Thief

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the Intel Arc B370 produces a severely GPU-bound experience in Thief, where the processor’s flagship-class performance is almost entirely irrelevant to the final frame rates. The data shows that this combo ranks 2634th out of 2851 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 8% of all systems, a direct result of the Arc B370’s integrated-class graphics capabilities. While the CPU is a top-tier component, the GPU’s measured 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs, making it the definitive bottleneck across every resolution and settings preset tested.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Thief?*

A: The combo ranks 2634th out of 2851 tested combinations. This places it in the bottom tier of all systems tested for this game, indicating a fundamental hardware limitation that prevents high frame rates.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its nearest rival GPUs in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B370’s 3DMark Steel Nomad score is 1184. Its closest rival is the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, which scores 1186, a difference of -0.2%. It is also nearly identical to the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, -0.5%) and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, -0.7%), with the AMD FirePro M2000 scoring 1168, a delta of 1.4%.

Q: What is the best frame rate achievable at 1920x1080 with this setup?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 78 FPS, which occurs at the Low settings preset. This is the only settings level that approaches a consistently smooth experience, as the Medium preset drops to 59 FPS.

*Q: Is the CPU's performance a factor in the low frame rates seen in Thief?*

A: No. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a top-tier processor, with a 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 75779. The frame rates are consistently low across all tests, indicating the Intel Arc B370’s performance ceiling is the limiting factor, not the CPU.

Q: Are there any settings that provide a playable experience at 2560x1440?

A: The data shows that the Low preset at 2560x1440 yields an average of 53 FPS, which is the only playable option at that resolution. The Medium preset drops to 41 FPS, and the High and Ultra presets fall to 31 and 29 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 3840x2160?

A: At 4K, the Low preset achieves an average of 31 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 17 FPS. This represents a 14 FPS difference, or roughly a 45% performance loss when moving from the lowest to the highest settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, operating on the AMD Socket AM5 platform. It has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, and its 128 MB of L3 cache is designed to provide a significant gaming performance advantage. Its synthetic benchmark scores are exceptional, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42018 and a single-core score of 2259, alongside a Geekbench multicore score of 26736. The processor’s standing is confirmed by its 95th percentile rank among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 75779, placing it in a virtual tie with rivals like the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (75738, +0.1%) and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (75488, +0.4%).

However, in the context of Thief, the CPU’s immense power is untapped. The measured frame rates show a consistent pattern where the GPU’s limitations dominate. For example, at 1920x1080, the average frame rate only scales from 43 FPS at Ultra to 78 FPS at Low, a range that is entirely consistent with a weak graphics processor. The CPU’s capability to feed frames is far beyond what the Arc B370 can render, making the processor a silent partner in this pairing. The data indicates that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is not the cause of any performance bottleneck; instead, it is the graphics solution that holds the entire system back, preventing the CPU’s high core count and clock speeds from translating into higher frame rates in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data presents a clear hierarchy of performance across the settings presets, with playability heavily dependent on resolution. For a target of 60 FPS, the only configuration that meets this threshold is the Low preset at 1920x1080, which achieves an average of 78 FPS. The Medium preset at the same resolution yields 59 FPS, which is marginally below the 60 FPS target but may be acceptable for some. At higher resolutions, the frame rates drop significantly, making the Low preset the only viable option for a playable experience.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 53 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Medium preset falls to 41 FPS, and the High and Ultra presets are not recommended due to their sub-30 FPS averages (31 and 29 FPS, respectively). The situation at 3840x2160 is far more constrained, with even the Low preset only managing 31 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 24 FPS, and High (18 FPS) and Ultra (17 FPS) are effectively unplayable.

The optimal strategy based on the data is to prioritize the Low preset if the goal is to maximize frame rate. At 1920x1080, this yields a smooth 78 FPS. If visual quality is more important than frame rate, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers a 59 FPS average, which is a reasonable compromise. For users at 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only option that avoids the sub-45 FPS territory. Higher settings at any resolution above 1920x1080 result in averages that are too low for a satisfactory experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Intel Arc B370 ranks 2634th out of 2851 tested combos in Thief. This rank is a stark indicator of the system's overall performance level, placing it in the bottom 7.6% of all configurations. This poor ranking is not a reflection of the processor, which is a top-5% part, but rather a consequence of the GPU’s extremely low performance ceiling.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmark score of 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs. This score is virtually identical to that of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), a graphics card from a much older generation. The data suggests that the Arc B370, despite its modern architecture, performs at a level comparable to legacy hardware from over a decade ago in this specific workload. This performance tier is simply insufficient for a game like Thief at higher settings or resolutions.

Consequently, the combo’s rank is a direct result of the GPU bottleneck. The CPU’s high scores in benchmarks like Passmark (70255 multithread) and Geekbench (26736 multicore) do not contribute to a better ranking because the frame rate is capped by the graphics processor. The rank of 2634 reflects the fact that a high-end CPU cannot compensate for a low-end GPU in a graphics-intensive game like Thief.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. A critical specification is its memory configuration, which is "System Shared," meaning it uses the system’s main memory rather than dedicated VRAM. Its bandwidth is accordingly listed as "System Dependent." This reliance on system memory is a major factor in its performance, as it shares bandwidth with the CPU.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are modest, with 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs. It also includes 10 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Its theoretical performance is rated at 6.144 TFLOPS for FP32 and 12.29 TFLOPS for FP16, with a TDP of just 25 W. Despite these specifications, its measured performance in 3DMark Steel Nomad is only 1184, a score that places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs.

This low benchmark score directly explains the measured frame rates in Thief. The GPU is the sole limiting factor, as evidenced by the fact that reducing settings from Ultra to Low at 1920x1080 only improves the average frame rate from 43 FPS to 78 FPS. This performance envelope is consistent with the GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, which scores 1186. The Arc B370’s architecture and feature set are modern, but its execution resources and shared memory configuration are insufficient to deliver high frame rates in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. The overall trend is that frame rates are heavily dependent on resolution and settings, but never reach high levels, confirming the GPU bottleneck.

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its best results. The Low preset delivers an average of 78 FPS, which is the only score above 60 FPS. The Medium preset averages 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS. The High preset drops to 45 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 43 FPS. This shows a 35 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, indicating that the GPU struggles with the increased graphical load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance decreases substantially. The Low preset averages 53 FPS, which is still smooth enough for play. The Medium preset averages 41 FPS, with a range of 35 to 47 FPS. The High preset drops to 31 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 29 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is now 24 FPS, and the frame rates at Medium and above are below 45 FPS, making them less desirable.

At 3840x2160, the performance is critically low across all settings. The Low preset is the only one that reaches 31 FPS. The Medium preset averages 24 FPS (with a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 27), the High preset averages 18 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 17 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 14 FPS, but all scores are below 32 FPS, rendering the game largely unplayable at this resolution. The data shows a clear pattern: the Arc B370 is only capable of providing a smooth experience at 1080p with the lowest settings.