Thief

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers a playable but aging experience in Thief, with performance that scales predictably across resolutions and settings. This combination sits in the lower half of the database’s tested configurations, ranking 3079 out of 3720 combos, indicating that while it can run the game, it does so with significant compromises at higher fidelity targets. The data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, but the CPU’s four cores still hold up well enough to avoid severe frame pacing issues at lower resolutions.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is a Pascal-architecture card built on TSMC’s 16nm process, featuring 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units. Its base clock runs at 1506 MHz with a boost clock of 1683 MHz, and the memory operates at 2002 MHz, translating to 8 Gbps effective speed across a 256-bit bus. This configuration yields 256.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is crucial for a game like Thief that relies heavily on texture streaming and complex shadow rendering.

The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR5 VRAM is a notable asset for this title. At 4K resolution with High settings, the card averages 30 FPS, but the frame rate is tightly constrained by the memory subsystem’s bandwidth rather than capacity. When dropping to Medium settings at 4K, the average rises to 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 45 FPS, showing that reducing texture quality and shadow detail alleviates pressure on the memory interface. The pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s are the limiting factors here, as the card’s raw compute power (6.463 TFLOPS FP32) is sufficient for the game’s geometry but struggles with the sheer pixel count at 3840x2160.

The GTX 1070’s boost clock behavior is also relevant. The jump from 1506 MHz base to 1683 MHz boost provides a theoretical 11.7% headroom, which helps maintain consistency in less demanding scenes. However, the data shows that at Ultra settings, the card falls to 28 FPS at 4K, suggesting that the boost clock cannot compensate for the increased shader complexity. The card’s DirectX 12 support (12_1) is present, but Thief was released in 2014, so the game’s rendering pipeline primarily leverages the GPU’s DirectX 11 capabilities, where the card scores 100 in PassMark’s DirectX 11 test, compared to 48 in DirectX 12. This indicates the GTX 1070 is well-optimized for the API the game actually uses, but its overall percentile rank of 47 versus all GPUs places it firmly in mid-range territory for modern standards.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1080p, the combination shows its strongest performance. The Low preset delivers an average of 128 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings drop the average to 97 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 82 FPS and maximum of 111 FPS, indicating stable frame pacing. High settings average 74 FPS, while Ultra reduces the average to 70 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal (only 4 FPS), suggesting that the game’s Ultra preset adds effects that are largely compute-bound rather than bandwidth-bound, and the GTX 1070’s 64 ROPs handle the extra load without significant penalty.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates show a proportional decline. Low settings average 88 FPS, which is a 31.3% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 76 FPS, representing a 32% reduction from 1080p Medium. High settings fall to 51 FPS, and Ultra averages 48 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows further at this resolution (3 FPS), reinforcing that the GPU’s shading units are the bottleneck rather than memory bandwidth. At 1440p, the system remains playable at all settings, but Ultra dips close to the 45 FPS threshold where input lag becomes noticeable in a stealth title that rewards precise movement.

At 4K, the data tells a harsher story. Low settings average 51 FPS, which is still playable but marks a 60.2% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 FPS, indicating occasional stutters during intense scenes. High settings drop to 30 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, and Ultra plummets to 28 FPS. The minimum frame rate at 4K Medium (33 FPS) is particularly telling—it suggests that the GTX 1070’s memory bandwidth (256.3 GB/s) is saturated, causing frame dips when the game loads new assets. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not the issue at these settings; rather, the bus width and speed limit the data throughput.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific configuration of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 3079 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief. That places it in the 17th percentile of all systems tested, meaning roughly 83% of other combinations deliver higher average frame rates. This rank is primarily driven by the GPU’s age, as the GTX 1070’s average benchmark score of 9780 places it at the 47th percentile versus all GPUs, but its nearest rivals show how tight the competition is at this performance tier.

The GTX 1070’s nearest rivals in the database include the AMD FirePro W5000 (average score 9803, deltaPct -0.2%) and the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (average score 9832, deltaPct -0.5%), both of which are within 0.5% of its performance. This indicates that the GTX 1070 is not uniquely positioned—it sits in a cluster of similar-performance graphics cards, and the combo’s low rank is more a function of the CPU’s 68th percentile ranking versus all CPUs. The Core i3-12100F’s average benchmark score of 13494 is nearly identical to the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492, deltaPct 0%) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452, deltaPct 0.3%), showing that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing.

The data suggests that this combo ranks low because the GTX 1070, despite being a capable card in its day, is now outperformed by modern mid-range GPUs that offer higher memory bandwidth and more shading units. The 3079 rank reflects a system that was high-end in 2016 but is now firmly entry-level for 2024 gaming. For Thief specifically, the rank indicates that while the game is playable, there are many other tested combinations that provide a smoother experience at higher settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario, but with nuances that point to specific hardware limitations. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 128 at 1080p to 88 at 1440p (a 31.3% reduction) and then to 51 at 4K (a 60.2% reduction from 1080p). This scaling is not linear—the drop from 1440p to 4K (from 88 to 51 FPS, a 42% reduction) is steeper than the 1080p to 1440p drop. This non-linearity indicates that the GPU’s pixel fill rate (107.7 GPixel/s) is being overwhelmed at higher resolutions, as the number of pixels quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

At Medium settings, the scaling shows similar characteristics: 97 FPS at 1080p, 66 FPS at 1440p (a 32% drop), and 39 FPS at 4K (a 59.8% drop from 1080p). The minimum frame rate at 4K Medium (33 FPS) versus the minimum at 1440p Medium (56 FPS) shows a 41.1% reduction, which is consistent with the average FPS scaling. This suggests that the GPU’s texture rate (202.0 GTexel/s) is the bottleneck, as higher resolutions require more texture fetches per frame.

The scaling at High settings is particularly telling: 74 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p (a 31.1% drop), and 30 FPS at 4K (a 59.5% drop from 1080p). The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical across all settings (around 31% for 1080p to 1440p and 59-60% for 1080p to 4K) indicates that the limiting factor is resolution-dependent, not setting-dependent. This is a clear sign of a GPU bottleneck—the CPU, with its 4 cores and 8 threads running at base 3.30 GHz and boost 4.30 GHz, is delivering consistent frame data, but the GTX 1070 cannot keep up with the pixel workload.

FAQ

*Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F + GTX 1070 combo playable in Thief at 1080p?*

A: Yes, the data shows average frame rates of 128 FPS at Low, 97 FPS at Medium, 74 FPS at High, and 70 FPS at Ultra settings, all of which are above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Thief with this combo?*

A: 1440p is the sweet spot, with average frame rates of 88 FPS at Low, 66 FPS at Medium, 51 FPS at High, and 48 FPS at Ultra. This offers a good balance between visual fidelity and playability, though Ultra dips below 50 FPS.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K in Thief?*

A: Barely, with average frame rates of 51 FPS at Low, 39 FPS at Medium, 30 FPS at High, and 28 FPS at Ultra. Only Low settings provide a consistently playable experience, and Medium shows minimum frame rates of 33 FPS, indicating occasional stutters.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 9780, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD FirePro W5000 (9803) and 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832), putting it in a tight mid-range cluster.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this combo?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. The Core i3-12100F’s average benchmark score of 13494 places it at the 68th percentile, while the GTX 1070 sits at the 47th percentile, and FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K follows GPU-bound patterns.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking in the database?

A: This combination ranks 3079 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the lower 17% of all systems, which reflects the GTX 1070’s age relative to modern GPUs.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 10nm Alder Lake-S desktop processor with 4 cores and 8 threads, running at a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s TDP is 58 watts, and it supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, though the game’s performance is not heavily dependent on memory bandwidth. The processor’s single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674, which are critical for a game like Thief that relies on a primary game thread for AI and physics.

The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities are less relevant for this title. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11860 and 3DMark max threads score of 4023 show that it can handle background tasks, but Thief’s engine, released in 2014, is not optimized for more than a few threads. The 4 cores and 8 threads are sufficient to prevent CPU bottlenecks at all tested resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent FPS scaling patterns. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see less degradation at 4K, but the data shows a 60% drop from 1080p to 4K, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

The Core i3-12100F’s percentile rank of 68 versus all CPUs places it above average, and its nearest rivals—the Intel Core 3 N355 (deltaPct 0%), Intel Core i5-9500 (deltaPct 0.3%), Intel Core 5 120UL (deltaPct -0.7%), and Intel Core i7-1250U (deltaPct 1.1%)—all show that the CPU is not a performance outlier. In Thief, this means the CPU provides a stable foundation, allowing the GTX 1070 to be the sole determinant of frame rates. The boost clock of 4.30 GHz is particularly important for maintaining high minimum frame rates, as the game’s stealth mechanics require consistent AI reactions and environmental physics. The data confirms that the CPU’s 4 cores do not introduce stutter or frame pacing issues, as the minimum FPS values at 1080p Medium (82 FPS) and 1440p Medium (56 FPS) are proportionally consistent with the averages.