Thief

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a thoroughly capable experience in Thief, with the measured data showing a combination that scales predictably across resolutions and settings. This pairing lands at rank 117 out of 1642 tested combos, placing it firmly in the upper tier of systems for this 2014 stealth title. The data reveals a system where the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor as resolution climbs, while the CPU’s strong single-thread performance ensures the frame rate ceiling stays high at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which points directly to the GPU as the limiting component at higher pixel counts. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 153.7 FPS at 1080p to 105 FPS at 1440p, then down to 61 FPS at 4K. That represents a 32% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 42% further drop from 1440p to 4K, a scaling pattern typical of a system where the RTX 4070 SUPER’s rendering throughput becomes the bottleneck as pixel count increases.

The pattern holds across all settings presets. At Low settings, the system delivers 224.2 FPS at 1080p, 195.7 FPS at 1440p, and 111.6 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep here, with a 43% reduction, which suggests that even at the lowest graphical load, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading capacity are being taxed heavily by the 3840x2160 resolution. At Medium settings, the progression is 203.6 FPS at 1080p, 146.9 FPS at 1440p, and 85.2 FPS at 4K, showing a relatively even scaling curve.

Interestingly, the gap between 1080p and 1440p narrows as settings increase. At Low, the difference is 28.5 FPS; at Medium it is 56.7 FPS; at High it is 48.5 FPS; and at Ultra it is 48.7 FPS. This indicates that at higher settings, the GPU is already working harder at 1080p, so the additional pixel load at 1440p has a proportionally smaller impact. The data implies that 4K is the true stress test for this combo, with even the High preset only managing 65.4 FPS, which is below the 70 FPS threshold many players consider smooth for a stealth game.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s role in these results is defined by its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for Thief at all tested settings and resolutions, as evidenced by the fact that even the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration achieves a playable 61 FPS average. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 7168 shading units, delivers the raw compute needed to drive these frame rates.

The benchmark results for the GPU show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627 and a Passmark G3D score of 29995, placing it at the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A6000 with a deltaPct of -0.2% and the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE at -0.3%, indicating that the 4070 SUPER sits in a highly competitive performance band. The 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the key driver for the high frame rates seen at 1080p, where the GPU is not constrained by pixel throughput.

At 4K, the GPU’s 80 ROPs and 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate become the limiting factor. The data shows that moving from High to Ultra at 3840x2160 only costs 4.4 FPS (from 65.4 to 61), which suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are not heavily pixel-bound. Conversely, the jump from Low to Medium at 4K costs 26.4 FPS (from 111.6 to 85.2), indicating that medium-quality textures and shading effects significantly increase the GPU’s workload at this resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X provides the computational foundation for this combo, with 6 cores and 12 threads running at a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This Zen 5 architecture processor, built on TSMC’s 4 nm process, achieves a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3603 and a multi-core score of 25525. The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Thief, a game from 2014 that typically relies more heavily on one or two cores for game logic and AI.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core i5-13490F with a deltaPct of 0.3% and the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS at -0.4%, showing that the 9600X sits in a tight performance cluster. Its 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28246, indicates that it is more than capable of feeding the RTX 4070 SUPER in this title. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain low latency access to frequently used data, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in a stealth game where AI routines and environmental interactions are frequent.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 224.2 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most monitors and indicates that the CPU can handle the game’s draw calls without bottlenecking the GPU. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly the primary constraint, the CPU’s 12 threads ensure that frame pacing remains consistent, as evidenced by the smooth average FPS figures.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset delivers the best experience for this combo. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver well above 150 FPS, with Medium offering 203.6 FPS and High at 163.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p still achieves 153.7 FPS, making it viable for high-refresh-rate monitors, but the 49.9 FPS gap between Medium and Ultra suggests that the extra visual fidelity comes at a significant cost that may not be worth it on a 1080p panel.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 114.7 FPS strikes the best balance, offering a smooth experience that exceeds the 100 FPS threshold. Medium at 146.9 FPS is also excellent, while Ultra at 105 FPS remains playable but begins to approach the edge of what is comfortable. The Low preset at 195.7 FPS is unnecessary at this resolution, as the visual quality loss is not justified by the frame rate gain.

At 3840x2160, the High preset at 65.4 FPS is the recommended choice, as it remains above the 60 FPS playability threshold while offering a significant visual improvement over Medium at 85.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 61 FPS is technically playable but leaves no headroom for drops, making it risky on less predictable scenes. The Low preset at 111.6 FPS is a viable option for players who prioritize frame rate over visual quality, but High provides a better overall experience.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 224.2, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system achieves an average FPS of 61, which is marginally above the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the GPU is the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 70.5 FPS difference between Low (224.2 FPS) and Ultra (153.7 FPS) settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1440p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 114.7 at 2560x1440 to 65.4 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 49.3 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its closest rival in GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 42576, which is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000’s 42653.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations in Thief?

A: This combo ranks 117th out of 1642 tested combinations, placing it in the top 7% of all systems tested.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS data for this combo shows a consistent pattern of performance across all resolution and setting combinations. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 224.2 FPS on Low, 203.6 FPS on Medium, 163.2 FPS on High, and 153.7 FPS on Ultra. The 2560x1440 results show 195.7 FPS on Low, 146.9 FPS on Medium, 114.7 FPS on High, and 105 FPS on Ultra. At 3840x2160, the results are 111.6 FPS on Low, 85.2 FPS on Medium, 65.4 FPS on High, and 61 FPS on Ultra.

The scaling efficiency varies by preset. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28.5 FPS (12.7%), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 84.1 FPS (43%). At Ultra settings, the corresponding drops are 48.7 FPS (31.7%) and 44 FPS (41.9%). This indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth becomes a more significant constraint at 4K, particularly at lower settings where the frame rate is higher and each frame requires more memory transactions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 117 out of 1642 tested combinations places it in the top 7.1% of all systems benchmarked in Thief. This ranking reflects the strong performance of both the Ryzen 5 9600X and the RTX 4070 SUPER, which together deliver frame rates that can drive high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p and 1440p, while remaining playable at 4K. The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs and the GPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs both contribute to this high overall position.

The data suggests that this combo is well-balanced for Thief, with neither component holding the other back to a significant degree. The GPU’s 12 GB of VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game’s texture and shading demands, while the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads with a 5.40 GHz boost clock provide ample processing power for the game’s AI and physics systems. This balance is reflected in the consistent scaling curves across resolutions, which show that the system degrades gracefully as pixel count increases rather than hitting a sudden performance cliff.