Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti presents an interesting study in bottleneck dynamics within the 2014 stealth title Thief. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system where the GPU’s raw power is often tempered by the CPU’s older Zen 2 architecture, yet the combination still delivers a highly playable experience. This analysis breaks down the measured data to understand where the limits lie and what the optimal configuration is.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is significant, but the pattern is not uniform across all settings. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 104.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 92.1 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 70.8 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 32% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is similar for the Medium preset, which drops from 114.7 FPS to 104.6 FPS at 1440p and then to 85.3 FPS at 4K, a 25.6% decrease overall.

However, the most telling data comes from the Low preset. Here, the frame rate only drops from 131.7 FPS at 1080p to 117 FPS at 1440p, and then to 98.9 FPS at 4K. The 24.9% drop from 1080p to 4K is the smallest of all presets, yet the absolute FPS at 4K is still substantially higher than at High settings. This suggests that at Low settings, the rendering load is light enough that the CPU becomes a more significant limiting factor, preventing the GPU from fully stretching its legs at lower resolutions. The relatively small delta between 1080p and 1440p at Low (131.7 vs 117 FPS) hints at a CPU ceiling around the 117-130 FPS mark, a constraint that becomes less apparent at higher, more GPU-intensive presets.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest relative decline, from 103.8 FPS at 1080p to 89.3 FPS at 1440p and 66.7 FPS at 4K, a 35.7% drop. This indicates that at Ultra, the GPU is heavily engaged, and the increasing pixel count directly translates to lower frame rates. The data implies that the RTX 4070 Ti is the primary driver of performance at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 4600G’s 6 cores and 12 threads become more of a bottleneck as resolution decreases and the CPU’s per-frame workload becomes more prominent.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience balances visual fidelity with frame rate stability. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 104.3 FPS, which is only 0.5 FPS less than the Ultra preset’s 103.8 FPS. Given that the difference is negligible, the High preset offers a better performance-per-visual-cost ratio, as Ultra provides no measurable benefit at this resolution. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 114.7 FPS, a 10% improvement over High, but the visual downgrade is likely not worth the extra frames for a stealth game.

At 2560x1440, the High preset’s 92.1 FPS is the sweet spot. It provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining better visuals than Medium (104.6 FPS) or Low (117 FPS). The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 89.3 FPS, which is still playable but offers diminishing returns over High. For 4K gaming, the High preset’s 70.8 FPS is the recommended target. It is the only preset above 60 FPS at this resolution, as Ultra falls to 66.7 FPS and Medium to 85.3 FPS. While 4K Low produces a higher 98.9 FPS, the visual compromise is substantial. The data suggests that High settings across all resolutions provide the most balanced experience, with the 4K High preset being the definitive choice for maximum quality without sacrificing playability.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its benchmark scores place it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with a multi-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 13,593 and a single-thread score of 1,919. These figures are modest by modern standards, and the data suggests they directly influence Thief’s performance.

When examining the 1080p Low preset, the 131.7 FPS result appears to be near the CPU’s maximum output for this game. The fact that increasing the resolution to 1440p only drops this to 117 FPS, while the GPU becomes more loaded, indicates that the processor is not the sole bottleneck at lower resolutions. However, the gap between Low (131.7 FPS) and Ultra (103.8 FPS) at 1080p is 27.9 FPS, which is a larger spread than what is seen at 4K (98.9 vs 66.7 FPS). This wider gap at 1080p implies that the CPU has more headroom to feed the GPU when settings are low, but the GPU’s frame generation is still capped by the CPU’s ability to process game logic and draw calls.

The CPU’s L3 cache is 8 MB (shared), which is small for a modern processor, and its memory bandwidth is 51.2 GB/s. In a game like Thief, which is from 2014 and likely not heavily optimized for multi-threading, the 6-core/12-thread configuration may not be fully utilized. The single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 score of 1,919, is likely the more critical factor for this title. The data implies that while the CPU is adequate for 60 FPS gaming, it prevents the RTX 4070 Ti from reaching its full potential at lower resolutions, as seen by the plateau in FPS between Low and Medium settings at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 4600G and RTX 4070 Ti ranks 709th out of 1,642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all systems. This ranking is notably lower than what the GPU alone would suggest, given that the RTX 4070 Ti sits in the 85th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 44,900. In contrast, the CPU is in the 75th percentile with an average benchmark score of 17,489. The disparity between the two components’ individual rankings and the combo’s overall rank indicates a significant bottleneck.

The system is being held back by the CPU, which is an older, lower-tier part relative to the high-end GPU. This is confirmed by the measured FPS data, which shows that the combo cannot consistently push frame rates above 100 FPS at 1080p, even on Low settings. If the GPU were the sole limiting factor, we would expect to see much higher frame rates at 1080p, as the RTX 4070 Ti is capable of far more. The 709th rank out of 1,642 suggests that many other combinations, likely with more balanced CPU-GPU pairings, achieve better performance in this specific title. The data implies that this combo is overkill on the GPU side and underpowered on the CPU side, resulting in a suboptimal overall experience for a game that is not particularly demanding by modern standards.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is a high-end graphics card built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, featuring 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2610 MHz, and it delivers 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. With a PassMark G3D score of 31,624 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 5,024, the GPU’s raw power is substantial, placing it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs.

In Thief, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the difference between the Low preset (98.9 FPS) and Ultra preset (66.7 FPS) is 32.2 FPS, which is a 48% performance gap. This wide margin demonstrates that the GPU is heavily taxed at 4K, and the visual settings have a direct and significant impact on frame rate. The 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for a game from 2014, as Thief’s texture and geometry requirements are unlikely to exceed even 4 GB, so VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor here.

The RTX 4070 Ti’s 80 ROPs and 240 TMUs are ample for this era of game, and the measured FPS at 4K High (70.8 FPS) shows that the GPU can maintain playable frame rates even at the highest resolution with high settings. However, the GPU’s performance is clearly being capped by the CPU at lower resolutions. For instance, at 1080p, the frame rate only improves by 27.9 FPS when going from Ultra to Low, whereas at 4K, the same setting change yields a 32.2 FPS improvement. This indicates that the GPU has more headroom at 1080p but is waiting on the CPU, while at 4K, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, and its performance scaling with settings is more linear.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Thief?*

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 at High settings provides a strong balance with 92.1 FPS, but 1920x1080 at High (104.3 FPS) or Ultra (103.8 FPS) offers the highest frame rates without major visual compromises.

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

A: The bottleneck shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU limits performance, as shown by the small FPS differences between presets. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary limiter, with a 48% FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings.

*Q: Does the RTX 4070 Ti’s 12 GB VRAM matter for Thief?*

A: No. Thief is a 2014 title with modest VRAM requirements. The 12 GB of GDDR6X is far more than necessary, and the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is not a constraining factor in this game.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: It ranks 709th out of 1,642 combos, which is in the 43rd percentile. This is lower than the individual rankings of both the CPU (75th percentile) and GPU (85th percentile), indicating a CPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 103.8 at 1080p to 66.7 at 4K, a 35.7% reduction, highlighting the GPU’s increased workload at higher resolutions.

Q: Should I use the Low preset for maximum FPS?

A: At 1080p, Low settings yield 131.7 FPS, which is the highest measured. However, at 4K, Low gives 98.9 FPS, which is lower than the High preset at 1440p (92.1 FPS), suggesting that lowering resolution is more effective than lowering settings for high frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists all measured average FPS values for the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination in Thief.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

|---|---|---|

| 3840x2160 | High | 70.8 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 98.9 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 85.3 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 66.7 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 92.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 117 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 104.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 89.3 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 104.3 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 131.7 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 114.7 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 103.8 |

The data shows a clear trend: at 1080p, the frame rates cluster tightly between 103.8 and 131.7 FPS, with a spread of only 27.9 FPS across all settings. At 1440p, the spread widens to 27.7 FPS (89.3 to 117 FPS), and at 4K, it expands to 32.2 FPS (66.7 to 98.9 FPS). This progressive widening of the FPS range as resolution increases confirms that the GPU’s influence grows with pixel count, while the CPU’s influence is more apparent at lower resolutions. The maximum measured FPS is 131.7 at 1080p Low, and the minimum is 66.7 at 4K Ultra, representing a 2x difference between the best and worst-case scenarios.