66 FPS. That is the recommended target: 1080p Medium. High and Ultra at 1080p fall short at 50 and 48 FPS respectively, so users should avoid those presets. In short, this PC can run Thief, but only at 1080p with Medium or Low settings. Anyone hoping for higher resolution or maxed-out visuals will need a stronger GPU.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor in this pairing is stark. The Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 4 processor with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851. It is not the constraint in Thief. The Arc B390, by contrast, is an integrated-class GPU with 1536 shading units, 24 ROPs, and a 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 rate. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile of all GPUs. When a CPU sits at the 77th percentile and a GPU at the 9th, the GPU dictates the outcome.

The scaling between resolutions confirms this. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 86 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 59 FPS, a 31 percent reduction. At 4K Low, it falls to 35 FPS, another 41 percent drop. These are GPU-bound scaling patterns; a CPU bottleneck would show smaller frame rate differences across resolutions because the CPU work per frame stays roughly constant. The pixel throughput demands scale with resolution, and the Arc B390's 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate cannot keep up at higher resolutions.

Settings scaling tells the same story. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 20 FPS on average, from Medium to High costs another 16 FPS, and High to Ultra costs only 2 FPS. The large drop between Medium and High indicates that the GPU exhausts its shading and texture throughput at that point. The CPU's role in Thief is to feed the GPU with geometry and draw calls, and the Ryzen 5 8400F does that without breaking a sweat. At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 19 FPS, and no amount of CPU headroom can fix that. The GPU is the entire story here.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Thief at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at 1920x1080 with Low or Medium settings. Low averages 86 FPS and Medium averages 66 FPS. All other tested resolution and settings combinations fall below 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings configuration for this combo in Thief?

A: The best playable configuration is 1080p Medium, which averages 66 FPS with minimum and maximum values of 56 and 75 FPS.

Q: Is 1440p playable with this hardware?

A: No. The closest result is 59 FPS at 1440p Low, which does not clear the 60 FPS threshold. All other 1440p presets average between 33 and 45 FPS.

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

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The GeForce GT 520MX is 1.3 percent slower, the GeForce 800M is 1.5 percent slower, the GeForce GT 625 OEM is 2.5 percent slower, and the GeForce GT 710 is 2.7 percent slower.

Q: Would a different CPU improve frame rates in Thief?

A: No. The nearest CPU rivals, including the Ryzen 5 7500F at 0.2 percent higher score and the Core i7-13620H at 0.4 percent higher, all perform within a fraction of a percent. The GPU is the bottleneck.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking?

A: The Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 1482. The CPU sits at the 77th percentile, which explains why the GPU limits performance.