Thief

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boosts up to 4.40 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache. For a 2014 stealth title like Thief, the CPU's single-threaded performance is the dominant factor, and the data confirms this: the chip posts a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2029 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1979, both indicating strong per-core throughput that older game engines can exploit effectively.

The multi-threaded capabilities are not wasted, however. The CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14372 and a Passmark multithread score of 16908, placing it in the 75th percentile among all CPUs. In Thief, the measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings stay consistently high, which suggests the 6-core/12-thread configuration provides ample headroom for the game's AI, physics, and streaming systems without becoming a bottleneck.

The processor's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (avg score 17189, delta 0%), the Intel Core i7-1260P (avg score 17212, delta -0.2%), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (avg score 17215, delta -0.2%). The i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17181 is effectively tied with these parts, meaning any frame rate differences in Thief would come from GPU or memory configuration rather than CPU compute limits.

Given the game's release date, the engine was designed for far less capable hardware. The i5-11400F's 4.40 GHz boost clock and modern IPC improvements over contemporary CPUs mean that even at 1080p with Low settings, where the CPU load is proportionally highest, the measured average of 145.2 FPS indicates the processor is delivering frames well beyond what the game's engine can stress. The data shows no scenario where the CPU becomes the limiting factor, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings changes.

FAQ

Q: How does the Core i5-11400F compare to its closest rivals in synthetic CPU benchmarks?

A: The i5-11400F scores 17181 on average, which is effectively identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17215, -0.2% delta). It trails the Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, -0.2% delta) by a negligible margin.

Q: What is the best measured FPS result for this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 145.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest is 41 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the RX 6700 XT bottleneck the CPU at any resolution?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, where even Low settings yield 74.3 FPS compared to 145.2 FPS at 1080p Low. The frame rate drop of roughly half at 4K Low suggests the GPU's rendering load, not CPU throughput, is constraining performance.

Q: How does the GPU's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 6700 XT scores 33721 on average. It is 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (33493), 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5000 (33294), and 1% behind both the AMD Radeon HD 7950 (34050) and AMD Radeon RX 480 (34059).

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

A: This CPU-GPU pairing ranks 903rd out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the middle of the database despite delivering very playable frame rates at most settings.

Q: Is the i5-11400F's 6-core configuration sufficient for Thief's engine?

A: Yes. The measured frame rates at 1080p High (110.8 FPS) and 1440p High (71.4 FPS) show consistent scaling, and the CPU's 75th percentile standing among all CPUs indicates it has ample headroom for this game's workload.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 145.2 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 128 FPS, a reduction of 17.2 FPS, while 4K Low falls to 74.3 FPS, less than half the 1080p figure. This steep decline at 4K is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario, where the RX 6700 XT's rendering throughput becomes the constraining factor.

At High settings, the scaling is more dramatic: 110.8 FPS at 1080p, 71.4 FPS at 1440p, and 45.9 FPS at 4K. The 1440p to 4K transition loses 25.5 FPS, or roughly 36% of the 1440p performance, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are saturated as pixel count increases. The RX 6700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth, and 2560 shading units, but Thief's 4K Ultra settings push it to just 41 FPS.

The data shows that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance and the GPU both have headroom, resulting in high frame rates across all settings. At 1440p, the GPU begins to dominate, especially at High and Ultra settings where the difference between 1080p High (110.8 FPS) and 1440p High (71.4 FPS) is substantial. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that even Low settings cannot maintain 75 FPS.

This scaling behavior is consistent with the GPU's 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 compute. The CPU's role diminishes as resolution rises, because the i5-11400F's 4.40 GHz boost clock and 12 MB L3 cache are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU's pixel fill rate of 165.2 GPixel/s becomes the ceiling at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of settings for this combo. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 105.9 FPS, which is only 4.9 FPS less than High (110.8 FPS) and 24.1 FPS less than Low (145.2 FPS). Given that Ultra is the highest quality preset and still maintains over 100 FPS at 1080p, it is the recommended choice for 1080p users who prioritize visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1440p, the choice becomes more nuanced. High settings yield 71.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 70.3 FPS, a negligible 1.1 FPS difference. Medium offers 95.9 FPS, and Low reaches 128 FPS. For 1440p, High or Ultra are both viable, but the data shows that Ultra's additional visual quality costs almost nothing in performance, making it the better option. The 70.3 FPS Ultra result is still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. High settings produce 45.9 FPS, Medium 58.8 FPS, Low 74.3 FPS, and Ultra 41 FPS. For 4K, Medium is the recommended preset, as it provides the best balance between visual quality and playability at 58.8 FPS. High and Ultra dip below 60 FPS, which may be acceptable for a stealth game but not ideal for fast-paced sequences. Low at 74.3 FPS is the only setting that clears 60 FPS comfortably, but it sacrifices significant visual detail.

The best experience per the measured rows is 1080p Ultra at 105.9 FPS, which combines maximum settings with a frame rate high enough for any display refresh rate up to 100 Hz. For 1440p users, Ultra at 70.3 FPS is the recommended balance. For 4K users, Medium at 58.8 FPS is the pragmatic choice, as it stays close to 60 FPS while preserving more visual fidelity than Low.

How This Combo Ranks

This CPU-GPU combination ranks 903rd out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 55th percentile of all configurations in the database. This mid-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the strong measured frame rates, but it reflects the fact that Thief is an older title that many high-end modern systems can run at very high frame rates, pushing the average combo performance upward.

The rank suggests that while this combo is far from the top of the leaderboard, it is also not in the bottom quartile. The measured FPS data shows that the combo is capable of 145.2 FPS at 1080p Low and 105.9 FPS at 1080p Ultra, which are strong results. The ranking likely reflects that many tested combos feature newer or more expensive GPUs that achieve even higher frame rates, particularly at 1080p where CPU and GPU headroom are both abundant.

Given the CPU's 75th percentile ranking and the GPU's 77th percentile ranking, one might expect a higher combo rank. However, the combo rank of 903/1642 indicates that Thief's performance is more dependent on GPU than CPU, and the RX 6700 XT, while solid, is not in the top tier of GPUs in the database. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800, is only 0.7% faster on average, and the RX 6700 XT actually beats the RTX A5000 by 1.3%, showing that it is competitive with higher-tier parts in synthetic benchmarks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) across three resolutions, for a total of 12 data points.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 145.2 FPS, Medium averages 130 FPS, High averages 110.8 FPS, and Ultra averages 105.9 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 39.3 FPS, with each step down in quality yielding progressively smaller gains. The difference between High and Ultra is only 4.9 FPS, making Ultra the clear choice at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 128 FPS, Medium averages 95.9 FPS, High averages 71.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 70.3 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 24.5 FPS, which is the largest jump in the 1440p set. This indicates that High settings introduce a significant rendering cost, likely from increased shadow quality or texture filtering, but Ultra adds almost nothing on top of High.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 74.3 FPS, Medium averages 58.8 FPS, High averages 45.9 FPS, and Ultra averages 41 FPS. The scaling is more linear here, with each settings tier costing roughly 13-16 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 15.5 FPS, Medium to High costs 12.9 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 4.9 FPS. The 4K results clearly show the GPU hitting its limits, as the 12 GB VRAM and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are stretched by the higher pixel count.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low settings always deliver the highest frame rate, and Ultra always delivers the lowest. The magnitude of the settings impact grows with resolution, as the GPU becomes more stressed. At 1080p, the Low-to-Ultra delta is 39.3 FPS; at 1440p, it is 57.7 FPS; at 4K, it is 33.3 FPS. The 1440p delta is largest because the GPU still has some headroom at Low but is heavily taxed at Ultra, while at 4K even Low settings push the GPU hard.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 7 nm process, with 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die. It features 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with a base clock of 2321 MHz and a boost clock of 2581 MHz. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Thief, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings increase. The measured data shows that at 1080p, the GPU has significant headroom, with even Ultra settings achieving 105.9 FPS. At 1440p, the GPU begins to show its limits, with Ultra dropping to 70.3 FPS while Low stays at 128 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as even Low settings only reach 74.3 FPS and Ultra falls to 41 FPS.

The GPU's 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 33721 indicate it is a solid mid-to-high-end part. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800, scores 33493 (0.7% slower), while the NVIDIA RTX A5000 scores 33294 (1.3% slower). The RX 6700 XT also outperforms older AMD parts like the RX 480 (34059, -1% delta) and the HD 7950 (34050, -1% delta), though these are synthetic comparisons.

The GPU's FP32 compute of 13.21 TFLOPS and texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s are sufficient for Thief's 2014-era rendering demands, but the 4K results show that the 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate is the limiting factor at high resolutions. The 12 GB VRAM is more than adequate for this game, as Thief's textures are not memory-intensive by modern standards, but the bandwidth and compute limits become apparent at 4K Ultra.

The data indicates that for this combo, the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates at 1440p and above, while the CPU handles 1080p comfortably. The GPU's boost clock of 2581 MHz and 40 ray accelerators (RT cores) are features that Thief does not utilize, given its release date, but they contribute to the card's overall synthetic benchmark scores. For Thief specifically, the GPU's raw rasterization performance is what matters, and the measured results show it delivers playable frame rates up to 1440p Ultra, with 4K requiring settings compromises.