Thief

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Thief at 60 FPS on a 1080p display?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 the combo clears the 60 FPS threshold on Low and Medium settings. The Low preset averages 86 FPS, while Medium averages 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS. High and Ultra fall below 60 FPS, averaging 50 FPS and 48 FPS respectively.

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

A: Medium is the best playable setting at 1080p. It delivers an average of 66 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playable threshold, with a recorded minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 75 FPS. The verdict data confirms Medium as the optimal choice.

Q: Is this PC capable of running Thief at 1440p?

A: No, not at a playable level. At 2560x1440, even the Low preset only reaches an average of 59 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 45 FPS, High averages 34 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS. No settings at this resolution are classified as playable.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17177, placing it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. It sits within 0.6% of four rivals: the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120, 0.3% slower), Intel Core i5-12450H (17239, 0.4% faster), AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278, 0.6% faster), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074, 0.6% slower).

Q: What is the GPU's performance standing relative to other graphics cards?

A: The Intel Arc B390 scores 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% slower), NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% slower), NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% slower), and NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443, 2.7% slower).

Q: How does this combo rank overall among tested systems for Thief?

A: The combination of Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B390 ranks 3307 out of 3720 tested combos for Thief. This places it in the lower portion of the database, consistent with the GPU's low percentile standing.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded data for Thief reveals a system where the GPU is the dominant performance limiter, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom across all resolutions. This conclusion emerges from examining the FPS scaling between resolutions and presets, as well as the absolute performance levels recorded.

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the system shows a wide spread between presets. Low averages 86 FPS, Medium 66 FPS, High 50 FPS, and Ultra 48 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 20 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 16 FPS, and High to Ultra costs only 2 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU is heavily engaged even at 1080p, with the Ultra preset providing negligible gains over High due to GPU saturation. The CPU, a 6-core, 12-thread Rocket Lake part with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, has ample headroom to feed the GPU at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop substantially. Low falls to 59 FPS (a 31% decrease from 1080p Low), Medium to 45 FPS (a 32% decrease), High to 34 FPS (a 32% decrease), and Ultra to 33 FPS (a 31% decrease). The consistent roughly one-third reduction across all presets when scaling from 1080p to 1440p points directly to pixel throughput as the limiting factor, which is a GPU-bound characteristic. A CPU-bound scenario would show less uniform scaling, as the CPU workload would not increase proportionally with resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system falls to 20 FPS on High, 26 FPS on Medium, 35 FPS on Low, and 19 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows another significant drop: Low loses 24 FPS (from 59 to 35), Medium loses 19 FPS (from 45 to 26), High loses 14 FPS (from 34 to 20), and Ultra loses 14 FPS (from 33 to 19). These reductions are again consistent with GPU-bound behavior, as the rendering resolution increases by roughly 2.25 times from 1440p to 4K.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark results reinforce that it is not the bottleneck. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14340 and single-core score of 2024, combined with a 71st percentile ranking across all CPUs, indicate strong general processing capability. In a game from 2014 such as Thief, the CPU demands are modest relative to modern titles, and the i5-11400F's 12 threads provide ample parallel processing capacity. The GPU, by contrast, sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, a stark contrast that clearly identifies it as the performance ceiling.

The conclusion from the measured data is unambiguous: the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component at every resolution and preset combination. The CPU's role is to supply frames to the GPU, and it does so without becoming a constraint. Users seeking higher frame rates in Thief would need to address the GPU side of the equation, not the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Thief covers three resolutions and four quality presets per resolution. The playable threshold is 60 FPS, and the data shows that only two settings combinations cross that line.

1920x1080:

At the most common gaming resolution, the system delivers its best results. The Low preset averages 86 FPS, a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold and the highest average recorded across all tests. The Medium preset averages 66 FPS, with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 75 FPS, placing it just above the playable line despite occasional dips below 60 FPS. The High preset averages 50 FPS, falling short of the threshold, and the Ultra preset averages 48 FPS, slightly below High. The gap between Low and Ultra is 38 FPS, demonstrating that visual quality settings have a substantial impact on this system's performance at 1080p.

2560x1440:

At 1440p, no setting achieves playable status. The Low preset comes closest with an average of 59 FPS, just one frame below the 60 FPS threshold. This near-miss indicates that the system is on the edge of playability at this resolution, and minor tweaks outside the tested presets might push it over the line. The Medium preset averages 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 52 FPS, a significant step down from Low. High averages 34 FPS and Ultra averages 33 FPS, with both presets delivering roughly half the frame rate of the 1080p Low setting.

3840x2160:

At 4K resolution, the system struggles across all presets. The Low preset averages 35 FPS, the best result at this resolution. Medium averages 26 FPS with a minimum of 22 FPS and maximum of 30 FPS. High averages 20 FPS, and Ultra averages 19 FPS. The spread between presets at 4K is 16 FPS (from 19 to 35), narrower than at lower resolutions, indicating that the GPU is so saturated that even reducing quality settings cannot meaningfully recover performance. None of the 4K settings approach the 60 FPS threshold, and even the fastest 4K preset runs at barely more than half the required frame rate.

The minimum and maximum FPS data, where recorded, provides additional context. At 1080p Medium, the 56 FPS minimum shows that the system can dip below the playable threshold even when the average is above it. At 1440p Medium, the 38 FPS minimum and 52 FPS maximum bracket the 45 FPS average, indicating reasonably consistent frame delivery. At 4K Medium, the 22 FPS minimum and 30 FPS maximum show a tighter band around the 26 FPS average, consistent with a fully GPU-bound scenario where frame times are more uniform.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the CPU and GPU provide context for what other hardware might behave similarly in Thief.

CPU alternatives: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17177. The closest comparable processors are the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120, 0.3% lower), Intel Core i5-12450H (17239, 0.4% higher), AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278, 0.6% higher), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074, 0.6% lower). All four rivals fall within a 0.6% performance band of the i5-11400F, meaning any of these CPUs would deliver functionally identical frame rates in Thief when paired with the same GPU. The differences are well within measurement noise and would not produce observable gameplay differences.

GPU alternatives: The Intel Arc B390 scores 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% lower), NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% lower), NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% lower), and NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443, 2.7% lower). These GPUs are all within 2.7% of the Arc B390's score, so they would deliver nearly identical performance in Thief. The practical implication is that swapping the Arc B390 for any of these alternatives would not meaningfully change the FPS results recorded above. The system's playability profile at 1080p Low and Medium would remain intact, and the sub-60 FPS results at 1440p and 4K would persist.

The combination of a strong CPU (71st percentile) with a weak GPU (9th percentile) creates a system where the alternatives are dictated almost entirely by GPU selection. Users with any of the listed rival GPUs would see the same pattern: playable at 1080p on lower presets, unplayable at higher resolutions. The CPU alternatives, being performance-equivalent, would not alter the balance either. The bottleneck remains the graphics subsystem regardless of which near-rival component is chosen.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Thief? The answer depends entirely on resolution and settings, and the verdict data provides a clear picture.

At 3840x2160, the system cannot play Thief at any tested setting. The best result is 35 FPS on Low, which falls well below the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra average 26, 20, and 19 FPS respectively. There are no playable settings at this resolution, and the best settings value is null, indicating that no preset qualifies.

At 2560x1440, the situation is nearly identical. No settings achieve playable status. The Low preset averages 59 FPS, missing the 60 FPS threshold by a single frame. This is the closest the system comes to playability outside of 1080p, but the verdict data confirms that no 1440p settings are classified as playable. Medium, High, and Ultra average 45, 34, and 33 FPS, all firmly below the threshold.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers playable performance on Low and Medium settings. The Low preset averages 86 FPS, well above the threshold. The Medium preset averages 66 FPS, also above the threshold, with a minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 75 FPS. The verdict data identifies Medium as the best playable setting, with an average FPS of 66 at that setting. High (50 FPS) and Ultra (48 FPS) fall short of 60 FPS and are not playable.

The verdict is straightforward: this PC runs Thief at 1080p with Low or Medium settings, delivering average frame rates above 60 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, the system cannot reach playable performance at any preset. The GPU's 9th percentile standing makes this outcome predictable, as the Arc B390 lacks the raw throughput needed for higher resolutions in this title. For a 1080p gaming experience with moderate settings, the system is adequate. For higher resolutions, it is not.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B390 ranks 3307 out of 3720 tested combos for Thief. This places the system in the bottom 11% of all combinations in the database, a position consistent with the GPU's low performance percentile.

The rank reflects the GPU's dominance in determining game performance. The CPU ranks in the 71st percentile among all processors, a solid mid-to-upper tier position. However, the GPU ranks in the 9th percentile among all graphics cards, and in Thief, it is the GPU that governs frame rates. The combination of a strong CPU and weak GPU yields a system that performs like its weakest link, which is precisely what the rank demonstrates.

The practical meaning of the 3307 rank is that most tested combos in the database deliver better performance in Thief. Systems with similar CPUs but stronger GPUs would rank substantially higher, as would systems with balanced mid-range components. The rank also implies that users of this combo are limited to the 1080p Low and Medium settings identified as playable, while the majority of other tested systems can handle higher resolutions or quality presets.

The gap between the CPU's percentile (71) and the GPU's percentile (9) is extreme, and the combo rank reflects the consequences of that mismatch. In Thief, this pairing produces a system that is adequate for 1080p gaming on lower presets but lacks the headroom for anything more demanding. The data shows that the i5-11400F is not the limiting factor; the Arc B390 is. Any upgrade path would need to address the GPU first, as the CPU has substantial untapped potential in this title.