Thief

# Thief with AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a compelling 1080p experience in Thief, with frame rates ranging from 90 FPS at Ultra settings to 164 FPS at Low settings. The combination ranks 1694th out of 2851 tested combos in this game, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all possible CPU-GPU pairings. This mobile platform, featuring a 16-core Zen 4 processor and an Ada Lovelace GPU with 8 GB of VRAM, shows interesting scaling behavior as resolution increases, with performance dropping more sharply than the pure pixel count would suggest, hinting at a GPU-bound situation at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation as resolution increases. At 1080p, the RTX 4060 delivers 164 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 113 FPS at 1440p and further to 66 FPS at 4K. That represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and another 42% reduction from 1440p to 4K at Low settings. The scaling is not linear with pixel count — moving from 1080p to 1440p increases pixels by 78%, yet performance drops by only 31%, suggesting some headroom remains at 1440p Low.

At High settings, the resolution scaling tells a similar story: 95 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is a significant 32%, and from 1440p to 4K another 42%. The 4K High result of 38 FPS is barely playable, indicating that the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus become limiting factors at this resolution. The bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s and the 17 Gbps effective memory speed appear insufficient to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K with higher-quality settings.

Medium settings show the most complete data with min and max FPS recorded: 125 FPS average at 1080p (min 106, max 143), 86 FPS at 1440p (min 73, max 98), and 50 FPS at 4K (min 43, max 58). The consistency across resolutions — the min-to-max spread remains roughly 30% at each resolution — suggests stable frame pacing even when the GPU is under heavy load. The 4K Medium result of 50 FPS average, while not ideal, shows that dropping from High to Medium recovers 12 FPS, a 32% improvement at 4K.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates across all resolutions: 90 FPS at 1080p, 62 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. The gap between Ultra and High is relatively small — 5 FPS at 1080p, 3 FPS at 1440p, and 2 FPS at 4K — which suggests that the Ultra preset's additional visual features do not heavily impact performance. This could indicate that the game's Ultra settings are more demanding on CPU-side draw calls than GPU-side shading, or that the RTX 4060 is already near its limits at High and Ultra settings at higher resolutions.

The data implies that Thief becomes progressively GPU-bound as resolution increases. At 1080p, the 16-core Ryzen 9 8945HX with its 5.40 GHz boost clock likely keeps the GPU well-fed, as evidenced by the high frame rates even at Ultra. By 4K, however, the GPU's raw compute power — 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 and 236.2 GTexel/s texture rate — becomes the primary constraint, with the CPU's power having little bearing on the final frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Thief with this combo?

A: The data shows 1080p delivers the most comfortable experience, with 90 FPS at Ultra and 95 FPS at High settings. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 62 FPS, which is still playable but noticeably less smooth, while 4K only achieves 36-38 FPS at high presets, making it unsuitable for fluid gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 17639, placing it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon 780M (17588). It also leads the AMD Radeon Pro 560 by 0.5% and the AMD Radeon Pro 460 by 0.7%, showing it sits in a very competitive mid-range segment.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 8945HX a bottleneck at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads with a 5.40 GHz boost clock seem sufficient to push 164 FPS. However, the data cannot confirm whether the CPU limits frame rates below that threshold, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work. The 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is rarely a limiting factor.

Q: What is the frame consistency like at Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset has complete min/max data: at 1080p the range is 106-143 FPS (37 FPS spread), at 1440p it is 73-98 FPS (25 FPS spread), and at 4K it is 43-58 FPS (15 FPS spread). This indicates tighter frame pacing at higher resolutions, where the GPU workload dominates and reduces variance.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested combinations in Thief?

A: The combo ranks 1694th out of 2851 tested combos, placing it in the 59th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested in this game. This mid-pack ranking reflects the RTX 4060's position as a mainstream mobile GPU rather than a high-end part.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM capacity cause issues at 4K?

A: The data shows 4K performance drops significantly: 38 FPS at High and 36 FPS at Ultra. While the 8 GB GDDR6 memory size is not directly measured as a constraint, the sharp performance degradation at 4K — combined with the 128-bit bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth — suggests memory bandwidth, not just capacity, becomes a limiting factor at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 1694th out of 2851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the upper 41% of all pairings. This is a surprisingly strong position for a mobile platform, especially considering the RTX 4060's 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs. The CPU's 95th percentile ranking among all processors likely boosts the combo's overall position, as the 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 provides substantial headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential.

The rank of 1694 out of 2851 suggests that while this combo is not a top-tier performer, it outperforms the majority of tested systems. The delta between the combo's rank and the GPU's individual percentile (59th vs 61st percentile) indicates that the CPU is not dragging down the overall performance — indeed, the CPU's strength may be helping the combo achieve a slightly better rank than the GPU alone would suggest.

In the context of Thief, a 2014 stealth game, this modern hardware combination is likely overkill for the game's core requirements. The high frame rates at 1080p (90-164 FPS depending on settings) confirm that the game is not particularly demanding by today's standards. The combo's rank is thus more reflective of raw hardware capability than game-specific optimization.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (0.1% ahead), AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (0.4% behind), AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (0.4% behind), and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (0.6% ahead) — all perform within 1% of each other, indicating that the Ryzen 9 8945HX is competitive with the absolute fastest processors available. The GPU's nearest rivals are similarly close, with the RTX 4060 within 0.7% of four AMD parts, showing tight competition in the mid-range GPU segment.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and frame rate at 1080p, the High preset at 95 FPS average is the recommended starting point. It delivers near-Ultra visuals (only 5 FPS below Ultra's 90 FPS) while providing excellent smoothness on standard 60 Hz displays. Players with high-refresh monitors can push to Low settings at 164 FPS, though this sacrifices significant visual fidelity for a 73% frame rate increase over High.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 86 FPS average (min 73, max 98) offers the most consistent experience, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining reasonable visual quality. The High preset at 65 FPS is also viable for 60 Hz displays, but the 21 FPS drop from Medium to High may not justify the visual improvements for all players. The Ultra preset at 62 FPS is technically playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

At 4K, only the Low preset at 66 FPS average provides a consistently smooth experience. The Medium preset at 50 FPS (min 43, max 58) may be acceptable for players who prioritize visuals over frame rate stability, but the frequent drops below 60 FPS could be noticeable. The High and Ultra presets at 38 FPS and 36 FPS respectively are not recommended for action-heavy gameplay, as the low frame rates would impair the stealth mechanics that require precise timing.

The data suggests that Medium settings offer the most balanced experience across all resolutions: 125 FPS at 1080p, 86 FPS at 1440p, and 50 FPS at 4K. This preset provides the only complete min/max data in the test set, indicating it was the most thoroughly measured and likely represents the intended sweet spot for this hardware combination.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4060 delivers 164 FPS on Low settings, 125 FPS on Medium (min 106, max 143), 95 FPS on High, and 90 FPS on Ultra. The performance difference between Low and Ultra is 74 FPS, a 45% reduction, showing that Thief's visual settings have a substantial impact on frame rate even at this resolution. The small 5 FPS gap between High and Ultra suggests diminishing returns for the highest preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured averages are 113 FPS on Low, 86 FPS on Medium (min 73, max 98), 65 FPS on High, and 62 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 51 FPS (45% reduction), indicating that the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor at this resolution. The High-to-Ultra gap remains small at 3 FPS, reinforcing the pattern seen at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, performance drops significantly: 66 FPS on Low, 50 FPS on Medium (min 43, max 58), 38 FPS on High, and 36 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 30 FPS (45% reduction), maintaining the same relative scaling as lower resolutions. The High and Ultra results are nearly identical (2 FPS apart), suggesting that the GPU is fully saturated at these settings and the additional Ultra features have minimal impact.

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent pattern: Low settings drop 60% (164 to 66 FPS), Medium drops 60% (125 to 50 FPS), High drops 60% (95 to 38 FPS), and Ultra drops 60% (90 to 36 FPS). This uniform 60% reduction across all settings indicates that the RTX 4060's performance scales predictably with pixel count, with no unexpected bottlenecks emerging at any specific resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX brings substantial processing power to this combo, featuring 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz can boost up to 5.40 GHz, and the 64 MB L3 cache provides ample capacity for game data. The synthetic benchmark scores are impressive: 42713 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 6030 in single-core, and 51405 in Passmark multithread. These figures place the CPU in the 95th percentile of all processors.

In Thief, a game from 2014, the CPU's 16 cores are likely underutilized, as the game was designed for the era of 4-core/8-thread processors. However, the high single-core performance (3907 in Passmark single-thread) ensures that the game's primary game thread runs efficiently. The 5.40 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for older games that rely heavily on single-thread performance.

The CPU's benchmark results show it trading blows with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (0.1% difference), AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (0.4% ahead), AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (0.4% ahead), and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (0.6% behind). This grouping within 1% of each other indicates that the 8945HX is at the absolute top tier of CPU performance, and its 76212 average benchmark score reflects this.

For Thief specifically, the CPU's role appears minimal at higher resolutions where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the CPU must handle 164 FPS worth of draw calls and physics calculations, which the 16-core/32-thread configuration manages without issue. The 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and dual-channel DDR5 support provide sufficient data throughput for the game's mechanics.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 3072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output pipelines. It operates at a base clock of 1830 MHz with a boost clock of 2460 MHz, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, providing 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 236.2 GTexel/s texture rate are solid for a mobile part.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark results show it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 17639. Its nearest rivals are all AMD parts: the Radeon HD 7790 (0.2% ahead), Radeon 780M (0.3% behind), Radeon Pro 560 (0.5% behind), and Radeon Pro 460 (0.7% behind). This tight grouping suggests the RTX 4060 is a well-balanced mid-range GPU, with performance that competes closely with both older discrete parts and modern integrated graphics.

In Thief, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity appears sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gameplay, with the measured frame rates indicating no memory-related stuttering at these resolutions. At 4K, however, the combination of higher resolution textures and increased pixel count may be pushing against the memory bandwidth limit, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops. The 128-bit memory bus is a notable constraint for 4K gaming, as higher-bandwidth alternatives like 256-bit buses are typically preferred for that resolution.

The RTX 4060's Passmark DirectX 11 score of 175 and DirectX 12 score of 76 indicate strong performance in modern APIs, which is relevant for Thief's DirectX 11 rendering path. The GPU's support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 ensures compatibility with a wide range of games, though Thief's 2014 release date means it likely uses less demanding rendering techniques than modern titles. The GPU's 115 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for a mobile RTX 4060, and its 240 mm length indicates it is a full-size implementation rather than a compact variant.