Thief

# Thief with Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

This combination of an Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti lands near the very bottom of the tested combo rankings for Thief, sitting at rank 1612 out of 1642 total combinations. The data shows a system that can handle the game at 1080p with reduced settings, but struggles significantly at higher resolutions or with maximum quality presets. The GTX 1050 Ti, which ranks in the 30th percentile of all GPUs, is the clear bottleneck here, while the i3-12100F provides more than enough processing headroom for this 2014 stealth title.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Thief at 1920x1080 smoothly?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where the measured average FPS is 60.7. At Medium settings, the average drops to 45.2 FPS, which is still playable, but High and Ultra presets produce 32.4 and 35.4 FPS respectively, which may feel less fluid.

Q: What is the best resolution for this system?

A: The data clearly favors 1920x1080 as the primary target. At 2560x1440, even Low settings only reach 44.2 FPS, and at 3840x2160, no preset achieves above 24.4 FPS. The 1080p Low setting is the only configuration that breaks the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the GTX 1050 Ti compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GTX 1050 Ti has an average benchmark score of 5316, which is virtually identical to the NVIDIA GeForce 930A (5317, 0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce 940M (5297, 0.4% slower). It is 0.8% faster than the AMD Radeon R7 M445 and 0.7% faster than the AMD Radeon R7 240, making it effectively a mid-pack mobile-tier performer.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Thief?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary constraint. The i3-12100F ranks in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs with an average score of 13516, while the GTX 1050 Ti sits in the 30th percentile. The CPU's 3DMark scores (4051 with 16 threads, 893 single-thread) far exceed what Thief requires, but the GPU's 2.138 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth cap frame rates.

Q: What settings should be avoided entirely?

A: Avoid 3840x2160 at any preset, as the best case is 24.4 FPS at Low. Ultra at 4K is particularly poor at 12.3 FPS. Also avoid Ultra at 2560x1440, which delivers only 25.7 FPS, essentially matching the 4K Low result.

Q: Does the CPU's performance vary significantly between single and multi-threaded tasks?

A: Yes. The i3-12100F scores 893 in 3DMark single-thread, 2859 in 4-thread, and 4023 in max-thread tests. Cinebench R23 results show 1681 single-core and 11912 multi-core. This indicates strong scaling from its 4 cores and 8 threads, though Thief's older engine likely doesn't utilize all threads efficiently.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the decisive factor in this combo's Thief performance. Built on the Pascal architecture with a GP107 chip manufactured on Samsung's 14 nm process, this GPU packs 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units. Its base clock of 1291 MHz boosts to 1392 MHz, while the 4 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1752 MHz (7 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 112.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

These specifications translate to a 2.138 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability, a pixel rate of 44.54 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 66.82 GTexel/s. In Thief, the GPU's modest fillrate and bandwidth become apparent at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, the card manages only 16.9 FPS on High and 20.8 FPS on Medium, showing that the 4K resolution demands far more than this GPU can deliver. The 16.9 FPS High result and 12.3 FPS Ultra result are both below playable thresholds, confirming that 4K is not viable.

The GTX 1050 Ti's 30th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the lower tier of modern hardware. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce 930A (5317 avg score, 0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce 940M (5297, 0.4% slower), which are both mobile-class parts. This suggests the desktop 1050 Ti performs at a level comparable to older notebook GPUs, explaining its struggles in a game like Thief that, while from 2014, still pushes geometry and lighting at higher presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F provides ample processing power for Thief, and its role is largely supportive given the GPU bottleneck. This Alder Lake-S architecture chip features 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache help keep data flowing, while the 10 nm process node and 58 W TDP make it an efficient desktop part.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i3-12100F demonstrates strong single-thread performance with a 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. Multi-threaded results are equally robust: Cinebench R23 multi-core hits 11912, and Geekbench multi-core reaches 7413. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4051 and max-thread score of 4023 show that the CPU's 8 threads scale well, though Thief's engine from 2014 may not exploit all of them.

The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13516, places it ahead of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534, -0.1% delta) and slightly behind the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462, 0.4% delta). This means the i3-12100F is a mid-to-high tier processor that will not hold back the GTX 1050 Ti in Thief. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, as evidenced by the fact that lowering resolution from 1080p to 1440p or 4K produces dramatic FPS drops while CPU load remains relatively constant.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of i3-12100F and GTX 1050 Ti ranks 1612 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the bottom 2% of all configurations. This poor ranking stems almost entirely from the GPU's limitations, as the CPU is a capable performer in its own right. The combo's position indicates that most other hardware pairings tested deliver better frame rates in this title.

The data reveals that the GTX 1050 Ti's performance in Thief is constrained by its 4 GB VRAM capacity and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth. At 1920x1080, the transition from Low (60.7 FPS) to Medium (45.2 FPS) represents a 25.5% drop, and from Medium to High (32.4 FPS) another 28.3% drop. These steep declines suggest that higher presets increase memory pressure and fillrate demands beyond what the GPU can efficiently handle.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the i3-12100F holds its own. It is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534 vs 13516, -0.1% delta) and slightly ahead of the Intel Core i7-7700K (13280, 1.8% delta). This means that swapping the GPU would yield far greater improvements in Thief performance than changing the CPU would.

Settings Recommendations

For the best playable experience, the measured data points to 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers 60.7 FPS average. This is the only configuration that achieves a stable 60 FPS target. If visual quality is prioritized over frame rate, 1080p Medium at 45.2 FPS provides a reasonable compromise, though users should expect occasional dips below 40 FPS during complex scenes.

At 2560x1440, the best option is Low settings at 44.2 FPS, but this is only marginally better than the 1080p Medium result. Given the resolution increase, 1440p Low may not look significantly better than 1080p Medium, so 1080p Medium is arguably the superior choice. Avoid 3840x2160 entirely, as even Low settings only reach 24.4 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay.

Ultra presets should be avoided at all resolutions. The best Ultra result is 35.4 FPS at 1080p, which is not worth the visual gain over High (32.4 FPS) given the marginal difference. High settings at 2560x1440 (25.2 FPS) and 3840x2160 (16.9 FPS) are both too slow for practical use.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rate drops steadily as settings increase. Low settings produce 60.7 FPS, Medium delivers 45.2 FPS, High drops to 32.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 35.4 FPS. Notably, Ultra is actually slightly faster than High at 1080p, which may indicate a driver or engine quirk rather than a true performance characteristic.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance degrades significantly. Low settings achieve 44.2 FPS, Medium drops to 31.5 FPS, High falls to 25.2 FPS, and Ultra manages 25.7 FPS. Again, Ultra edges out High by a small margin, suggesting inconsistent scaling at this resolution. The jump from 1080p Low to 1440p Low costs 16.5 FPS, illustrating the GPU's bandwidth limitations.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings reach 24.4 FPS, Medium drops to 20.8 FPS, High falls to 16.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 12.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 12.1 FPS, showing that even the lowest settings cannot make 4K viable on this hardware. The 4K results are consistently less than half the 1080p figures at equivalent settings, confirming that the GTX 1050 Ti's 112.1 GB/s bandwidth and 32 ROPs are insufficient for high-resolution rendering in Thief.