Thief

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Thief shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly depending on the selected settings preset. This variance is the key to understanding which component is limiting performance at each resolution.

At the Low preset, the framerate drops from 217 FPS at 1920x1080 to 192 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 25 FPS or roughly 11.5 percent. Moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 brings the average down to 130 FPS, another 62 FPS loss, or about 32 percent. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 87 FPS, which means 4K delivers only about 60 percent of the 1080p framerate. This is a substantial scaling penalty, and it points to the GPU becoming progressively more stressed as pixel count rises.

At the Medium preset, the pattern is similar but with slightly different absolute numbers. The recorded averages are 196 FPS at 1920x1080, 168 FPS at 2560x1440, and 99 FPS at 3840x2160. The step from 1080p to 1440p costs 28 FPS, while the step from 1440p to 4K costs 69 FPS. In percentage terms, the 4K result is roughly 50 percent lower than the 1080p result. This larger proportional drop at 4K suggests that the GPU load is increasing non-linearly with pixel count, which is expected for a rasterization-bound title.

The High preset shows a similar trajectory. At 1920x1080 the average is 178 FPS, at 2560x1440 it falls to 128 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it drops to 75 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p transition costs 50 FPS, and the 1440p to 4K transition costs 53 FPS. Notably, the 4K High result of 75 FPS is barely above the Ultra preset's 72 FPS at the same resolution, indicating that the High and Ultra presets converge in performance when pixel count is extremely high.

The Ultra preset produces the lowest absolute numbers. At 1920x1080 the average is 175 FPS, at 2560x1440 it is 122 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it is 72 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K here is a 103 FPS drop, meaning 4K Ultra delivers only about 41 percent of the 1080p Ultra framerate.

The interpretation is straightforward: the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the very high framerates at 1080p across all presets. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D with its 8 cores, 16 threads, and 96 MB of shared L3 cache is clearly capable of feeding the RTX 4080 SUPER at those settings. The bottleneck shifts decisively to the GPU as resolution climbs. The relatively steep decline from 1440p to 4K in every preset is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 4080 SUPER with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 256-bit bus delivers 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, but even that is not enough to maintain 1080p-class framerates at 4K in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The database shows that the Low preset at 1920x1080 produces 217 FPS, which is the highest average recorded for this combo. However, Low settings are rarely the best choice for a stealth game where visual clarity matters for spotting enemies and environmental details. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 196 FPS, which is only 21 FPS lower than Low, while presumably offering noticeably better image quality. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is under 10 percent, making Medium the more sensible option for high-refresh-rate displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset records 168 FPS with a minimum of 143 FPS and a maximum of 194 FPS. This is the best balance in the entire dataset. The 143 FPS minimum is still comfortably above 120 FPS, so even the worst-case frame time is smooth. The High preset at 1440p drops to 128 FPS, which is acceptable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 1440p records 122 FPS, a marginal 6 FPS reduction from High, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly costly at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the picture changes. The Medium preset averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS. The 84 FPS floor is still playable, but the High preset at 75 FPS and the Ultra preset at 72 FPS are close to the edge of what most users would consider smooth. The Low preset at 130 FPS is the only 4K option that stays above 100 FPS, but it sacrifices visual fidelity.

The data indicates that Medium is the optimal preset for this game on this hardware. At 1080p it provides 196 FPS, at 1440p it provides 168 FPS, and at 4K it provides 99 FPS. No other preset achieves such a consistent combination of framerate and quality across all three resolutions. The High preset offers diminishing returns over Medium, with a 12 FPS penalty at 1080p, a 40 FPS penalty at 1440p, and a 24 FPS penalty at 4K. The Ultra preset is even less compelling, providing only 3 FPS more than High at 4K and 3 FPS less than High at 1080p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename, fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. The L3 cache is 96 MB shared, which is unusually large and is the defining feature of the X3D lineup. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and an 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth rating.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU shows strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score is 23230, and the single-core score is 2080. The Geekbench multicore result is 18696, with a single-core score of 2964. The 3DMark 16-thread score is 10081, and the max-threads score is 10067, which is nearly identical, indicating that the CPU is not gaining much from more than 16 threads in that workload. The single-thread 3DMark score is 1212.

In Thief, the CPU's role is primarily about maintaining a high enough frame rate ceiling that the GPU can be fully utilized. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average of 217 FPS suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at that resolution. If the CPU were struggling, the framerate would plateau regardless of GPU headroom. The fact that the framerate continues to rise from the Low preset to the Medium preset to the High preset at 1080p, even though the gap is small (217 to 196 to 178), implies that the CPU can handle even the highest preset at that resolution without becoming a constraint.

The 96 MB L3 cache is likely beneficial for a game like Thief, which involves navigating complex environments with many objects and NPCs. Larger caches reduce the frequency of memory stalls, which can be important in open or semi-open level designs. The 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient for the CPU's needs; the GPU has 736.3 GB/s of its own bandwidth, so there is no shared-memory contention.

The CPU's percentile ranking against all CPUs is 87, and its average benchmark score is 39768. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS with an average score of 39603, a delta of 0.4 percent, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 with a score of 40081, a delta of negative 0.8 percent. These deltas are tiny, meaning the 9800X3D is statistically indistinguishable from those parts in aggregate benchmarks. In Thief, the data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or preset, which is consistent with its strong synthetic scores.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER has a recorded rank of 146 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief. This places it in the top 4 percent of all tested configurations, which is a strong result for a game released in 2014.

The rank of 146 means that 145 other combos have delivered higher average framerates in this specific game. Given that Thief is not a particularly demanding title by modern standards, it is plausible that some higher-end GPUs or more CPU-sensitive configurations could achieve higher framerates, especially at lower resolutions. However, the RTX 4080 SUPER itself has a percentile ranking of 86 against all GPUs, and the CPU has a percentile of 87 against all CPUs, so both components are in the upper tier of their respective categories.

The fact that this combo is ranked 146 rather than higher is likely due to the resolution distribution in the database. At 4K Ultra, the combo only manages 72 FPS, which is not a poor result but is also not exceptional. At 1080p Low, the 217 FPS result is high, but many other combos with faster GPUs might exceed that at lower resolutions. The rank is a composite across all measured settings, so the 4K results pull the overall position down relative to what the 1080p numbers alone would suggest.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average framerate recorded for this combo in Thief?

A: The highest average is 217 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K on all presets?

A: Yes. The lowest recorded average at 3840x2160 is 72 FPS on the Ultra preset, and the High preset delivers 75 FPS, the Medium preset delivers 99 FPS, and the Low preset delivers 130 FPS.

Q: How does the Medium preset compare to High at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium averages 168 FPS with a minimum of 143 FPS, while High averages 128 FPS. The Medium preset is 40 FPS faster and also has a recorded minimum, which is not available for High.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 3840x2160?

A: The minimum FPS for Medium at 3840x2160 is 84 FPS, with a maximum of 114 FPS and an average of 99 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor even at 1080p, since framerates vary by preset (217 FPS at Low, 196 FPS at Medium, 178 FPS at High, 175 FPS at Ultra). If the CPU were limiting, the framerates would be more similar across presets.

Q: How does this combo's rank compare to the total number of tested combos?

A: The combo is ranked 146 out of 3720 tested combos, placing it in the top 4 percent.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Thief is as follows.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 217 FPS. The Medium preset averages 196 FPS, with a minimum of 167 FPS and a maximum of 226 FPS. The High preset averages 178 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 175 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 192 FPS. The Medium preset averages 168 FPS, with a minimum of 143 FPS and a maximum of 194 FPS. The High preset averages 128 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 122 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 130 FPS. The Medium preset averages 99 FPS, with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS. The High preset averages 75 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 72 FPS.

Notably, the minimum and maximum values are only recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution. The other presets have null values for min and max in the database, so only averages are available for those configurations.

The pattern across all presets is consistent: every increase in resolution reduces the average FPS, and every increase in preset quality reduces the average FPS. The Medium preset has the most complete data, including min and max, which allows for a fuller picture of frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the range is 167 to 226 FPS, a spread of 59 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 143 to 194 FPS, a spread of 51 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range is 84 to 114 FPS, a spread of 30 FPS. This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates more consistent frame pacing, likely because the GPU is more uniformly loaded.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. The boost clock is 2550 MHz, and the memory operates at 1438 MHz with 23 Gbps effective data rate. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is connected via a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores are substantial. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6600, the Geekbench OpenCL score is 219065, and the Vulkan score is 260075. The Passmark G3D score is 34245, and the GPU compute score is 19822. The percentile ranking against all GPUs is 86, and the average benchmark score is 54209. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 4080 with a score of 54247 and a delta of negative 0.1 percent, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X with a score of 54828 and a delta of negative 1.1 percent. The delta between the 4080 SUPER and the non-SUPER 4080 is essentially nil, which is expected given the small specification differences.

In Thief, the GPU's role is dominant at 4K. The framerate drops from 130 FPS at Low to 72 FPS at Ultra at 3840x2160, a 45 percent reduction. This is a clear sign that the GPU is the primary constraint at that resolution. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for a 2014 game, even at 4K, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The 736.3 GB/s bandwidth is also likely adequate, as the game does not appear to be bandwidth-starved given the relatively smooth scaling from Medium to High to Ultra at 4K.

The 5 nm process and 45,900 million transistors provide ample compute throughput, but Thief is not a heavily ray-traced or compute-intensive title. The FP32 throughput of 52.22 TFLOPS is far beyond what this game requires. The GPU is instead limited by raw pixel fill and shading rates at high resolutions, which is why the framerate declines so steeply as resolution increases. The 112 ROPs and 285.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the relevant figures here, and they are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but fall short of maintaining high framerates at 4K with maxed settings.

The GPU's end-of-life production status and its position as the predecessor to the GeForce 50 series does not affect its measured performance in this database. The recorded data stands on its own, showing that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a very capable card for Thief at all resolutions except the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration, where it still manages 72 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play.