Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti produces a highly capable Thief setup, but the data reveals that the CPU is the primary bottleneck, particularly at lower resolutions. The combo ranks in the 400th position out of 1642 tested combinations, placing it in the top quarter of all configurations, though its performance characteristics are far from uniform across the settings spectrum.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is sharpest at Low settings, where the average frame rate falls from 158.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 115.1 FPS at 3840x2160—a reduction of 43.5 FPS. This 27.4% decline indicates that even at the lowest graphical preset, the RTX 4070 Ti still has headroom to spare, and the CPU's limitations begin to surface at 1080p. At High settings, the scaling is more moderate: 128.3 FPS at 1080p drops to 69.2 FPS at 4K, a 59.1 FPS difference. This steeper decline at higher presets confirms that the GPU becomes increasingly relevant as visual complexity grows.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern to Low, with 141.8 FPS at 1080p falling to 90 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce the most consistent scaling relative to High, with 128.7 FPS at 1080p versus 70 FPS at 4K. What the data suggests is that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600G is the limiting component—the GPU could likely push higher frame rates if the CPU could feed it faster. At 4K, the RTX 4070 Ti takes over as the dominant constraint, as the pixel throughput demands outpace the CPU's ability to maintain frame delivery.

The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 30 FPS (158.6 versus 128.7), which is remarkably small for a game with such a wide settings range. This compression at 1080p is a classic sign of CPU limitation. At 4K, that same Low-to-Ultra gap expands to 45.1 FPS (115.1 versus 70), showing that the GPU's workload becomes the deciding factor when resolution rises.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti brings 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz and its 7680 shading units provide substantial raw compute power, evidenced by its Passmark G3D score of 31624 and an average benchmark score of 44900, placing it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs. In Thief, this hardware manifests as strong 4K performance: 69.2 FPS on High and 70 FPS on Ultra at 3840x2160. These numbers are nearly identical, which suggests that Thief's Ultra preset does not meaningfully increase GPU workload over High at this resolution.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the RTX 5090 Mobile, which scores 45152 (0.6% higher), and the Intel Arc A730M at 45592 (1.5% higher). The RTX 4070 Ti sits just 1.6% below the AMD Radeon Pro 580 and 1.6% above the Radeon Pro 5500 XT. This tight clustering around the 44900 average score indicates that the RTX 4070 Ti's GPU compute capabilities are well-matched to its peer group, making its Thief performance largely predictable from its benchmark standing.

At 1440p, the GPU shows its strength: 115.5 FPS on High and 113.4 FPS on Ultra. The difference between these two presets is only 2.1 FPS, reinforcing that Thief's higher settings do not heavily tax the RTX 4070 Ti's memory subsystem or shading units. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for this 2014 title, and the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth handles texture streaming without issue even at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Ultra as the optimal preset for most users, not because it offers the highest frame rates, but because its performance cost is minimal relative to High. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 128.7 FPS versus 128.3 FPS on High—a negligible 0.4 FPS difference. At 1440p, Ultra actually scores slightly lower than High (113.4 versus 115.5), but the 2.1 FPS gap is imperceptible in practice. At 4K, Ultra and High are effectively tied at 70 FPS and 69.2 FPS respectively.

Medium settings provide a modest boost: 141.8 FPS at 1080p, 125.1 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. These represent 10.2%, 10.3%, and 28.6% improvements over Ultra at each respective resolution. For players targeting 60 FPS at 4K, Medium offers a comfortable margin without sacrificing the majority of visual quality. Low settings push performance to 158.6 FPS at 1080p and 115.1 FPS at 4K, but the visual degradation is substantial for only a 30 FPS gain at 1080p over Ultra.

The recommendation is clear: use Ultra at 1080p or 1440p, where frame rates remain above 113 FPS, and drop to Medium only if 4K gaming demands the 90 FPS average that preset provides. High offers no meaningful advantage over Ultra in this game, making it a redundant middle ground.

How This Combo Ranks

The Ryzen 5 5600G + RTX 4070 Ti combination holds the 400th position out of 1642 tested combos, placing it in the top 24.4% of all configurations. This rank reflects a system that is well-balanced for Thief's engine, which favors strong single-thread performance and high memory bandwidth. The CPU's 3dmark single-thread score of 872 and its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2365 indicate that it can handle the game's logic thread without becoming a severe drag.

However, the combo's rank is likely held back by the CPU's overall throughput. The Ryzen 5 5600G's nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks are the Intel Core i7-11600H (0.2% higher average score) and the Intel Core i7-11800H (0.2% lower). These mobile processors, despite being in laptops, score nearly identically to the 5600G, showing that this desktop CPU is not a top-tier performer for highly threaded workloads. In Thief, which primarily uses a few threads, the 5600G's 6 cores and 12 threads are adequate, but they do not boost the combo into the top 100.

The GPU's rank of 85th percentile versus all GPUs, combined with the CPU's 78th percentile, creates a system where the GPU is the stronger component. This imbalance is visible in the 4K results, where the combo still achieves 70 FPS on Ultra, but the 1080p results show the CPU capping performance around 158 FPS on Low—a figure that a faster processor might exceed.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5600G operates with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz across its 6 cores and 12 threads. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide sufficient data flow for Thief's engine. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16758 and Passmark multithread score of 19717 place it in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19983.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the Intel Core i7-11600H (0.2% higher score) and the AMD EPYC 7713P (0.2% lower). These small deltas mean the 5600G is neither a standout nor a laggard in its class. In Thief, the CPU's impact is most visible at 1080p Low, where the 158.6 FPS average is the highest recorded for this combo. The fact that 1080p Ultra (128.7 FPS) is only 30 FPS slower than 1080p Low suggests that the CPU is not the sole bottleneck—the GPU still has work to do even at the lowest preset.

The 3dmark 2-thread score of 1705 and 4-thread score of 3258 reveal that the CPU's single-thread and lightly-threaded performance is respectable but not exceptional. Thief, being a 2014 title, likely uses only 2-4 threads for its main simulation, meaning the 5600G's 12 threads are more than sufficient. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 3177 indicates that it can handle the game's AI and physics calculations without stalling, which is consistent with the combo's 4K performance not collapsing entirely.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Thief?

A: The highest recorded average is 158.6 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K on Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 70, which is playable but not high-refresh-rate territory.

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

A: The data suggests the CPU is more limiting at 1080p, as the FPS difference between Low (158.6) and Ultra (128.7) is only 30 FPS, indicating the GPU still has headroom.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 400th out of 1642 total combos tested in Thief.

Q: Does High settings offer any advantage over Ultra?

A: No meaningful advantage exists—at 1080p, High (128.3 FPS) and Ultra (128.7 FPS) are nearly identical, and at 4K they are within 0.8 FPS.

Q: What is the GPU's average benchmark score and percentile?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 44900, placing it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 158.6 FPS on Low, 141.8 FPS on Medium, 128.3 FPS on High, and 128.7 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 29.9 FPS total drop, with the largest single step being Low to Medium at 16.8 FPS. Medium to High drops 13.5 FPS, while High to Ultra actually gains 0.4 FPS, confirming that Ultra is not more demanding than High at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the results are 137.5 FPS on Low, 125.1 FPS on Medium, 115.5 FPS on High, and 113.4 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 24.1 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra gap is just 2.1 FPS. Medium remains a solid middle ground at 125.1 FPS, offering a 9.6% improvement over Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the numbers are 115.1 FPS on Low, 90 FPS on Medium, 69.2 FPS on High, and 70 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra drop is 45.1 FPS, the largest of any resolution, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck here. Medium is the standout preset at 4K, providing a 28.6% boost over Ultra while maintaining a smooth 90 FPS average. High and Ultra are statistically tied at 69.2 and 70 FPS respectively, making High a redundant choice at this resolution.