Thief

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 4 architecture with a Phoenix codename. It operates on a 4 nm TSMC process, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The chip carries 16 MB of shared L3 cache, alongside 64 KB of L1 and 1 MB of L2 per core. This configuration is notable for a 2014-era stealth title like Thief, which was designed long before multi-core CPUs became the norm in gaming.

In single-threaded workloads, the 8400F posts a 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943. These figures indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for Thief's game logic and AI routines that often rely on fewer threads. The processor's 12 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks, but the game's engine from 2014 is unlikely to exploit all of them effectively. The CPU's passmark single-thread score of 3684 further confirms its capability in lightly-threaded scenarios.

The 8400F's memory bandwidth is 83.2 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface. For a game released in 2014, this bandwidth is more than sufficient, as older titles rarely saturate even modest memory subsystems. The combination of a 4.70 GHz boost clock and Zen 4's efficient instruction pipeline means the CPU is rarely a bottleneck in Thief, even at high frame rates. The processor's avg benchmark score of 25064 places it in the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, showing solid overall compute capability.

However, the CPU's L3 cache of 16 MB is relatively modest by modern standards. In Thief, which features large, detailed environments, cache misses can occur, but the high clock speeds mitigate much of the potential penalty. The 8400F's 3DMark 16-thread score of 6091 and max-thread score of 6165 show that scaling beyond 8 threads yields minimal gains, which aligns with the game's likely thread utilization pattern.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 achieves a combo rank of 138 out of 1642 tested combinations in Thief. This places the setup in the top 8.4% of all tested combos, indicating that it delivers strong performance relative to the broader database. The rank is more impressive given that the CPU is a mid-range 8000-series part paired with a flagship-tier GPU, suggesting the processor does not hold back the graphics card in this title.

The CPU's nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X with an avg score of 25057 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 at 25099 (-0.1% delta), and the AMD EPYC 9474F at 25103 (-0.2% delta). The 8400F's score of 25064 sits nearly identically to the Ryzen 7 2700X, meaning that in most compute-heavy tasks, they are interchangeable. Yet in Thief, the newer Zen 4 architecture with higher IPC likely contributes to better frame pacing, even if aggregate benchmarks show parity.

The combo rank of 138 is particularly notable because the RTX 5080 is a 50-series Blackwell GPU with a 89th percentile standing among all GPUs. When a top-tier GPU is paired with a mid-range CPU, the weakest link often determines the final rank. Here, the 8400F holds its own, allowing the combo to outperform many combinations that might feature older or slower processors. The delta between the CPU and its closest rival, the Ryzen 5 7500F at 24993 (0.3% delta), is negligible, but the 8400F's slightly higher score gives it a marginal edge in multi-threaded scenarios, which can translate to more consistent frame delivery in Thief's busy city streets.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo delivers 145.0 FPS. Moving to 1440p Ultra drops this to 130.4 FPS, a reduction of approximately 10.1%. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls further to 77.9, which represents a 46.3% decrease from the 1080p figure. This substantial drop at 4K indicates that the RTX 5080 is being pushed to its limits at higher pixel counts, while the CPU has ample headroom.

At Low settings, the scaling is less dramatic but still present. The 1080p Low result is 182.6 FPS, 1440p Low is 158.0 FPS, and 4K Low is 134.8 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 26.2%, which is smaller than the 46.3% drop at Ultra. This suggests that at lower settings, the CPU becomes more involved in maintaining frame rates, but the GPU still dominates the workload. The gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution highlights where the bottleneck shifts.

At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 37.6 FPS (182.6 vs 145.0), which is a 20.6% reduction. At 4K, the same comparison shows a 56.9 FPS gap (134.8 vs 77.9), a 42.2% reduction. This widening gap at higher resolutions confirms that the RTX 5080's rendering workload scales significantly with resolution, while the CPU's impact remains relatively constant. The data strongly suggests that the GPU is the limiting component at 4K, whereas at 1080p, the CPU's performance is more relevant to achieving the higher frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 182.6 FPS on Low settings, 162.5 FPS on Medium, 148.5 FPS on High, and 145.0 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium is a 20.1 FPS drop, while the transition from High to Ultra costs only 3.5 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces diminishing returns, likely due to extra post-processing or shadow effects that are not fully utilized at this resolution. The 1080p results show that the RTX 5080 is not fully taxed, as even Ultra settings leave the GPU with reserve capacity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured averages are 158.0 FPS on Low, 146.6 FPS on Medium, 131.1 FPS on High, and 130.4 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 27.6 FPS, a 17.5% reduction. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra shrinks to just 0.7 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset at 1440p is nearly identical in cost to High. The 1440p results still show strong performance, with all settings exceeding 130 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 134.8 FPS on Low, 105.5 FPS on Medium, 83.4 FPS on High, and 77.9 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 29.3 FPS, which is the largest single-step reduction across any resolution. From Medium to High, the cost is 22.1 FPS, and from High to Ultra, only 5.5 FPS. The 4K results clearly show the GPU becoming the primary constraint, as the RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are heavily utilized at this resolution. The 77.9 FPS at Ultra is still playable, but it represents a significant compromise compared to the 145.0 FPS available at 1080p Ultra.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB203 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2617 MHz, with memory clocked at 1875 MHz (30 Gbps effective). These specifications position the RTX 5080 as a high-end card, with a 89th percentile standing among all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 59188.

In Thief, the GPU's role is crucial at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the 4K performance figures. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for a 2014 title, which likely uses less than 4 GB even at Ultra settings with high-resolution textures. This headroom means the GPU's compute capabilities, rather than memory capacity, dictate performance. The RTX 5080's 10752 shading units and 336 texture mapping units provide ample raw compute, which is reflected in the 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 throughput.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the Intel Arc A570M at 58239 (1.6% delta positive for the RTX 5080), the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60326 (-1.9% delta), and the Intel Arc A580 at 57756 (2.5% delta). These comparisons show that the RTX 5080 sits in a competitive range with mid-tier Intel discrete GPUs in aggregate benchmarks, but in Thief, the NVIDIA card's driver maturity and architecture likely provide better frame pacing, especially at 4K where the 77.9 FPS Ultra result is notably strong.

The RTX 5080's 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores are not directly relevant to Thief, as the game predates ray tracing by several years. However, the GPU's pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s ensure that the game's fill-rate demands are easily met. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K, with the 83.4 FPS High result and 77.9 FPS Ultra result indicating that the card is working near its maximum capacity for this title. At 1080p, the GPU is underutilized, with the 182.6 FPS Low result suggesting that the CPU is the more active component in achieving those frame rates.