Thief

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers a performance profile in Thief that is heavily dictated by the graphics card. This combination, ranked 3551st out of 3720 tested combos for this game, demonstrates that CPU headroom is abundant while the GPU is the limiting factor at nearly every resolution. The data shows a stark drop in average frame rates as resolution increases, with the most playable experiences confined to 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured frames per second, the impact of settings, and the role of the GPU’s specifications in shaping the overall results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling curve. As the resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, the average frame rates drop dramatically across all settings presets. At the High preset, the average FPS falls from 43 at 1080p to 30 at 1440p, a reduction that continues to 17 at 4K. The Low and Medium presets show the same trend, with Low dropping from 75 at 1080p to 51 at 1440p and finally to 30 at 4K. Medium goes from 57 to 39 to 23 across the same three resolutions. The Ultra preset follows suit: 41 at 1080p, 28 at 1440p, and 17 at 4K.

The most significant gap is between 1080p and 1440p. At Low settings, the average FPS drops by 24 frames from 75 to 51, a 32% reduction. At High, the drop is from 43 to 30, a 30% reduction. The Medium preset yields a drop from 57 to 39, and Ultra from 41 to 28. In contrast, the transition from 1440p to 4K is less severe in absolute frame count but still represents a major percentage loss. Low settings drop from 51 to 30, High from 30 to 17, Medium from 39 to 23, and Ultra from 28 to 17. The 4K Ultra and High presets both land at exactly 17 average FPS, suggesting a hard performance wall.

This scaling pattern indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 570, with its 4GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus, becomes the definitive limiting component as pixel count increases. The Ryzen 7 7700X, with 8 cores and 16 threads, is more than capable of feeding frames at these settings. The benchmark results show that the GPU’s rendering capabilities are exhausted at 4K, where even the Low preset manages just 30 average FPS. At 1080p, the GPU still limits performance, but the CPU’s strong single-thread and multi-thread scores ensure that the GPU is never starved of data, allowing the maximum frame rates to be reached.

The data indicates that the frame rate variance also shrinks as resolution increases. At 1080p Medium, the measured FPS ranges from 48 to 65, a spread of 17 frames. At 1440p Medium, the range is 33 to 45, a spread of 12 frames. At 4K Medium, the range is 19 to 26, a spread of just 7 frames. This tightening of variance is another sign that the GPU becomes the bottleneck, as the CPU’s ability to minimize frame time spikes becomes irrelevant when the GPU is saturated.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience for gameplay is found at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which achieves an average FPS of 75. This is the only result that exceeds 60 average FPS, making it the only configuration that comfortably provides a smooth frame rate. The 1080p Medium preset averages 57 FPS, which is close to the 60 target but with a minimum FPS of 48, indicating that dips below 60 are likely during heavy scenes. For players who prioritize frame rate stability, the Low preset is the most reliable choice.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 51 FPS, which is playable but below the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 39 FPS with a minimum of 33, which may be acceptable for slower-paced stealth gameplay but is not ideal for action sequences. The High preset at 1440p averages 30 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 28 FPS, both of which are at the edge of playability.

At 4K, the results are not recommended for serious. The Low preset averages 30 FPS, which is technically playable but not smooth. The Medium preset averages 23 FPS with a minimum of 19, and the High and Ultra presets both average 17 FPS. These frame rates are too low for a game that requires stealth and precision. The data shows that the system cannot maintain a playable frame rate at 4K, even on the lowest settings.

The most efficient combination for a playable frame rate is 1080p with Medium settings. This provides an average FPS of 57, which is near the 60 target, and the minimum FPS of 48 is acceptable for a stealth game. The visual upgrade from Low to Medium is significant, and the frame rate cost is a drop from 75 to 57, which is a 24% reduction. Given that the Medium preset is the highest setting that stays above the 45 FPS minimum, it is the recommended balance for this combo.

For players who want the highest possible frame rate, the Low preset at 1080p is the only option that provides a clear margin above 60 FPS. The average of 75 FPS gives enough headroom to avoid most drops. For players who want better visuals, the Medium at 1080p is the best compromise, as the Ultra preset at 1080p averages 41 FPS, which is a noticeable drop from Medium’s 57.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X combined with the AMD Radeon RX 570 achieves a combo rank of 3551 out of 3720 tested combinations for Thief. This puts the combo in the bottom 5% of all tested configurations. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU’s performance ceiling, not the CPU. The data shows that the Ryzen 7 7700X is a high-end processor, with an average benchmark score of 35909 and a percentile rank of 85th among all CPUs. In contrast, the Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 28766 and sits in the 74th percentile for GPUs, which is lower but still above average.

The combo rank of 3553 out of 3720 places this system well behind the vast majority of combos. This indicates that for this specific game, the RX 570 is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 7 7700X’s benchmarks, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19088 and a single-core score of 1987, are irrelevant to the frame rate in this game because the GPU cannot keep up. The game’s performance is dictated by the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth.

The combo’s rank is not a reflection of the CPU’s quality. When paired with a more capable GPU, the 7700X would likely rank much higher. The data shows that the nearest rivals to the 7700X in CPU benchmarks, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, have an average score of 35802, which is just 0.3% behind. This indicates that the CPU is performing at the expected level. The GPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, has an average score that is 0.4% lower, but the RX 570 is still not a high-end part.

This rank is a clear indicator that the system is not optimized for this game at higher resolutions. The benchmark results show that the combo is best suited for 1080p gaming with lower settings, where it can achieve a playable frame rate. The rank of 3553 out of 3720 is a strong signal that the GPU should be upgraded to improve performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at the performance across all settings and resolutions. The table below summarizes the average FPS, with minimum and maximum values where available.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average FPS of 75. The Medium preset achieves 57, with a minimum of 48 and a maximum of 65. The High preset achieves 43, and the Ultra preset achieves 41. The spread from Low to Ultra is from 75 to 41, a difference of 34 frames. The Ultra preset is not much lower than High, with only a 2 FPS difference, indicating that the Ultra settings do not add a heavy burden on the GPU at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average FPS of 51. The Medium preset achieves 39, with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 45. The High preset achieves 30, and the Ultra preset achieves 28. The difference between High and Ultra is only 2 FPS, which is similar to the 1080p result. The gap between Low and Medium is 12 FPS, and the gap between Medium and High is 9 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves an average FPS of 30. The Medium preset achieves 23, with a minimum of 19 and a maximum of 26. The High preset achieves 17, and the Ultra preset achieves 17. The High and Ultra presets are identical at 17 average FPS, which indicates that the GPU is completely saturated at this resolution. The difference between Low and Medium is 7 FPS, and the difference between Medium and High is 6 FPS.

The Medium preset is the only setting that has a complete set of minimum and maximum values across all resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 48 to 65, at 1440p the range is 33 to 45, and at 4K the range is 19 to 26. This shows that the frame time variance is higher at lower resolutions, which is consistent with the GPU having more headroom.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the frame rate scales with resolution and settings, but the GPU’s memory and bandwidth limit the maximum performance. The 4GB of memory is a factor at higher resolutions, but the 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is the more significant constraint.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a graphics card based on the Polaris 20 chip, built on a 14 nm process. It features 20434 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The card has a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. The memory is 4GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The GPU’s pixel rate is 39.81 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 159.2 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 5.095 TFLOPS.

These specifications indicate a GPU that was designed for 1080p gaming at the time of its release. The 4GB of memory is a limitation for higher resolutions and higher texture settings. The memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s is sufficient for the game’s data, but at 4K, the rendering requirements exceed the GPU’s throughput.

The GPU’s benchmark scores show that it performs at about the expected level. The Geekbench Vulkan score is 42752, the OpenCL score is 32084, and the Metal score is 39349. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 880. These scores place the GPU in the 74th percentile of all GPUs.

The RX 570’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, which is a high-end laptop GPU, and the AMD Radeon RX 470, which is a similar desktop part. The difference in average benchmark score is less than 1%, which shows that the RX 570 is performing as expected for its class.

In the context of Thief, the GPU’s role is to render the game’s stealth environments. The GPU’s 4GB of VRAM is sufficient for the textures at 1080p, but at 4K, the texture data exceeds the memory capacity, which can cause a performance penalty. The GPU’s fill rate is also a bottleneck, as the 4K resolution requires more pixel work than the 39.81 GPixel/s can sustain.

The GPU’s power of 150W and its PCIe 3.0 x16 interface are standard. The card’s performance is not limited by the CPU, as the Ryzen 7 7700X provides plenty of data.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with the Low preset?

A: The average FPS is 75.

Q: What the average FPS at 4K with the High preset?

A: The average FPS is 17.

Q: What is the range of FPS at 1440p with the Medium preset?

A: The average is 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 45.

Q: How does the combo rank in Thief?

A: The combo ranks 3553rd out of 3726 tested combos.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory capacity?

A: The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Q: What is the CPU’s average benchmark score?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score is 35909.