Thief

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for this AMD Ryzen 9 9900X + Intel Arc B370 combination in Thief reveal a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, with the GPU becoming the dominant constraint well before 4K. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 45 FPS on average; stepping up to 2560x1440 drops that to 31 FPS, a 31% reduction; and at 3840x2160 the average falls to 18 FPS, a 60% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a system where the graphics processor is saturated far earlier than the processor, and the data confirms that the Arc B370's modest compute resources are the limiting factor at every resolution above 1080p.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically at higher resolutions, which further underscores the GPU-bound nature of the setup. At 1080p, Low produces 78 FPS while Ultra produces 43 FPS — a 35 FPS spread. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 24 FPS (53 Low versus 29 Ultra), and at 4K it compresses further to 14 FPS (31 Low versus 17 Ultra). This compression at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is running out of raw throughput regardless of the quality preset; the pixel count itself becomes the bottleneck, not the shading complexity. When the render target grows, the Arc B370's limited pixel rate and texture rate are simply overwhelmed, and lowering settings recovers less headroom than it would on a more powerful graphics solution.

The frame time data available for Medium settings reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Medium, the combo reports an average of 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 68 — a tight band that suggests consistent delivery. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 41 FPS with a 35-to-47 range, and at 4K Medium the average falls to 24 FPS with a 20-to-27 range. The min-to-max spread stays proportionally similar across resolutions, but the absolute values slide uniformly downward, which is exactly what one expects when the GPU's fill rate is the binding constraint. The lack of any resolution where the frame rate holds steady indicates that this pairing is not balanced for high-resolution gaming in Thief.

Notably, the 4K-to-1080p ratio tells a stark story. The Low preset at 4K delivers 31 FPS, which is just 40% of the 78 FPS achieved at 1080p Low. For High settings, the 4K result of 18 FPS is exactly 40% of the 1080p High result of 45 FPS. This consistent 60% loss across settings suggests a purely pixel-bound workload, where the GPU's output capability scales almost linearly with the number of fragments processed. The data shows no evidence of CPU involvement in this scaling; the Ryzen 9 9900X's strong single-thread and multi-thread results would easily keep pace with the Arc B370's output at any resolution, but the graphics card simply cannot push more pixels.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the clear limiting component in this Thief configuration, and its specifications explain why. The GPU operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, with memory that is system shared rather than dedicated VRAM. This means the card relies on the host system's memory bandwidth, which is listed as "System Dependent" — a critical weakness for a game like Thief that was built around dedicated graphics memory. The 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output pipelines are modest by modern standards, and the pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s provides only enough throughput for 1080p gaming at playable levels.

The GPU's benchmark results place it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, with an average 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184. Its nearest rivals include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1186, delta -0.2%), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1190, delta -0.5%), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (score 1192, delta -0.7%). These are all legacy or low-power parts, which tells a clear story about the Arc B370's performance class. The data shows that this is not a gaming-focused discrete GPU; rather, it behaves like an integrated graphics solution with a 25 W TDP, which is typical for an IGP slot width and no power connectors.

The FP32 throughput of 6.144 TFLOPS and FP16 of 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1) are adequate for light workloads but insufficient for sustained high-fidelity rendering. In Thief, a 2014 title with a release date of 2014-02-24, the game's art style and lighting effects still demand more from the GPU than this chip can deliver at higher resolutions. The system shared memory configuration means that the GPU and CPU compete for the same memory bus, which further degrades performance in memory-intensive scenes. The data supports the conclusion that the Arc B370 is the primary reason this combo ranks so low in the overall database, and no amount of CPU headroom can compensate for the GPU's fundamental throughput limits.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2634 out of 2851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the bottom 7.6% of all configurations. This is a remarkably low position for a system built around a flagship desktop processor, and the data makes it clear that the GPU is entirely responsible for the poor showing. The Ryzen 9 9900X is a top-tier CPU — it sits in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 57498 — but pairing it with a GPU in the 5th percentile creates a severely unbalanced system.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the overall benchmark database include the AMD EPYC 9015 (score 57555, delta -0.1%), the AMD EPYC 7313 (score 57399, delta 0.2%), the Intel Core i9-14900 (score 58115, delta -1.1%), and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (score 58323, delta -1.4%). These deltas are all within 1.5% of the Ryzen 9 9900X's score, indicating that the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class. The problem is not the processor; it is the graphics solution dragging the entire combo down.

In the context of Thief specifically, this rank means that nearly every other tested combination of CPU and GPU delivers better frame rates. The 2634th position out of 2851 is not a statistical outlier or a driver issue — it is the natural consequence of pairing a high-end 12-core processor with a GPU whose performance rivals that of a decade-old discrete card. The data shows that the combo's measured FPS figures at 1080p High (45 FPS) and 1440p High (31 FPS) are below what most modern integrated graphics achieve on this game, and the 4K results are essentially unplayable. For any user considering this combination, the rank alone should signal that the GPU must be upgraded to realize the CPU's potential.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results, though even here the numbers are modest. Low settings produce an average of 78 FPS, which is the only fully smooth experience in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 59 FPS average with a minimum of 50 and maximum of 68, providing a playable experience with some headroom for frame time spikes. High settings drop to 45 FPS average, which is borderline for a stealth game where consistent frame pacing matters for smooth camera movement. Ultra settings produce 43 FPS average, only 2 FPS below High, suggesting that the GPU is already hitting its compute ceiling and the extra settings cost little additional performance because the card is saturated.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance falls off sharply. Low settings average 53 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 32% drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 41 FPS with a range of 35 to 47, and High settings drop to 31 FPS average. Ultra settings produce 29 FPS average, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. The 1440p results show that the GPU cannot maintain 60 FPS at any quality setting, and even Low settings fail to reach that mark by a significant margin.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings average 31 FPS, Medium averages 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 27, High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. None of these are playable for a stealth game that requires responsive controls and smooth traversal. The 4K data shows a clear floor effect: the GPU is so limited that even the lowest settings cannot break past 31 FPS, and the difference between Low and Ultra is only 14 FPS. This indicates that the card's pixel throughput is exhausted at 4K regardless of the shading load.

The Medium settings data provides the only complete min/max information in the dataset, and it reveals consistent frame delivery without major stutters. At 1080p Medium, the 50-to-68 range shows a standard deviation-friendly spread; at 1440p Medium, the 35-to-47 range maintains similar consistency; and at 4K Medium, the 20-to-27 range holds the pattern. This consistency suggests that while the GPU is slow, it is not erratic — the frame pacing is stable, but the absolute frame rate is too low for an enjoyable experience at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the only settings combination that delivers a consistently smooth experience is 1080p with Low quality, which produces 78 FPS average. This is the clear recommendation for any user who prioritizes playability over visual fidelity. The 1080p Medium setting at 59 FPS is also viable, and the data shows that it provides a meaningful visual upgrade over Low while maintaining a frame rate that is above the 50 FPS minimum observed in the dataset. For users who can tolerate slightly lower frame rates, 1080p High at 45 FPS is the highest quality setting that remains within the bounds of playable, but it requires accepting occasional dips that could affect stealth mechanics.

At 1440p, the data suggests that only Low settings (53 FPS) are worth considering, and even then the experience is marginal. The Medium preset at 41 FPS is playable for less demanding genres, but Thief's stealth gameplay benefits from smoother motion, and the 35 FPS minimum observed could lead to noticeable judder during panning shots. The High and Ultra settings at 1440p produce 31 FPS and 29 FPS respectively, which fall below the 30 FPS threshold that most players consider the absolute minimum for interactive gameplay.

The 4K resolution is not viable for this combination at any setting. The best 4K result is 31 FPS at Low, which is below the playable threshold, and the Ultra setting at 17 FPS is a slideshow. Users with a 4K display should either run the game at 1080p with the display's scaling, or accept that this GPU cannot handle the resolution. The data is unambiguous: the sweet spot for this combo is 1080p Medium, which balances the 59 FPS average with the visual improvements that Medium settings provide over Low, while avoiding the performance penalty of High and Ultra that yields only 45 and 43 FPS respectively.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 9000 series, based on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, drawing a 120 W TDP. The processor features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of L3 cache, with dual-channel DDR5 memory support and an 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth. It is manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC with 16,630 million transistors across a 2x 70.6 mm² die size.

In Thief, the CPU's role is almost entirely irrelevant to the measured frame rates, because the GPU bottlenecks occur long before the processor's capabilities are tested. The game's release in 2014 means it was designed for the era's multi-core processors, and the Ryzen 9 9900X's 12 cores and 24 threads are far more than the game can utilize. The CPU's benchmark results confirm its strength: it scores 32,172 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 2,253 in single-core, and 22,174 in Geekbench multi-core with 3,010 in single-core. The 3DMark tests show scaling from 2,519 with 2 threads to 13,929 with max threads, indicating excellent multi-threaded performance that Thief simply cannot exploit.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 92 and its average benchmark score of 57,498 place it among the top processors available, with nearest rivals all within 1.5% of its score. However, this compute headroom is wasted in this configuration because the Arc B370's 5th percentile GPU ranking means the system's frame rates are determined entirely by the graphics card. The data shows that the CPU's single-thread performance, which is critical for games that rely on a primary simulation thread, is more than sufficient — the 3DMark single-thread score of 1,286 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 353 indicate strong per-core throughput that would handle Thief's AI and physics without issue.

The conclusion is that the Ryzen 9 9900X is not the limiting factor at any resolution or settings level in this dataset. The measured FPS figures align almost exactly with what the GPU's throughput would predict, and the CPU's extensive benchmark results show no signs of insufficient processing power. Users considering this CPU for Thief should pair it with a significantly more powerful GPU to achieve frame rates commensurate with the processor's capabilities — the current combination leaves the CPU idle most of the time while the GPU struggles to produce even 30 FPS at 1440p. The processor's launch MSRP is $499, and its production status is Active, so it remains a current product, but the data in this benchmark database clearly shows that its pairing with the Arc B370 is severely imbalanced for this title.