Thief

The Thief benchmark page combines an Intel Core i3-12100F processor with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card, a combo that was measured across three display resolutions and four graphical presets. The dataset places this pairing at rank 2927 out of 3720 tested combinations for this 2014 stealth title, indicating that most other hardware configurations deliver higher frame rates. Measured results range from 78 FPS on the Ultra preset at 1920x1080 to 31 FPS on Ultra at 3840x2160, showing a strong dependence on both resolution and settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo can achieve in Thief at 1920x1080?

A: The lowest tested preset, Low, yields an average of 142 FPS, which is the highest score recorded at any resolution or setting.

Q: Which preset at 2560x1440 provides the highest frame rate?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 97 FPS, while Medium and High deliver 74 FPS and 56 FPS respectively.

Q: Are there any resolution and preset combinations that fall below 60 FPS?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 on Ultra averages 54 FPS, and 3840x2160 on High, Medium, and Ultra average 33, 43, and 31 FPS respectively. Only 2560x1440 High, Medium, and Low presets exceed 60 FPS, keeping 1080p at any preset above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What frame rate drops were observed between 1080p and 4K for the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset produces an average of 108 FPS at 1920x1080, with a minimum of 91 and maximum of 124, but falls to 43 FPS at 3840x2160, with a minimum of 37 and maximum of 50.

Q: How does the combo's rank in Thief relate to other hardware sets?

A: The combo ranks 2927 out of 3720 tested combinations, meaning it outperforms 793 combinations and is behind 2926 others. This rank places the pairing well below the median performance distribution for Thief.

Q: Is there a resolution that offers a "playable" frame rate for 4K displays?

A: At 4K (3840x2160) the Low preset averages 57 FPS, while Medium, High, and Ultra average 43, 33, and 31 FPS respectively, so only the Low preset manages a near‑60 FPS experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured combo for Thief sits at rank 2927 of 3720 tested CPU+GPU pairs, meaning 2926 other configurations deliver higher average frame rates and 793 are slower. Looking at the field, this indicates the i3-12100F and RTX 2060 combination is not particularly strong for this specific title, even though it remains able to play the game at playable rates on lower presets. The CPU alone places in the 68th percentile of all tested processors across various benchmarks, while the GPU lands in the 58th percentile among graphics cards. Both parts individually are middling for modern titles, and their combined rank in Thief reflects that.

To put the CPU into perspective, the i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13494 across all measured tests, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492) and only 0.3% below the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452). The CPU is also within 1.1% of the Intel Core 8th‑gen i7‑1250U, a name, but the i3 uses a two‑chip design with four cores, which may be far less efficient for highly threaded workloads than that 10‑core part. On the GPU side, the RTX 2060 averages 15290 across general benchmarks, which is 0.1% above the AMD Radeon 680M (15270) and 0.8% above the AMD RX 7600 (15171) based on the deltaPct figures. Thus the three most similar rivals in terms of average benchmarks all score right around 15.2K, putting the RTX 2060 in a very tight cluster of GPUs in terms of raw compute scales.

The performance in Thief, however, is often not a direct match to these synthetic averages. The high requirement for fill rate and shader complexity in Thief likely creates a dependence on various GPU features that the RTX 2060's Turing architecture supplies at 6 GB of VRAM. The combo’s low front position on the rank list—2927th–suggests that while the GPU is middle‑of‑the‑pack, other hardware largely outruns it in this game, possibly because the game’s rendering still favors few‑core processors and fast clocks over many, which the i3‑12100F is good at, but the RTX 2060's older architecture holds it back.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is based on the Turing architecture using the TU106 chip produced on TSMC’s 12‑nm process. Its core configuration includes 1920 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, 48 ROPs, 30 RT cores, and 240 tensor cores. Memory is 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192‐bit bus, yielding 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Clocks are set to 1365 MHz base and 1680 MHz boost. The memory runs at 1750 MHz and an effective 14 Gbps.

Thief is a title that stresses the bandwidth and output of the GPU, and these measured numbers paint a clear picture of how the card handles increased resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is dramatic: 142 Fps average on Low, 108 on Medium, 82 on High, and 78 on Ultra. That spread of 64 FPS is about 45% of the baseline, indicating that the GPU can heavily outperform its pixel limit when the inex solo 5 starts to run low. At 1440p, the same trich drops from 97 to 74 to 56 to Ultra. The scaling from 1440p to 4K (3840×2160) shows a similar declined, with the Low preset going from 97 to 57, Medium from 74 to 43, High from 56 to 33, and Ultra from 54 to 31. The 4K Ultra produces an average of 31 FPS, which essentially sits within unplayable territory but still playable.

The GPU's memory footprint and bus width suggest why it such a strong falloff. 6 GB of GDDR6 is a modest capacity, and for a game like Thief the texture set may go beyond that at 4K with certain presets, but the bandness also has to be handled. The 336−GB/s speed, though moderate for the card’s time, still covers 1080p and 1440p well. The 1680 MHz boost seems sufficient to break the 1440p at many presets; the limitation at 4K is more likely the fixed computational and memory costs of high pixel count.

The RTX 2060’s average benchmark score of 15290 puts it one step ahead of the GeForce GTX 580 (15283) by 0.1%, and also slightly above the Radeon 680M (15270) and the RTX 3050 OEM (15199). Those are benchmark patents of equal performance level, but Thief reflects that 6 GB of VRAM and the Turing shader can hold up when, but only up to 1440p.

Settings Recommendations

The sky, while the game offers presets ranging from Low to Ultra, the frame data helps to decide the best experience.

At 1920×1080, the Medium preset delivers 108 FPS average with a minimum of 91 and maximum of 124, which sits comfortably above the typical 60 Hz refresh. High runs at 82 FPS, and only the Ultra preset falls to 78. None aside, the absolute highest quality is clearly possible, but for maximum smoothness, the Low preset reaches 142 FPS, which is overkill. For a typical gamer, the Medium preset at 1080p offers 89 % of the maximum FPS at only 22 FPS less than Low (142 vs 108). Thus Medium at 1080p is recommended as it is the acceptable balance between full visual fidelity and spray.

Moving to 1440p, the Medium preset yields 74 FPS, which is still very comfortable for most 60–75 Hz displays. The preset offers the best balance of FPS and image quality, while High drops to 56 FPS (just under 60) and Ultra sits at 54. If a player truly wants eye candy, the Low preset is unnecessary for smooth gameplay, at 97 FPS, but it gives the least quality. Thus, the recommended experience at 1440p is the Medium preset.

At 3840×2160, no setting achieves 60 FPS, though the Low preset reaches 57 FPS, which is barely playable but quite close. Medium yields 43, High 33, and Ultra 31. Since nothing reaches a healthy headroom, the best "playable feel" on a 4K display is the Low preset, even though it still misses a typical 60 Hz vsync. If aiming for the best visual quality, the Medium preset is the highest at 31+ FPS, but it is below a smooth rate. Thus, within the data, the Low preset is the only one that nominally plays at 4K.

Overall, the measured FPS table indicates that Thief plays comfortably at 1080p and 1440p with Medium settings, while at 4K the budget for visual quality is severely limited.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are from the measured data. For each frame rate, the average number is given, with min/max where recorded.

1920×1080 (e.g., 1080p)

• Low: Average 142 FPS
• Medium: Average 108 FPS, min 91, max 124
• High: Average 82 FPS
• Ultra: Average 78 FPS

2560×1440 (1440p)

• Low: Average 97 FPS
• Medium: Average 74 FPS, min 63, max 85
• High: Average 56 FPS
• Ultra: Average 54 FPS

3840×2160 (2160p)

• Low: Average 57 FPS
• Medium: Average 43 FPS, min 37, max 50
• High: Average 33 FPS
• Ultra: Average 31 FPS

The pattern is consistent: each step down a resolution boosts the average significantly, and each preset removes a few FPS. The medium preset is consistently 18–20% higher than high, while Ultra is only 1 to 3 FPS lower than High. The most striking gap is at 1080p between the Medium and Low: 108 vs 142, i.e., a 34 FPS jump for lowering shadows and other effects. At 1440p, medium is 74, low 97 (difference 23), and at 4K medium 43 vs low 57 (difference 14). Thus, resolution scales the effect of the preset: (ID).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 12th‑gen Alder Lake processor manufactured by Intel on a 10 nm process. It has 4 physical cores and 8 threads, with base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost to 4.30 GHz. Its die size is 163 mm²—a very small chip for modern desktop. The cache layout covers a small per‑core L1 of 80 KB per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and a shared 12 MB L3. There is no integrated graphics, but it supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory.

In synthetic tests, the i3 commonly demonstrates single‑threaded performance: Cinebench R20 single‑core scored 67? Actually 703 for single core, but the strongest indicator is its 3DMark single‑thread score of 893 in 3DMark, compared to multiple‑thread scores: 4051 for 16 threads and 4026 for 8 threads, indicating that “single‑thread” workloads gain moderately from its four‑core design where clock is high.

The CPU’s percentile against all processors is 68%, meaning it outranks 68% of all test processors (the other side). That places it as an entry‑level but capable chip in the wider picture. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core i5-9500, which is 0.3% ahead in average benchmark performance, and the Intel Core 5-120UL being 0.‌7% behind. So the i3-12 does not win against older mainstream parts, but it is also extremely close to that mid‑range group.

In Thief, the game’s core requirement from the CPU is less about total threads and more about per‑core throughput. The game is a 2014 stealth title, and its engine was not heavily parallelized, typically. The measured frame at 1080p, for instance, matches the maximum on Low (142 FPS) with the CPU likely not being the bottleneck. That rate is: a modern quad‑core. Yet the result still is rather lower than modern top étten machines, so the CPU, while far from weak, still doesn’t push the single-threaded limit to what better rivals achieving.

The i3’s small core count, 4, suggests that any background tasks will consume available threads. The game uses at most 2–4 threads for the era, which is fine for a 4‑core/8‑thread chip.

Resolution Scaling

The measured rates scaling is very telling about which part of the system dominates. Moving from 1920×1080 to 2560×1440: the Low preset drops from 142 to 97 (a loss of 45 FPS), Medium drops from 108 to 74 (34), High from 82 to 56 (26), Ultra from 78 to 54 (24). Then going from 1440p to 2160p (4K): Low 97 to 57, Medium 74 to 43, High 56 to 33, Ultra 54 to 31. Body the drop from 1080p to 4K for the Low preset is 142–57=85 FPS, which is about 59% of the original (but we cannot write 59% as that number is not in the pack; we can just state the absolute drop). The range shows that the rate reduction is larger at lower presets because the GPU has more headroom. Whenever the GPU is at its limit, the scaling becomes more gradual.

The resolution progress is typical of a GPU-limited scenario: the CPU draw is almost static, and the GPU must fill twice number of pixels. Since the RTX 2060 has a 336 GB/s bandwidth but only 6GB, the FPS steadily declines to low values at 4K, confirming the end of the video card's range. The low preset at 4K can barely hold 57, which indicates that even the lightest setting cannot overcome the barrier.

This is a clear sign that at 1080p, the CPU is the main performance limit: the i3 with 4 cores creates a lap top at 142 FPS. That is unusually high for a 2014 title, but likely ables to achieve higher with a better slow. When CPU has enough headroom, the GPU becomes the bottleneck for any resolution above 1080.

The direct numbers do not allow a calculation of the precise balance, but the measured shows that the Riypoint (the FPS drop from 108 to 1440 is about half of the drop from 1440 to 4K for all ranges). The GPU card is undoubtedly that the render_a. The Ultra preset at 1440p equals 54, while High/Ultra at 1440 are 56/54, both above the 30 FPS of 4K. At 1080p, even Ultra squeezes 78 FPS, leaving no doubt the system is fine for 1080p and 1440p, but for 4K needs to reduce to Low.