Thief

Thief, a 2014 stealth title, remains a demanding benchmark for modern hardware configurations. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 across various resolutions and settings. The data reveals a system where the graphics card is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU demonstrates sufficient headroom to keep frame rates playable at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with High settings, the configuration achieves an average of 76.3 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings, the average drops to 50.4 FPS, a reduction that highlights the increased pixel load on the GPU. At 4K (3840x2160), the average further falls to 30.2 FPS, demonstrating that the GTX 1070 is heavily taxed by the four-fold increase in pixel count from 1080p.

The scaling behavior is more pronounced when examining the Low settings preset. At 1080p Low, the system produces 127.7 FPS, which is a very high frame rate suggesting the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU quickly. At 1440p Low, the average is 86.5 FPS, and at 4K Low, it drops to 52 FPS. The difference between the 1080p and 4K Low results is 75.7 FPS, while the difference for High settings is 46.1 FPS. This indicates that as the graphical settings increase, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the relative performance drop from resolution scaling is somewhat mitigated because the GPU is already saturated with more complex work.

The data suggests that the limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, particularly with Low settings, the frame rate is high enough that the CPU’s performance, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is adequate to avoid bottlenecking. As resolution increases to 4K, the GTX 1070’s raw pixel throughput becomes the definitive constraint, with the CPU having more idle time. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep for all settings, with the High preset dropping from 50.4 FPS to 30.2 FPS, a 40% reduction, underscoring the immense strain 4K places on this GPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 69.4 FPS. This is the lowest result at 1080p, indicating that the Ultra preset significantly increases the graphical workload compared to High settings.

Q: How does the performance at 1440p compare to 1080p on High settings?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS is 50.4, while at 1920x1080 it is 76.3. This represents a performance drop of 25.9 FPS when moving from 1080p to 1440p, showing a substantial impact from the increased resolution.

Q: Is the system capable of 4K gaming in Thief?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the average frame rates range from 28.2 FPS on Ultra to 52 FPS on Low. While the Low preset is playable, the Ultra and High presets, which produce 28.2 FPS and 30.2 FPS respectively, fall below the 30 FPS threshold often considered the minimum for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 127.7 FPS, while the Medium preset yields 99.7 FPS. This is a difference of 28 FPS, indicating that the Medium preset adds a significant amount of graphical detail that impacts performance.

Q: How does the GTX 1070's performance in Thief compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 12331. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, has an average score of 12241, making the GTX 1070 0.7% faster. It also outperforms the GeForce GTX 880M, which has a score of 12490, by 1.3%.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a consistent 60 FPS experience at 1440p?

A: Based on the measured data, the Low preset at 2560x1440 is the only one that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, with an average of 86.5 FPS. The Medium preset averages 66.9 FPS, which is also above 60, but High and Ultra presets fall short with 50.4 and 45.7 FPS respectively.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the central component determining the experience at higher resolutions. Its performance in Thief is directly tied to its memory configuration and clock speeds. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s. This bandwidth is crucial for handling the large textures and geometric data present in Thief's environments, especially at higher resolutions where the demand for memory throughput increases.

The GPU's core clocks are set at a base of 1506 MHz and a boost of 1683 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 1920 shading units and 120 texture mapping units, allow for a texture fill rate of 202.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s. These specifications explain the frame rates observed. At 1080p, the GPU has ample pixel throughput to render frames quickly, as seen in the 127.7 FPS result at Low settings. However, at 4K, the pixel rate becomes a limiting factor. The 3840x2160 resolution requires the GPU to fill over 8 million pixels per frame, and the data shows that this causes the average FPS to drop to 30.2 at High settings.

The GPU's overall capability is reflected in its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1082 and its Passmark G3D score of 13498. These synthetic benchmarks place the GPU in the 51st percentile of all GPUs, indicating a mid-range standing. Its average benchmark score of 12331 is competitive, being only 0.7% faster than the Quadro K4200 and 1.4% faster than the GTX 1650 SUPER. In the context of Thief, a game from 2014, the GTX 1070 shows its age primarily at 4K resolution, where the demands of the Ultra preset (28.2 FPS) and High preset (30.2 FPS) prove to be too much for consistent smoothness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at the configuration's performance. At 1920x1080, the system shows a wide range of performance based on settings. The Low preset achieves a high average of 127.7 FPS, while Medium, High, and Ultra presets deliver 99.7, 76.3, and 69.4 FPS respectively. This indicates that the CPU is capable of driving high frame rates, and the GPU is the primary component that scales with graphical fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 86.5 FPS for Low, 66.9 FPS for Medium, 50.4 FPS for High, and 45.7 FPS for Ultra. The performance gap between settings narrows compared to 1080p, as the GPU's workload becomes more uniform and demanding. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 40.8 FPS, whereas at 1080p, the difference is 58.3 FPS. This suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU's pixel processing limits the maximum achievable frame rate, reducing the relative impact of other settings.

At the highest resolution, 3840x2160, the frame rates become the most constrained. The Low preset produces an average of 52 FPS, which is a playable level. The Medium preset drops to 37.4 FPS, and High and Ultra presets fall to 30.2 and 28.2 FPS respectively. The data shows that only the Low and Medium presets at 4K can maintain frame rates that are considered acceptable for a playable experience, while the higher presets are not suitable for smooth gameplay. The overall performance across all resolutions and settings places this combo at rank 1405 out of 1642 tested combinations in Thief, indicating that while not top-tier, it is a functional pairing for the game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing the necessary processing power to avoid bottlenecking the GTX 1070 in most scenarios. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPU has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This architecture, based on the Comet Lake platform, is well-suited for gaming workloads. Its performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453, demonstrates a solid level of processing power.

The CPU's role in Thief becomes evident when examining the frame rates at 1080p. At Low settings, the system achieves 127.7 FPS, a figure that indicates the CPU is successfully feeding the GPU with data. The 3DMark multi-threaded benchmark scores, such as 4748 for 16 threads and 4735 for max threads, show that the CPU's thread management is efficient. However, the boost clock of 4.30 GHz is likely more critical for gaming, as Thief's engine may not fully utilize all 12 threads. The single-threaded performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 1454, is sufficient to handle the game's logic and physics without becoming a limiting factor.

The CPU's influence is less pronounced at higher resolutions. The data shows that as resolution increases, the frame rate drop is primarily due to GPU limitations. At 4K, the CPU is likely not the bottleneck, as frame rates are below 60 FPS even on Low settings. The CPU's average benchmark score of 14168 places it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552, which it trails by 0.4%, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, which it leads by 0.8%. In Thief, this CPU performance is more than adequate, ensuring that the GTX 1070 is utilized to its full potential, especially at 1080p and 1440p where high frame rates are attainable.