Thief

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frame rates for this combination reveal a steep and consistent performance gradient as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the system delivers 153.6 FPS, but stepping up to 1440p Low drops that to 106.3 FPS, and 4K Low lands at 62.2 FPS. That represents a 59.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the lowest settings, which is a substantial hit that points directly at the GPU as the primary constraint in this pairing.

Looking at the High preset, the pattern holds: 93.1 FPS at 1080p, 59.6 FPS at 1440p, and 37.7 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is less than half of the 1080p figure, and the gap between 1440p and 4K (21.9 FPS) is nearly as large as the gap between 1080p and 1440p (33.5 FPS). This nonlinear scaling suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER's rendering pipeline becomes increasingly saturated as pixel count grows, with each additional pixel costing disproportionately more in frame time.

The Ultra settings tell a similar story: 88 FPS at 1080p, 58.7 FPS at 1440p, and 36.8 FPS at 4K. Notably, the difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 5.1 FPS, but at 4K that difference narrows to 0.9 FPS. This convergence at higher resolutions is a classic sign that the GPU is the bottleneck — when the pixel workload dominates, the settings-based variation in shading complexity matters less.

The data implies that the Ryzen 9 5900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is never the limiting factor in this game. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see frame rates plateau or collapse at lower resolutions where the GPU has headroom. Instead, the 1080p Low result of 153.6 FPS shows the CPU can feed the GPU well beyond what the graphics card can sustain at higher resolutions. The scaling curve is smooth and monotonic, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario across all four measured settings presets.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. For a game released in 2014, this memory configuration is more than sufficient in capacity — Thief's textures and geometry are unlikely to approach the 8 GB ceiling even at 4K Ultra. The bandwidth, however, becomes relevant when considering the frame rate drops at 4K, where the GPU must move significantly more pixel data per frame.

The GPU's clock behavior — base 1470 MHz, boost 1650 MHz — is typical for the Turing architecture. The 12 nm process node and 10,800 million transistors give this card a raw compute capability of 7.181 TFLOPS FP32, which is the figure that most directly correlates with the measured FPS results. The fact that 4K Ultra yields 36.8 FPS and 4K High yields 37.7 FPS — nearly identical — suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard compute or memory-bandwidth wall at this resolution, regardless of the modest shading differences between those presets.

The RTX 2060 SUPER's benchmark profile places it at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, scores 19706 (0.3% behind), while the RTX 2070 scores 19680 (0.5% behind). This tells us the card sits in a tight performance cluster, and the measured Thief results reflect that mid-range positioning — capable at 1080p and 1440p, but clearly struggling to maintain playable frame rates at 4K with high settings.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The measured data places this CPU-GPU pairing at rank 1132 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief. That puts it in the 31st percentile of all combinations — meaning roughly 69% of tested systems deliver higher average frame rates in this game. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the CPU's strength, and it underscores how heavily Thief's performance leans on the graphics card.

The Ryzen 9 5900X alone sits at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39453. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-13700 (39857, 1% ahead) and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS (39747, 0.7% ahead). Meanwhile, the RTX 2060 SUPER at the 63rd GPU percentile is the weaker link in this pairing, which explains why the combined rank (31st percentile) is dragged down so far below the CPU's individual standing.

This discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile and the combo's low rank is a clear signal that Thief is not CPU-bound for this configuration. If the game were leveraging the 5900X's multi-threaded capabilities, we would expect the combo rank to more closely mirror the CPU's 90th percentile position. Instead, the data shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER's 63rd percentile GPU performance is the ceiling, and the combo's rank reflects that limitation rather than the CPU's potential.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the system produces 153.6 FPS on Low, 117.7 FPS on Medium, 93.1 FPS on High, and 88 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium costs 35.9 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs only 5.1 FPS — suggesting diminishing returns on the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the results are 106.3 FPS on Low, 83.9 FPS on Medium, 59.6 FPS on High, and 58.7 FPS on Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 0.9 FPS, which is within measurement noise and indicates that the GPU is equally taxed by both presets at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system delivers 62.2 FPS on Low, 50.2 FPS on Medium, 37.7 FPS on High, and 36.8 FPS on Ultra. Only the Low preset crosses the 60 FPS threshold at 4K. Medium dips below 60, and High and Ultra both sit in the mid-to-high 30s, which would be noticeable as stutter or judder on a standard 60 Hz display.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset maintains the largest headroom, while Ultra consistently costs the most frames. The relative ordering of presets is preserved at every resolution, but the absolute differences shrink as resolution increases — a further confirmation that pixel throughput, not shading complexity, is the dominant cost at 4K.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K in Thief?

A: Only at Low settings, where it averages 62.2 FPS. Medium drops to 50.2 FPS, High to 37.7 FPS, and Ultra to 36.8 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 93.1 FPS to 59.6 FPS, a loss of 33.5 FPS or about 36%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The GPU is the limiting component. The CPU ranks at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, while the combo ranks at 1132 out of 1642, and the FPS scaling pattern shows steep drops with resolution increases — classic GPU-bound behavior.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1440p offers a strong balance: 106.3 FPS on Low, 83.9 FPS on Medium, and even Ultra hits 58.7 FPS. At 1080p, the system exceeds 88 FPS on all presets, but the extra pixel density at 1440p is more visually impactful.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in raw benchmarks?

A: It scores 19774 on average, with the GTX TITAN at 19706 (0.3% behind) and the RTX 2070 at 19680 (0.5% behind). The differences are negligible, meaning the measured Thief results should be representative of that performance cluster.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide any benefit over High at higher resolutions?

A: At 1440p and 4K, the difference is 0.9 FPS and 0.9 FPS respectively — effectively none. At 1080p, Ultra costs 5.1 FPS over High, which is also minor. The data suggests High is nearly identical to Ultra in practice, with no meaningful frame rate penalty for maxing out settings.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on Zen 3 (Vermeer) architecture, built on TSMC's 7 nm process with 8,300 million transistors. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosts to 4.80 GHz, with 64 MB of L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 33150 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 4680 in single-core — figures that place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs.

However, Thief's measured performance shows little evidence that this CPU muscle is being fully utilized. The game's frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and GPU settings, not with CPU workload. The 1080p Low result of 153.6 FPS is the highest measured value, and even that is likely constrained by the GPU's ability to process draw calls and rasterize, not by the CPU's instruction throughput.

The CPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-13700 (39857 avg, 1% ahead) and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS (39747 avg, 0.7% ahead) — have similar multi-threaded capabilities, yet none of that processing headroom translates into higher frame rates in this title. The data indicates that a less powerful CPU paired with the same GPU would produce nearly identical Thief results, because the game simply does not demand the 12-core, 24-thread resources this processor offers.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data suggests that the High preset offers the most sensible balance across resolutions, but with caveats. At 1080p, High delivers 93.1 FPS, which is smooth and visually rich, while the jump to Ultra only costs 5.1 FPS — making Ultra a free upgrade at this resolution. At 1440p, High yields 59.6 FPS, just shy of 60, while Ultra costs only 0.9 FPS more, making Ultra the better choice since the frame rate is identical in practice.

At 4K, High produces 37.7 FPS and Ultra produces 36.8 FPS — both are below the 60 FPS threshold, but the difference is negligible. For players prioritizing frame rate at 4K, Low at 62.2 FPS is the only preset that clears 60, and it does so comfortably. Medium at 50.2 FPS is a compromise that maintains some visual fidelity while staying above 45 FPS.

The best overall experience, weighing both visual quality and frame rate, appears to be 1440p Ultra. It delivers 58.7 FPS — effectively 60 — with the highest visual settings, and the 0.9 FPS difference from High means there is no reason to drop down. At 1080p, Ultra at 88 FPS is the clear winner. The only scenario where settings compromise is warranted is 4K, where players must choose between Low's playable 62.2 FPS and the sub-40 FPS of High and Ultra.