Thief

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a generational leap in performance for Thief, a 2014 stealth classic that still demands respect from modern hardware. The benchmark data, measured at three resolutions and four quality presets, paints a clear picture: this combination is a 1080p champion, a solid 1440p performer, and strictly a low-settings option at 4K. The data shows a system that scales predictably, with the GPU becoming the dominant bottleneck as resolution climbs, while the CPU's substantial headroom ensures framerates remain stable even in the most demanding stealth sequences.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combination reveal a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, with the most dramatic shifts occurring between 1440p and 4K. At 1920x1080, the system performs admirably across all settings. The Low preset yields an average of 133 FPS, representing the fastest configuration tested. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 101 FPS, with a minimum of 86 FPS and a maximum of 116 FPS, indicating consistent frame pacing. The High preset delivers 77 FPS on average, while the Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, still maintains a playable 73 FPS average. This range shows that at 1080p, the Intel Arc B570 has ample compute headroom, allowing the user to prioritize visual fidelity without sacrificing smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the performance picture becomes more nuanced. The Low preset achieves a solid 91 FPS average, comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The Medium preset delivers 69 FPS average, with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS. This near-60 FPS minimum is noteworthy, indicating that while the average is playable, there are occasional dips during intense scenes. The High preset drops to 53 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold, and the Ultra preset further declines to 50 FPS average. The scaling here is roughly linear, with each step up in quality costing between 3 and 19 FPS, depending on the specific preset transition.

The 3840x2160 resolution presents the most challenging environment for this hardware. The Low preset manages a 54 FPS average, narrowly missing the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset achieves 41 FPS average, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS, showing significant frame variance. The High preset drops to 31 FPS average, and the Ultra preset bottoms out at 29 FPS average. None of these configurations reach the playable threshold, making 4K effectively unplayable for this game with this combo. The data indicates a 48% performance reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K, compared to a 45% reduction at 1440p and a 45% reduction at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated at higher pixel counts.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest quality setting that maintains an average of 60 FPS or above at 2560x1440?

A: The Medium preset is the highest quality setting that clears the 60 FPS threshold at 1440p, achieving an average of 69 FPS. The High preset falls short at 53 FPS average, and the Ultra preset further declines to 50 FPS.

*Q: Does the Intel Core i7-14700F bottleneck the Intel Arc B570 in Thief at any resolution?*

A: Benchmark results indicate no CPU bottleneck at any tested resolution. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 133 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 29 FPS, with the scaling pattern showing the GPU as the limiting factor as resolution increases. The CPU's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4958, ensures it can feed the GPU effectively even at high framerates.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1920x1080?

A: The difference is 60 FPS. The Low preset averages 133 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 73 FPS. This represents a 45% performance reduction for the highest visual quality settings.

*Q: Is this combination capable of running Thief at 3840x2160 with any settings?*

A: No. The best result at 4K is the Low preset, which achieves 54 FPS average, below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The Medium preset yields 41 FPS, and the High and Ultra presets drop to 31 FPS and 29 FPS, respectively.

Q: How does the minimum FPS at 1440p Medium compare to the average FPS at 1080p High?

A: The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 59 FPS, which is 18 FPS lower than the 77 FPS average at 1080p High. This indicates that while the 1440p Medium configuration is playable, it has less headroom for dealing with sudden framerate drops.

Q: What is the most demanding preset at 1920x1080, and what average FPS does it produce?

A: The Ultra preset is the most demanding at 1080p, producing an average of 73 FPS. This remains above the 60 FPS playable threshold, confirming that all four presets are playable at this resolution.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the Intel Core i7-14700F and the Intel Arc B570 in Thief is clearly delineated by the resolution scaling data. At 1920x1080, the CPU's influence is more pronounced, as the GPU is not fully saturated. This is evidenced by the wide spread of framerates across presets: 133 FPS at Low versus 73 FPS at Ultra. The CPU, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, provides substantial headroom, as indicated by its PassMark single-thread score of 4257 and multi-thread score of 41317. This allows the system to maintain high framerates even when the GPU is handling lower graphical loads, with the 1080p Low preset reaching 133 FPS without any apparent CPU limitation.

As resolution increases to 2560x1440, the GPU begins to take on a more significant role. The framerate spread narrows compared to 1080p, with the Low preset at 91 FPS and the Ultra preset at 50 FPS. This 41 FPS difference is smaller than the 60 FPS difference seen at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 59 at 1440p, compared to 86 at 1080p, further reinforces this shift. The GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the texture loads at this resolution, but the 160-bit bus width begins to limit performance as the pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is unequivocally the dominant factor. The framerate spread narrows further, with the Low preset at 54 FPS and the Ultra preset at 29 FPS, a difference of only 25 FPS. The GPU's shading units (2304) and raster operations pipelines (80) are simply insufficient for the 8.3 million pixels at 4K, especially when combined with the game's stealth-specific lighting and shadow effects. The CPU's role diminishes to a supporting function, as even the 29 FPS average at 4K Ultra does not stress the Core i7-14700F's capabilities. The benchmark data shows that the CPU's performance is more relevant for maintaining high framerates at lower resolutions, while the GPU dictates playability at higher resolutions.

The scaling between presets at each resolution provides additional insight. At 1080p, the transition from Low to Medium costs 32 FPS, from Medium to High costs 24 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 4 FPS. This pattern suggests that the Ultra preset at 1080p is not dramatically more demanding than High, likely due to diminishing returns in shadow quality and ambient occlusion. At 1440p, the transitions cost 22 FPS, 16 FPS, and 3 FPS respectively, showing a similar but less pronounced pattern. At 4K, the transitions cost 13 FPS, 10 FPS, and 2 FPS, indicating that the GPU is so saturated that preset changes have a smaller absolute impact on framerate. The data consistently shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions above 1080p, while the CPU provides sufficient performance to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

The Verdict

The Intel Core i7-14700F and Intel Arc B570 combination can run Thief successfully, but the playability depends heavily on the chosen resolution and quality preset. At 1920x1080, the system is fully playable across all four presets. The Ultra preset achieves 73 FPS average, the High preset achieves 77 FPS, the Medium preset achieves 101 FPS, and the Low preset achieves 133 FPS. All of these clear the 60 FPS playable threshold, and the data indicates that users can enable the highest visual settings without concern. The best settings at 1080p are the Ultra preset, which provides the highest visual quality while maintaining a 73 FPS average.

At 2560x1440, the system is playable at the Low and Medium presets. The Medium preset is the best playable option, achieving 69 FPS average with a minimum of 59 FPS. This configuration offers a good balance between visual fidelity and performance, though the minimum FPS is very close to the playable threshold. The Low preset provides more headroom at 91 FPS average, but sacrifices visual quality. The High and Ultra presets, at 53 FPS and 50 FPS respectively, fall below the 60 FPS threshold and are not recommended for a consistent gameplay experience.

At 3840x2160, the system is not playable at any preset. The best result is the Low preset at 54 FPS average, which still misses the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset at 41 FPS, High at 31 FPS, and Ultra at 29 FPS are all significantly below the playable threshold. Users with 4K displays should either lower the resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance. The verdict by resolution is clear: 1080p is fully playable, 1440p is playable with reduced settings, and 4K is not a viable option for this hardware combination.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The Intel Core i7-14700F's nearest rivals in CPU benchmark performance include several server and high-end desktop processors. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is the closest comparison, with an average benchmark score of 53288, representing a 0.6% performance deficit relative to the Core i7-14700F's score of 53620. This means that a system with a Ryzen 9 7900X would deliver essentially identical frame rates in Thief, as the CPU is not a bottleneck at any tested resolution. The Intel Xeon 6505P scores 53701, just 0.2% higher, while the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 scores 53469, 0.3% lower, and the AMD EPYC 7313P scores 53206, 0.8% lower. For gaming specifically, the Ryzen 9 7900X is the most relevant alternative due to its consumer-oriented design.

For the Intel Arc B570, the GPU benchmark rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, which scores 20534, just 0.1% lower than the Arc B570's 20556. This suggests that a laptop with an RTX 3070 Mobile would provide nearly identical performance in Thief at all resolutions. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, 0.1% higher, making it the closest desktop alternative. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20480, 0.4% lower, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20662, 0.5% higher. These GPU alternatives would produce framerates within a few percentage points of the Arc B570, meaning users with any of these cards can expect similar playability outcomes: full playability at 1080p, playability at 1440p with Low or Medium settings, and no playable options at 4K.

When considering a full system alternative, a combination of an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X with an Intel Arc A750 would perform nearly identically to the tested configuration. The CPU difference of 0.6% is negligible for Thief, and the GPU difference of 0.1% would result in framerate variations of less than one frame per second. Similarly, a system with an Intel Core i7-14700F and an Intel Arc A750 would offer a slight GPU performance increase, potentially pushing the 4K Low preset from 54 FPS to approximately 54 FPS, still below the playable threshold. The data shows that the tested combination sits in a narrow performance band, with alternatives offering no more than a 0.5% deviation in either direction.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700F and Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2994 out of 3720 tested combos for Thief, placing it in the 19.5th percentile of all possible pairings. This ranking reflects the GPU's relative position among all tested graphics cards, as the CPU's performance is not a limiting factor in this game. The Arc B570's percentile rank of 65 among all GPUs indicates that it performs better than 65% of tested graphics cards, yet the combination's overall rank of 2994 out of 3720 shows that there are many faster pairings available. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that the benchmark database includes many high-end GPU configurations that far exceed the Arc B570's capabilities.

The combo's rank places it in the lower half of tested configurations, with 726 combos ranking below it. This suggests that while the system is capable of playing Thief at 1080p and 1440p with adjusted settings, it is not a top-tier performer for this specific game. The GPU's benchmark scores support this assessment: its PassMark G3D score of 14195 is respectable but not exceptional, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 indicates moderate DirectX 12 performance. The game's 2014 release date means it does not heavily leverage modern API features like DirectX 12 Ultimate, so the GPU's architecture, Xe2-HPG, provides adequate but not outstanding performance.

The rank of 2994 out of 3720 also reflects the GPU's memory configuration. With 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, the Arc B570 offers sufficient capacity for Thief's textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s becomes a constraint at 4K. The data shows that the combo's performance is competitive with mid-range GPUs from the previous generation, such as the Intel Arc A750, but falls behind more powerful options like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile's desktop counterparts. For users prioritizing Thief performance, this combination delivers a playable experience at 1080p and 1440p, but it ranks in the lower third of all tested combos, indicating that more capable alternatives exist for users seeking higher framerates or 4K capability.