Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER presents a fascinating study in bottleneck dynamics within the 2014 stealth title Thief. Based on the measured FPS data, this combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested configurations, but the scaling patterns reveal a clear shift in system limitation as resolution changes. At 1080p, the CPU exerts significant influence, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint. This analysis walks through the measured rows to interpret what the numbers indicate about this specific hardware pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a pronounced difference in performance scaling between the Low and Ultra presets as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the system produces 158.1 FPS, which drops to 140.1 FPS at 1440p and further to 116.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 26.4% decline from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. In contrast, the Ultra preset shows much steeper scaling: 123.4 FPS at 1080p, 109.9 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K — a 41.7% drop from 1080p to 4K.

The pattern is telling. At Low settings, the frame rate remains relatively high even at 4K, suggesting that the render workload is light enough for the RTX 4080 SUPER to keep pace, but the gap between 1080p and 4K still indicates some CPU limitation at lower resolutions. At Ultra settings, the 4K result of 72 FPS versus the 1080p result of 123.4 FPS reveals that the GPU is now the limiting factor — the increased pixel count and visual fidelity are demanding more from the graphics card than the CPU can compensate for.

Looking at the Medium preset, the scaling is more moderate: 144.1 FPS at 1080p, 121.5 FPS at 1440p, and 98.3 FPS at 4K. This 31.8% decline from 1080p to 4K sits between the Low and Ultra extremes. The High preset shows similar behavior with 127.3 FPS at 1080p, 115 FPS at 1440p, and 76.4 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that at 4K, the RTX 4080 SUPER's raw compute is the dominant factor across all settings, while at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600G's six cores and twelve threads are more likely to hold back the GPU, particularly at lower graphical presets where the CPU has to feed frames faster.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of which preset offers the most balanced experience. At 4K, the Medium preset delivers 98.3 FPS, which is a substantial 26.3 FPS improvement over High's 76.4 FPS and 26.3 FPS over Ultra's 72 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium at 4K is 116.4 to 98.3 FPS — a difference of 18.1 FPS — suggesting that the visual quality gain from Low to Medium is relatively modest in performance cost compared to the larger drop seen when moving from Medium to High.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 121.5 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 115 FPS of High and the 109.9 FPS of Ultra. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 140.1 FPS, but the incremental gain from Medium to Low is only 18.6 FPS, while the cost of moving from Medium to High is just 6.5 FPS. This suggests that Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot for maintaining high frame rates while preserving visual fidelity.

For 1080p, the data shows that even Ultra achieves 123.4 FPS, which is well above typical display refresh rates. The Medium preset at 144.1 FPS and High at 127.3 FPS both offer smooth gameplay. Given that the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor at this resolution, the choice between presets has less impact on the overall experience — the system can comfortably handle Ultra settings without dropping below 120 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, running on the AMD Socket AM4 platform. Its base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide the single-thread performance that Thief relies on for game logic and physics. The processor's benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16758 and a single-core score of 2365, indicating solid throughput for a mid-range desktop chip.

In the context of this game, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 158.1 FPS, but the RTX 4080 SUPER is capable of far higher frame rates in many titles. The fact that the RTX 4080 SUPER's Passmark G3D score of 34245 places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 5600G's average benchmark score of 19983 places it in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, suggests a mismatch in raw capability. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11600H with an average score of 19949 (0.2% higher) and the Intel Core i7-11800H with 20024 (0.2% lower), showing that the 5600G sits in a competitive range for its class.

The L3 cache of 16 MB and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for Thief's requirements, but the data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU's frame pacing is the bottleneck. The difference between 1080p Low (158.1 FPS) and 4K Low (116.4 FPS) is 41.7 FPS, which is a smaller absolute gap than the 51.4 FPS difference between 1080p Ultra (123.4 FPS) and 4K Ultra (72 FPS). This suggests that at lower settings, the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output, but at higher settings, the GPU's workload increases to the point where it becomes the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested combinations in the database, this pairing of AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 390th out of 1642 total combos for Thief. This places it in the top 23.8% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given that the CPU is not a top-tier part. The ranking reflects the GPU's dominance in the pairing — the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for this game's demands.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. With a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and an average benchmark score of 53610, it sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT with an average score of 53489 (0.2% lower) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti with 52086 (2.9% lower). The RTX 4080 SUPER's 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 80 RT cores provide ample headroom for Thief's DirectX 12 rendering.

The combo's ranking is likely held back by the CPU's relative weakness. The Ryzen 5 5600G's 3DMark max threads score of 5455 and Passmark multithread score of 19717 are respectable, but they lag behind what higher-end CPUs can offer. The fact that this combo still ranks in the top quarter of all tested pairings indicates that Thief is more GPU-bound than CPU-bound at the resolutions where the ranking is likely dominated by 4K results.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 158.1, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER or the Ryzen 5 5600G the limiting factor at 4K Ultra?

A: The data shows 72 FPS at 4K Ultra versus 123.4 FPS at 1080p Ultra, a 41.7% drop, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K Ultra.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested combinations?

A: It ranks 390th out of 1642 total combos, placing it in the top 23.8% of all tested configurations for Thief.

Q: What is the difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low FPS?

A: The average FPS drops from 158.1 at 1080p Low to 116.4 at 4K Low, a difference of 41.7 FPS.

Q: Which preset provides the highest FPS at 1440p?

A: The Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 1440p with 140.1 FPS, followed by Medium at 121.5 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck appear more at lower or higher resolutions?

A: The data indicates more CPU limitation at lower resolutions, as the gap between 1080p and 4K is smaller at Low settings (41.7 FPS) compared to Ultra (51.4 FPS).

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings produce 158.1 FPS, Medium produces 144.1 FPS, High produces 127.3 FPS, and Ultra produces 123.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 34.7 FPS, with the largest single-step drop occurring between Low and Medium (14 FPS).

Moving to 2560x1440, the results show 140.1 FPS at Low, 121.5 FPS at Medium, 115 FPS at High, and 109.9 FPS at Ultra. The total spread here narrows to 30.2 FPS, with the step from Low to Medium accounting for 18.6 FPS of that decline.

At 3840x2160, the measured values are 116.4 FPS at Low, 98.3 FPS at Medium, 76.4 FPS at High, and 72 FPS at Ultra. The spread widens to 44.4 FPS, and the drop from Medium to High (21.9 FPS) is the largest single-step decline across all resolutions and settings. This emphasizes that at 4K, the transition from Medium to High carries a significant performance penalty, making Medium the recommended setting for maintaining high frame rates at that resolution.