Thief

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT lands at rank 1046 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This positioning is notable given that the CPU holds a 72nd percentile rank among all processors and the GPU also sits at the 72nd percentile among all graphics cards, suggesting that the pairing performs below what the individual component percentiles might imply. The combo’s ranking reflects a system that is capable of smooth 1080p play but struggles to maintain high refresh rates at 4K, with the data showing a clear performance ceiling that aligns with a mid-range 2022-era GPU and a quad-core CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1046 out of 1642 tested combinations places it in the 36th percentile of all tested systems for Thief, a game that is now over a decade old but still demanding in certain configurations. This ranking is modest when considering that both the CPU and GPU individually sit at the 72nd percentile against all their respective peers, meaning the pairing underperforms relative to what each component achieves in isolation. The data suggests that Thief’s engine does not heavily reward the combination of a modern quad-core CPU and a mid-range RDNA 2 GPU, as the measured frame rates at higher resolutions show a substantial drop-off.

The Core i3-12100F’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX with a delta of -0.1%, the Intel Core i7-1250U at +0.4%, the Intel Core i3-10105 at +0.6%, and the Intel Core i7-7700K at +1.8%. These deltas are remarkably tight, indicating that the i3-12100F’s computational output is nearly identical to a high-end workstation processor in this game’s workload, which confirms the efficiency of Alder Lake’s architecture. On the GPU side, the RX 6650 XT’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M with a 0% delta, the AMD Radeon RX 470 at +0.1%, the Intel Arc A370M at -0.5%, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH at -0.6%, showing that the card is squarely in a performance band where minor architectural differences yield negligible benchmark changes.

Given that the CPU’s average benchmark score of 13516 is almost identical to the Threadripper PRO 3975WX’s 13534, the bottleneck in Thief is clearly not the processor at lower resolutions, but rather the GPU’s memory bandwidth and raw pixel throughput at 4K. The combo’s rank suggests that for a game like Thief, which was released in 2014, the system is more than adequate for 1080p gaming, but the measured FPS data indicates that the GPU begins to struggle as resolution increases, pulling the overall rank down compared to combos with stronger graphics cards.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 87.2 FPS, which is slightly lower than the High preset’s 96.9 FPS but still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the jump from Low to Ultra is substantial: the Low preset averages 108.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 60.8 FPS, representing a 47.6 FPS reduction that highlights the GPU’s sensitivity to graphical fidelity.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 3840x2160, as the CPU’s synthetic scores are competitive with much higher-end processors, while the GPU’s 4K Ultra average of only 38.5 FPS shows a clear graphics-bound scenario.

Q: How does the RX 6650 XT compare to its nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RX 6650 XT has an average benchmark score of 29024, which is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6800M’s 29011, showing a 0% delta and indicating that the two GPUs are virtually interchangeable in raw compute performance.

Q: What is the combo’s rank out of all tested configurations in Thief?

A: The combo ranks 1046 out of 1642 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 36% of all systems, which is surprising given the individual component percentiles.

Q: Does the Core i3-12100F outperform the Intel Core i7-7700K in synthetic benchmarks?

A: Yes, the i3-12100F has an average score of 13516, which is 1.8% higher than the i7-7700K’s 13280, showing that the newer quad-core design edges out the older flagship in this test suite.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, fabricated on a 7 nm process by TSMC, and it features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. The card’s base clock is 2055 MHz, with a boost clock of 2635 MHz and a game clock of 2410 MHz, while the memory operates at 2190 MHz with 17.5 Gbps effective speed. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s, and an FP32 throughput of 10.79 TFLOPS, which are the figures that directly influence Thief’s frame rates at various settings.

In Thief, the GPU’s role becomes dominant as resolution scales upward, particularly at 4K where the card’s 64 ROPs and 128 TMUs struggle to keep pace with the pixel count. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra drops to 38.5 average, which is below the playable threshold for many users, while the same settings at 1080p yield 87.2 FPS. This 48.7 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings is a direct consequence of the GPU’s memory bus width and bandwidth, as the 128-bit interface limits the data throughput needed for high-resolution textures.

The GPU’s 2048 shading units and 32 ray accelerators are more than sufficient for a 2014 title like Thief, but the card’s end-of-life production status and 176 W TDP suggest that it was designed for 1080p and 1440p gaming rather than 4K. The data confirms this, as the 4K Low preset still manages 65.5 FPS, showing that the card can handle the resolution if settings are reduced, but the Ultra preset’s 38.5 FPS indicates that the GPU’s raw fill rate is the limiting factor. The RX 6650 XT’s nearest rival, the RX 6800M, has a nearly identical average benchmark score, yet the 6650 XT’s desktop-oriented design with a 1x 8-pin power connector and 450 W suggested PSU makes it a more accessible option for mainstream builds.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance across all settings. The Low preset averages 162.8 FPS, which is exceptionally high for a stealth game and indicates that the CPU and GPU are both well-utilized without any significant bottleneck. The Medium preset drops to 123.1 FPS, still offering a comfortable margin above 120 FPS for high-refresh-rate displays. High settings produce 96.9 FPS, while Ultra brings the average down to 87.2 FPS, showing a total range of 75.6 FPS between the lowest and highest quality presets at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably but with a more pronounced drop at higher settings. Low averages 108.4 FPS, which is a 33.4% reduction from 1080p Low, while Medium achieves 82 FPS and High reaches 67.1 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 60.8 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target, making it a viable option for players who prioritize visual fidelity over maximum frame rates. The delta between 1080p Ultra and 1440p Ultra is 26.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s pixel throughput is being taxed more heavily at the higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The Low preset averages 65.5 FPS, which is still playable, but Medium drops to 50 FPS, High falls to 35.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 38.5 FPS. Interestingly, the High preset at 4K is slightly below Ultra, which is an anomaly in the data, but both are well under the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Low to Ultra range spans 27 FPS, showing that while settings adjustments can improve playability, the card cannot maintain smooth frame rates at this resolution with any preset above Low.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario for this combo. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 162.8 at 1080p to 108.4 at 1440p, a 33.4% decrease, and then to 65.5 at 4K, a 59.8% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep curve indicates that the RX 6650 XT’s 280.3 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient to feed the increasing pixel count at higher resolutions, even with reduced graphical fidelity.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 87.2 FPS at 1080p drops to 60.8 FPS at 1440p (a 30.3% decrease) and then to 38.5 FPS at 4K (a 55.8% decrease from 1080p). The fact that the 4K Ultra frame rate is lower than the 4K High frame rate (35.7 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional effects, such as enhanced shadows and ambient occlusion, further tax the GPU’s 128-bit memory interface, which is the primary limiting factor.

The data shows that from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drop across all settings is approximately 30-35%, which is consistent with a 78% increase in pixel count (from 2.07 million to 3.69 million pixels). However, from 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drop is around 40-45%, which is less than the 125% increase in pixel count (from 3.69 million to 8.29 million pixels), indicating that the CPU begins to play a slightly larger role at this resolution, though the GPU remains the dominant constraint. The Core i3-12100F’s 4 cores and 8 threads with a 4.30 GHz boost clock are sufficient to keep the GPU fed at lower resolutions, but at 4K, the GPU’s 64 ROPs simply cannot rasterize the scene fast enough, resulting in the sub-60 FPS averages that define this combo’s lower-mid-tier ranking.