Thief

Settings Recommendations

For this combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Intel Arc B390 in Thief, the data clearly shows that Low settings deliver the only consistently playable experience across all resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 86 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 66 FPS, still smooth, while High falls to 50 FPS and Ultra to 48 FPS. Given that the GPU sits at the 9th percentile among all tested GPUs, pushing higher settings introduces significant frame rate penalties that outweigh the visual gains.

At 1440p, the Low preset yields 59 FPS, which remains within a playable range for most users. Medium at 1440p drops to 45 FPS, and both High and Ultra fall to 34 FPS and 33 FPS respectively. The 4K results are the most telling: Low manages 35 FPS, Medium 26 FPS, and both High and Ultra drop below 21 FPS (20 and 19 respectively). These numbers indicate that 4K is not a viable option for this combo, even at the lowest settings.

The recommendation is straightforward: use Low settings for any resolution above 1080p, and consider Medium at 1080p if visual fidelity is a priority and the 20 FPS trade-off from Low to Medium is acceptable. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 20 FPS (86 to 66), while the gap between Medium and High is 16 FPS (66 to 50). The jump from High to Ultra yields only 2 FPS (50 to 48), making Ultra an inefficient choice. Benchmark results indicate that the performance curve flattens dramatically at higher presets, suggesting the GPU becomes the limiting factor well before the CPU's capabilities are exhausted.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with Intel Arc B390 ranks 2534 out of 2851 tested combos in Thief. That places it in the bottom 11% of all combinations tested, which aligns with the GPU's overall percentile ranking of 9 among all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, sits at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19593. The disparity between the CPU's strong standalone performance and the combo's poor in-game ranking underscores that the GPU is the dominant constraint in this pairing.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals provides context for what the processor contributes. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 scores within 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (19617 vs 19593), within 0.4% of the Intel Core i5-12500 (19668 vs 19593), and within 0.7% of the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19723 vs 19593). It actually edges out the Intel Core i7-10700F by 0.5% (19499 vs 19593). These tight deltas indicate the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class, neither boosting nor hindering the combo's overall ranking.

The GPU's nearest rivals paint a different picture. The Intel Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% above the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% above the GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% above the GeForce GT 710 (1443). These are all entry-level or legacy GPUs, confirming that the Arc B390 operates in a very low performance tier. The combo's rank of 2534 out of 2851 reflects this GPU limitation, with the CPU's respectable standing unable to compensate in a game that clearly stresses the graphics subsystem.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. Its memory configuration is "System Shared," meaning it draws from the system's DDR4 memory pool rather than dedicated VRAM. This has direct implications for Thief's performance, as the game's texture streaming and geometry data must compete with CPU memory access. The memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," which for this platform with dual-channel DDR4 at 51.2 GB/s means the GPU's effective bandwidth is capped by the same memory bus the CPU uses.

Clock behavior is notable: the base clock is 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2500 MHz. This wide boost range suggests the GPU can scale significantly under load, but the measured FPS results indicate it rarely sustains high clocks in demanding scenarios. The GPU's pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 7.680 TFLOPS. These figures place it far below dedicated gaming GPUs, which explains why Thief's performance collapses at higher resolutions and settings.

The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The small ROP count is particularly relevant for resolution scaling, as ROP throughput directly affects fill-rate-limited scenarios. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which covers Thief's API requirements. However, the architectural capabilities do not translate into playable frame rates at high settings. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts that predate modern gaming workloads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the dataset provides a complete picture across all four settings. Low delivers 86 FPS average, which is the only result above 60 FPS in the entire measurement set. Medium drops to 66 FPS, still above the 60 FPS threshold, with minimums of 56 FPS and maximums of 75 FPS. High falls to 50 FPS, a 24% reduction from Medium, while Ultra produces 48 FPS, only 2 FPS below High. The Medium preset's min-max range of 56-75 FPS shows reasonable consistency, though the 19 FPS spread indicates some scene-to-scene variability.

Moving to 2560x1440, all settings shift downward by roughly 25-30%. Low produces 59 FPS, just shy of the 60 FPS target. Medium yields 45 FPS with a min-max range of 38-52 FPS, representing a 14 FPS spread. High drops to 34 FPS, and Ultra to 33 FPS. The relative ordering remains consistent with 1080p: Low beats Medium by 14 FPS, Medium beats High by 11 FPS, and High and Ultra are nearly identical with just 1 FPS separating them. This pattern suggests that the Ultra preset offers negligible visual benefit over High while costing measurable performance.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable. Low produces 35 FPS, which is borderline for a stealth game where precision matters. Medium drops to 26 FPS with a min-max range of 22-30 FPS, High to 20 FPS, and Ultra to 19 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is just 1 FPS. None of the 4K results approach playable levels, and the data strongly suggests avoiding this resolution entirely with this combo.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows consistent scaling losses across all settings. At Low, the drop is from 86 to 59 FPS, a 31% reduction. Medium falls from 66 to 45 FPS, a 32% reduction. High goes from 50 to 34 FPS, a 32% reduction. Ultra from 48 to 33 FPS, a 31% reduction. This uniformity indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as CPU-bound scenarios would show less consistent scaling across settings. The pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p, and the observed ~31-32% FPS drops align with a GPU that is already saturated at lower resolutions.

The jump from 1440p to 4K is even more punishing. Low falls from 59 to 35 FPS, a 41% reduction. Medium drops from 45 to 26 FPS, a 42% reduction. High from 34 to 20 FPS, a 41% reduction. Ultra from 33 to 19 FPS, a 42% reduction. The 4K pixel count is 2.25 times that of 1440p, and the consistent ~41-42% FPS losses suggest the GPU is hitting memory bandwidth or ROP throughput limits rather than pure compute limits. The system-shared memory configuration means that at 4K, the GPU's memory traffic competes more heavily with CPU operations, further degrading performance.

These scaling patterns confirm that the GPU is the bottleneck at every resolution and setting combination. The CPU's strong single-threaded and multi-threaded scores (Cinebench R23 single-core 2319, multi-core 16429) are more than sufficient for Thief's 2014-era engine, but the Arc B390's 9th percentile GPU ranking cannot keep pace with the game's rendering demands at higher resolutions. The data shows that resolution scaling follows the GPU's fill-rate and bandwidth constraints almost perfectly, with no evidence of CPU limitation at any measured point.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 at Low settings produces 86 FPS average, which is the highest measured result. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 59 FPS, still playable. 4K is not recommended, as even Low settings only manage 35 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 scores 19593 on average benchmarks. It is 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (19617), 0.4% behind the Intel Core i5-12500 (19668), 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19723), and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i7-10700F (19499).

Q: Why is the combo ranked so low in Thief?

A: The combo ranks 2534 out of 2851 tested combinations. The GPU is the primary factor, sitting at the 9th percentile among all GPUs with a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482. The CPU performs at the 73rd percentile, but the GPU's limitations dominate in this game.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, High produces 50 FPS and Ultra 48 FPS, a 2 FPS difference. At 1440p, High gives 34 FPS and Ultra 33 FPS, a 1 FPS difference. At 4K, High gives 20 FPS and Ultra 19 FPS, again a 1 FPS difference. The Ultra preset offers minimal performance cost but negligible gains.

Q: How does the GPU's memory configuration affect performance?

A: The Intel Arc B390 uses System Shared memory, meaning it draws from the same DDR4 pool as the CPU. Memory bandwidth is listed as System Dependent, which on this platform means it shares the CPU's 51.2 GB/s dual-channel bandwidth. This creates contention that becomes more severe at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p Low?

A: At 1080p Low with 86 FPS average, the GPU remains the limiting factor. The CPU's benchmark scores (Cinebench R23 multi-core 16429) are well above what Thief requires, and the consistent resolution scaling patterns across all settings indicate the GPU is saturated even at the lowest settings.