Thief

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a robust Thief experience, with the data showing a strong balance between CPU and GPU capabilities. This combination proves particularly adept at High and Ultra settings across common resolutions, though the RTX 4060's 8GB VRAM and 128-bit bus become the primary bottleneck at demanding 4K Ultra settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 101 FPS. This indicates a highly playable frame rate, comfortably above the traditional 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: The average FPS at 4K (3840x2160) ranges from 41 FPS at Ultra to 74 FPS at Low. The data shows that the RTX 4060 is pushed to its limits at this resolution, with the 4K Ultra setting yielding a 41 FPS average, which is below the ideal smoothness target.

Q: What is the difference between 1080p and 4K performance at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 107 at 1080p to 73 at 1440p, and further down to 43 at 4K. This represents a 59.8% performance drop from 1080p to 4K, highlighting the resolution scaling characteristics of this combo.

Q: Is the RTX 4060's VRAM sufficient for Thief?

A: The RTX 4060 features 8GB of GDDR6 memory, which is sufficient for Thief at all tested settings and resolutions. The benchmark results show playable average FPS even at 4K Ultra (41 FPS), indicating that VRAM capacity isn't the primary limiting factor for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 rank against other GPUs based on its average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 17639, placing it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 7790, has a score of 17666, which is only 0.2% higher, indicating a very close performance match between these two cards in general benchmarks.

Q: What is the single-threaded performance of the Ryzen 9 5950X?

A: In the 3dmark single-thread test, the CPU scores 944, and in Geekbench single-core, it scores 2083. This strong single-threaded performance is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in games like Thief, where the primary game thread can be a limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1926th out of 3720 tested combos for this game. This places it in the 48.2nd percentile, putting it in the middle of the pack when compared to all other CPU and GPU pairings in the database. The data suggests that while this combo is not at the absolute top tier for Thief, it delivers a solid, balanced experience that will handle the game well at most settings.

The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's performance, as the RTX 4060 sits in the 61st percentile when compared to all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 91st percentile. This indicates that the combo's middle-tier rank is primarily due to the GPU, not the processor. The Ryzen 9 5950X provides a powerful foundation, but the RTX 4060's limits become the determining factor for high-resolution or Ultra settings. For instance, while the CPU can easily handle the game's physics and AI calculations, the GPU's 8GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus will limit how high you can push the resolution and settings before average FPS drops below ideal levels.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture on a 5 nm process, with 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die. The GPU has a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz. Its memory is a 8GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. The card's FP32 performance is 15.11 TFLOPS, and it has 3072 shading units.

These specifications translate to a solid performance in Thief. The 8GB of VRAM is adequate for the game, as the memory usage is not the primary bottleneck; instead, the GPU's raw compute power and memory bandwidth are the key factors. The benchmark results show that the RTX 4060 is able to handle the game at high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K resolution starts to stress the card. The 4K Low setting achieves 74 FPS, but as the settings are increased to Medium, the average drops to 56 FPS, and at High it drops to 43 FPS, with the Ultra setting producing a 41 FPS average. The memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s is a limiting factor at 4K, as the GPU has to transfer more data to the screen, but the 8GB VRAM capacity is not exceeded by the game. The 128-bit memory bus is a weakness for the card, especially at higher resolutions, but for Thief, the performance is still acceptable for most users.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Thief is measured across three resolutions and four settings, with the average FPS for each configuration. At 1920x1080, the performance is excellent. The Low setting yields 171 FPS, Medium 140 FPS, High 107 FPS, and Ultra 101 FPS. The Medium setting shows a minimum of 119 FPS and a maximum of 161 FPS, indicating some frame variation but still well within the range of smooth.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are still high. Low setting averages 126 FPS, Medium averages 96 FPS, High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra averages 70 FPS. The Medium setting has a min of 82 FPS and a max of 110 FPS. This resolution provides a good balance between visual fidelity and performance, with all settings remaining playable.

At 3840x2160, the performance is more varied. Low setting averages 74 FPS, which is playable. Medium averages 56 FPS, with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 65 FPS. High averages 43 FPS, and Ultra averages 41 FPS. This data shows that the RTX 4060 is not ideal for 4K gaming in Thief, as it drops below the 60 FPS threshold at Medium settings and above.

The frame data shows a clear trend: the RTX 4060 is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming with high frame rates, but it is not a 4K powerhouse. The card's 8GB of VRAM is sufficient, but its memory bandwidth and compute power are not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K with the game's more demanding settings. The benchmark results indicate a playable experience at 4K only with Low settings.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K is a critical measure of the balance between CPU and GPU performance. For Thief, the performance drop is substantial. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 107 at 1080p to 73 at 1440p, a 31.8% decrease. From 1440p to 4K, the average drops to 43 FPS, a 41.1% decrease. Overall, from 1080p to 4K, the average FPS drops by 59.8%.

Similarly, at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 171 at 1080p to 126 at 1440p, a 26.3% decrease, and then to 74 at 4K, a 41.3% decrease. The overall drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 56.7%. The data shows that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. The CPU's performance is not a bottleneck, as its 16 cores and 32 threads are far more than enough for this game, even at 4K. The GPU's memory bus and compute are the main factors, as the card's 128-bit memory bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are strained more as resolution increases.

This scaling pattern indicates that the Ryzen 9 5950X is significantly ahead of the GPU in terms of capability. The CPU can handle the game's physics and thread overhead without breaking a sweat, but the RTX 4060's limitations become apparent at 4K. The game's a 2014 release, but it still benefits from a strong GPU at high resolutions. The data shows that to maintain a 60 FPS average at 4K, the settings need to be set to Low, as the High and Ultra settings fall below that threshold. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced than the scaling from 1080p to 1440p, showing that the GPU's performance curve is not linear with resolution. This is typical for a GPU with a 128-bit memory bus, as the bandwidth is the main constraint.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The CPU has 64 MB of L3 cache and supports memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. It was released in November 2020 and has a launch MSRP of $799.

For Thief, the CPU's role is substantial but not the main limiting factor. The game is a stealth title released in 2014, and it can leverage multiple cores, but the primary thread is still important. The 3DMark single-thread score of 944 and the 3DMark 2-thread score of 1856 show that the CPU's performance is strong. The 16-core, 32-thread configuration ensures that the game's background tasks, such as AI and physics, are handled with ease, leaving the GPU as the primary determinant of frame rate.

The CPU's performance in the benchmarks is excellent, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26017 and a single-core score of 1614. The CPU's 91st percentile ranking across all CPUs indicates that it can handle any game's CPU demands. In Thief, the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution, as the data shows the frame rate drops are primarily due to the GPU. At 1080p, the CPU has the headroom to push higher frame rates, but the GPU limits the output, as the 101 FPS at Ultra is the ceiling.

The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads are more than enough for Thief, which is a game from 2014. The game's thread utilization is not as high as modern titles, but the high single-thread performance of the 5950X ensures that the game's primary thread runs efficiently. The 3dmark 8-thread score of 6598 and the 3dmark 16-thread score of 10810 show the CPU's capability in multi-threaded workloads, but for Thief's, the single-thread performance is more important. The data indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck, and the RTX 4060 is the primary determinant of the combo's overall ranking.