Thief

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a quad-core, 8-thread desktop processor built on the Alder Lake-S architecture using Intel’s 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and the benchmark data shows this combination of cores and clocks is well-suited for a title like Thief, which was released in 2014 and does not demand the high core counts expected of modern multi-threaded workloads. The processor’s cache layout includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 12 MB L3 cache.

In synthetic testing, the i3-12100F posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 and a single-core score of 1681. The disparity between these numbers is telling: the single-core result is strong, and that strength carries over to gaming, where Thief’s engine leans heavily on fewer, faster threads. The 3DMark 4-thread score of 2859 and 8-thread score of 4026 show that performance scales reasonably as threads are added, but the jump from 4-thread to 8-thread is modest, confirming that the chip’s four physical cores handle the bulk of the work. The processor’s 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs and its average benchmark score of 13516 place it in the upper mid-range of desktop parts.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the i3-12100F is effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which scores 13534, a delta of just -0.1%. It also edges out the Intel Core i7-1250U by 0.4% and the Intel Core i3-10105 by 0.6%, while leading the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%. These comparisons show that for a game like Thief, the i3-12100F’s combination of high per-core performance and adequate thread count is more than sufficient; it is not the limiting factor in this pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1151 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the lower portion of the overall distribution. That raw ranking might seem underwhelming, but it must be interpreted through the lens of the game’s age and the hardware’s capabilities. A rank in the 30th percentile of all combos does not mean the experience is poor; rather, it reflects that many other tested systems pair far more powerful CPUs or GPUs, often at much higher resolutions where the i3-12100F would struggle.

The data measured for this combo shows a system that is clearly GPU-bound in many scenarios, especially at higher resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 152.3 FPS, a figure that exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors and demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. The ranking is dragged down by the 4K results, which are far lower. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 37.5, and at 4K High it is 37.3, both of which are playable but not competitive with higher-end combos that might push 60 FPS at that resolution.

When compared to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 3060 Ti sits within a tight cluster. The AMD Radeon RX 6700M scores 25180, a delta of -0.2%, while the AMD Radeon RX 6600 scores 25235, a delta of -0.5%. The AMD Radeon 890M and the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP are also within 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively. This tells us that the GPU is not an outlier in either direction; it is a mainstream performer that delivers consistent results. The combo’s rank is therefore a product of the CPU’s position rather than a GPU deficiency.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K in Thief reveals a classic pattern of increasing GPU load. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 152.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 108.1 FPS, a reduction of 44.2 FPS, and at 4K Low the average falls to 60.5 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is a 47.6 FPS drop, which is a significant hit, but the fact that the system still maintains over 60 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti has enough headroom to handle the resolution increase when graphical load is light.

The pattern shifts at higher settings. At High settings, the combo delivers 90 FPS at 1080p, 60.9 FPS at 1440p, and 37.3 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 29.1 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 23.6 FPS. This is a more gradual decline, suggesting that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck as settings increase. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 87.8 FPS at 1080p, 59.1 FPS at 1440p, and 37.5 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 28.7 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 21.6 FPS.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the i3-12100F is keeping up with the RTX 3060 Ti, as the FPS differences between Low and Ultra are relatively small. At 4K, however, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the FPS across all settings converges to a narrow band between 37.3 and 60.5. The CPU’s role diminishes at higher resolutions because the GPU’s pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck. This is a typical behavior for a game from 2014, where the rendering pipeline is not heavily threaded.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo in Thief is comprehensive, covering three resolutions and four settings tiers. At 1080p, the results are consistently high. Low settings yield 152.3 FPS, Medium yields 119 FPS, High yields 90 FPS, and Ultra yields 87.8 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal, only 2.2 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset adds little visual benefit for the performance cost in this title. The 1080p results are all well above the 60 FPS threshold, making this resolution ideal for high-refresh-rate displays.

Moving to 1440p, the averages are still strong. Low settings produce 108.1 FPS, Medium 82.6 FPS, High 60.9 FPS, and Ultra 59.1 FPS. The step from Medium to High is a 21.7 FPS drop, while the step from High to Ultra is a smaller 1.8 FPS drop. This suggests that the High preset is a sweet spot for 1440p, as it stays just above 60 FPS, while Ultra dips slightly below. The 1440p results show that this combo can handle the resolution with ease, provided the user is willing to adjust settings downward from the maximum.

At 4K, the results are more constrained. Low settings produce 60.5 FPS, Medium 50.1 FPS, High 37.3 FPS, and Ultra 37.5 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is negligible, just 0.2 FPS, and both sit well below the 60 FPS target. Medium is the only preset that approaches playability at 4K, but it still falls short of 60 FPS. The 4K data shows that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in Thief unless the user is willing to accept lower frame rates or drop to Low settings, which barely hits 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is an Ampere-architecture GPU built on Samsung’s 8 nm process, with a die size of 392 mm² and 17,400 million transistors. It features 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operations pipelines. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and it carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is listed as 1750 MHz, with an effective data rate of 14 Gbps.

In Thief, the RTX 3060 Ti’s role is dominant at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the FPS scaling described earlier. The GPU’s 69th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 25120 place it in the mid-to-upper tier of graphics cards. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.7% of its score, which shows that it competes closely with cards like the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and the AMD Radeon RX 6600. The GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 20349 and DirectX 11 score of 163 are relevant, as Thief primarily uses DirectX 11, and the card’s performance in that API is solid.

The RTX 3060 Ti’s memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is sufficient for the textures and geometry in Thief, and the 8 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at 1080p or 1440p. At 4K, the GPU’s compute throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS becomes the bottleneck, as the card struggles to maintain high frame rates across all settings. The pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s are capable, but they are not enough to overcome the demands of 4K rendering in this title. The data shows that the RTX 3060 Ti is a strong 1080p and 1440p card, but it is out of its depth at 4K in Thief.