Thief

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a distinctly CPU-favored experience in Thief, a 2014 stealth title. The data shows a configuration that scales aggressively with resolution, indicating that the 16-core processor is far ahead of the graphics card’s capabilities in this workload. The combo ranks 843rd out of 1642 tested configurations, placing it just above the median in a large field of hardware pairings.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Thief?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 843rd out of 1642 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all configurations benchmarked for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its closest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score is 23181. It sits within 0.8% of the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23321, -0.6% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (23338, -0.7% delta), and the Intel Arc B580 (23021, 0.7% delta).

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achieved by this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 185.9 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The lowest average is 40.6 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How much performance difference exists between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average frame rate drops from 185.9 FPS on Low settings to 104.9 FPS on Ultra settings, a reduction of 81 FPS or roughly 44% of the Low-settings result.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D sits in the 96th percentile among all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 71660. It leads the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X by 1.8% in average score.

Q: Does the GPU's memory configuration appear sufficient for Thief's demands?

A: The RTX 4060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth. The benchmark data shows playable frame rates across all tested settings, suggesting this memory configuration does not bottleneck performance in this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using the AD107 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It carries 3072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units, with a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz. The card operates at a 115 W TDP and connects via PCIe 4.0 x8.

In Thief, the GPU's role is substantial but secondary to the CPU. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination produces 185.9 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the dataset. This suggests that even at low graphical load, the RTX 4060 is able to keep up with the CPU's output. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth appear adequate for the game's textures, as frame rates remain consistent across the settings range without any indication of memory-related stutters or drops.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a passmark G3D score of 19545 and a passmark GPU compute score of 9213. Its percentile ranking against all GPUs is 66, indicating it performs better than two-thirds of the graphics cards in the database. However, the measured FPS data reveals that the RTX 4060 becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, particularly when comparing the scaling from 1080p to 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling behavior from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 clearly identifies the RTX 4060 as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 106.9 FPS at 1080p to 71.2 FPS at 1440p, then further to 41.5 FPS at 4K. This represents a 61% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where pixel count increases by a factor of four.

The Low settings scaling tells a similar story. At 1080p Low, the system produces 185.9 FPS. At 1440p Low, this drops to 126.5 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 76.1 FPS. The fact that even at Low settings the 4K frame rate is less than half of the 1080p result indicates that the GPU's raw rasterization throughput is the limiting factor, not the CPU or memory subsystem.

The data also shows that the gap between settings narrows at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (185.9 FPS) and Ultra (104.9 FPS) is 81 FPS. At 4K, the difference between Low (76.1 FPS) and Ultra (40.6 FPS) is 35.5 FPS. This compression of the settings range at 4K is a classic sign of GPU saturation, where the card is working near its maximum capacity regardless of the quality preset.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 843 out of 1642 tested combos, this configuration sits in the 51st percentile of all pairings benchmarked in Thief. This mid-pack placement is notable given the CPU's strength. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D ranks in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 71660. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270, scores 71056 (0.9% delta), while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420 (1.8% delta). The Intel Core i7-14700KF trails at 70104 (2.2% delta).

The GPU, however, ranks lower. The RTX 4060 sits in the 66th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 23181. Its closest competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, scores 23321 (-0.6% delta), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti scores 23338 (-0.7% delta). The Intel Arc B580 and AMD Radeon 760M are also within 0.8% of the RTX 4060's score.

The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU results in a pairing that underperforms relative to its processor's potential. The 843rd rank out of 1642 suggests that many configurations with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs achieve better overall results in Thief, which is consistent with the game's sensitivity to GPU load at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce 185.9 FPS, Medium settings yield 141 FPS, High settings achieve 106.9 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 104.9 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal at just 2 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds negligible graphical load beyond High in this title.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low settings produce 126.5 FPS, which is still comfortably above 120 FPS. Medium settings deliver 93.8 FPS, High settings achieve 71.2 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 71.6 FPS. Notably, the Ultra result is slightly higher than the High result at this resolution, which may indicate minor variance in the measurement or that the Ultra preset does not impose additional load in certain scenes.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings produce 76.1 FPS, which remains playable. Medium settings drop to 56.6 FPS, High settings fall to 41.5 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 40.6 FPS. The 4K results show that even at Low settings, the system cannot achieve 60 FPS with significant headroom, and at Ultra settings, the frame rate drops below 45 FPS.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent reduction across all settings. Low settings drop by 59.4 FPS, Medium by 47.2 FPS, High by 35.7 FPS, and Ultra by 33.3 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more severe in percentage terms, with Low settings dropping by 50.4 FPS (40%), Medium by 37.2 FPS (40%), High by 29.7 FPS (42%), and Ultra by 31 FPS (43%). This consistent percentage drop across settings at 4K reinforces that the GPU's pixel throughput is the constraining factor.