Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 pairing delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Thief, with the data showing that the High preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance across all tested resolutions. At 1080p, the combo achieves 140.9 FPS on High, which is only 6.8% below the Ultra preset’s 134 FPS but provides a substantial 26.9% improvement over the Ultra’s visual overhead. The Medium preset at 163.6 FPS is faster, but the jump to High captures the game’s atmospheric lighting and shadow work without sacrificing the fluidity needed for stealth gameplay. At 1440p, High maintains a commanding 96 FPS, which is ideal for the game’s tense, methodical pacing. Even at 4K, High delivers 58.5 FPS, which is playable, though the data suggests that Medium at 76 FPS is the safer choice for 4K displays if you prioritize frame rate stability over maximum detail. For the best experience, select High at 1080p or 1440p; for 4K, Medium is the recommended fallback.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 9070 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth ensures that Thief never runs into memory capacity or bandwidth constraints, even at 4K. The GPU’s 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs provide the raw throughput needed to push the game’s detailed environments. The clock behavior is telling: the base clock is 1330 MHz, but the boost clock reaches 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz. This wide boost range allows the GPU to scale aggressively under load, which is why the frame rates remain high despite the game’s age. The 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than sufficient for a 2014 title, and the data confirms the GPU is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the FPS difference between Low (178.6) and Ultra (134) is 44.6 FPS, indicating the GPU has ample headroom. The RX 9070’s 56 ray accelerators are irrelevant here, as Thief does not use ray tracing, but the raw rasterization power is clearly what drives these results. The GPU’s 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs underscores its capability, though the nearestRivals data shows it is closely matched with the NVIDIA A2 (0.2% slower) and Quadro GV100 (0.3% faster), which are professional cards, not gaming-focused alternatives.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear shift in the bottleneck. At 1080p, the combo is largely CPU-limited at lower settings: Low runs at 178.6 FPS, but moving to Medium only drops to 163.6 FPS (a 8.4% reduction), and High to 140.9 FPS (a 21.1% reduction). This pattern suggests the CPU is holding back the GPU at 1080p Low, as the GPU could likely push higher. However, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a more significant drop: High goes from 140.9 to 96 FPS (a 31.9% reduction), indicating the GPU is now taking over the workload. The 1440p to 4K transition is even steeper: High drops from 96 to 58.5 FPS (a 39.1% reduction), which is a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. The data shows that the 4K Ultra preset at 52.6 FPS is the most demanding combination, while 4K Low at 98.2 FPS proves the GPU can handle the resolution if settings are reduced. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 45.6 FPS, whereas at 1080p the same gap is only 44.6 FPS, which is nearly identical, suggesting that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors at higher resolutions. The data indicates this is a GPU-bound scenario at 1440p and 4K, while 1080p leans on CPU performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 delivers 96 FPS, which is a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra drops to 91.1 FPS, only a 5.1% reduction, but High offers a better balance for fast-paced stealth sequences.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K, the Medium preset runs at 76 FPS, which is smooth. High drops to 58.5 FPS, which is borderline, and Ultra falls to 52.6 FPS. For a consistent experience, Medium is the recommended 4K preset.

Q: How does the CPU perform relative to its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25064, placing it at the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. It is exactly matched with the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta), and it is 0.3% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, showing it is a competitive mid-range option.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the primary bottleneck in this game?

A: The data shows the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 1440p and 4K, where FPS scales significantly with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU becomes more relevant, as the FPS difference between Low and Ultra is smaller than at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the upgrade path for this combo?

A: The CPU has a 65 W TDP and uses the AMD Socket AM5, which supports DDR5 memory. The GPU uses PCIe 5.0 x16, ensuring future compatibility with newer motherboards. The 16 GB VRAM is ample for current titles, though Thief does not stress it.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 433rd out of 1642 tested combos for Thief, placing it in the top 26.4% of all tested systems. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware, the Ryzen 5 8400F and RX 9070 combination ranks 433rd out of 1642 total combos for Thief, which places it in the top 26.4% of all systems tested. This ranking is driven by the GPU’s strong absolute performance, as the RX 9070 sits in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 82nd percentile. The combination’s strength is its consistency: it never falls below 52.6 FPS at 4K Ultra, and it exceeds 134 FPS at 1080p on any preset. The GPU’s nearestRivals are all professional or older cards, which highlights that the RX 9070 is a specialized gaming part, and the CPU’s nearestRivals include the Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta) and Ryzen 5 7500F (0.3% faster), suggesting the 8400F is well-positioned for gaming workloads. The rank of 433 out of 1642 is respectable, but the data shows that the GPU is the star, and the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to avoid holding it back in most scenarios.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 4 nm process. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, which is crucial for Thief’s gameplay logic and AI. The CPU’s 16 MB of shared L3 cache is modest, but the 83.2 GB/s of dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth ensures data flows efficiently. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 20851 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2943 in single-core, which places it at the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 178.6 FPS, and the gap between Low and Ultra is only 44.6 FPS, suggesting the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. However, the CPU’s performance is adequate for the game’s 2014-era threading model, which likely uses fewer than 6 cores effectively. The nearestRivals data shows the CPU is nearly identical to the Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta), which is an older 8-core part, meaning the 8400F’s higher clock speeds compensate for its lower core count. The 65 W TDP is efficient, and the unlocked multiplier allows overclocking, though the stock boost clock of 4.70 GHz is already high. *For Thief, the CPU provides enough headroom to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at 1080p, but it is not the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions.*

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo shows excellent scaling across presets. Low runs at 178.6 FPS, Medium at 163.6 FPS (8.4% lower), High at 140.9 FPS (21.1% lower), and Ultra at 134 FPS (25.0% lower). The small gap between High and Ultra (6.9 FPS) suggests diminishing returns at the top end.

At 2560x1440, the FPS drops are more pronounced. Low delivers 161.8 FPS, Medium at 124.1 FPS (23.3% lower), High at 96 FPS (40.7% lower), and Ultra at 91.1 FPS (43.7% lower). The 1440p High result of 96 FPS is a sweet spot, while Ultra remains playable at 91.1 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly stretched. Low produces 98.2 FPS, Medium at 76 FPS (22.6% lower), High at 58.5 FPS (40.4% lower), and Ultra at 52.6 FPS (46.4% lower). The 4K Medium preset at 76 FPS is the only setting that maintains a solid 60 FPS plus, while High at 58.5 FPS is just below the threshold. The overall trend shows that the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s and 16 GB of VRAM are sufficient, but the pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s becomes the limiting factor at 4K. The data confirms that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K reserved for Medium settings or lower.