Thief

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a compelling experience in Thief, a game from 2014. The combination of an eight-core Zen 3 processor and a high-end Ada Lovelace GPU produces frame rates that are consistently high across all tested resolutions, often exceeding 100 FPS. The following analysis breaks down how this combo ranks against other tested configurations, the division of labor between CPU and GPU, and the impact of resolution and settings on performance.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration of AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 achieves a combo rank of 739 out of 3720 tested combinations in Thief. This places the pairing in the top quintile of all tested combos, indicating that it is well-suited to handle the game's demands. The rank reflects the synergy between the eight-core CPU and the 16 GB GPU, which together produce frame rates that are rarely a bottleneck for the game's mechanics.

When looking at the components individually, the RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 7 5700 sits in the 78th percentile among all CPUs. The higher percentile of the GPU suggests that it is the more dominant component in this pairing, and the data from the FPS measurements supports this. The combo's overall rank of 739 is also helped by the fact that the Ryzen 7 5700 has an average benchmark score of 25,517, which places it within 0.3% of its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 5825U and AMD Ryzen 5 6600H. This consistency in CPU performance ensures that the GPU is not often held back.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the driving force behind the high frame rates observed in Thief. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the GPU provides a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This memory capacity is more than sufficient for the game's textures and assets, even at 4K resolution, and the high bandwidth ensures that data can be fed to the processing cores quickly.

The GPU's architecture is Ada Lovelace, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with 45,900 million transistors. It has a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz. The memory clock is listed as 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective, which is common for GDDR6X. The RTX 4080 also has 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores, although Thief does not utilize these features, as the game is from 2014, predating widespread ray tracing. The raw shading power, with 9728 shading units, is what matters most for this title, and the GPU's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is a significant asset for handling the game's DirectX 11 workload.

The GPU's 16 GB memory capacity is double what is typically required for 1080p and 1440p gaming, and even at 4K, it provides headroom for the game's textures. In the benchmark data, the GPU achieves its highest average FPS at 1080p Low with 162 FPS, and the lowest at 4K Ultra with 72 FPS. This range indicates that the GPU is fully capable of handling the game's demands across all settings, with the CPU not appearing to be a significant limitation at any resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark results show a clear progression of average FPS as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p, the average frame rate across all settings ranges from 130 FPS (Ultra) to 162 FPS (Low). At 1440p, the range narrows to 115 FPS (Ultra) to 143 FPS (Low). At 4K, the range drops further to 72 FPS (Ultra) to 119 FPS (Low).

This scaling pattern indicates that the game is becoming more GPU-bound as the resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU has a more significant role, as the GPU can produce a high number of frames, but the CPU ensures that the game logic and draw calls are processed quickly. The difference between the lowest and highest settings at 1080p is 70 FPS (162 vs 92), which suggests that the GPU is capable of high frame rates, but the CPU can also keep up with the demands of the game at lower settings.

As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor, as the frame rate drops significantly, but the difference between settings narrows. At 4K, the gap between Low and Ultra is only 47 FPS (119 vs 72), which is a smaller gap than at 1080p. This indicates that the GPU is working harder to render more pixels, and the performance impact of settings is more pronounced. The data suggests that for this game, 4K High is a playable target with an average of 76 FPS, while 4K Ultra drops to 72 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all settings. With Low settings, the average FPS is 162, which is the highest recorded for this combo. The Medium setting provides an average of 146 FPS, with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS. High settings see a drop to 132 FPS, and Ultra settings bring the average down to 130 FPS. This pattern suggests that the GPU is overkill for 1080p, as even Ultra settings produce a frame rate that is well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 1440p, the frame rates remain high, but the gap between settings becomes more noticeable. The Low setting achieves 143 FPS, which is a marginal drop from 1080p. Medium settings provide 129 FPS, High settings 117 FPS, and Ultra settings 115 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium is 110 FPS, with a maximum of 148 FPS. This shows that at 1440p, the GPU is still delivering performance that is suitable for high refresh rate displays, even with Ultra settings.

At 4K, the frame rates become more moderate, but the game remains playable. Low settings give an average of 119 FPS, Medium 100 FPS, High 76 FPS, and Ultra 72 FPS. The Medium setting provides a minimum of 85 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS, indicating that the GPU can handle 4K gaming without stutter. The 4K results show a more significant drop in performance from Low to High, suggesting that the GPU is using more of its resources to render at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data indicates that the optimal balance between visual quality and frame rate depends on the resolution. At 1080p, Ultra settings provide an average of 130 FPS, which is still excellent. However, the jump from High to Ultra yields only a 1 FPS difference (from 132 to 130 FPS), suggesting that the visual improvement from Ultra may not be worth the extra GPU load. For most users, High settings at 1080p provide a great experience with a frame rate that exceeds 130 FPS.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds: High settings provide 117 FPS, which is playable, but Ultra is 105 FPS. The difference is only 12 FPS, so High settings may be the sweet spot for a high refresh rate display. For users targeting 144 FPS, Low settings at 1440p provide 143 FPS, which is close to the target, but the visual quality is reduced.

At 4K, the choice is more nuanced. The High preset provides an average of 76 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz monitor, but for 144 Hz, users may need to drop to Medium or Low. Medium settings provide 100 FPS, which is a good compromise between visual quality and performance. Low settings at 4K provide 119 FPS, but the visual drop is noticeable. Given the data, the best overall experience for this combo is at 1440p with High settings, which provides 117 FPS and a good balance of visual fidelity and smoothness. For 4K, Medium settings are recommended for a playable 100 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is a Zen 3 processor, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The CPU's L3 cache is 16 MB, and the L1 and L2 caches are 64 KB and 512 KB per core, respectively. This CPU supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s.

In Thief, the CPU's role is to handle the game's logic, physics, and the rendering thread. The game is from 2014, so it is not heavily multi-threaded, but it can utilize more than one core. The Ryzen 7 5700's eight cores and SMT threads provide ample headroom for the game's single-threaded performance, as well as for any other background tasks. The CPU's single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 901, and the Cinebench R15 single-core score of 293.

The benchmark results show that the CPU does not become a bottleneck until very high frame rates. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 162 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game. The gap between 1080p and 1440p performance is minimal (162 FPS vs 143 FPS), indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this scenario. The CPU's performance is more than adequate for the game, and the combo's ranking in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs suggests it is a strong match for the RTX 4080.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings for this combo?

A: The average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 132 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4080's VRAM capacity affect performance?

A: The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is more than sufficient for Thief, even at 4K. It provides a large memory buffer, which allows the game to load textures without swapping, keeping frame rates stable.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700 a good match for the RTX 4080 in this game?

A: Yes, the combo ranks 739th out of 3720 tested. The CPU's 8-core, 16-thread design with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz is enough to feed the GPU, but at 1080p Low, the CPU may become a limitation, as the frame rate is 162 FPS.

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Ultra for this combination?

A: The average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 72 FPS.

Q: Which setting offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High settings give 117 FPS, while Ultra settings give 105 FPS. The only 12 FPS difference suggests that High settings is the best for a smooth experience with high quality.

Q: Does the CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache have a significant impact on Thief's performance?

A: The L3 cache is 16 MB, which is standard for a modern CPU. Its impact is time to be significant, as the game's performance is more dependent on the GPU, but the CPU's overall performance is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4080 at most settings.