Thief

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 brings six cores and twelve threads to this configuration, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. This 2000-series processor, built on the Zen architecture and manufactured on a 12 nm process, operates within a 65 W TDP and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s. The CPU's L3 cache is 16 MB shared across all cores, while each core has 96 KB of L1 and 512 KB of L2 cache.

In Thief, the Ryzen 5 2600's multi-threaded capability matters because the game can distribute AI routines, physics calculations, and scene management across multiple threads. The recorded data indicates that at 1080p Low settings, the average FPS reaches 110, which is the highest measured value in this dataset. That result suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls and game state updates to reach high frame rates when the graphics load is reduced.

The CPU's benchmark profile places it at the 75th percentile among all tested processors. Its average benchmark score is 21484, with a Cinebench R15 multi-core score of 1248 and a single-core score of 157.3. In Geekbench, the multi-core score is 5648 and the single-core score is 1154. PassMark multi-thread performance is 13160, while single-thread performance is 2239. These numbers position the Ryzen 5 2600 close to the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V, which has an average score of 21440, a 0.2 percent difference. It also sits near the Intel Core i9-11900H, with a 21367 average score and a 0.5 percent difference, and the AMD EPYC 9454, which averages 21223, a 1.2 percent difference.

For Thief specifically, the 1080p High preset delivers an average of 90 FPS, while the 1080p Ultra preset delivers 86 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 24 FPS, which indicates that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at this resolution. The Ryzen 5 2600's twelve threads provide sufficient headroom for the game's simulation layer, and the measured frame rates do not collapse when settings increase, which would be the expected symptom of a CPU limitation.

The processor's 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs means it outperforms a majority of tested parts in general workloads, but it is not in the top tier. In the context of this 2014 stealth title, the CPU's six cores are more than adequate because Thief's engine does not demand extreme single-thread performance. The single-core Geekbench score of 1154 and the PassMark single-thread score of 2239 are sufficient to maintain consistent frame pacing, as evidenced by the 1080p Low result of 110 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER uses the TU106 chip on a 12 nm process from TSMC, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1470 MHz with a boost clock of 1650 MHz, and memory operates at 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective. The card has 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, 64 raster operation units, 34 ray tracing cores, and 272 tensor cores. Its pixel rate is 105.6 GPixel/s, texture rate is 224.4 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 7.181 TFLOPS.

This GPU's role in Thief is substantial because the game's lighting, shadows, and volumetric effects place heavy demands on the rasterization pipeline. The RTX 2060 SUPER ranks at the 62nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18093. Its PassMark G3D score is 16462, while the DirectX 11 score is 130 and the DirectX 12 score is 61. In Geekbench Vulkan, the score is 77402, and OpenCL is 76957. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile with an average score of 18159, a 0.4 percent difference, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 with 18189, a 0.5 percent difference. The AMD Radeon RX 460 scores 18373, a 1.5 percent difference, and the Intel Arc A770M scores 18383, a 1.6 percent difference.

Across the measured resolutions, the GPU's influence becomes more apparent as resolution increases. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 86, but at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 59, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 35. This pattern shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER's compute throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not a constraint in this game, as Thief's texture sizes from 2014 fit comfortably within that allocation, but the raw fill rate and shader performance determine the frame rate at 4K.

The GPU's FP32 throughput of 7.181 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, but it is well matched to a game from 2014 that uses DirectX 11-era rendering techniques. The 1440p High result of 62 FPS and the 4K High result of 36 FPS indicate that the card can handle the game at these settings, but the 4K High result falls below the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Low result of 63 FPS shows that reducing settings can bring the game into a playable range, but the GPU remains the dominant factor in the 4K results.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this CPU and GPU combination in Thief?

A: The highest average FPS in the measured data is 110 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 2600 compare to its nearest rival in general CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484, which is 0.2 percent higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V's 21440 score, and 0.5 percent higher than the Intel Core i9-11900H's 21367 score.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra in Thief?

A: The difference is 24 FPS, with Low averaging 110 FPS and Ultra averaging 86 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combination achieve exactly 60 FPS or close to it?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average FPS is 62, and at 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average FPS is 63. The 1440p Ultra preset averages 59 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER's average benchmark score compare to the RTX 3060 Mobile?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 18093, which is 0.4 percent lower than the RTX 3060 Mobile's 18159 score.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in any measured configuration?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 40 FPS, which appears in the 3840x2160 Medium preset, where the average is 48 FPS and the maximum is 55 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 110 FPS, Medium produces 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 and a maximum of 114, High produces 90 FPS, and Ultra produces 86 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 24 FPS, which is the smallest relative drop across all resolutions, indicating that the system has enough headroom at this resolution to absorb higher graphical demands without severe frame rate loss.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 97 for Low, 81 for Medium with a minimum of 69 and a maximum of 93, 62 for High, and 59 for Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low falls by 13 FPS, Medium by 18 FPS, High by 28 FPS, and Ultra by 27 FPS. The High and Ultra presets at 1440p both approach the 60 FPS boundary, with High slightly above and Ultra slightly below.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve shows a steeper decline. Low averages 63 FPS, Medium averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 55, High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The 4K results reveal that only the Low preset remains above 60 FPS, while Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below 50 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is just 1 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is saturated and additional settings changes yield minimal gains.

The Medium preset is the only setting that has recorded minimum and maximum FPS values across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the range is 84 to 114 FPS; at 1440p Medium, the range is 69 to 93 FPS; and at 4K Medium, the range is 40 to 55 FPS. These ranges show that frame pacing remains stable at lower resolutions but becomes more volatile as pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces average FPS by approximately 13 to 28 percent depending on the preset. Low settings drop from 110 to 97 FPS, a 13 FPS decrease. Medium drops from 99 to 81 FPS, an 18 FPS decrease. High drops from 90 to 62 FPS, a 28 FPS decrease. Ultra drops from 86 to 59 FPS, a 27 FPS decrease. The larger absolute drops for High and Ultra indicate that these presets place more load on the GPU's shading and texture units, which scale with pixel count.

The transition from 1440p to 4K produces even sharper declines. Low falls from 97 to 63 FPS, a 34 FPS decrease. Medium falls from 81 to 48 FPS, a 33 FPS decrease. High falls from 62 to 36 FPS, a 26 FPS decrease. Ultra falls from 59 to 35 FPS, a 24 FPS decrease. The total drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 47 FPS, while the total drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 51 FPS.

These scaling patterns point to the GPU as the limiting component. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, especially with High or Ultra settings. The CPU's role diminishes as resolution increases because the frame time becomes dominated by pixel processing rather than game logic. At 4K, the difference between High and Ultra is only 1 FPS, which suggests that the GPU is fully saturated and cannot extract additional performance from either preset.

The 4K Low result of 63 FPS is notable because it demonstrates that the GPU can still deliver playable frame rates if the settings are reduced, but the gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 15 FPS, which is larger than the corresponding gaps at 1080p and 1440p. This indicates that the Medium preset introduces enough additional shading work to push the GPU past its comfortable operating point.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS, which keeps the frame rate well above typical display refresh rates. At 1440p, Medium averages 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS, which remains smooth for most gaming scenarios. At 4K, Medium averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS, which is lower than ideal but still within a playable range for a stealth game.

The High preset at 1080p delivers 90 FPS, which is only 9 FPS lower than Medium but offers improved visual fidelity. At 1440p, High averages 62 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold, but the minimum FPS is not recorded, so frame drops cannot be assessed. At 4K, High averages 36 FPS, which falls below the playable threshold for most users.

The Ultra preset provides the highest visual quality but comes with measurable performance costs. At 1080p, Ultra averages 86 FPS, which is acceptable, but the drop from Medium is 13 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra averages 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target. At 4K, Ultra averages 35 FPS, which is the lowest measured result in the dataset.

For users who prioritize frame rate stability, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 110 FPS, and at 1440p it delivers 97 FPS. At 4K, Low delivers 63 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that reaches 60 FPS or above. However, the Low preset sacrifices lighting and shadow quality, which are central to Thief's stealth gameplay, and the Medium preset provides a more balanced experience.

The data suggests that Medium is the recommended preset for this combination, because it maintains the highest minimum FPS values recorded in the dataset. The 1080p Medium minimum of 84 FPS and the 1440p Medium minimum of 69 FPS are higher than any other preset's minimum at those resolutions. At 4K, Medium's minimum of 40 FPS is low, but it is the only preset with a recorded minimum at that resolution, making it the most stable option among the 4K measurements.

How This Combo Ranks

This AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination ranks 2859 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief. That places it in the lower portion of the database, which reflects the age of the CPU and the mid-range positioning of the GPU relative to the entire test pool. The rank indicates that a large number of modern combinations outperform this pairing in this game, but the measured FPS values show that the combination remains fully playable at 1080p and 1440p.

The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all processors suggests that it is not the primary reason for the low combo rank. The GPU's 62nd percentile ranking is closer to the middle of the distribution, but both components are several generations removed from the current test pool. The combo rank of 2859 out of 3720 means that roughly 77 percent of tested combinations deliver higher average frame rates in Thief, which is expected given that many newer GPUs have significantly higher FP32 throughput and memory bandwidth.

Within the context of the measured data, the combination performs best at 1080p and 1440p with Medium or High settings. The 4K results are weaker, with only the Low preset exceeding 60 FPS. The rank does not account for the game's age or the fact that Thief was released before either component was manufactured; it simply reflects the measured FPS across all tested configurations.

The nearest GPU rivals, including the RTX 3060 Mobile and AMD Radeon Pro 5700, have average benchmark scores that are within 0.5 percent of the RTX 2060 SUPER. This suggests that the GPU's performance class is comparable to those parts, and the combo rank would likely shift if paired with a newer CPU. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V and Intel Core i9-11900H, also show that the Ryzen 5 2600's general compute performance is not far behind more recent processors.

The recorded data indicates that this combination is suitable for Thief at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results are marginal. The combo rank of 2859 out of 3720 places this pairing in the lower third of the database, which is consistent with the hardware's age and tier. Users with this combination should target Medium settings at 1440p for the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, based on the measured FPS values.