Thief

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a playable experience in Thief, though performance varies significantly across resolutions and settings. The combination ranks in the 79th percentile of tested configurations, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions while the CPU provides sufficient headroom at 1080p. The data shows a clear scaling pattern from Ultra to Low settings, with the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration falling below playable thresholds.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Thief?*

A: The data indicates 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution, where the combo achieves 83.8 FPS at Ultra settings and 126.9 FPS at Low. At 2560x1440, performance remains solid with 57.1 FPS at Ultra, but 3840x2160 drops to 31 FPS at Ultra.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F scores 14168 in the average benchmark, sitting 0.4% above the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115) and 0.8% below the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14277). It trails the Intel Core i5-8500 by 1.1% (14332) and the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 by 1.2% (14336).

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile among all tested graphics cards?

A: The Intel Arc B580 ranks in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23021. This places it 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (23181) and 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729).

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the combo exceeds 60 FPS at Low (104.6 FPS) and Medium (79.3 FPS) settings. However, High settings drop to 56.7 FPS and Ultra to 57.1 FPS, both slightly below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The gap is substantial: Low settings achieve 126.9 FPS while Ultra produces 83.8 FPS, a difference of 43.1 FPS. Medium settings land at 112.9 FPS and High at 86 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's memory bandwidth influence 4K performance?

A: The Arc B580 features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 456.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160, the combo delivers 61.3 FPS at Low but only 31 FPS at Ultra, indicating the memory subsystem handles the resolution but the rendering load overwhelms the GPU at higher settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B580 achieves rank 1308 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the upper 20% of all configurations. This ranking reflects a balanced pairing where the CPU's 73rd percentile standing (14168 average benchmark score) complements the GPU's 66th percentile position (23021 average benchmark score). The combo outperforms roughly 4 out of 5 tested systems, though it does not break into the top tier of configurations.

The ranking makes sense when considering the measured frame rates. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers playable performance across all settings, with even Ultra settings exceeding 80 FPS. The 2560x1440 results remain respectable, staying above 56 FPS at all settings. The 3840x2160 results reveal the combo's limitations, with only Low settings achieving above 60 FPS. This performance profile explains why the combo sits in the 79.7th percentile rather than higher — it excels at mainstream resolutions but struggles at 4K Ultra.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 serves as the dominant performance driver in this pairing, particularly at higher resolutions. Built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units, the GPU delivers 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. Its 20 ray tracing cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate suggest modern feature readiness, though Thief from 2014 likely does not stress these capabilities heavily.

The GPU's clock behavior is notable: both base and boost clocks are fixed at 2670 MHz, indicating a consistent operating point without dynamic range. Memory runs at 2375 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed, providing 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 192-bit bus. The 12 GB GDDR6 frame buffer proves sufficient for Thief's requirements, though the 4K Ultra result of 31 FPS suggests the GPU's compute throughput, not memory capacity, limits performance.

The Arc B580's benchmark scores show strong DirectX 11 performance (128 in PassMark) but weaker DirectX 12 results (76), which is relevant since Thief relies on DirectX 11. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 15748 and compute score of 7729 place it in the mid-range segment. Its 0.7% deficit to the RTX 4060 (23181 vs 23021) indicates near-parity with that competitor in synthetic workloads, yet the measured FPS in Thief reveal game-specific optimization differences.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers consistently high frame rates. Low settings produce 126.9 FPS, while Medium achieves 112.9 FPS. High settings drop to 86 FPS, and Ultra yields 83.8 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 34% reduction in frame rate, suggesting diminishing returns at higher quality presets. All 1080p configurations clear the 60 FPS threshold with substantial margin, making this resolution the sweet spot for the pairing.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows more pronounced setting sensitivity. Low settings hit 104.6 FPS, Medium reaches 79.3 FPS, and both High (56.7 FPS) and Ultra (57.1 FPS) fall just below 60 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is negligible (0.4 FPS), indicating the GPU hits a similar workload ceiling at both presets. The 1440p results represent a reasonable trade-off for users seeking higher visual fidelity than 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher settings. Low settings achieve 61.3 FPS, barely clearing 60 FPS, while Medium drops to 43.5 FPS. High settings produce 36.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 31 FPS. The 4K results show a steep performance cliff between Low and Medium settings, with a 17.8 FPS drop. This resolution is only viable at Low settings for smooth gameplay, and even that result is marginal.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides a solid foundation for this combo, featuring 6 cores and 12 threads running at a 2.90 GHz base clock with 4.30 GHz boost. Its Comet Lake architecture on a 14 nm process delivers 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth via dual-channel DDR4. The CPU's 65 W TDP suggests efficient operation, though the 12 MB cache may limit performance in cache-sensitive workloads.

Benchmark results show the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 10297, while single-core reaches 1453. Geekbench results mirror this pattern with 5783 multicore and 1454 single-core. The PassMark multithread score of 12115 and single-thread score of 2541 indicate balanced performance for a 2020-era mid-range processor. The CPU's 73rd percentile standing reflects its position among all processors, with the nearest rivals showing less than 1.2% score differences.

In Thief, the CPU's role becomes more pronounced at lower resolutions where the GPU has headroom. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 126.9 FPS, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU effectively. The 3DMark scores support this: 16-thread performance (4748) and max-thread performance (4735) are nearly identical, indicating the 6-core/12-thread configuration saturates at 12 threads. The single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark may limit performance in games with heavy single-threaded workloads, though Thief's 2014 engine appears to scale adequately with the available threads.