Thief

The Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B580 combination delivers playable frame rates in Thief, but only at specific settings per resolution. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings average 84.2 FPS. At 2560x1440, the best playable preset is Medium, averaging 76.4 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low settings reach 61.9 FPS, just above the 60 FPS threshold. The recorded data paints a clear picture of a GPU-bound system that can handle the game at 1080p with headroom, but requires significant compromises at higher resolutions. The game, a stealth title released in 2014, does not appear to stress the CPU heavily, as even the most demanding settings at 1080p stay well above 60 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at 3840x2160?

A: Low, with an average of 61.9 FPS. Medium drops to 47.3, High to 37.8, and Ultra to 35.9. The difference between Low and Medium is substantial, and only Low meets the playable threshold.

Q: At 2560x1440, which settings are playable?

A: Low and Medium are playable. Medium averages 76.4 FPS, while High falls to 59.9, just under the 60 FPS line. Ultra is 56.9, also below the threshold.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Thief?

A: It ranks 2772 out of 3720 tested combos. This places it in the lower portion of the ranking, despite the CPU and GPU each sitting above the 68th percentile individually.

Q: What are the closest CPU alternatives based on average benchmark score?

A: The AMD EPYC 7H12 is 0.3% higher, the Intel Core i5-12450H is 0.4% lower, the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G is 0.6% lower, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U is 0.6% higher. All are within a fraction of a percent of the i5-11400F's average score of 17177.

Q: Which GPUs are nearest in performance to the Arc B580?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP is 0.2% lower, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 is 0.6% higher, the RTX 3080 is 0.7% lower, and the NVIDIA P106-100 is 1% lower. The B580's average score is 23021.

Q: What were the launch MSRPs of the CPU and GPU?

A: The CPU had a launch MSRP of $157, and the GPU had a launch MSRP of 249 USD.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, all four presets exceed 60 FPS. The most demanding preset that remains playable is Ultra, which averages 84.2 FPS. High averages 88.0, Medium 110.4, and Low 146.0, but Ultra is the highest quality option that still clears the threshold. At 2560x1440, the highest playable preset is Medium, with an average of 76.4 FPS. High falls to 59.9, just below the 60 FPS line, and Ultra is 56.9. At 3840x2160, only Low achieves a playable average of 61.9 FPS; Medium, High, and Ultra all stay below 60 FPS, with averages of 47.3, 37.8, and 35.9 respectively. The playable threshold is 60 FPS, so the database selects the most demanding preset that meets this average.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark score, are all within 0.6% of the Intel Core i5-11400F's score of 17177. The AMD EPYC 7H12 is 0.3% higher, the Intel Core i5-12450H is 0.4% lower, the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G is 0.6% lower, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U is 0.6% higher. Swapping to any of these would produce nearly identical CPU-bound behavior in Thief, since the game's frame rates are more sensitive to resolution than to CPU changes.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B580's average score of 23021 is bracketed by the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (0.2% lower), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (0.6% higher), the RTX 3080 (0.7% lower), and the NVIDIA P106-100 (1% lower). These rivals would deliver frame rates very close to those recorded for the B580. Because the game's performance scales strongly with resolution, the GPU choice has a larger impact on playability than the CPU, and any of these alternatives would behave similarly at each resolution. The delta of 1% suggests the frame rate would be close, but the database does not record measurements for those alternatives.

The Verdict

This PC can run Thief. At 1920x1080, every preset clears the 60 FPS threshold, with Ultra averaging 84.2 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low and Medium are playable, with Medium at 76.4 FPS; High misses the mark at 59.9, and Ultra at 56.9. At 3840x2160, only Low reaches 61.9 FPS, so 4K gaming is possible only with reduced visual quality. The verdictByResolution data confirms these findings: 1080p Ultra, 1440p Medium, and 4K Low are the best playable settings at their respective resolutions. For players targeting 60 FPS, this combination is a solid choice at 1080p, a workable option at 1440p with settings lowered to Medium, and a marginal one at 4K with Low settings.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS scaling shows that the GPU is the primary limiting factor in this game. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 146 at 1080p to 103.8 at 1440p and further to 61.9 at 4K. At Ultra, the drop is even steeper: 84.2 at 1080p, 56.9 at 1440p, and 35.9 at 4K. This pattern indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows faster than the CPU's, making the GPU the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The CPU, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14340 and single-core score of 2024, appears sufficient to keep up at 1080p, where even Ultra stays above 60 FPS. At 1440p, High dips to 59.9, suggesting that the GPU is already struggling before the CPU becomes a factor. At 4K, all settings except Low fall below 60, reinforcing that the GPU is the dominant constraint. The data does not show any scenario where the CPU limits performance; the frame rate always responds more to resolution changes than to settings changes. For example, at 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra reduces the average from 146 to 84.2, while at 4K the same settings change reduces it from 61.9 to 35.9. The pattern is consistent with GPU-bound behavior across all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In Thief, this combination ranks 2772 out of 3720 tested combos. That places it in the lower portion of the field. The CPU sits in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, yet their combined rank is lower than either individual percentile might suggest. This indicates that the game's specific rendering demands do not favor this pairing as strongly as the synthetic benchmarks would imply. The rank reflects the measured FPS data, which shows playable performance at 1080p but quickly falls off at higher resolutions. The gap between the individual percentiles and the combined rank suggests that Thief's engine may not fully utilize the strengths of this hardware combination.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database records only average FPS for this title; minimum and maximum values were not captured. The following table lists all measured averages.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

|------------|----------|-------------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 37.8 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 61.9 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 47.3 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 35.9 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 59.9 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 103.8 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 76.4 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 56.9 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 88.0 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 146.0 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 110.4 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 84.2 |

The highest recorded average is 146.0 at 1080p Low, and the lowest is 35.9 at 4K Ultra. These numbers confirm that the system's performance scales predictably with resolution and settings, with the GPU acting as the decisive component.