Thief

The pairing of an Intel Core i5-12400F with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 asks an unusual question of Thief, a stealth title released in 2014: the game is far older than either component, so the interesting data is not whether it runs, but how much headroom remains at each resolution and preset. Benchmark results indicate this combination clears the 60 FPS threshold at nearly every tested configuration — the sole exception sits at 4K on the two upper presets — and the measured scaling data shows the game behaves almost entirely as a GPU-bound workload once the 12400F's six cores are in play.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured average frame rates; minimum and maximum values were not recorded in this dataset, so the analysis rests on averages against the 60 FPS playable threshold.

At 1920x1080, the results are uniformly strong. Low averages 168.8 FPS, Medium 155.3, High 142.2, and Ultra 134. Even the most demanding preset sits at more than double the playable threshold, and the spread between Low and Ultra is only 34.8 FPS — a narrow gap that indicates the RTX 3080 is barely challenged at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds at reduced absolute levels: Low averages 152.1 FPS, Medium 130.1, High 95.1, and Ultra 89.5. Every preset remains well above 60 FPS, and Ultra still delivers roughly half again the threshold. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 62.6 FPS, reflecting the growing pixel count pressing on the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the limits finally appear. Low averages 95.7 FPS and Medium 74.3, both comfortably playable. High drops to 56.8 and Ultra to 54.4 — the only two tested configurations that fall below the 60 FPS line, and only marginally so. The step from Medium (74.3) to High (56.8) costs 17.5 FPS, the single largest preset-to-preset drop in the dataset, which pinpoints High as where 4K becomes too expensive for this configuration in Thief.

Across all twelve measurements, the data shows a consistent hierarchy: resolution is the dominant variable, preset is secondary, and no result falls below the mid-fifties.

FAQ

Q: Can the i5-12400F + RTX 3080 run Thief at 4K Ultra?

A: Not at 60 FPS. Ultra at 3840x2160 averages 54.4 FPS, falling short of the threshold. Dropping one preset to High still lands at 56.8 FPS, so 4K players should target Medium, which averages 74.3 FPS.

Q: What is the best-looking setting that stays playable at 1440p?

A: Ultra. It averages 89.5 FPS at 2560x1440, roughly 30 FPS clear of the threshold, so there is no reason to reduce detail at this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost going from Low to Ultra at 1080p?

A: Very little. Low averages 168.8 FPS and Ultra 134, a difference of 34.8 FPS — under 21% of the Low result — meaning the highest preset is effectively free at this resolution for this hardware.

Q: Is this a measured or estimated dataset?

A: Measured. The results are recorded benchmark runs, not modelled figures, with averages captured at three resolutions across four presets each.

Q: Which preset should 4K players choose?

A: Medium, averaging 74.3 FPS. It is the most demanding preset at 3840x2160 that stays at or above 60 FPS; High and Ultra both dip below.

Q: How does the CPU compare to alternatives in general compute?

A: The i5-12400F sits in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 19039, statistically level with rivals such as the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19047, deltaPct 0) and within a fraction of a percent of the Intel Core 3 201E.

Similar Performance Alternatives

On the CPU side, the i5-12400F's nearest rivals cluster extremely tightly around its average score of 19039. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS averages 19047 with a deltaPct of 0 — an effectively identical result. The Intel Core 3 201E sits at 19056 with deltaPct -0.1, the Intel Core i5-1335U at 18982 with deltaPct 0.3, and the AMD EPYC 7773X at 18979 with deltaPct 0.3. Any of these processors would deliver near-indistinguishable aggregate compute throughput, and in a game of Thief's age the CPU is nowhere near the bottleneck, so Thief frame rates paired with a comparable GPU would behave similarly.

On the GPU side, the RTX 3080 carries an average benchmark score of 23172 and sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, deltaPct -0.3), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, deltaPct -0.3), the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, deltaPct -0.4), and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, deltaPct -0.4). All four fall within a fraction of a percent of the 3080's aggregate score, suggesting broadly comparable overall graphics throughput — though Thief's specific preset scaling, particularly the 4K High cliff, reflects the 3080's Ampere architecture and 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the Thief results database, this CPU/GPU pairing ranks 1007 out of 3720 tested combinations — roughly the top third of configurations benchmarked for this game. That placement is consistent with the hardware's individual standings: the i5-12400F at the 73rd percentile of CPUs and the RTX 3080 at the 68th percentile of GPUs, both solidly upper-tier but neither at the extreme top. Given that Thief runs at 134 FPS even at 1080p Ultra, the rank reflects how much faster premium combinations can push an older, lighter title rather than any weakness here; the headroom above the 60 FPS threshold at most settings is substantial.

The Verdict

Yes — this PC runs Thief, decisively. The verdict data confirms it at every resolution with a caveat only at the top end. At 1920x1080, all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) clear 60 FPS, with Ultra averaging 134. At 2560x1440, all four presets again clear the threshold, topped by Ultra at 89.5 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low (95.7) and Medium (74.3) are playable while High (56.8) and Ultra (54.4) fall short. In short: full detail up to and including 1440p, Medium at 4K.

Best Settings per Resolution

• 1920x1080 — Ultra: 134 FPS average. The most demanding preset stays more than double the threshold; no compromise is warranted.
• 2560x1440 — Ultra: 89.5 FPS average. Nearly 30 FPS of margin remains even at maximum detail.
• 3840x2160 — Medium: 74.3 FPS average. High would be the next step up but averages only 56.8, below the line, so Medium is the most demanding preset that holds at or above 60 FPS.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data points clearly to Thief being GPU-bound on this configuration at every tested resolution. The strongest evidence is the resolution ladder: at a fixed Ultra preset, average FPS falls from 134 at 1080p to 89.5 at 1440p to 54.4 at 4K — a 59% decline driven entirely by resolution, since neither the CPU nor the settings changed. If the processor were the limiter, raising resolution would leave frame rates largely unchanged; instead they scale down steeply with pixel count.

Preset effects reinforce this. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs only 34.8 FPS out of 168.8, and even at 1440p the game stays above 60 FPS at Ultra. The heaviest preset penalty appears at 4K, where the Medium-to-High step costs 17.5 FPS and pushes averages under the threshold — a texture- and effects-driven cost the 10 GB GDDR6X buffer and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth handle comfortably at lower resolutions.

The CPU's contribution is essentially invisible in the frame-rate data, which is expected given its standing: the i5-12400F posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380, a single-core score of 1680, and a PassMark single-thread result of 3481, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs — ample throughput for a 2014 stealth title. Thief predates this Alder Lake chip by roughly eight years, and the game simply cannot generate a workload that saturates six cores and twelve threads. The practical conclusion: at 1080p and 1440p, GPU capability is the only meaningful variable, and even at 4K the limiting factor is the RTX 3080's rendering load at High and Ultra, not the processor behind it. Anyone tuning this build for Thief should adjust resolution and preset; CPU-side changes would move nothing.