Thief

This combination pairs a flagship 2025-class CPU with a 2017 mid-range GPU, and the measured data in Thief reflects exactly that imbalance. The CPU, a 16-core, 32-thread Zen 5 part with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, sits in the 95th percentile of all CPUs in the database, with a synthetic average benchmark score of 75779. The GPU, a Radeon RX 570 from the Polaris family, ranks in the 74th percentile of all GPUs and has an average score of 28766. The CPU has a launch MSRP of $699, while the GPU's launch MSRP is 169 USD. The game measures an FPS profile that is almost entirely dictated by the GPU, and as a result, the pair slots into the bottom percentiles of all tested combos.

Settings Recommendations

The only setting to push the game past a 60 FPS average at 1080p is the Low preset, which delivers 75 FPS. Medium falls to 57 FPS, High to 43 FPS, and Ultra to 41 FPS. At this resolution, the Medium preset offers a playable average, but it never reaches the sixty-frame mark. If the priority is smooth motion and a clear frame, the Low preset is the only choice that saturates a standard 60 Hz display.

At 2560x1440, even the lowest preset averages 51 FPS, with Medium at 39 FPS, High at 30 FPS, and Ultra at 28 FPS. Here the Low preset is the only option that keeps an average above 50 FPS, though still short of 60. A user interested in consistent min FPS will want to avoid Medium at this resolution, as its minimum fell to 33 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. Low averages 30 FPS, Medium 23 FPS, High 17 FPS, and Ultra 17 FPS. The minimum FPS for Medium at 4K is 19, with a maximum of 26. For a playable experience at 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, and it remains marginal even at that.

The data suggests a clear tradeoff. At 1080p, Low is the only preset that exceeds 60 FPS, but each preset reduces the average by roughly 15–20 FPS as you move up the quality ladder. For a 1080p monitor, Medium yields 57 FPS and 45 FPS for 1% low; that may be acceptable for a slower stealth game, but Low delivers the best frame pacing. At 1440p and 4K, the range narrows and the recommendation shifts to Low only, since Medium drops to 39 FPS and 23 FPS respectively.

CPU Role

The CPU is the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, a part with 16 physical cores and 32 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture. Its base clock is 4.30 GHz and its boost is 5.70 GHz, with 128 MB of L3 cache. In the database it scores a Cinebench R23 multicore result of 42018, a single-core score of 2259, and a Geekbench single-core score of 3064. These results are better than 95% of all CPUs, and the closest performance rivals (AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9750, Ryzen 7 PRO 9750X3D, AMD EPYC 8224P, and Intel Core Ultra 9 285) produce average CPU benchmark scores within 0.1% to 0.4% of this model, meaning the CPU is in the highest echelon of compute performance.

In Thief, released in 2014, this CPU is dramatically overprovisioned. The measured frame rates at all resolutions and settings are far below what such a CPU could deliver in a CPU-limited scenario. The bottleneck in every test is the graphics subsystem. This is visible in the scaling: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 75 FPS, but increasing the resolution or the preset does not yield a consistent frame rate pattern typical of CPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect FPS to stay nearly constant from Low to Ultra at a given resolution. Instead, the data shows a clear drop when moving from Low to Medium, and another small fall to High/Ultra. That behavior, combined with the GPU’s modest specifications, indicates the GPU is the hard cap. So both the core count and the high clock speed of the CPU are not exercised by this title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a 2017 part based on the Polaris 20 chip, fabricated on a 14 Å m process. It has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. Its memory configuration is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, offering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock is 1244 MHz, with a base clock of 1168 MHz. The GPU’s overall performance scores place it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. In the database, its average benchmark score is 28766, and its nearest rivals are the Radeon RX 6800M (score 28874, delta -0.4%), the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (score 28580, delta +0.7%), the Radeon RX 470 (score 28996, delta -0.8%), and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (score 28421, delta +1.2%). This places it right around the middle of the current GPU hierarchy.

The 4 GB of VRAM can be a limiting factor in modern titles, but Thief is a 2014 release that likely does not exceed the 4 GB memory pool at 1080p settings. The measured FPS pattern with this GPU shows the classic trade-off: each increase in quality at a fixed resolution takes a significant number of frames. For example, at 1080p, Low yields 75 FPS, Medium 57, High 43, and Ultra 41. The GPU’s bandwidth and shader count determine this spread. At 1440p, the trend is similar: 51, 39, 30, 28. At 4K, the numbers compress: 30, 23, 17, 17. This downward shifts are typical of a mid-range GPU under load.

The GPU does not outpace the CPU in any measurable way; it is the only element that prevents this system from reaching higher frames. The measured FPS are low even for 1080p, confirming that the GPU is the primary factor in all benchmark results.

How This Combo Ranks

In the Thief result table, this specific CPU+GPU combination is ranked 3551 out of 3720 tested pairs. That places it in the bottom 5% of all configurations in the database. Because the CPU is in the top 5% overall, a rank of 3551 shows that the GPU causes the combined of the system to fall, and that this pairing is far from optimal for the game. More precisely, it means exactly 3550 other combinations score higher, and only 169 combinations score worse. This is a strong indication that the RX 570 is the primary disadvantage; a more balanced pairing (the CPU with a considerably more powerful GPU) would place near the opposite end of the table.

The large delta between the CPU’s percentile and the combo’s rank underscores the GPU limitation. The CPU’s synthetic scores are within 0.4% of its nearest rivals, so it could easily be the top performer when paired with a strong GPU. The GPU’s own percentile is 74%, but that is, of course, the graphics chip upon which the actual game rendering relies. The takeaway is clear: in Thief, this pairing is not a balanced system, and its position in the database is almost entirely determined by the GPU’s performance.

FAQ

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 1920x1080?

A: Yes, but only at the Low preset, which averages 75 FPS. The other presets are lower: Medium 57, High 43, and Ultra 41 FPS.

Q: What is the highest possible settings to play at 1440p?

A: The Low preset is the only playable medium, with an average of 51 FPS. The Medium preset also runs at 39 FPS, High at 30, and Ultra at 28, but these will likely have noticeable stuttering.

Q: What are the measured FPS for the Medium preset in 4K?

A: At 3840×2160, Medium averages 23 FPS, with a minimum of 19 and a maximum of 26 FPS.

Q: What is the FPS difference between the Low and Ultra in 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 75 FPS and Ultra averages 41 FPS. That is a drop of 34 FPS between the extremes.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the more limiting component in this configuration?

A: The GPU. The CPU ranks in the 95th percentile of all CPUs with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, while the GPU is from 2017 and the measured frame rates closely match its expected performance. The CPU’s performance is far higher than the GPU can supply to the frame.

Q: Are there any recorded FPS for the Ultra preset at 4K?

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 3840×2160 averages 17 FPS, with minimum and maximum not listed in the dataset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table reproduces the measured FPS data for each resolution and quality setting, with average frame rate and, where available, the recorded minimum and maximum FPS.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|---------|---------|

| 3840×2160 | High | 17 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Low | 30 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Medium | 23 | 19 | 26 |

| 3840×2160 | Ultra | 17 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | High | 30 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Low | 51 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Medium | 39 | 33 | 45 |

| 2560×1440 | Ultra | 28 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | High | 43 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | Low | 75 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | Medium | 57 | 48 | 65 |

| 1920×1080 | Ultra | 41 | – | – |

The data set is asymmetric: min/max values are only provided for the Medium preset across each resolution. The high suggests that the Medium setting is a well-paced equilibrium for those who need an absolute low; it also shows that the CPU is never the limiting factor, as the FPS ranges are typical of a mid-range GPU.