Thief

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 paired with the AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics delivers a playable but constrained experience in Thief, with performance that scales predictably from 1080p to 4K. The data shows a combo that is firmly entry-level for this 2014 stealth title, ranking 2692nd out of 2851 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 6% of all systems measured. The benchmark results indicate that the iGPU is the primary limiting factor at every resolution, with the CPU’s substantial compute headroom (16 cores, 32 threads, 64 MB L3 cache) doing little to lift frame rates once the resolution climbs past 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep and consistent performance drop as resolution increases, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 77 FPS, which is the highest figure recorded across the entire test suite. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 53 FPS, a 31% reduction, and at 4K Low the average falls to 31 FPS, a 60% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is not linear—the gap between 1080p and 1440p (24 FPS) is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K (22 FPS), suggesting that pixel throughput demands accelerate faster than the Radeon 890M’s fill rate can keep up with at higher resolutions.

The High preset shows the same trend, albeit from a lower starting point. At 1080p High, the average is 44 FPS, which drops to 30 FPS at 1440p (a 32% loss) and then to 18 FPS at 4K (a 59% loss from 1080p). The Ultra preset follows suit: 42 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset, which is the only configuration with both min and max FPS data recorded, shows 58 FPS average at 1080p (min 49, max 67), 40 FPS at 1440p (min 34, max 46), and 23 FPS at 4K (min 20, max 27). The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases—18 FPS spread at 1080p, 12 FPS at 1440p, and 7 FPS at 4K—indicating that higher resolutions compress frame time variance, likely because the GPU is saturated more consistently.

The scaling behavior tells a clear story: this is a system designed for 1080p gaming, not for high-resolution output. The Radeon 890M, with its 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, simply lacks the raw throughput to maintain acceptable frame rates beyond 1440p Low. The 4K numbers—17 to 31 FPS depending on preset—are below the threshold for smooth gameplay in a stealth title where timing and reaction matter. The data suggests that players should treat 4K as a slide-show mode, 1440p as a “lower settings only” option, and 1080p as the only resolution where the combo can deliver anything close to a fluid experience, particularly on Low or Medium presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s placement in the global ranking is unambiguous: 2692nd out of 2851 tested combinations, which puts it in the 94th percentile from the bottom. This is not a competitive gaming platform by any stretch; it is a mobile-oriented APU solution that happens to be paired with a capable CPU but a weak iGPU. The CPU itself is a strong performer—the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 scores 35,314 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 20,992 in Geekbench multi-core, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (avg score 76,513, delta 1.6%), the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (avg score 76,492, delta 1.6%), and the Intel Core i9-14900K (avg score 79,097, delta -1.7%). The Ryzen 9 8945HX trails slightly at 76,212 (delta 2%). This indicates the CPU is operating at a high-end desktop replacement level, but the GPU holds the entire system back.

The Radeon 890M, by contrast, sits at the 45th percentile of all GPUs, with a Passmark G3D score of 8,076 and an average benchmark score of 9,210. Its nearest rivals are telling: the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (avg 9,221, delta -0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (avg 9,273, delta -0.7%), the GeForce GTX 465 (avg 9,294, delta -0.9%), and the GeForce GTX 850M (avg 9,302, delta -1%). This means the 890M is statistically indistinguishable from a GTX 960, a discrete GPU from 2015, which explains why Thief—a game from 2014—runs at playable frame rates only at 1080p Low. The delta percentages are all within 1% of the 890M’s average score, confirming that this iGPU is firmly in the “budget discrete GPU” tier of performance.

In the context of Thief specifically, the combo rank of 2692 out of 2851 means that 159 other tested combinations delivered worse results, but the vast majority (2,692) outperformed it. This is not a surprise given the GPU’s modest specs, but it does highlight a mismatch: the CPU could easily feed a much stronger GPU, yet the iGPU caps the system’s potential. For a stealth game that relies on lighting and shadow rendering (the Ultra preset likely enables advanced effects), the 890M’s 32 ROPs and 5.939 TFLOPS FP32 throughput are simply insufficient for high-detail work at anything above 1080p.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Thief?*

A: The highest measured average is 77 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that exceeds 60 FPS, and it does so by a comfortable margin.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this combo?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best average is 31 FPS on Low settings, dropping to 23 FPS on Medium, 18 FPS on High, and 17 FPS on Ultra. None of these are smooth enough for a stealth action game.

Q: How does the Radeon 890M compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: Benchmark data shows it is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (delta -0.1%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (delta -0.7%), GeForce GTX 465 (delta -0.9%), and GeForce GTX 850M (delta -1%). All are within 1% of the 890M’s average benchmark score.

Q: What CPU is this paired with, and does it bottleneck the GPU?

A: The CPU is the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, a 16-core, 32-thread Zen 5 processor with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It does not bottleneck the GPU in this game; the iGPU is the limiting component, as shown by the steep FPS drops at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 77 FPS while Ultra averages 42 FPS, a 45% reduction. The gap narrows at higher resolutions: at 1440p Low is 53 FPS vs Ultra 29 FPS (45% reduction), and at 4K Low is 31 FPS vs Ultra 17 FPS (also 45% reduction).

Q: Does the combo have any settings where min FPS stays above 30?

A: Yes, only at 1920x1080 Medium, where the min FPS is 49 and the max is 67. At 2560x1440 Medium, the min drops to 34, and at 3840x2160 Medium, the min falls to 20.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo in Thief covers three resolutions and four settings presets, yielding 12 distinct data points. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low averages 77 FPS, Medium averages 58 FPS (with a recorded range of 49 to 67 FPS), High averages 44 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. This shows a clear hierarchy where Low is the only preset that delivers a truly smooth experience, while Medium is still playable for most users, and High/Ultra dip into the low-40s, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced stealth game but is far from ideal.

At 2560x1440, the numbers fall off significantly: Low averages 53 FPS, Medium averages 40 FPS (range 34 to 46), High averages 30 FPS, and Ultra averages 29 FPS. The 1440p Low result is the only one that stays above 50 FPS, and even that is 31% slower than the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 1440p is borderline, with a min of 34 FPS that could cause occasional stutter during busy scenes. High and Ultra at 1440p are effectively locked to 30 FPS or below, which is marginal for a game that requires quick reactions to enemy patrols.

At 3840x2160, the results are poor across the board: Low averages 31 FPS, Medium averages 23 FPS (range 20 to 27), High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only one that reaches 30 FPS, and it does so barely. The Medium preset’s min of 20 FPS and max of 27 FPS indicate that even the most optimistic frame times are below the 30 FPS threshold, making 4K unplayable for anything other than static screenshots. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 14 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the gaps at lower resolutions, confirming that the GPU’s scaling is consistent regardless of resolution.

The data also reveals that the difference between High and Ultra presets is minimal: at 1080p, High averages 44 FPS vs Ultra 42 FPS (2 FPS difference); at 1440p, 30 vs 29 (1 FPS); and at 4K, 18 vs 17 (1 FPS). This suggests that the Ultra preset offers no meaningful visual benefit over High for this GPU, or that the game’s Ultra settings are not substantially more demanding than High. Conversely, the jump from Low to Medium costs 19 FPS at 1080p (77 to 58), 13 FPS at 1440p (53 to 40), and 8 FPS at 4K (31 to 23), which is a more significant performance hit for presumably better shadows and textures.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is the decisive factor in this combo’s Thief performance, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU operates with a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz, which is a wide dynamic range typical of integrated graphics that share power with the CPU. The memory is “System Shared,” meaning it uses the system’s LPDDR5X RAM rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth listed as “System Dependent.” This shared-memory architecture is a known bottleneck for iGPUs, as the CPU and GPU compete for the same memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s for the system, per the CPU’s specs). In Thief, which was designed for discrete GPUs with dedicated memory, this shared bandwidth likely contributes to the performance cliffs at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s raw compute is modest: 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 16 ray-tracing cores. Its pixel rate is 92.80 GPixel/s and texture rate is 185.6 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 5.939 TFLOPS. For a 2014 game like Thief, these numbers are sufficient for 1080p Low/Medium, but the 32 ROPs become a limiting factor when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 8,076 places it at the 45th percentile, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 590, which is low but not unexpected for an iGPU. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 37,254 and Vulkan score of 40,808 show that the GPU can execute compute workloads reasonably well, but gaming performance is what matters here.

The GPU’s nearest rivals are telling: it is essentially tied with the Radeon Vega 8, GTX 960, GTX 465, and GTX 850M, all of which are older or lower-end parts. This means the 890M is not a step forward for integrated graphics in this specific title; it is roughly equivalent to a mid-range discrete GPU from a decade ago. The 15 W TDP for the GPU (though the CPU’s TDP is 55 W, indicating the combined package is power-limited) further constrains performance, as integrated graphics must operate within thermal and power envelopes that discrete GPUs do not face. The 4 nm process node (from TSMC) and RDNA 3.5 architecture help efficiency, but they cannot overcome the fundamental limitations of shared memory and low ROP count.

In Thief, the GPU’s role is to render complex indoor environments with dynamic lighting, shadows, and reflective surfaces—all of which are GPU-intensive. The measured FPS drops from 77 (1080p Low) to 31 (4K Low) demonstrate that the GPU is being pushed to its limits at each resolution step. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, is never the bottleneck; even at 1080p Low, the 77 FPS average is likely limited by the GPU’s pixel throughput rather than the CPU’s ability to feed draw calls. This is confirmed by the fact that increasing resolution causes a near-linear FPS drop, which is the expected behavior for a GPU-bound system.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user’s resolution and tolerance for frame drops. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 77 FPS average, which is the only configuration that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. This is the recommended choice for players who prioritize smooth, responsive gameplay, especially in a stealth title where quick turns and precise aiming matter. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 58 FPS average with a min of 49 FPS, which is still playable but may show occasional dips during heavy scenes. The High preset (44 FPS) and Ultra preset (42 FPS) are both below 60 FPS and offer diminishing visual returns, so they should only be used if the player values higher shadow quality over frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset (53 FPS) is the only option that stays above 50 FPS, making it the clear choice for this resolution. The Medium preset (40 FPS average, 34 min) is borderline, and High (30 FPS) and Ultra (29 FPS) are effectively capped at 30 FPS, which is below the standard for smooth gameplay. For 1440p users, Low is recommended for a playable experience, with Medium as a compromise if the player can tolerate occasional drops below 40 FPS. For 3840x2160, the data is unambiguous: no settings preset delivers a playable experience. The Low preset averages 31 FPS, which is technically above 30 but with no min FPS recorded, it is likely to dip below that threshold during action. Medium (23 FPS), High (18 FPS), and Ultra (17 FPS) are all unsuitable for gameplay.

The best overall experience, according to the measured rows, is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which provides the highest average FPS (77) and likely the most consistent frame pacing. The second-best option is 1920x1080 Medium, which trades 19 FPS for improved visuals but still maintains a min FPS of 49. For users who insist on higher resolutions, 1440p Low is the only viable choice, while 4K should be avoided entirely unless the goal is to capture static scenery. The data also shows that the High and Ultra presets are nearly identical in performance across all resolutions (1-2 FPS difference), so there is no reason to select Ultra over High; High provides essentially the same frame rate with potentially fewer visual artifacts.

In summary, the Radeon 890M is the limiting component in this combo, and the only way to achieve a consistently smooth experience in Thief is to play at 1080p with Low or Medium settings. The CPU’s brute force—16 cores, 32 threads, and a 5.10 GHz boost clock—cannot compensate for the GPU’s modest 32 ROPs and shared memory bandwidth. Players with this system should accept the 1080p Low/Medium sweet spot and avoid the temptation to push resolutions higher, as the measured data shows a steep and unforgiving performance drop from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. The combo ranks 2692nd out of 2851, which places it in the bottom tier for Thief, but within that tier, the 1080p Low setting offers a fully playable experience that matches the game’s 2014 origins.