Thief

Thief, a stealth classic from 2014, is brought to life by the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 in this benchmark analysis. The data reveals a system with immense headroom, scaling predictably across resolutions and settings. This combination ranks 108th out of 3720 tested combos, placing it in the 97.1 percentile of all tested hardware pairs. The following sections break down precisely how this hardware handles this title, focusing on the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern as resolution increases, revealing the shifting bottleneck between the CPU and GPU. At 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound; the RTX 4080 is not being fully utilized. The frame rates are extremely high, with the Ultra preset hitting 179 FPS and Low settings reaching 228 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution, as the GPU is capable of producing far more frames than the processor can handle.

Moving to 1440p, the load begins to shift to the GPU, but the system is still showing high frame rates. The High preset drops from 187 FPS at 1080p to 129 FPS at 1440p, a 31% decrease. The Low preset sees a similar proportional drop, from 228 FPS to 201 FPS, a 12% decrease. The Medium preset with the available min/max data shows a 18% drop from 206 FPS to 169 FPS. This scaling indicates that while the GPU is taking on more work, the CPU is still able to keep up with the demand. The Ultra preset sees a decrease from 179 FPS to 123 FPS, a 31% drop.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. The frame rates drop significantly as the RTX 4080 is pushed to its limits. The High preset drops from 129 FPS at 1440p to 76 FPS at 4K, a 41% reduction. The Low preset drops from 201 FPS to 131 FPS, a 35% reduction. The Medium preset drops from 169 FPS to 100 FPS, a 41% drop. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, sees a drop from 123 FPS to 72 FPS, a 41% reduction. The data indicates that the 4K resolution is where the GPU is fully saturated, and the performance is directly tied to the RTX 4080's capabilities.

FAQ

Q: At 4K, what is the difference in average FPS between the Low and Ultra presets?

A: The Low preset delivers 131 FPS, while the Ultra preset delivers 72 FPS. This is a 59 FPS difference, or a 45% performance drop from Low to Ultra.

Q: Does the system maintain a 60 FPS average at 4K with the highest settings?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 72 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Which preset at 2560x1440 provides the highest average FPS?

A: The Low preset at 2560x1440 provides the highest average FPS at 201 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 169 FPS, the High preset at 129 FPS, and the Ultra preset at 123 FPS.

Q: Is there a significant performance difference between the High and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: The data shows a 6 FPS difference between High (129 FPS) and Ultra (123 FPS) at 1440p, a 4.7% difference.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between 1080p and 4K on the High preset?

A: The High preset at 1920x1080 yields 187 FPS, while at 3840x2160 it yields 76 FPS. This represents a 111 FPS difference, or a 59% reduction in performance.

Q: Does the system show a larger performance drop from 1080p to 1440p, or from 1440p to 4K?

A: The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is smaller than from 1440p to 4K. For example, the High preset drops by 31% from 1080p to 1440p, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 41%.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 achieves a rank of 108 out of 3720 combos. This places the system in the top 3% of all tested hardware configurations for Thief. This is a very strong showing, indicating that this pairing is powerful enough for high-end gaming. The system is not the absolute top, but it is clearly within the highest tier of performance.

The CPU's percentile is 86, meaning it outperforms 86% of all CPUs. This is a high score, but the CPU is not a top-tier chip. The GPU's percentile is also 86, but the GPU is a high-end card. The combination of these two components results in a system that is well-balanced, but the high FPS numbers in this game are more closely tied to the GPU's performance. The CPU's 16 threads and 8 cores are more than sufficient for Thief, which is not a highly CPU-intensive game.

The data shows that the system is capable of delivering high frame rates at all resolutions. The rank of 108 out of 1080 combos suggests that the system is not the absolute top, but it is very close. The high scores from the CPU and GPU are proof of their respective capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this system in Thief is as follows:

• 3840x2160 (4K): Ultra 72 FPS, High 76 FPS, Medium 100 FPS (min 85, max 114), Low 131 FPS. The data shows a gradient of performance from the most demanding preset to the least.
• 2560x1440 (1440p): Ultra 123 FPS, High 129 FPS, Medium 169 FPS (min 144, max 195), Low 201 FPS. This resolution provides a large range of FPS depending on the settings.
• 1920x1080 (1080p): Ultra 179 FPS, High 187 FPS, Medium 206 FPS (min 175, max 237), Low 228 FPS. The system is clearly high-performing at this resolution.

The Medium presets at both 1440p and 1080p have min/max FPS data. At 2560x1440, the Medium settings range from 144 FPS to 195 FPS. At 1920x1080, the Medium settings range from 175 FPS to 237 FPS. This indicates that the game's frame times are not perfectly stable, but the average is solid. The delta between min and max is 51 FPS at 1440p and 62 FPS at 1080p. The data shows that the system is capable of maintaining high FPS, but it is not perfectly stable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of frame rates in this game, especially at higher resolutions. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 256-bit memory bus, the GPU has plenty of memory bandwidth (716.8 GB/s) to handle the textures and data in Thief. The GPU's base clock is 2205 MHz and its boost clock is 2505 MHz, which is high and contributes to its performance. The RTX 4080's 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs are fully utilized in this game. The GPU's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is a strong indicator of its overall compute power.

The data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K. The performance scaling from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced than the scaling from 1080p to 1440p, which is a direct result of the GPU's workload. For example, the High preset drops from 129 FPS at 1440p to 76 FPS at 4K, a 41% reduction. The same pattern holds for other presets. This indicates that the GPU is the component that is being stressed at 4K, and its performance is the primary driver of the FPS in this resolution.

The RTX 4080's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% slower. This shows that the GPU is well within the top tier of performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a Zen 5 processor with 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz and it boosts up to 5.50 GHz. The CPU's 32 MB of L3 cache is shared across the cores. The CPU's single-core performance is strong, as evidenced by its Geekbench single-core score of 3023 and its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2211. The multi-core scores are also strong; a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20485 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 17906. These numbers indicate that the CPU is more than capable of keeping up with the demands of Thief.

The data shows that the CPU is not the performance bottleneck at 4K. At 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, but the frame rates are so high (187-228 FPS) that this is not a problem. The CPU is clearly not the main constraint on the system's performance.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 37943 places it at the 86th percentile. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i9-14901E, which is 0.1% faster, and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which is 0.1% faster. The Intel Core 5 211E is 0.3% slower. This shows that the CPU is at the top of its class.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data provides a clear picture of the optimal settings for different resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the data shows that the system has a massive amount of headroom. The Ultra preset delivers 179 FPS, which is extremely high. Therefore, the Ultra preset is the best choice for 1080p, as it provides the highest visual experience without any issue. The system can easily handle the maximum settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains high. The Ultra preset gives 123 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and very smooth. The High preset is 129 FPS, which is slightly higher, but the visual increase from High to Ultra is generally worth the minor drop. The Ultra preset is the best option at 1440p for the best experience.

At 3840x2160, the system becomes more constrained. The Ultra preset delivers 72 FPS, which is playable and above 60 FPS. The High preset is 76 FPS, a 4 FPS increase. The Medium preset is 100 FPS, a significant increase from Ultra. The Low preset is 131 FPS. For most users, the High preset provides a good balance, but the Ultra setting is still viable. The Medium preset is a good option for those who want to see a high FPS. The data indicates that the Ultra preset is the best choice for 4K, as it delivers a smooth 72 FPS. The High preset offers 76 FPS, which is only 4 FPS more, making it a less compelling choice. The Medium preset is a strong performer at 100 FPS, but it is a step down in visual quality. The data suggests that the Ultra preset is the best choice for 4K, as it delivers a playable and visually rich experience.