Thief

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X compare to its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, in overall CPU benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X has an average benchmark score of 54,450, which is 0.4% lower than the Ryzen 9 9900X3D’s score of 54,681. The gap is minimal, making the two effectively equivalent in general-purpose compute performance.

Q: What is the most demanding setting tested for this combo in Thief, and what average FPS does it produce?

A: The most demanding configuration measured is 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings, which yields an average of 44.9 FPS. This is the lowest average frame rate across all tested combinations of resolution and settings.

Q: How does the Radeon RX 7700 XT’s benchmark score compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060?

A: The Radeon RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 30,097, while the RTX 5060 scores 30,109, resulting in a delta of 0%. The two GPUs are statistically tied in aggregate benchmark performance.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairings in Thief?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ranks 573rd out of 1,642 total tested combos. This places it in the upper third of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: At which resolution does the combo achieve its highest average FPS, and what is the value?

A: The highest average FPS occurs at 1920x1080 with Low settings, reaching 213.5 FPS. This is more than double the frame rate seen at 3840x2160 with the same Low settings, which averages 87.2 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the limiting factor when moving from 2560x1440 to 1920x1080 at Ultra settings?

A: The data shows a scaling pattern consistent with GPU limitation. At Ultra settings, the average FPS rises from 82.9 at 2560x1440 to 116.3 at 1920x1080, a 40.3% increase. The CPU’s strong single-thread score of 1,286 in 3dmark_single_thread suggests it is not the bottleneck at these lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) using a 4 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The CPU has a 64 MB shared L3 cache, with 1 MB L2 and 80 KB L1 per core. Memory support is DDR5 over a dual-channel bus, providing 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth.

Benchmark results indicate the CPU’s strength in both light and heavy workloads. Its 3dmark_single_thread score is 1,286, and its 3dmark_2_threads score is 2,519. Scaling to 4 threads yields 4,886, and 8 threads reach 9,114. The max threads score is 13,929, which is only 10.7% higher than the 8-thread result, suggesting diminishing returns beyond 8 threads for this test. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score is 46,438 and the single-core score is 6,555, showing strong per-core performance that Thief’s engine can leverage.

For a game like Thief, which is a stealth title from 2014, the CPU’s high single-thread performance is likely more relevant than its massive thread count. The Ryzen 9 9900X ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,450. Its nearest rival, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D, scores 54,681 (0.4% higher), while the Intel Core i7-14700F scores 54,097 (0.7% lower). This puts the 9900X in a tight cluster with its immediate competitors, where no single chip has a decisive advantage.

The 12-core configuration is largely underutilized in Thief, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo hits 213.5 FPS, and at 2560x1440 with Low it reaches 143.8 FPS. The CPU’s ability to feed the GPU at these high frame rates confirms its boost clock of 5.60 GHz and efficient Zen 5 cores. Even at 3840x2160 with Low settings, the combo maintains 87.2 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X + AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT combination ranks 573rd out of 1,642 tested combos in Thief. This places the configuration in the 65th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms roughly 65% of the field while trailing the top 35%.

The rank reflects a balance between CPU and GPU capabilities. The CPU’s 94th percentile standing among all processors is stronger than the GPU’s 73rd percentile among all graphics cards. This disparity suggests that in Thief, the GPU is the limiting factor in most settings, especially at higher resolutions. The combo’s mid-pack rank is consistent with the GPU’s position relative to its peers, as the RX 7700 XT’s average score of 30,097 is nearly identical to the RTX 5060’s 30,109 (0% delta) and the RX 570’s 30,158 (0.2% lower).

Within the context of all tested combos, this system is neither a top-tier 4K powerhouse nor a budget 1080p specialist. It sits in a comfortable middle ground, capable of high refresh rates at 1920x1080 and playable frame rates at 2560x1440. The rank of 573 out of 1,642 is a strong showing for a mid-range GPU paired with a high-end CPU, and it underscores that the CPU headroom is not fully utilized in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers four resolutions (3840x2160, 2560x1440, 1920x1080) and four settings levels (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). All values are average FPS with no minimum or maximum recorded.

At 3840x2160, the combo yields 87.2 FPS on Low, 62.8 FPS on Medium, 51.9 FPS on High, and 44.9 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 48.5%, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed at 4K. The Ultra result of 44.9 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, making 4K Ultra a marginal experience for this game.

At 2560x1440, the results are 143.8 FPS on Low, 108.4 FPS on Medium, 84.5 FPS on High, and 82.9 FPS on Ultra. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal (1.9%), suggesting that Ultra settings at 1440p are within reach with a slight performance cost. All settings here exceed 60 FPS, with Low approaching 144 Hz territory.

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 213.5 FPS on Low, 161.2 FPS on Medium, 124.8 FPS on High, and 116.3 FPS on Ultra. Every setting exceeds 100 FPS, and Low settings nearly double the 120 FPS mark. This resolution is clearly where the combo shines, providing smooth gameplay even at the highest preset.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra settings shows a 28.8% drop in FPS (116.3 to 82.9), while moving from 1440p to 4K at Ultra results in a 45.8% drop (82.9 to 44.9). This pattern confirms that the GPU’s 12 GB of memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but 4K Ultra demands more than the RX 7700 XT can deliver.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture (Navi 32 chip) using a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 3,456 shading units, 216 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with 54 ray tracing cores. The GPU has a base clock of 1435 MHz, a game clock of 2171 MHz, and a boost clock of 2544 MHz. Memory consists of 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, yielding 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card’s TDP is 245 W, and it uses a dual-slot design with dual 8-pin power connectors.

In Thief, the GPU’s role is dominant, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 30,097 places it in the 73rd percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5060, scores 30,109 with a 0% delta, making the two cards functionally identical in aggregate performance.

The 12 GB VRAM is ample for Thief, a 2014 title that does not demand high memory capacities. Even at 3840x2160 Ultra, the combo averages 44.9 FPS, which is likely constrained by compute rather than memory bandwidth. The GPU’s pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are more than sufficient for this title’s DirectX 11-era rendering.

The GPU’s FP32 throughput of 35.17 TFLOPS provides ample compute for the game’s lighting and shadow effects. The boost clock of 2544 MHz helps maintain high frame rates at 1080p, where the CPU’s single-thread performance of 1,286 (3dmark_single_thread) allows the GPU to stretch its legs. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 213.5 FPS, a figure that approaches the GPU’s practical ceiling in this title.

The RX 7700 XT’s performance relative to its rivals is tight. The RTX 5060 matches it exactly (0% delta), while the RX 570 is 0.2% higher and the Tesla M60 is 0.4% lower. This clustering indicates that the GPU market at this performance tier is highly competitive, with no clear winner in raw benchmark terms. For Thief specifically, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance, and the CPU’s 94th percentile standing provides ample headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential.