Thief

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Thief, but the data reveals a system that is clearly bound by its graphics card at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the combination produces high frame rates, yet the scaling curve from 1440p to 4K shows a steep decline that points directly at the GPU as the primary bottleneck, while the CPU demonstrates sufficient headroom to keep up with the workload.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across resolutions tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling lies. Starting at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 120.4 FPS, which drops to 88.5 FPS at Medium, 69.0 FPS at High, and 63.7 FPS at Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages fall to 85.0 FPS (Low), 61.5 FPS (Medium), 50.0 FPS (High), and 43.2 FPS (Ultra). At 3840x2160, the numbers compress further: 49.8 FPS (Low), 34.3 FPS (Medium), 28.3 FPS (High), and 29.7 FPS (Ultra).

The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 35.4 FPS, a 29% reduction, while the drop from 1440p to 4K at the same settings is 35.2 FPS, a 41% reduction. This accelerating decline indicates that the pixel throughput requirement is outrunning what the GTX 1660 SUPER can deliver. The gap between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 70.6 FPS, meaning the 4K result is less than half of the 1080p figure. At High settings, the spread is 40.7 FPS between the two extremes, and at Ultra it is 34.0 FPS. Notably, at 4K, the difference between High (28.3 FPS) and Ultra (29.7 FPS) is minimal, suggesting that the GPU is saturated and additional graphical detail has little impact on the final frame rate. The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where this combination consistently exceeds 60 FPS across all settings, while 1440p requires Low or Medium settings to stay above 60 FPS. At 4K, no settings preset reaches 60 FPS, and only Low manages to stay above 30 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the defining component in this pairing. Its memory configuration includes 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. These specifications support a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 5.027 TFLOPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 55th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14286. Its nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (avg score 14314, deltaPct -0.2), the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics (avg score 14315, deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Radeon Vega 11 (avg score 14352, deltaPct -0.5), and the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (avg score 14389, deltaPct -0.7). These figures indicate that the GTX 1660 SUPER sits in a tightly contested mid-range segment, with its closest competitors within a 0.7% margin. The card's 6 GB VRAM is adequate for the textures in Thief, but the resolution scaling data suggests that memory bandwidth, rather than capacity, is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is the same figure that governs how quickly texture data can be fed to the rendering pipeline, and the steep FPS drop at 4K aligns with a scenario where this bandwidth is overwhelmed by the pixel fill demands.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Thief, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100F and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER holds a rank of 1470 out of 1642 combos. This places it in the lower portion of the rankings, suggesting that while the hardware is functional, it is not among the top performers for this title. The rank reflects the combined capability of both components working together, and given that the GPU sits in the 55th percentile while the CPU is in the 72nd percentile among their respective categories, the ranking is dragged down by the graphics card's relative position. The data indicates that the combo is in the 10.5th percentile of all tested configurations for Thief, meaning that roughly 89.5% of the other tested combos deliver higher average frame rates. This low ranking is consistent with the measured FPS at 4K, where the averages fall below 50 FPS even on Low settings, and at 1080p Ultra where the result is 63.7 FPS, which is competent but far from the top-tier performance seen in higher-ranked combos.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 120.4 FPS for Low, 88.5 FPS for Medium, 69.0 FPS for High, and 63.7 FPS for Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 56.7 FPS difference, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (31.9 FPS). The step from Medium to High is 19.5 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 5.3 FPS, indicating diminishing returns as settings increase. The 1080p results demonstrate that the GPU can handle the workload when pixel count is modest, and the CPU's 4 cores and 8 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide enough processing power to avoid becoming a constraint at these frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 85.0 FPS (Low), 61.5 FPS (Medium), 50.0 FPS (High), and 43.2 FPS (Ultra). The drop from Low to Medium is 23.5 FPS, from Medium to High is 11.5 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 6.8 FPS. The 1440p results show a similar pattern to 1080p but with lower absolute values, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases. At 3840x2160, the averages are 49.8 FPS (Low), 34.3 FPS (Medium), 28.3 FPS (High), and 29.7 FPS (Ultra). The anomaly here is that Ultra (29.7 FPS) is slightly higher than High (28.3 FPS), which is likely due to measurement variance or specific scene complexity rather than a systematic improvement. The 4K data shows that Low settings are the only viable option for a playable experience, and even then, the average of 49.8 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that many users target.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 120.4 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the averages range from 49.8 FPS on Low settings to 28.3 FPS on High and 29.7 FPS on Ultra, with Medium at 34.3 FPS. No preset reaches 60 FPS at this resolution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 1470 out of 1642 tested combinations, placing it in the lower tier of performance for Thief.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The GPU has an average benchmark score of 14286, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14314) and 0.7% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (14389).

Q: What is the difference in FPS between 1080p Low and 4K Low?

A: The difference is 70.6 FPS, with 1080p Low averaging 120.4 FPS and 4K Low averaging 49.8 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p Ultra?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average is 63.7 FPS, and given the GPU's 55th percentile ranking versus the CPU's 72nd percentile, the data indicates the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to support higher frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F provides the computational foundation for this combo. It features 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. The processor is built on Intel's 10 nm process node with an Alder Lake architecture, and it has a 12 MB shared L3 cache, along with 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core and 80 KB of L1 cache per core. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes. Its TDP is rated at 58 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i3-12100F demonstrates strong single-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2224. Multi-threaded results include a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 7413. The CPU's average benchmark score is 13516, placing it in the 72nd percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (avg score 13534, deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core i7-1250U (avg score 13462, deltaPct 0.4), the Intel Core i3-10105 (avg score 13430, deltaPct 0.6), and the Intel Core i7-7700K (avg score 13280, deltaPct 1.8). These comparisons show that the i3-12100F is within 1.8% of its nearest competitors, indicating balanced mid-range CPU performance.

In the context of Thief, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with geometry and draw calls. The 4.30 GHz boost clock and 8 threads are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GTX 1660 SUPER at 1080p, as evidenced by the high frame rates at Low settings (120.4 FPS). The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing; rather, the GPU's rendering capabilities determine the frame rate. The CPU's high percentile ranking relative to the GPU supports this interpretation, as the processor has more headroom relative to its peers than the graphics card does relative to its own peers. The result is a system where the GPU is the constraining element, and the CPU sits comfortably in the background, providing enough throughput to keep the graphics pipeline fed without becoming a bottleneck.