Thief

Thief, a 2014 stealth title, shows remarkably resilient performance on the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination. The measured data indicates that this pairing delivers a consistently playable experience across all tested resolutions and settings, with the bottleneck shifting from the CPU at lower resolutions to the GPU at 4K. The average frame rates observed are high enough to suggest that the game is rarely a challenge for this hardware, even at its most demanding settings.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern that highlights the increasing graphical load on the system. At the "Ultra" preset, the average frame rate drops from 102.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 92.0 FPS at 2560x1440, a modest decline of roughly 10.6%. However, pushing further to 3840x2160 sees a more significant reduction to 73.8 FPS, representing a 28.3% drop from the 1080p figure. This indicates that while the RTX 4080 SUPER handles 1440p with ease, the sheer pixel count at 4K begins to exert considerable pressure on the GPU.

The scaling pattern is consistent across other settings. With the "High" preset, the average FPS falls from 99.8 at 1080p to 90.2 at 1440p, and then to 76.5 at 4K. Similarly, the "Low" preset shows a decline from 127.9 FPS at 1080p to 109.9 FPS at 1440p and finally to 91.6 FPS at 4K. The relative performance gap between 1080p and 4K widens as settings increase, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound behavior. At the "Low" preset, the 1080p to 4K difference is 28.4%, but at "Ultra," it expands to 28.3%, suggesting that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The data suggests that the system is not CPU-limited at 4K, as the frame rates scale downward with resolution in a manner consistent with GPU workload. At 1080p, the difference between the "Low" (127.9 FPS) and "Ultra" (102.9 FPS) presets is just 24.3%, which could indicate that the CPU is starting to become a factor, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential at the lowest settings. Conversely, at 4K, the difference between "Low" (91.6 FPS) and "Ultra" (73.8 FPS) is 24.1%, a similar proportional gap, but the absolute numbers are lower, suggesting that the GPU is now the definitive bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications dictate the performance ceiling in Thief. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the card provides a theoretical bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This ample memory capacity and bandwidth are more than sufficient for a 2014 title, meaning that texture streaming and memory allocation are unlikely to be sources of stuttering or frame drops.

The GPU's clock speeds are also noteworthy. The base clock is listed at 2295 MHz, with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. These high frequencies contribute to the card's raw compute power, which is reflected in its impressive benchmark scores. The card achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 and a Passmark G3D score of 34245, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. This performance level is further validated by its proximity to rivals; it is only 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and a mere 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M.

In the context of Thief, the GPU's role is to handle the rendering of the game's detailed environments and lighting effects. The data shows that even at 4K with the "Ultra" preset, the card maintains an average of 73.8 FPS, which is a strong result for a game that is nearly a decade old. The RTX 4080 SUPER's substantial FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS ensures that the game's shader complexity is managed effortlessly, allowing the CPU to feed it frames without creating a significant bottleneck at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 127.9 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with the "Low" settings preset.

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

A: Yes, the data shows that at 3840x2160 resolution, the system achieves an average of 76.5 FPS on "High" settings and 73.8 FPS on "Ultra" settings, both of which are well above the standard 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53489) and 2.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (52505).

Q: What is the performance difference between the "Low" and "Ultra" presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the "Low" preset averages 109.9 FPS, while the "Ultra" preset averages 92.0 FPS, representing a performance cost of 17.9 FPS for the maximum visual quality settings.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests a potential CPU limitation at 1080p with lower settings, as the frame rates do not scale up as much as they do from 1440p to 4K, but the system still delivers excellent performance in all scenarios.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination is ranked 747 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of all tested hardware combinations, this specific pairing of an Intel Core i5-10400F and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER holds a rank of 747 out of 1642 combos for Thief. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all systems, which is a strong showing for a CPU that was released in 2020 paired with a GPU that is in the 88th percentile of all graphics cards. The ranking suggests that while the GPU is exceptionally powerful, the overall system performance is somewhat tempered by the CPU's capabilities.

The CPU itself, the Intel Core i5-10400F, is positioned in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14168. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552, which is 0.4% faster, and the Intel Core i5-8500, which is 1.1% slower. This indicates that the i5-10400F is a competent mid-range processor, but it is not at the very top of the performance hierarchy. When combined with a top-tier GPU like the RTX 4080 SUPER, the system's rank of 747 suggests that the CPU is likely holding back the GPU in some scenarios, preventing the combo from reaching the top 100 or even top 500 spots.

The gap between the GPU's high percentile (88th) and the combo's overall rank (45.5th percentile) is telling. It implies that the system's performance in Thief is not solely dictated by the GPU, and that the CPU is a limiting factor. If the GPU were paired with a more powerful processor, the rank would likely be significantly higher. However, as it stands, this combo still delivers a very enjoyable gaming experience, as evidenced by the high frame rates in the measured data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The "Low" preset leads with an average of 127.9 FPS, followed by "Medium" at 110.9 FPS, "Ultra" at 102.9 FPS, and "High" at 99.8 FPS. The spread between the lowest and highest settings is 28.1 FPS, showing that the game is quite scalable at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show the increased pixel workload. The "Low" preset averages 109.9 FPS, "Medium" averages 97.9 FPS, and "Ultra" and "High" are very close at 92.0 FPS and 90.2 FPS, respectively. Interestingly, the difference between "High" and "Ultra" narrows to just 1.8 FPS at this resolution, suggesting that the "Ultra" preset may not be adding much visual fidelity for the performance cost.

At the demanding 3840x2160 resolution, the system still provides a playable experience. The "Low" preset averages 91.6 FPS, while "Medium" drops to 84.9 FPS. The "High" preset yields 76.5 FPS, and the "Ultra" preset brings up the rear with 73.8 FPS. The performance penalty for choosing "Ultra" over "Low" at 4K is 17.8 FPS, which is a significant trade-off for the highest visual quality. Across all resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern where the "Low" preset offers the highest performance, and the "Ultra" preset offers the lowest, with "High" and "Medium" falling in between.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the user's target resolution and refresh rate. For a standard 60 Hz display, the system can comfortably run the "Ultra" preset at any resolution, as even the lowest average FPS recorded (73.8 at 4K Ultra) exceeds 60 FPS. This makes the "Ultra" preset a safe and recommended choice for players who prioritize visual fidelity above all else.

For players with high-refresh-rate monitors, the recommendations change. At 1080p, the "Low" preset (127.9 FPS) or "Medium" preset (110.9 FPS) are the best choices to maximize frame rates and take full advantage of a 120 Hz or 144 Hz display. The "High" preset at 1080p (99.8 FPS) is also suitable for 100 Hz monitors. At 1440p, the "Low" preset (109.9 FPS) is the only one that breaks the 100 FPS barrier, making it the preferred option for very high refresh rates. However, the "Medium" (97.9 FPS) and "Ultra" (92.0 FPS) presets are also viable for 90-100 Hz displays.

At 4K, the focus shifts entirely to maintaining a smooth 60+ FPS experience. The "Ultra" preset (73.8 FPS) is still playable, but the "High" preset (76.5 FPS) offers a small performance boost with a likely minimal visual difference. For players who want to push frame rates closer to 90 FPS at 4K, the "Medium" (84.9 FPS) or "Low" (91.6 FPS) presets are the recommended choices. Ultimately, the data suggests that the "Ultra" preset is the best overall experience for this combo, provided the user is not chasing extremely high refresh rates, as it delivers a high level of visual quality while maintaining a playable frame rate even at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F plays a supporting, yet crucial, role in this system. As a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, it provides a solid foundation for gaming. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz are respectable, and its 12 MB of shared L3 cache helps to reduce memory latency. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453, indicate a balanced performance profile that is well-suited for gaming workloads.

Despite its capabilities, the data suggests that the i5-10400F is the primary limiting factor in this combination. The evidence for this lies in the frame rate scaling at 1080p. The difference between the "Low" (127.9 FPS) and "Ultra" (102.9 FPS) presets at 1080p is 24.3%, which is a smaller relative gap than the 28.3% difference seen at 4K. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is unable to feed the GPU enough frames to fully saturate it, limiting the maximum achievable FPS. If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, the frame rates at 1080p would scale more dramatically with settings.

The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking and its performance relative to rivals like the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% slower) and the Intel Core i5-8500 (1.1% slower) confirm its mid-range status. In Thief, this means that while the RTX 4080 SUPER is capable of much higher frame rates, the i5-10400F caps the system's potential, especially at lower resolutions. The result is a system that is exceptionally smooth and playable, but one where the CPU prevents the GPU from demonstrating its full might, particularly for esports-level frame rates at 1080p.