Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER pairing delivers a playable experience in Thief, but the data clearly shows where the bottleneck lies. With average framerates ranging from 61 FPS at 4K Ultra to 108.2 FPS at 1080p Low, this combo is consistently GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the older CPU begins to assert itself at 1080p. The benchmark results indicate that users can expect a smooth experience at most settings, but the scaling pattern reveals that the RTX 4070 SUPER has headroom left on the table when paired with this six-core processor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but informative drop as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 108.2 FPS; moving to 1440p Low drops that to 95.8 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 78.8 FPS. This represents a 27% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The pattern is consistent across all settings: High settings yield 88.5 FPS at 1080p, 78.2 FPS at 1440p, and 65.3 FPS at 4K, a 26% drop from the lowest to highest resolution.

The scaling behavior tells a clear story about the limiting component. At 1080p, the framerate gap between Low and Ultra is only 18.9 FPS (108.2 vs 89.3), which is relatively modest. This suggests the Ryzen 5 2600 is starting to cap performance even at the lowest settings. At 4K, the gap between Low and Ultra widens to 17.8 FPS (78.8 vs 61), but the absolute numbers are lower, indicating the GPU is now the primary constraint. The RTX 4070 SUPER is powerful enough that it can push well past 100 FPS at 1080p Low, but the CPU cannot feed it fast enough to realize that potential.

The most telling comparison is the 4K Ultra result of 61 FPS versus the 1080p Ultra result of 89.3 FPS. That 32% performance hit from resolution scaling is entirely attributable to the GPU workload increasing, while the CPU load remains relatively constant. For a game from 2014, Thief shows surprising scaling demands on the graphics card, but the data suggests the Ryzen 5 2600 is not severely hampering the experience at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER brings substantial resources to this pairing: 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz with a boost of 2475 MHz, and its 7168 shading units help drive the framerates observed. The 80 ROPs and 224 TMUs are more than sufficient for a 2014 title, even at 4K resolution.

The VRAM allocation is a non-issue for this game. With 12 GB available, Thief's texture requirements at Ultra settings are easily satisfied, as evidenced by the playable 61 FPS at 4K Ultra. The memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s is ample for the game's data throughput needs, and the GDDR6X type offers no bottlenecks in these measurements.

The GPU's architecture supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, though Thief is an older title that likely runs in DirectX 11 mode. The PassMark DirectX 11 score of 273 and DirectX 12 score of 110 indicate the card's raw API performance, but the real-world results in this game show consistent scaling across settings. The 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is overkill for this workload, which reinforces the conclusion that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p.

Interestingly, the GPU's percentile rank of 84 versus all GPUs means it outperforms 84% of graphics cards in the database. This is a strong card, and the measured results in Thief reflect that, with even the lowest 4K result (61 FPS at Ultra) being playable.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 998th out of 1642 tested combos in Thief. That places it in the bottom 40% of all pairings, which might seem surprising given the individual components' strengths. However, the CPU is the weak link here: the Ryzen 5 2600 sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 84th percentile among all GPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database illustrate its position. The Intel Core i5-1345U scores 19691, a mere 0.4% higher than the Ryzen 5 2600's 19616 average. The AMD Ryzen 5 7530U is 0.6% slower, and the Intel Core i7-10700F is 0.7% faster. These are all within 1% of each other, meaning the Ryzen 5 2600 performs on par with modern mid-range mobile and desktop chips in synthetic benchmarks.

The GPU's rivals tell a similar story. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 42576 average score is just 0.2% behind the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE. It leads the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6%. This clustering at the top of the GPU charts confirms that the graphics card is not the reason for the combo's low ranking.

The rank of 998 out of 1642 is driven by the CPU's inability to fully leverage the GPU's power in this specific game. Combos ranked higher likely pair the RTX 4070 SUPER with newer, faster processors that can push higher framerates at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience on this combo, the data suggests that Medium settings at 1440p offer the most balanced performance. At 1440p Medium, the combo delivers 90.5 FPS, which is only 5.3 FPS less than 1080p Medium (100.7 FPS) but provides a much sharper image. This is the sweet spot where the GPU's power is fully utilized without the CPU becoming a bottleneck.

At 4K, High settings provide 65.3 FPS, which is perfectly playable for a stealth game where precision matters more than reaction speed. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 4.3 FPS (65.3 to 61), which is a 6.6% performance hit for marginal visual gains. Most users will prefer High at 4K for the smoother framerate.

If 1080p is the target resolution, Ultra settings at 89.3 FPS are the way to go. The drop from Ultra to High at 1080p is only 0.8 FPS (89.3 vs 88.5), which suggests the settings are not heavily taxing the GPU at this resolution. The CPU is the limiting factor here, so turning down settings yields diminishing returns below 1080p Medium.

The worst choice would be 4K Ultra at 61 FPS, which sits right at the threshold of playability. The data shows that Low settings at any resolution produce the highest framerates, but the visual compromise is rarely worth it for a game like Thief where atmosphere matters.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest framerates: 108.2 FPS on Low, 100.7 FPS on Medium, 88.5 FPS on High, and 89.3 FPS on Ultra. Note the anomaly where High is slightly slower than Ultra (88.5 vs 89.3), which is within measurement variance but worth mentioning. The spread from Low to Ultra is 18.9 FPS, or 17.5%.

At 2560x1440, the results are: 95.8 FPS on Low, 90.5 FPS on Medium, 78.2 FPS on High, and 80.8 FPS on Ultra. Again, Ultra (80.8) beats High (78.2) by 2.6 FPS, a pattern that repeats from 1080p. The 1440p results are consistently 10-15% lower than 1080p, which is a reasonable scaling factor.

At 3840x2160, the framerates are: 78.8 FPS on Low, 73.7 FPS on Medium, 65.3 FPS on High, and 61 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results show a more dramatic drop from 1080p: Low is 27.2% slower, Medium is 26.8% slower, High is 26.2% slower, and Ultra is 31.7% slower. This widening gap at Ultra settings indicates that the 4K Ultra workload is the most demanding configuration tested.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the RTX 4070 SUPER handles 1440p with ease, delivering playable framerates even at Ultra. At 4K, only Low and Medium settings break 70 FPS, with High and Ultra settling in the low-to-mid 60s.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Thief at 4K?*

A: Yes, but only at playable framerates. The measured results show 65.3 FPS at 4K High and 61 FPS at 4K Ultra. For a smoother experience, 4K Medium delivers 73.7 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 2600 appears to be the limiting factor, as framerates top out at 108.2 FPS on Low and do not scale much with settings. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the constraint, with performance dropping as resolution increases.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1440p offers the best balance. Medium settings at 1440p yield 90.5 FPS, which is close to the 1080p results but with significantly better image quality.

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

A: It ranks 998th out of 1642 combos in Thief, placing it in the lower half of tested systems. The CPU's modest performance relative to the GPU is the main reason for this ranking.

Q: Should I use Ultra settings with this combo?

A: At 1080p, Ultra (89.3 FPS) is nearly identical to High (88.5 FPS), so there is no penalty for using it. At 1440p, Ultra (80.8 FPS) slightly beats High (78.2 FPS). At 4K, Ultra (61 FPS) is 6.6% slower than High (65.3 FPS) and may not be worth it.

*Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM on the RTX 4070 SUPER matter for Thief?*

A: The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is more than sufficient for this game. Even at 4K Ultra, the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor, as evidenced by the playable 61 FPS result.