Thief

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is a dated combination for a 2014 stealth classic. The 8-core CPU still holds its own, but the 2060 SUPER is the real player in Thief’s world. Measured results show that this pair can produce smooth frames at 1080p and respectable ones at 1440p, but the climb to 4K exposes the GPU’s limitations. The CPU, meanwhile, has enough single-core push to keep up with the game’s physics-driven stealth mechanics at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

Scaling from 1080p to 4K in Thief with this pairing is a dramatic drop, and the pattern is consistent across all four quality settings. On Low, the average framerate goes from 155 FPS at 1920x1080 down to 63 FPS at 3840x2160. That’s not a gradual slide but a brutal cut—more than half the frame rate disappears when moving to 4K. High settings drop from 90 to 36 FPS, Medium goes from 118 to 48, and Ultra falls from 86 to 35. The 4K numbers remain playable on Low and Medium, but they are no longer in the 60 FPS comfort zone; the higher presets are hovering right at 60 or below.

The pattern is equally telling when you look at the two middle resolutions. At 2560x1440, the FPS ranges from 107 on Low to 59 on Ultra, which aligns with what you would expect from a graphics card that is well matched to Thief’s age. But the gap between 1440p and 4K reveals the limiting component: it is not the CPU. A CPU bottleneck would flatten the curve, but the data shows a steep decline, more indicative of the GPU hitting its memory bandwidth and raw shading limits. The drop from 1440p to 4K at 4.0 GHz—well, the 512 GB/s bandwidth of the RTX 2060 SUPER (as given in the fact pack, 448.0 GB/s) is good, but 4K in Thief still asks for more.

Notably, the difference between settings at 1080p is smaller than the resolution shift. From 155 FPS at Low to 86 FPS at Ultra, you lose about half the frame count. But from 1080p to 4K on the same preset, you also lose half. That indicates the GPU is the star of this show—the CPU’s raw capability is only fully used at 1080 low. The game’s engine is from 2014, so 8 threads of the 5800XT are not fully stressed. The bottleneck is clearly on the graphics card, which is the first thing to upgrade if you plan on 4K.

FAQ

Q: What average FPS does this combo deliver at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings?

A: The average is 86 FPS, with no minimum or maximum values listed in the measured data.

Q: Is the GPU limited at 1440p?

A: For most presets yes. The 1440p Medium settings average 81 FPS, while low goes up to 107, but Ultra drops to 59 FPS. So you can expect a playable experience at 1440p, but not a super-smooth one at maxed-out quality.

Q: How many cores does the CPU use?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT has 8 physical cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz.

Q: What is the combo rank of this CPU-GPU pairing in Thief?

A: In the measured dataset of 3,720 different CPU-GPU combinations, this pairing ranks 2,591. That puts it in the lower half of all tested configurations.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER approach its memory?

A: It uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, giving it a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. That’s a capable amount of VRAM for a 2014 title, even at 4K, though the data shows 4K still struggles.

Q: What is the CPU’s launch MSRP?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT had a launch MSRP of $249.

CPU Role

The CPU in this system is a mid-2024 release, but Thief is not a new game. Over half a decade old, Thief tends to be is still light on CPU fame. The 5800XTproves that point: single-thread benchmark scores from the pack—like Cinebench R20 single-core 1410 and PassMark single-thread 3535—mean it has no issue pushing 155 FPS at 1080p Low.

Here, the 8-core and 16-thread configuration is serious overkill. The 5800XT has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80, which is a solid jump for the target FPS. In a game like Thief that doesn't have complex crowd simulation, those 8 cores are mostly idle. The CPU’s single-core performance is what allows the High preset to go from 90 FPS at 1080p to 86 FPS at Ultra—only a 4 FPS difference. The bottleneck shifts to the GPU when settings climb.

The L3 cache is 32 MB shared, which helps with fast data retrieval, but it isn’t likely to be a determining factor in this 2014 title. In the benchmark list, Cinebench R23 multicore at 23794 and PassMark multi-thread at 28053 show the CPU wouldn’t feel any strain. When you compare the 5800XT to its rivals—the Ryzen 7 7840H (delta +0%) and 8845HS (delta -0.3%)—the difference in average score is under 1%, so there’s no notable variance in Thief.

One does not need to suggest a CPU upgrade for 4K in Thief, because the GPU is already the constraint. The 5800XT’s two threads are more than enough to feed the RTX 2060 SUPER. At 1080p Low, you see 150 FPS, which is the CPU letting the card stretch its arms. The fact that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is far smaller than the gap between 1080p and 4K points to a CPU that never becomes the strength.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of a Ryzen 7 5800XT and RTX 2060 SUPER sits at rank 2,591 out of 3,720 tested in Thief. That is a low middle table placement—only about 30% of combinations are slower. Put another way, if you sort all combos by measured average FPS, this one lands in the lower-third. The top 70%, presumably led by newer GPOs and recent CPUs, do better. That rank is not terrible for a 1080p run, but it spells trouble for a 4K target above 60.

Comparing the GPU to its near rivals in a synthetic overview, the RTX 2060 SUPER sits -0.4% behind the RTX 3060 Mobile and -1.5% behind the Radeon RX 460 in average score. That positional uniform suggests a modest GPU. In fact, the RTX 2060 SUPER only has an aggregate benchmark score of 18093, and its G3D point is 62 percentile, which is about average. The CPU part is stronger: the 5800XT places in the 81st percentile among all CPUs, with a 3DMark 16-thread score of 7683. The rank difference shows that the GPU is the drag—it pulls the combo’s rank down.

For gaming, the rank is not devastating. At 1080p, the FPS is comfortable over 80 FPS on High, and Medium. The bigger picture is that this combo is not designed for 60+ at 4K; it’s a 1440p-inch set. A quick recommendation: pair this GPU with a high-refresh 1440p monitor and use the 8-core CPU for other tandem workloads.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 SUPER is the primary limiting component in this test, and its specs lay that out very frankly. Its TU106 die has 112 tons of shading—but the actual numbers: 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, 64 ROPs, base clock 1470 MHz and boost 1650 MHz. It uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, giving 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Those numbers are respectable for a card of its generation, but there’s nothing here that looks like a 4K beast. The FP32 throughput is 7.181 TFLOPS, which is a typical middle-grade figure from 2019.

When you look at how this GPU handles Thief, the two most telling points of performance are: 1440p High average is 62 FPS, and 4K High average is 36 FPS. That 4K high is excellent for image quality but not smoothly accelerates. The 8 GB VRAM should be plenty for a 2014 game; Thief’s textures are limited. It is likely not the 8GB being filled─ rather the shader and compute power. At 3840x2160, the demand jumps, and the RTX 2060 SUPER’s pixel rate (105.6 GPicel/s) and text rate (224.4 GTex/s) are only enough for around 50-60 FPS in older titles, but Thief is highly GPU-bound with its lighting.

If you look at a synthetic benchmark like Geekbench Vulkan (77402) and OpenCL (76957), you see the card is mid-range. Its nearest rival, RTX 3060 Mobile, is only 0.4% slower in another test, but in games like Thief, they would be equal. The overall card is 62nd percentile, which tells you it’s not the best. For users planning 4K with this card, the measured 35-38 FPS on Ultra/High is just tolerable. Lower settings get near 63 FPS, but that compromises quality. It is a card best suited for 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 play, not 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Below are the exact measured results from the data feed, for each resolution and settings. The table lists raw numbers as per the FACT PACK.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|-----------|----------|---------|---------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 36 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 63 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 48 | 40 | 55 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 35 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 62 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 107 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 81 | 69 | 93 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 59 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 90 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 155 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 118 | 100 | 136 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 86 | - | - |

The 1080p numbers show a clear step from Low (155) to Medium (118) to High (90) to Ultra (86). The gap between High and Ultra is smaller than the gap between Low and Medium, a sign of throttling on the effect suite. Medium and High each have min and max values, while Low and Ultra do not - interesting if those settings are not as limited. For 1440p, the same pattern repeats: 107 Low, 81 Medium, 62 High, 59 Ultra. This shows how the settings stack density the card performs more than half the performance difference from Low to Ultra.

4K is the odd one: 63 Low, 48 Medium, 36 High, 35 Ultra. Low and Medium are still what one would call solidly playable, but High and Ultra dip to the low 30s. If you’re aiming for smooth gameplay, 4K isn’t the resolution for this GPU. The 63 FPS on Low is only 12 FPS quicker than 1440p on Ultra (59), meaning the GPU can’t rally when resolution climbs. However, those with a high frame monitor could stick to 1080p and crank to any setting, knowing they will stay above 86 FPS.

The FPS data confirms the broader point: this CPU and GPU pair is a bronze-age level for 1080p and acceptable 1440p. 4K is a placeholder.