Thief

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 produces a playable but not exceptional experience in Thief, landing in the 1386th position out of 1642 tested combos. The data shows a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher settings, yet the CPU has enough headroom to push high frame rates at lower presets. The GTX 1070, with its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus, remains the bottleneck for visual fidelity, while the Ryzen 5 8400F’s six Zen 4 cores provide a solid foundation that never seems to hold the graphics card back.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows indicate that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this pairing across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 96.1 FPS average, which is comfortably above the 74.2 FPS of High and only 32.3 FPS short of the 128.4 FPS achieved on Low. The jump from Low to Medium costs 32.3 FPS but provides a substantially better visual experience, making it the logical choice for most users. At 2560x1440, Medium still holds at 66.3 FPS, which remains playable, while High drops to 50.3 FPS and Ultra falls to 47.5 FPS. For 4K, Medium produces 41.2 FPS, which is borderline; High at 32.7 FPS and Ultra at 29.9 FPS are both below the smoothness threshold for a stealth title where quick reactions matter less than in an action game.

The Ultra preset is not worth the performance penalty on this hardware. Compared to Medium at 1080p, Ultra costs 26.2 FPS (96.1 down to 69.9) for marginal improvements that are difficult to notice in dimly lit environments. The data suggests that players should stick with Medium for a balanced experience, or drop to Low if they prioritize frame rate above all else. Low at 1080p yields 128.4 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors, but the visual downgrade in Thief’s atmospheric lighting is significant. At 1440p, Low’s 89.8 FPS is still very smooth, making it a viable alternative for competitive play, though the game’s stealth mechanics do not demand such responsiveness.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070 is the limiting factor in this pairing, as its benchmark scores and measured performance indicate. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory is adequate for Thief, which is a 2014 title, but the card’s 150 W TDP and 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 performance dictate its capabilities. The data shows that moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p cuts the average FPS nearly in half, from 128.4 to 69.9, which is a 45.6% reduction. This scaling points to the GPU struggling with the increased shading and texture work at higher presets.

The GTX 1070’s boost clock of 1683 MHz and 1920 shading units are the key specs driving performance. At 4K, the card falls below 30 FPS on Ultra (29.9 FPS), which confirms it cannot handle maximum settings at that resolution. The memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the 8 GB frame buffer becomes strained, as evidenced by the steep drop from Medium (41.2 FPS) to High (32.7 FPS). The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 13498 places it in the 51st percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the GTX 1650 SUPER, is only 1.4% faster, meaning this card is not obsolete but is firmly mid-range.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are dramatic and reveal the GPU-bound nature of this combo. At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 96.1 at 1080p to 66.3 at 1440p, a 31% reduction, and then to 41.2 at 4K, a further 37.8% drop. This scaling is typical for a mid-range GPU, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 128.4 FPS at 1080p, 89.8 at 1440p, and 50.0 at 4K. Interestingly, the Low preset at 4K (50.0 FPS) is still faster than the Ultra preset at 1080p (69.9 FPS), which suggests that the game’s higher settings introduce effects that are more taxing than resolution alone.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in resolution scaling. If the Ryzen 5 8400F were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the consistent drops as resolution increases point directly to the GTX 1070. At 4K, even Low settings only produce 50.0 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target, confirming that the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints. For 1440p gaming, the combo is more balanced, with Medium at 66.3 FPS showing that the GPU can still keep up with the CPU’s capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy: Low delivers 128.4 FPS, Medium 96.1 FPS, High 74.2 FPS, and Ultra 69.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 32.3 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 4.3 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the top end. The 1080p numbers are all playable, with even Ultra staying above 60 FPS, making this resolution the most comfortable for this combo.

At 2560x1440, the averages drop significantly: Low 89.8 FPS, Medium 66.3 FPS, High 50.3 FPS, and Ultra 47.5 FPS. The Medium preset remains above 60 FPS, which is the threshold for smooth gameplay, but High and Ultra fall below it. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is just 2.8 FPS, suggesting that Ultra offers almost no benefit over High at this resolution. At 3840x2160, the results are marginal: Low 50.0 FPS, Medium 41.2 FPS, High 32.7 FPS, and Ultra 29.9 FPS. Only Low approaches playability, and even then, it is below 60 FPS. The 4K data makes it clear that this resolution is not suitable for this GPU, regardless of settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1386 out of 1642 tested combinations places it in the lower 16th percentile of all pairings. This is a below-average result, reflecting the GTX 1070’s age and mid-range status. The GPU’s percentile rank of 51 among all GPUs is the primary driver of this low combo ranking, as the CPU’s percentile rank of 82 is much stronger. The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 8400F is capable of driving much faster graphics cards, and the GTX 1070 is holding back the system’s overall potential.

In terms of the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 8400F scores an average benchmark of 25064, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (25057, 0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (24993, 0.3% delta). This indicates that the CPU’s performance is on par with older and similarly positioned chips, but its 82nd percentile ranking shows it is still a strong performer. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the Quadro K4200 (0.7% slower) and the GTX 1650 SUPER (1.4% faster), which places the GTX 1070 in a tight cluster of mid-range cards. The low combo rank is therefore attributable to the GPU, not the CPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its benchmark results show strong single-thread and multi-thread performance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851 and a single-core score of 2943. This CPU is more than capable of handling Thief, which is not a heavily threaded title. The 16 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide ample bandwidth for the GPU to feed on.

In this game, the CPU’s role is to maintain minimum frame times and avoid stutters, and the data suggests it does so effectively. At 1080p Low, the 128.4 FPS average indicates that the CPU can push well beyond 120 FPS, meaning it is not the bottleneck even at the lowest settings where the GPU has less work. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and PassMark single-thread score of 3684 confirm that its per-core performance is more than sufficient for a 2014 game. The Ryzen 5 8400F’s 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node also mean it runs cool and efficient, leaving thermal headroom for the GPU in a typical system.

The data shows no scenario where the CPU limits performance. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU produces only 29.9 FPS, the CPU is likely idle waiting for the GPU to finish rendering frames. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Ryzen 7 2700X, has two more cores but a similar average score, indicating that the 8400F’s higher clock speeds compensate for fewer cores. For Thief, the 8400F is a perfect match for the GTX 1070, as it provides enough headroom for future GPU upgrades without being a bottleneck today.