Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination places at rank 642 out of 1,642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the upper half of all systems evaluated. This pairing of a Zen 4 desktop processor with an Ampere architecture GPU demonstrates a balanced profile, though the data indicates that the RTX 3070 is the primary driver of frame rates at higher resolutions, while the Ryzen 5 8400F provides ample headroom at lower settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 642 out of 1,642 places it comfortably within the top 40% of all tested configurations for Thief. This positioning reflects a system that can handle the game's stealth-focused environments with strong performance, particularly at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. The CPU's percentile ranking of 82 against all processors, combined with the GPU's 72nd percentile against all graphics cards, suggests a well-matched pair where neither component severely bottlenecks the other under typical gaming loads.

Looking at the CPU's synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 8400F posts a multi-threaded score of 20,851 in Cinebench R23 and a single-thread score of 2,943. These figures place it in close competition with the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, which shows a delta of 0% in average score, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, which trails by only 0.3%. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz, provide sufficient processing power for Thief's AI and physics calculations, as evidenced by the strong frame rates at lower resolutions where CPU load is more significant.

On the GPU side, the RTX 3070's average benchmark score of 28,238 places it just 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, while trailing the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6%. This tight grouping indicates that the RTX 3070's performance in Thief is competitive with these alternatives, though the actual in-game measurements reveal how resolution and settings affect the final experience.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The system delivers an average of 112.7 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, which is the most demanding preset at this resolution. This represents a substantial margin above the 60 FPS threshold, indicating smooth gameplay even in graphically intense scenes.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 143.1 FPS on Low settings to 76.8 FPS on Ultra settings, a reduction of approximately 46%. This demonstrates that the RTX 3070's rendering load increases significantly with higher quality presets, but the system remains playable at all settings levels.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the frame rate scales from 85.1 FPS on Low to 46.6 FPS on High and 49 FPS on Ultra. The relatively small difference between High and Ultra (from 46.6 to 49 FPS) suggests the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the graphics card.

Q: How does the combo's ranking compare to its component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks in the top 39% of all tested systems (642 out of 1,642), while the CPU sits at the 82nd percentile and the GPU at the 72nd percentile. This indicates the pairing performs slightly below what the individual component percentiles might suggest, likely due to the game's specific optimization patterns.

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the system achieves an average of 159.2 FPS. This high frame rate indicates the configuration is well-suited for high-refresh-rate monitors at this resolution.

Q: Does the combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, the average frame rate at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 49 FPS. While this is below the 60 FPS target often preferred for smooth gameplay, it remains above the 30 FPS minimum typically considered playable for story-driven stealth titles.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p, the average frame rates range from 181.5 FPS on Low to 112.7 FPS on Ultra, a span of 68.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the range narrows to 143.1 FPS on Low and 76.8 FPS on Ultra, a span of 66.3 FPS. At 4K, the range compresses further to 85.1 FPS on Low and 46.6 FPS on High, with Ultra at 49 FPS, a span of approximately 38.5 FPS.

This compression at higher resolutions is characteristic of a system where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 8400F, with its 4 nm Zen 4 architecture and 16 MB of shared L3 cache, is capable of feeding the RTX 3070 at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the 181.5 FPS result at 1080p Low. However, as pixel count increases, the GPU's rendering workload grows disproportionately, and the frame rate drops accordingly.

The scaling between settings at each resolution provides additional insight. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 68.8 FPS (181.5 to 112.7), while at 4K, the difference is 36.1 FPS (85.1 to 49). This indicates that the GPU's performance headroom is consumed by resolution before settings have a chance to exert their full effect, confirming that the RTX 3070 is the limiting component at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 181.5 FPS, Medium settings yield 159.2 FPS, High settings achieve 123.2 FPS, and Ultra settings result in 112.7 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the largest drop occurring between Medium and High (a reduction of 36 FPS) and the smallest between High and Ultra (a reduction of 10.5 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected reduction from 1080p. Low settings average 143.1 FPS, Medium settings reach 109.3 FPS, High settings hit 81.9 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 76.8 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 5.1 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns from the highest quality preset at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance drops significantly. Low settings still manage an average of 85.1 FPS, but Medium settings fall to 66.3 FPS, High settings drop to 46.6 FPS, and Ultra settings reach 49 FPS. Notably, the Ultra preset outperforms High by 2.4 FPS, an anomaly that may be attributed to specific rendering paths or driver optimizations within the game engine.

Across all resolutions, the data shows that the RTX 3070 maintains playable frame rates at every setting combination, with the lowest result being 46.6 FPS at 4K High. The system is most comfortable at 1080p and 1440p, where it consistently exceeds 75 FPS even at Ultra settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 plays a central role in determining Thief's performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for Thief's 2014-era textures and geometry, even at 4K resolution, as the frame rates indicate no memory-related stuttering or severe degradation.

The GPU's clock speeds are listed at a base of 1500 MHz and a boost of 1725 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with the 5,888 shading units and 96 ROPs, yield a pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS provides ample compute for the game's lighting and shadow calculations.

The RTX 3070's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU's capabilities allow the GPU to operate at higher utilization, resulting in frame rates that scale predictably with settings. At 4K, however, the GPU's rendering load becomes the primary constraint, as evidenced by the narrowing gap between settings presets. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for Thief's requirements, and the 220 W TDP suggests the card operates within its designed power envelope during extended gaming sessions.

The GPU's benchmark scores further contextualize its performance. The Passmark G3D score of 22,214 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,162 indicate solid DirectX 12 capabilities, which align with the game's support for modern APIs. The GPU's percentile ranking of 72 places it above average among all tested graphics cards, and its nearest rivals in average score include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, both of which show deltas of less than 1% from the RTX 3070's score.