Thief

Thief, a 2014 stealth title, still poses a meaningful challenge to modern hardware at higher resolutions. The benchmark data for the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 shows a system that is capable of excellent performance at 1080p and 1440p, but which begins to show its limits at 4K. The measured frame rates reveal a clear narrative about where the bottleneck lies and how the game scales with different settings, making this combo a solid choice for high-refresh-rate gaming at mainstream resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The progression from 1080p to 4K in Thief demonstrates a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system delivers an average of 106 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same High preset, the average drops to 77 FPS, a reduction of 29 FPS. This 27% performance hit is substantial but expected as pixel count increases. The scaling steepens further at 3840x2160, where the average falls to 46 FPS, representing a 40% drop from the 1440p figure and a 57% drop from the 1080p result.

This scaling curve indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU's raw throughput, while sufficient for 1440p, is strained by the 4K pixel workload. The data shows that the GPU is being pushed progressively harder as resolution increases, while the CPU has more headroom to feed frames. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is less severe than the jump to 4K, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated somewhere between these points.

The interesting nuance appears when comparing the Low setting across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 130 FPS, while at 1440p Low it achieves 115 FPS, and at 4K Low it still maintains 79 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Low is only 15 FPS, or about 12%, which is much smaller than the High preset gap. This suggests that at Low settings, the game's workload becomes less demanding on the GPU, allowing the CPU to play a larger role in maintaining performance. However, even at 4K Low, the system cannot match the 1080p High result, confirming that resolution scaling remains a dominant factor.

FAQ

Q: Does this combo handle 4K Ultra settings in Thief?

A: No. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 43 FPS, which is below the typical 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. This setting is not viable for a consistent experience at 4K.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rate monitors?

A: At 1920x1080, the system delivers 106 FPS on High and 105 FPS on Ultra, making it well-suited for 100Hz+ displays. At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 74 FPS, which is still adequate for 75Hz monitors but not for higher refresh rates.

Q: How much performance is gained by lowering settings from Ultra to Low?

A: At 1080p, the jump from Ultra (105 FPS) to Low (130 FPS) provides a 25 FPS increase, or approximately 24%. At 1440p, the gain is larger in absolute terms, going from 74 FPS on Ultra to 115 FPS on Low, a 41 FPS improvement. At 4K, the difference is even more pronounced, with Low at 79 FPS versus Ultra at 43 FPS, a 36 FPS gap.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The consistent FPS drops with increasing resolution indicate GPU limitation. However, at 1080p Low, the 130 FPS cap might be influenced by the CPU's single-thread performance, though the exact limit is not specified in the data.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only min FPS data available is for the Medium preset across all three resolutions: 51 FPS at 4K, 86 FPS at 1440p, and 100 FPS at 1080p. No min FPS values are listed for the Low, High, or Ultra presets.

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

A: The combo ranks 1531 out of 2851 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the 46th percentile. This indicates it performs better than average but is not in the top tier of configurations.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. In Thief, which was released in 2014, the game's engine typically utilizes fewer cores, meaning the CPU's single-thread performance is more critical than its multi-thread capabilities. The processor's single-thread score in Cinebench R23 is 1919, while its multi-core score is 13593, showing a strong single-thread showing relative to its multi-core output.

The benchmark scores for the 4600G place it in the 71st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17507. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (0.1% higher), the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE (0.6% lower), and the Intel Core i3-14100T (0.8% lower). These close margins suggest that the 4600G's performance in CPU-bound scenarios is competitive with modern low-power chips, but Thief's graphics workload means the GPU will dominate the frame time budget.

In the context of Thief, the CPU's 8 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to feed the GPU without introducing stutters. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 130 FPS, which is likely approaching the CPU's frame pacing limit, but the lack of min FPS data for that preset makes it impossible to confirm stability. The 3dmark single-thread score of 726 and 2-thread score of 1430 indicate modest single-core performance, which aligns with the 2014 game's expectations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and AMD Radeon RX 7700 achieves a rank of 1531 out of 2851 tested combos in Thief, placing it near the middle of the pack. This ranking is influenced by the fact that many higher-end configurations with newer CPUs and more powerful GPUs will outperform this setup, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU speed matters more. However, the rank also reflects that this combo is far from the bottom, as it outperforms systems with weaker GPUs or older CPUs.

The GPU's individual benchmark scores help contextualize this ranking. The Radeon RX 7700 has a percentile rank of 58 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15852. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 370X (0.1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (1% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (1.1% lower). These margins are tight, indicating that the RX 7700 sits in a competitive performance tier, but its 58th percentile means it is not a top-tier card.

The CPU's 71st percentile rank is higher than the GPU's, suggesting that the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card in this pairing. This imbalance means that the GPU is more likely to be the limiting factor in Thief, which aligns with the resolution scaling data. The combo's overall rank of 1531/2851 is a composite of these two components, and the data indicates that upgrading the GPU would yield more significant FPS gains than upgrading the CPU for this specific game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers consistent high frame rates: Low averages 130 FPS, Medium averages 118 FPS with a min of 100 and max of 135, High averages 106 FPS, and Ultra averages 105 FPS. The tight spread between High and Ultra (only 1 FPS difference) suggests that Ultra settings add minimal overhead at this resolution, likely due to the game's age and the GPU's ample headroom.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows more variation between presets. Low averages 115 FPS, Medium averages 102 FPS (min 86, max 117), High averages 77 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 25 FPS, indicating that High settings introduce a significant graphical workload increase. The Ultra preset is only 3 FPS lower than High, suggesting that the final quality tier is less demanding than the step from Medium to High.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low averages 79 FPS, Medium averages 60 FPS (min 51, max 69), High averages 46 FPS, and Ultra averages 43 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 19 FPS, and from Medium to High is 14 FPS, while High to Ultra is only 3 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck, and the incremental cost of higher settings diminishes as the resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience at 1920x1080, the Ultra preset is the clear choice. With an average of 105 FPS, it provides a smooth experience that is nearly identical to the High preset (106 FPS) while offering maximum visual quality. The Medium preset at 118 FPS does not offer enough of a performance advantage to justify the visual downgrade, as the min FPS of 100 is still well above playable thresholds.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 77 FPS is the recommended balance. It provides good visual fidelity while staying above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays. The Ultra preset at 74 FPS is also viable if the user prioritizes image quality over a few extra frames, but the difference is minimal. For users with 144Hz monitors, the Medium preset at 102 FPS is the only option that gets closer to that refresh rate, though it requires a visual compromise.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset at 79 FPS is the only setting that delivers a consistently smooth experience. The Medium preset at 60 FPS is borderline, with a min FPS of 51 that could cause noticeable stutters in action-heavy scenes. High and Ultra at 46 and 43 FPS respectively are not recommended for playable frame rates. Users targeting 4K should accept lower graphical settings or consider a more powerful GPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the definitive performance driver in this combo for Thief. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has ample memory resources for this game's textures, even at 4K. The GPU's boost clock of 2459 MHz and game clock of 2041 MHz, based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with 2560 shading units, deliver 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which is more than sufficient for a 2014 title.

The GPU's benchmark results show a passmark G3D score of 20974, placing it in the 58th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 9060, is only 1% faster, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 1.7% faster. These small deltas indicate that the RX 7700 is well-positioned in its performance class, but it is not an exceptional card. The 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2865 further confirms its mid-range standing.

In Thief, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. The measured FPS data shows that the card's performance scales predictably with pixel count, with the 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS being the lowest measured. The GPU's 16 GB VRAM is never a limiting factor in this game, as Thief's memory requirements are modest by modern standards. The card's 96 ROPs and 160 TMUs are sufficient for the game's rendering needs, but the 4K workload ultimately exceeds its fill rate capabilities, leading to the observed frame rate drops.