Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination delivers a strong showing in Thief, with the data indicating that the optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate is found at Medium settings. This pairing places in the 997th spot out of 1642 tested combinations, a solid mid-pack result for a stealth title that rewards smooth, consistent motion.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific CPU-GPU pairing, the measured data points to Medium as the sweet spot. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver an average of 131.5 FPS, which is a substantial 41% higher than the 93.2 FPS achieved at Ultra. The jump to High settings yields 100.7 FPS, still a very playable figure, but the gains from dropping from High to Medium are significant.

At 1440p, the pattern holds. Medium produces 86.7 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while High drops to 68.6 FPS and Ultra falls to 63.1 FPS. The data suggests that the step from Medium to High costs roughly 21% of the frame rate at both 1080p and 1440p, while the visual difference in a game with Thief's lighting and shadow work is often less pronounced than the performance hit.

The only scenario where Ultra becomes viable is for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate, as it is the only preset that dips below 60 FPS at 1440p (63.1 FPS). At 4K, no preset achieves a fully smooth experience, with even Low settings hitting only 69.9 FPS. For the best experience, Medium at 1080p or 1440p offers the highest frame rates while maintaining a level of graphical detail that takes advantage of the RTX 2070 SUPER's capabilities. High settings are a reasonable alternative for those with 144Hz displays at 1080p, as it still clears the 100 FPS mark.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Thief at 4K resolution?*

A: Yes, but with compromises. The data shows that at 4K, only Low settings (69.9 FPS) achieve a frame rate above 60 FPS. Medium (51.2 FPS), High (40.2 FPS), and Ultra (39.7 FPS) all fall below that threshold, indicating a GPU-bound scenario at this resolution.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The gap is substantial. Low settings produce an average of 150 FPS, while Ultra produces 93.2 FPS. This represents a 61% performance advantage for Low settings, a significant trade-off for the maximum visual fidelity.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops consistently as resolution increases (from 150 FPS at 1080p Low to 69.9 FPS at 4K Low), which is characteristic of GPU limitation. The CPU's strong multi-threaded performance, as indicated by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429, appears sufficient to feed the GPU.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its direct rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 22206 places it very close to the NVIDIA RTX A400 (22307, a 0.5% difference) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (22006, a 0.9% difference). It trails the RTX 4060 Mobile (22729) by 2.3% and leads the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21670) by 2.5%.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 144Hz monitor at 1440p?

A: None of the presets are able to fully saturate a 144Hz display at 1440p. The highest frame rate achieved is 116.5 FPS on Low settings. For a balance of quality and speed, Medium (86.7 FPS) or High (68.6 FPS) are the most practical choices.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500's performance compare to its nearest competitors?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 20875 is effectively identical to its nearest rivals. It is 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-12500 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, and 0.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7J13. The performance is essentially a statistical tie.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the central component for determining Thief's frame rates. The data shows a clear pattern where performance scales directly with the GPU's workload. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, is sufficient for the game's textures at all tested settings, as the frame rate drops are consistent with computational load rather than memory capacity issues.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1605 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, are the engine driving these results. The synthetic PassMark G3D score of 18169, which places the GPU in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, corroborates the in-game performance. This is a mid-range-to-high-tier card by historical standards, and its Turing architecture (12 nm process) handles Thief's DirectX 11 workload with relative ease, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p.

The performance delta to its nearest rivals is minimal. The data shows it is 0.5% slower than the RTX A400 and 0.9% faster than the GTX TITAN Z, indicating that in this class, the RTX 2070 SUPER is a well-balanced performer. Its 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is the theoretical peak, and the measured results show that this power translates into over 100 FPS at 1080p on High settings. The GPU's role is dominant here; as resolution increases, the CPU's influence fades, and the RTX 2070 SUPER's raw throughput becomes the sole determinant of performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive look at performance across twelve distinct configurations. At 1080p, the results are:

• Low: 150 FPS
• Medium: 131.5 FPS
• High: 100.7 FPS
• Ultra: 93.2 FPS

The progression shows a 56.8 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, with the most significant single drop occurring between Medium and High (30.8 FPS). This indicates that High settings introduce a significant graphical load increase.

At 1440p, the frame rates scale down predictably:

• Low: 116.5 FPS
• Medium: 86.7 FPS
• High: 68.6 FPS
• Ultra: 63.1 FPS

Here, the drop from Low to Medium is 29.8 FPS, and from Medium to High is 18.1 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 5.5 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns for the highest preset at this resolution.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly overburdened:

• Low: 69.9 FPS
• Medium: 51.2 FPS
• High: 40.2 FPS
• Ultra: 39.7 FPS

The difference between High and Ultra is negligible (0.5 FPS), indicating that the GPU has hit a hard computational ceiling. Even on Low settings, the system barely maintains a 60 FPS average, confirming that 4K is not a practical target for this combo in Thief.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a steep performance penalty as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound workload. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings results in a 22.3% performance drop (150 to 116.5 FPS). The same move at High settings shows a 31.9% drop (100.7 to 68.6 FPS). This is consistent with the GPU's pixel throughput limits.

The jump from 1440p to 4K is even more punishing. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 116.5 to 69.9 FPS, a 40% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 86.7 to 51.2 FPS, a 41% reduction. This scaling behavior indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 113.3 GPixel/s pixel rate is the primary constraint.

The implications are clear: the CPU is not the bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 5500, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, provides ample headroom. The frame rate degradation is almost perfectly correlated with the increase in pixel count, which is the definitive characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The data suggests that 1080p is where this combo excels, 1440p is a strong secondary option with settings tuned to Medium or High, and 4K is only playable on the lowest preset. The system's performance is entirely dictated by the GPU's ability to fill pixels, not by the CPU's ability to feed it data.