Thief

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination delivers a playable but not flawless experience in Thief, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary constraint as resolution climbs. The data shows a system that is exceptionally capable at 1080p, comfortably smooth at 1440p, and only at 4K does it begin to struggle with the highest presets. The benchmark results indicate that the 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 7700 provides ample headroom, leaving the RTX 2070 SUPER as the deciding factor in frame rate outcomes.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 171 FPS at 1920x1080 to 118 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 53 FPS, and then further down to 69 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 60% decrease in average FPS from the lowest to the highest resolution tested at the Low preset. The scaling is proportionally similar at other settings, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER's rendering throughput is the limiting factor when pixel count increases.

The pattern is more telling at higher presets. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 94 FPS at 1080p to 65 FPS at 1440p, and then to 38 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS is below the 40 FPS average seen at 4K High, showing that the difference between High and Ultra becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. This is because the GPU is already saturated at 4K, and the additional computational load from the Ultra preset has a proportionally larger impact on the final frame rate. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is also significant, with average FPS dropping by roughly 30-31% across all presets, which is a substantial cost for the resolution upgrade.

The fact that the frame rate at 4K Low (69 FPS) is still much higher than at 4K Ultra (38 FPS) demonstrates that the game is highly sensitive to the graphics preset's demands on the GPU. The scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p, the CPU has enough power to feed the GPU, but as resolution rises, the GPU's pixel and texture processing capabilities become the bottleneck. The data shows that the transition from 1440p to 4K is the most punishing, with the average FPS nearly halving at every setting level, confirming that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for 1440p but are pushed to their limits at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the sweet spot for this combo, delivering an average of 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS. This provides a consistently playable experience that is well above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset at 1440p is also viable, with an average of 68 FPS, but the Medium preset offers a more comfortable margin for demanding scenes, as indicated by the minimum FPS data. At 1080p, High settings are the recommended choice, yielding an average of 99 FPS, which is smooth and leaves room for higher refresh rate displays.

At 4K, the data suggests that the Low preset is the only option for a consistently fluid experience, with an average of 69 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K averages 52 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS, which is playable but may suffer from occasional dips below the ideal smoothness threshold. The High and Ultra presets at 4K, averaging 40 FPS and 38 FPS respectively, are not recommended for competitive or fast-paced play, as they fall below the 60 FPS standard and even approach the 30 FPS console-like territory. The data indicates that the Ultra preset is a marginal gain over High at 4K, with only a 2 FPS difference in average frame rate (38 vs 40), making High the more sensible choice if one insists on playing at 4K with higher details.

The performance hierarchy is clear: the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best combination of frame rate and visual quality, with the average FPS being 21 FPS higher than High at the same resolution. At 1080p, the Ultra preset's average of 94 FPS is only 5 FPS lower than High, suggesting that Ultra is a viable choice for users with high refresh rate 1080p monitors, though the Medium preset at 130 FPS remains the best for maximum smoothness. The data supports a recommendation to prioritize the Medium preset for a stable experience, especially when considering the minimum FPS figures that show the range of performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the decisive component in this pairing, as its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth directly correlates with the game's performance scaling. The GPU's base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz are moderate by today's standards, but the data shows they are sufficient for high frame rates at lower resolutions. The GPU's percentile rank among all GPUs is 65, which places it in the upper half of the performance spectrum, and its average benchmark score of 20282 is a good indicator of its overall capability.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB appears to be sufficient for Thief at all tested settings, as the game was released in 2014 and does not have the massive texture demands of modern titles. However, the 4K results suggest that the memory bandwidth is a limiting factor. The difference between the 4K Low (69 FPS) and 4K High (40 FPS) is 29 FPS, a massive drop that is more likely due to the increased shader and texture work than VRAM capacity alone. The GPU's texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s are the specs that determine how quickly it can fill the screen at higher resolutions.

The RTX 2070 SUPER's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, -1% delta), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, -1.2% delta), Intel Arc B570 (20556, -1.3% delta), and Intel Arc A750 (20582, -1.5% delta). This places the RTX 2070 SUPER at the lower end of this performance cluster, being 1% to 1.5% slower than these alternatives. While the RTX 2070 SUPER is an older card, its performance in Thief is still respectable, but the data shows it is not a top-tier performer in comparison to more modern or higher-end mobile parts.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS is a key metric for raw compute power, and the data suggests it is well-utilized in this game. The fact that the frame rate scales almost linearly with resolution at lower settings indicates that the GPU is not being held back by any other subsystem. The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS is a clear indicator that the GPU is at its absolute limit, as increasing the preset from High to Ultra at 4K only yields a 2 FPS drop, suggesting that the GPU is already saturated with work and the extra load from Ultra has a diminishing impact on the final output.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 2070 SUPER and Ryzen 7 7700 combo demonstrates its strength. The Low preset achieves an average of 171 FPS, which is exceptionally high. The Medium preset averages 130 FPS with a minimum of 111 FPS and a maximum of 150 FPS, showing a wide range but maintaining high performance. High settings average 99 FPS, while Ultra settings average 94 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 77 FPS, indicating that the preset choice has a massive impact on performance even at the lowest resolution. The minimum FPS data for Medium (111 FPS) is still above the average for High (99 FPS), which highlights the smoothness advantage of the Medium preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are noticeable but the experience remains strong. The Low preset averages 118 FPS, which is still very high. The Medium preset averages 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS, providing a solid 60+ FPS experience. High settings average 68 FPS, and Ultra settings average 65 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 53 FPS, slightly smaller than at 1080p, but still substantial. The Medium preset's minimum of 76 FPS is a crucial data point, as it suggests that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate will not dip below the playable threshold.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. The Low preset averages 69 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset averages 52 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS, showing that it can occasionally hit 60 FPS but also dips into the 40s. High settings average 40 FPS, and Ultra settings average 38 FPS. The difference between Medium and High at 4K is 12 FPS, which is a significant drop, and the difference between High and Ultra is only 2 FPS. This data suggests that the Medium preset at 4K is the maximum playable setting, and even then, the experience will be inconsistent due to the minimum FPS being in the mid-40s.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination is ranked 2091 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 56th percentile of all tested systems. This means that the combo performs better than the median system but is not near the top of the charts. The rank indicates that while the CPU is highly capable, the GPU's age and performance level hold the combo back from higher rankings. The fact that the GPU's percentile rank is 65 and the CPU's is 87 suggests that the GPU is the weaker link in the chain, which aligns with the resolution scaling analysis.

The combo's ranking is a reflection of its overall capability in this specific game. Given that the RTX 2070 SUPER is an end-of-life product, its performance is competitive with but not superior to more modern mid-range cards. The nearest rivals to the GPU, such as the Intel Arc A750 and RTX 3070 Mobile, all have higher average benchmark scores, which likely translates to better performance in Thief at higher resolutions. However, the combo's rank of 2091 out of 3720 shows that it is still a viable configuration for most gamers, especially those playing at 1080p or 1440p.

The ranking data also shows that the combo is not an outlier in any particular direction. It sits comfortably in the middle of the pack, which is expected for a mid-range GPU from the previous generation paired with a high-end current-generation CPU. The Ryzen 7 7700's strong performance in the 3DMark tests (8484 for 16 threads and 8479 for max threads) provides a solid foundation, but the GPU's Passmark G3D score of 18169 and its 65th percentile ranking are the more relevant metrics for gaming performance. The combo's rank is a direct consequence of the GPU's relative standing among other graphics cards.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 plays a supporting role in this configuration, and the data shows it is more than capable of keeping the RTX 2070 SUPER fed. With 8 cores and 16 threads, the CPU has ample parallel processing power for modern game engines. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz are high, and its strong benchmark scores reflect its capability. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 18760 and single-core score of 1930 are excellent, indicating that the CPU can handle both multi-threaded workloads and single-threaded game logic with ease.

The CPU's percentile rank of 87 places it in the top 13% of all CPUs, which proves its performance. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.1% delta), Intel Core 5 221E (-0.2% delta), and AMD Ryzen 9 270 (-0.4% delta), are all very close in average benchmark score, showing that the 7700 is at the top of its performance class. The CPU's Passmark multithread score of 34470 and single-thread score of 4063 are robust, ensuring that it will not be a bottleneck in Thief, which is a game from 2014 that is unlikely to utilize more than a few cores effectively.

The evidence that the CPU is not the limiting factor is the resolution scaling pattern. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates at 1080p would not be so much higher than at 4K. The fact that the average FPS at 1080p Low is 171 FPS and only drops to 69 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the GPU is the component that is being challenged by the increased pixel count. The Ryzen 7 7700's high single-core performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1049 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 308, ensures that the game's main thread will not be a limiting factor. The data clearly shows that the CPU's role is to provide a stable platform, and it does so without any signs of strain, allowing the GPU's performance to be the sole determinant of the frame rate.