Thief

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers a robust experience in Thief, with the measured data showing that the pairing is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate play at standard resolutions while remaining capable at 4K. The benchmark results indicate that this system consistently exceeds the 60 FPS threshold across nearly every setting and resolution tested, making it a versatile choice for the 2014 stealth title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that the High preset offers the most balanced experience for most users, particularly at 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. At 1080p, the High preset delivers an average of 107.1 FPS, which is only 3.3 FPS behind the Ultra preset at 103.8 FPS, but the performance gap widens in favor of High at higher resolutions, where the difference becomes more pronounced. For those seeking maximum visual fidelity, the Ultra preset remains viable, as it never dips below the 60 FPS mark in the measured data, with an average of 64.7 FPS at 3840x2160.

For players prioritizing frame rate above all else, the Low preset at 1920x1080 yields an average of 132.5 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. However, the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs only 12.1 FPS (from 132.5 to 120.4 FPS) while providing a significant graphical uplift, making Medium a strong choice for competitive play. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset’s 102.6 FPS average is notably higher than the High preset’s 92.3 FPS, suggesting that Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p displays with higher refresh rates. At 4K, the Medium preset’s 84.9 FPS average is a full 15.9 FPS ahead of High’s 69 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 3840x2160 users who want both quality and smoothness. The Ultra preset at 4K, while still playable at 64.7 FPS, offers diminishing returns over High given the small performance delta.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER plays a critical role in this combo’s performance, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory proving more than sufficient for Thief’s demands. The memory operates at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, feeding a 192-bit bus that provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is a key factor in the GPU’s ability to maintain high average frame rates even at 4K, where texture and geometry data requirements increase substantially. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz, paired with its base clock of 1980 MHz, allows it to scale performance effectively with the CPU’s 4.40 GHz boost clock, ensuring that neither component becomes a significant bottleneck in the measured scenarios.

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s specifications, including its 7168 shading units and 224 texture mapping units, contribute to its strong rasterization performance in this older DirectX title. The benchmark results show that the GPU’s 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is more than adequate for Thief, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from Low to Ultra settings. The 80 ROPs and 554.4 GTexel/s texture rate help explain why the GPU maintains high frame rates even when settings are increased, as the game’s graphical workload appears to be well within the card’s capabilities. The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, based on its average benchmark score of 42576, further reinforces that this is a high-end part that excels in this title.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to use with this CPU and GPU combo in Thief?*

A: The measured data shows that 2560x1440 with the Medium preset provides an excellent balance, delivering 102.6 FPS average. For 4K, the Medium preset at 84.9 FPS is the most favorable option, while 1080p users can comfortably use Ultra at 103.8 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in terms of overall benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 42576, which is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000’s 42653 and 0.3% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE’s 42723. It outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6%.

*Q: Can this system handle Ultra settings at 4K in Thief?*

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces an average of 64.7 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. However, the Medium preset at 84.9 FPS offers a significantly smoother experience with only a modest visual quality reduction.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 3700X perform relative to comparable CPUs?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X has an average benchmark score of 28631, placing it 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-12600 (28654) and 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-12600H (28666). It is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT and 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7203P.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 132.5 FPS average, while the Ultra preset achieves 103.8 FPS. This represents a 28.7 FPS difference, or approximately a 21.7% reduction in frame rate when maxing out settings.

Q: Does the GPU’s memory bandwidth impact 4K performance significantly?

A: The 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth appears sufficient for Thief, as evidenced by the 4K results. The Medium preset at 4K maintains an 84.9 FPS average, and even the demanding Ultra preset stays above 60 FPS, indicating that memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows a clear progression across settings. The Low preset delivers the highest average at 132.5 FPS, followed by Medium at 120.4 FPS, High at 107.1 FPS, and Ultra at 103.8 FPS. The largest performance drop occurs between Low and Medium, where the frame rate falls by 12.1 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is a modest 3.3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset is well-optimized for this resolution, with diminishing returns in performance cost.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results follow a similar pattern but with narrower gaps. The Low preset averages 117.8 FPS, Medium drops to 102.6 FPS, and both High and Ultra land at nearly identical figures: 92.3 FPS and 92.2 FPS respectively. The near-identical performance between High and Ultra at 1440p is notable, as it indicates that the Ultra preset does not incur a significant penalty at this resolution. The 25.6 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is smaller than the 28.7 FPS difference seen at 1080p, highlighting the GPU’s ability to handle the increased pixel count without a proportional performance loss.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain respectable, with the Low preset averaging 95.2 FPS and the Medium preset at 84.9 FPS. The High preset drops to 69 FPS, while Ultra falls to 64.7 FPS. The performance delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 30.5 FPS, which is the largest absolute difference across all resolutions, but the fact that even the most demanding settings stay above 60 FPS reflects the RTX 4070 SUPER’s capabilities. The scaling from High to Ultra at 4K (a 4.3 FPS drop) is less than the drop from Medium to High (a 15.9 FPS drop), suggesting that the Ultra preset is more efficient relative to its visual impact than the High preset is over Medium.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 702nd out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. This ranking is notably lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest — the CPU sits in the 85th percentile among all processors, and the GPU sits in the 84th percentile among all GPUs — but the game’s age and its relatively light CPU demands mean that this pairing does not fully leverage the CPU’s strengths. The ranking reflects the fact that Thief is more dependent on GPU performance, and while the RTX 4070 SUPER is a strong card, its 4K performance at Ultra settings (64.7 FPS) is not exceptional compared to higher-end GPUs that would push this combo higher in the rankings.

The measured FPS data indicates that the combo’s performance is consistent and predictable, with no anomalous results that would suggest a bottleneck. The CPU’s 8-core, 16-thread configuration with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides ample headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential, as evidenced by the smooth scaling across settings and resolutions. The combo’s rank of 702 suggests that there are 701 faster configurations, likely featuring more recent CPUs and higher-tier GPUs, but the 3700X and RTX 4070 SUPER pairing offers a solid foundation for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with acceptable 4K performance for a title as old as Thief. The fact that the combo achieves over 100 FPS at 1080p on all settings except Ultra, and over 90 FPS at 1440p on all settings, indicates that this is a well-matched pair for high-refresh-rate monitors at mainstream resolutions.