Thief

# Thief with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a broadly playable experience in Thief, a 2014 stealth title. The data shows the combo ranks 1997th out of 2851 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. The RTX 2060 SUPER, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, drives most of the performance picture here, while the Zen 5-based CPU provides ample headroom at lower resolutions. The measured results reveal a system that can hit high refresh rates at 1080p, but struggles to maintain smooth gameplay at 4K on higher presets.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Thief?*

A: The 1920x1080 results are the strongest, with every preset averaging above 86 FPS. The Low preset reaches 155 FPS average, while High and Ultra both stay above 86 FPS, making 1080p the clear sweet spot for this pairing.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 18093 places it within 0.4% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (18159) and 0.5% of the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18189). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 460 by 1.5% and the Intel Arc A770M by 1.6%, indicating a tightly clustered performance tier.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9700F a bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data suggests not. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 36 on High and 35 on Ultra, while the Low preset manages 63 FPS. The CPU's strong single-thread score of 4691 in Passmark indicates it is unlikely to be the limiting factor at this resolution; the GPU's workload dominates.

Q: What settings preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance?

A: At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 118 FPS average with a minimum of 100 FPS, offering a substantial improvement over Low's 155 FPS while maintaining high smoothness. At 1440p, Medium also stands out with 81 FPS average and a minimum of 69 FPS, making it the most viable option for higher resolutions.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance rank?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 36470 in Passmark's multithread test, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. It sits within 0.9% of the Intel Core i7-14700K (69355) and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515), showing competitive multi-threaded capability.

Q: Does the game favor GPU or CPU performance in the measured results?

A: The scaling between resolutions indicates a GPU-bound scenario. Dropping from 1080p Low (155 FPS) to 4K Low (63 FPS) represents a 59% reduction, while the CPU's high single-thread and multithread scores suggest it is not the primary constraint in most settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the primary driver of Thief's frame rate in this combo. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, paired with a 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, provides the memory throughput needed for the game's texture-heavy environments. The GPU's base clock of 1470 MHz and boost clock of 1650 MHz, combined with 2176 shading units, deliver the raw compute power reflected in the measured FPS. The TU106 chip, built on a 12 nm process with 10,800 million transistors, offers a Passmark G3D score of 16462, which places it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's performance in Thief scales predictably with settings. At 1080p, the Low preset hits 155 FPS, but High drops to 90 FPS and Ultra to 86 FPS, showing a 44% reduction from Low to Ultra. This pattern persists across resolutions: at 1440p, Low averages 107 FPS while Ultra averages 59 FPS, and at 4K, Low averages 63 FPS while Ultra averages 35 FPS. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient for the game's 2014-era graphics, but the higher presets clearly stress the GPU's capabilities. Notably, the Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum FPS of 40 and maximum of 55, indicating some frame-time variance that could affect gameplay smoothness.

The GPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, are the RTX 3060 Mobile (18159), Radeon Pro 5700 (18189), Radeon RX 460 (18373), and Arc A770M (18383). The RTX 2060 SUPER's score of 18093 places it within a 1.6% margin of all these cards, suggesting that Thief performance would be similar across this hardware tier. However, the measured FPS data shows that the 2060 SUPER can push beyond 60 FPS at 1440p on Medium settings, which is a strong result for a card in this performance bracket.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1997 out of 2851 tested combinations places this pairing in the 30th percentile of all tested systems for Thief. This rank indicates that while the system is far from the top, it outperforms a significant portion of the database. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 62nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and the Ryzen 7 9700F's 94th percentile among all CPUs create an interesting asymmetry: the CPU is a high-end part, while the GPU is mid-range. This imbalance is reflected in the game's performance, where the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

The rank suggests that this combo is better suited for 1080p gaming, where the CPU's strength can be leveraged, rather than 4K, where the GPU's limitations are exposed. The data shows that at 1080p, the system can achieve 155 FPS on Low settings, which would place it favorably against many other combos. However, at 4K Ultra, the 35 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold that many users consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The 1997th rank reflects this mixed performance profile, with the system being competitive at lower resolutions but falling behind at higher ones.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset to use at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best balance, with an average of 118 FPS and a minimum of 100 FPS. This ensures smooth gameplay with no drops below the 60 FPS threshold, while High and Ultra settings also remain playable at 90 and 86 FPS respectively. For users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset's 155 FPS average is exceptional, but the visual trade-off may not be worth it given the Medium preset's strong performance.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, delivering an average of 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS. This maintains smooth gameplay while providing a significant visual upgrade over Low, which averages 107 FPS. The High preset at 62 FPS average is borderline playable, but the minimum frame rate data is not recorded, so there is a risk of dips below 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 59 FPS average is marginal, and users may experience stuttering during intense scenes.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only option that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, with an average of 63 FPS. The Medium preset averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS, which is playable but may not be ideal for fast-paced stealth sequences. High and Ultra presets average 36 and 35 FPS respectively, which are below the threshold for smooth gameplay and should be avoided unless the user prioritizes visual quality over playability. The data indicates that 4K gaming is only viable on Low settings for this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 155 FPS, which is the highest measured result across all configurations. The Medium preset averages 118 FPS, with a minimum of 100 FPS and a maximum of 136 FPS, indicating consistent frame delivery. High settings average 90 FPS, while Ultra averages 86 FPS, showing a narrow gap between the two higher presets. The difference between Low and Ultra is 69 FPS, representing a 45% reduction in performance when maxing out the settings.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 107 FPS, which is a 31% reduction compared to 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 81 FPS, with a minimum of 69 FPS and maximum of 93 FPS, maintaining playability throughout. High settings average 62 FPS, while Ultra averages 59 FPS, showing that the gap between presets narrows as resolution increases. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 48 FPS, a 45% reduction, similar to the 1080p scaling.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 63 FPS, which is a 41% reduction from 1080p Low and a 41% reduction from 1440p Low. The Medium preset averages 48 FPS, with a minimum of 40 FPS and maximum of 55 FPS, showing significant frame-time variance. High settings average 36 FPS, while Ultra averages 35 FPS, indicating that the GPU is heavily saturated at 4K. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 28 FPS, a 44% reduction, consistent with the scaling pattern seen at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, with 8 cores and 16 threads, provides substantial processing power for Thief. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz, combined with 32 MB of shared L3 cache, ensure that the CPU is not a bottleneck in most scenarios. The Passmark single-thread score of 4691 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating strong per-core performance that is beneficial for a game like Thief, which relies on single-threaded game logic. The multithread score of 36470 is equally impressive, placing it within 0.9% of the Intel Core i7-14700K and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.

The CPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, 0.2% higher), Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163, 0.2% lower), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, 0.7% higher), and Intel Core i7-14700K (69355, 0.9% higher). The Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score of 69996 places it in a tightly contested performance tier, where differences of less than 1% are common. This indicates that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the RTX 2060 SUPER with data, and the performance ceiling in Thief is determined by the GPU.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and Zen 5 architecture on a 4 nm process contribute to its efficiency, but the measured FPS data shows that the CPU's impact on Thief is indirect. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU's high single-thread performance allows the system to reach 155 FPS. However, at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is fully saturated, the CPU's capabilities are not fully utilized, as the 35 FPS average is clearly GPU-limited. This suggests that the Ryzen 7 9700F provides a solid foundation for this combo, but the RTX 2060 SUPER is the definitive performance limiter.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals the GPU-bound nature of this combo. At Low settings, the average FPS decreases from 155 at 1080p to 107 at 1440p (a 31% drop) and then to 63 at 4K (a 41% drop from 1440p). This scaling pattern is consistent with the GPU rendering more pixels, with the 4K resolution requiring four times the pixel count of 1080p. The fact that the FPS does not drop linearly with pixel count suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and fill rate are being taxed, but not to the point of complete saturation.

At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 118 at 1080p to 81 at 1440p (a 31% drop) and then to 48 at 4K (a 41% drop from 1440p). The minimum FPS at Medium settings tells a similar story: 100 at 1080p, 69 at 1440p, and 40 at 4K. This indicates that the GPU is consistently stressed across all resolutions, with the 4K Medium preset showing the most frame-time variance (40 to 55 FPS range). At High and Ultra settings, the scaling is more pronounced: High drops from 90 to 62 to 36 FPS across the three resolutions, while Ultra drops from 86 to 59 to 35 FPS.

The resolution scaling data strongly suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting component in this combo. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking and strong single-thread performance mean it is unlikely to be the bottleneck, even at 1080p where the FPS is highest. The sharp FPS drops at 4K, particularly on High and Ultra presets where the averages fall below 40 FPS, indicate that the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth are insufficient for the game's higher visual settings at that resolution. Users seeking 4K gameplay would need to rely on the Low preset, which achieves 63 FPS, or accept the visual compromises of Medium settings at 48 FPS.