Thief

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is an unusual combination: a mid-range 11th Gen desktop processor from 2021 paired with the flagship Ada Lovelace GPU. For a 2014 stealth title like Thief, the results are predictably lopsided in favor of the GPU, but the CPU still plays a role at lower resolutions. This analysis covers what settings to use, how the hardware compares to its nearest performance peers, and what the recorded frame rates mean for actual gameplay.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra. The recorded average at Ultra is 117.7 FPS. This is comfortably above the playable threshold, with significant headroom for drops. Since all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) clear 60 FPS at this resolution, there is no reason to drop below Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the same logic applies. Ultra is the best setting, delivering an average of 105.1 FPS. This is still far above the 60 FPS threshold. The gap between Ultra and High is small, only about 3.1 FPS (105.1 vs 108.2), so the visual upgrade from High to Ultra comes at a negligible performance cost. Medium runs at 115.3 FPS, and Low at 132.1 FPS, but none of these lower presets are necessary to maintain smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160 (4K), Ultra remains the best setting, with an average of 80 FPS. This is the only resolution where the margin above 60 FPS narrows, but it still holds. High runs at 82.1 FPS, Medium at 100.6 FPS, and Low at 107.3 FPS. The difference between Ultra and High at 4K is only 2.1 FPS, which means even if the Ultra preset causes occasional dips, High offers almost identical performance. For maximum visual quality, Ultra is safe.

The pattern is consistent: this combination never needs a lower preset to hit 60 FPS. Even the most demanding preset at the highest resolution stays well above the threshold.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The database places the Intel Core i5-11400F in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 17177. The closest comparable processors are a mix of server and mobile parts. The AMD EPYC 7H12 scores 17120, a delta of 0.3 percent, meaning the i5-11400F is effectively tied with it. The Intel Core i5-12450H scores 17239, which is 0.4 percent higher, again a negligible difference. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G scores 17278, 0.6 percent higher. The Intel Core Ultra 7 164U scores 17074, 0.6 percent lower.

What this means for Thief is that any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in this game. The i5-11400F's multicore performance is in the same band as these rivals, so swapping to any of them would not change the outcome at any resolution. The game is not heavily threaded, and the i5-11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than enough for a 2014 title.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4090 sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347. Its nearest rivals are unusual. The Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326, a delta of 0.0 percent, meaning the RTX 4090 and the Arc Pro A60 are statistically identical in the database's aggregate metrics. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 60140, 0.3 percent lower. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M scores 61896, which is 2.5 percent higher, and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 scores 58657, 2.9 percent lower.

For Thief specifically, this means a system with an Arc Pro A60 or a Radeon Pro Vega 48 would likely produce very similar frame rates to the RTX 4090. The game is old enough that even professional workstation GPUs can match the flagship consumer part. The RTX 4090's massive compute advantage is irrelevant here because Thief does not stress modern GPU features. The recorded FPS numbers are limited by the game engine and the CPU at lower resolutions, not by the GPU's raw power.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database records average FPS only, with no minimum or maximum values. The data is clean and consistent across all resolutions and presets.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset runs at 80 FPS. High runs at 82.1 FPS, a 2.1 FPS improvement. Medium runs at 100.6 FPS, which is 20.6 FPS above Ultra. Low runs at 107.3 FPS, which is 27.3 FPS above Ultra. The scaling from Ultra to Low at 4K is a 34.1 percent increase in frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset runs at 105.1 FPS. High runs at 108.2 FPS, a 3.1 FPS improvement. Medium runs at 115.3 FPS, a 10.2 FPS improvement over Ultra. Low runs at 132.1 FPS, a 27 FPS improvement. The scaling from Ultra to Low at 1440p is a 25.7 percent increase.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset runs at 117.7 FPS. High runs at 120.1 FPS, a 2.4 FPS improvement. Medium runs at 135 FPS, a 17.3 FPS improvement. Low runs at 145.8 FPS, a 28.1 FPS improvement. The scaling from Ultra to Low at 1080p is a 23.9 percent increase.

The pattern is clear: the difference between High and Ultra is consistently small, between 2.1 and 3.1 FPS across all resolutions. The differences between Medium and Low are larger, especially at 4K, where Low is 6.7 FPS faster than Medium. This suggests that the Ultra preset is not particularly demanding relative to High, and that the game's main performance levers are the transition from High to Medium and from Medium to Low.

The resolution scaling is also notable. At Ultra, moving from 1080p to 1440p drops the frame rate by 12.6 FPS (117.7 to 105.1). Moving from 1440p to 4K drops it by another 25.1 FPS (105.1 to 80). The cost of 4K is significant, but the absolute numbers remain high.

The Verdict

This PC can run Thief at 60 FPS or above at every resolution and every preset tested. The verdict by resolution is straightforward.

At 1920x1080, all four presets are playable. The best settings are Ultra, with an average of 117.7 FPS. This is 57.7 FPS above the playable threshold. There is no scenario in which this system dips below 60 FPS at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, all four presets are playable. The best settings are Ultra, with an average of 105.1 FPS. This is 45.1 FPS above the threshold. The margin is still enormous.

At 3840x2160, all four presets are playable. The best settings are Ultra, with an average of 80 FPS. This is 20 FPS above the threshold. This is the tightest margin, but it is still comfortable. Even if the average FPS drops by 20 percent in a worst-case scene, it would still land near 64 FPS, above the threshold.

The conclusion is that this combination is overkill for Thief. The game is from 2014, and the RTX 4090 is the fastest consumer GPU in the database. The i5-11400F, while not a flagship, is more than sufficient for this title. Players can max out every setting at 4K and never worry about frame rate.

CPU and GPU Roles

Determining which component matters more requires looking at the scaling between resolutions and presets.

At 1080p, the GPU has the least work to do. The CPU must feed the frames. The fact that Low runs at 145.8 FPS and Ultra runs at 117.7 FPS shows that the preset still matters, but the absolute numbers are high enough that the CPU is not a bottleneck. A weaker CPU would likely lower the Low preset score before it would lower the Ultra score, because at Low the GPU finishes its work faster and waits on the CPU. The i5-11400F's single-thread performance, as measured by its 3dmark single-thread score of 868 and its passmark single-thread score of 2981, is sufficient to keep up.

At 1440p, the GPU begins to take on more load. The frame rates drop by about 12 percent across all presets compared to 1080p. This is a modest drop, indicating that the GPU is still not fully saturated. The CPU is still capable of feeding it.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The Ultra preset drops from 105.1 FPS at 1440p to 80 FPS at 4K, a 23.9 percent drop. The Low preset drops from 132.1 to 107.3, a 18.8 percent drop. This is a classic GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 4090 is doing the heavy lifting, and the CPU is idle enough that its performance is irrelevant.

The data suggests that for Thief, the CPU matters most at 1080p and Low settings, where the frame rates are highest and the GPU has the least work. At 4K and Ultra, the GPU matters almost exclusively. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and its 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth are far beyond what this game requires, but they are what enable the high 4K numbers.

The game's age is a factor. Thief released in 2014, and its engine was designed for hardware of that era. Modern CPUs, even mid-range ones like the i5-11400F, have vastly higher single-thread performance than what the game expects. The RTX 4090's features, such as its 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, are largely unused by this title. The game does not support ray tracing or DLSS, so those resources sit idle.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database's ranking of all tested CPU and GPU combinations for Thief, this pair ranks 1004 out of 3720. This places it in the top 27 percent of all tested combos. That is a strong showing, but it is not at the very top.

The rank is somewhat surprising given the RTX 4090's position as the top consumer GPU. The explanation lies in the CPU. The i5-11400F is a mid-range part, and the database's ranking likely includes combinations with faster CPUs. A pairing with a newer or higher-end CPU would push the rank higher. The RTX 4090 is not the limiting factor in this game; the CPU is, especially at lower resolutions where the game's frame rate is highest.

The GPU's percentile rank of 88 is higher than the CPU's percentile rank of 71. This gap explains why the combo does not rank higher. The CPU is the weaker link. However, for Thief specifically, the CPU's weakness is not a practical problem. The game runs at 80 FPS minimum at 4K Ultra, which is far above the playable threshold.

The rank of 1004 out of 3720 means there are 1003 tested combos that perform better in Thief. These would likely all feature stronger CPUs. But the practical difference between this combo and the top-ranked ones is small in terms of playability. Thief is not a demanding game, and once a system clears 60 FPS at the desired resolution and settings, further improvements in rank do not translate to a better experience.

The data indicates that this combination is a good match for Thief, not because the parts are balanced, but because the game's requirements are so low that even an unbalanced pairing delivers excellent results. The RTX 4090 is massive overkill, and the i5-11400F is more than adequate. For a player who already owns both parts, Thief will run flawlessly at maximum settings on any resolution. For someone building a system specifically for Thief, a much weaker GPU would be sufficient, but this combo leaves no room for doubt.