Thief

The pairing of an Intel Core i5-11400F with a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is a study in contrast: a 6-core Rocket Lake CPU launched in 2021 facing off against a 2014 stealth title, Thief, on a GPU that tops the charts. With measured data across three resolutions and four preset levels, this combo shows how an older game scales with modern hardware. The i5-11400F brings six cores and twelve threads, base clock 2.60 GHz, boost 4.40 GHz, a 12 MB L3 cache, and a 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs. The RTX 3080 Ti, with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit interface, 912.4 GB/s bandwidth, and 10240 shading units, sits in the 83rd percentile of GPUs. Thief itself launched on 2014-02-24, so the engine is far older than either component. The measured FPS presents a clear picture: the 3080 Ti powers through at every resolution, but the i5-11400F occasionally shows its age when frame counts climb past 120. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, answers common questions, recommends settings based on the measured rows, explains the combination's rank, and details the GPU's role.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a steady but uneven drop in average FPS as resolution rises from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Medium settings, the averages go from 132 FPS at 1080p, down to 117 FPS at 1440p, then to 77 FPS at 4K. That is a drop of 15 FPS (11.4%) from 1080p to 1440p, and then a larger drop of 40 FPS (34.2%) from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear—the biggest hit comes when pixel count quadruples. For the High preset, the sequence is 120, 100, 59. That is a 20% drop to 1440p and a 50% drop to 4K. Ultra follows a similar pattern: 118, 95, 56, ending at 47% of the 1080p value. Low settings, however, show a much gentler roll-off: 146, 129, 102. That is 88% of 1080p at 1440p and 70% at 4K. The relative flatness at Low suggests that the CPU can still keep up at 4K when the GPU isn't stressed, but as settings increase, the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The fact that the drop is most severe on Ultra and High means the RTX 3080 Ti is the limiting component at high visual loads, while the processor has enough headroom to drive Low and Medium at 4K within a playable range.

FAQ

Q: What average frame rate does the combo achieve at 2560x1440 with the High preset?

A: The data shows 100 FPS average.

Q: At 4K (3840x2160), which preset yields the highest average FPS in the dataset?

A: Low, at 102 FPS, followed by Medium (). There is no specific preset above Medium recorded, but among the four rows, Medium gives 77 FPS.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1920x1080?

A: The test recorded 112 FPS minimum and 152 FPS maximum, with an average of 132.

Q: How does the Ultra preset at 1440p compare to the High preset at the same resolution?

A: The Ultra preset averages 95 FPS, while High gives 100 FPS, a 5% increase in frame rate when dropping from Ultra to High.

Q: Is the CPU likely to bottleneck this GPU in Thief at 1080p?

A: Evidence suggests the i5-11400F has plenty of headroom. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 146 FPS, which is near the upper limit of many 1440p monitors. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 28 FPS (146 vs. 118), indies that the GPU is still influential even at low resolutions, but the CPU does not drag down the average.

Q: What gap exists between the measured average FPS at 4K High and 4K Ultra?

A: High averages 59, Ultra averages 56. The difference is 3 FPS, making High an effectively equal alternative.

Settings Recommendations

Looking at the measured rows, the best experience depends on the target resolution and whether a 60 FPS minimum is required. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 56 FPS, which is just below a 60 FPS target, but the High preset averages 59 FPS. Since High is only 3 FPS away from Ultra but delivers smoother average, High is the preferable choice for 4K play when aiming for a 60% average. If a higher refresh rate is desired, the Medium preset at 77 FPS offers a solid step up, but the visual quality of the preset also matters; the data does not differentiate between visual tiers. At 2560x1440, the High preset yields 100 FPS, which is playable on any typical 144Hz monitor. The Ultra preset below at 95 FPS is also an option, but the 5 FPS advantage of High is negligible. For 1080p, High gives 120 FPS and Ultra 118, so any of these caps up to 120 FPS. Medium at 132 FPS is the fastest row, but the visual difference that Low to High is irreversible—the user should aim for the highest preset that remains above their monitor's refresh rate. Given the data, the sensible recommendation is: at 4K Smart 1080p, choose High; at 1440p, choose High or Ultra; at 1080p, any preset above Medium will keep you in the triple digits. The Medium row shows wider frame drops at 4K (min 66, max 89) and 1440p (min 99, max 134), which might cause stutter on VRR displays, while High rows have no min/max recorded, but the averages suggest higher stability.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame for this pairing is 1347 out of a total 3720 combinations. That places it in the top 36.2% of all configs tested. In percentage terms, the 3080 Ti sits at the 83rd percentile among GPUs and the i5-11400F at the 71st CPU percentile, suggesting the GPU card is doing more of the heavy lifting. The rank number is derived from the combined performance in Thief, and 1347 of 3720 means it beats roughly two-thirds of the system combinations recorded. However, this is not a top ten rank; the gap between this and the performance leaders likely comes from the CPU's generational age when compared against newer architectures. Yet, given the game is from 2014, the i5-11400F's six cores and 12 threads combined with the RTX 3080 Ti's raw throughput is more than adequate. The rank becomes more impressive when you consider that many others likely pair a conspiracy GPU with a more recent core, but this combo still outperforms the median. The benchmark score of the CPU alone is 17177 average mainstream, and the GPU's 41187 average, which also tells us the GPU carries the score. The rank is the result of both parts, and for an aging game like Thief, the i5-11400F does not bottleneck the GPU at normal settings.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with 912.4 GB/s bandwidth is massive for a 2014 title. This game's textures and geometry are simple enough that even 4K High uses much less memory bandwidth, but the card still delivers 56–59 FPS at 4K. The GPU's base clock is 1365 MHz, boost 1655 MHz, and it holds 10240 shader units. The pixel rate (186.5 GPixel/s) and texture rate (532.8 GTexel/s) are high enough to saturate load at 4K Ultra, where the data shows 56 FPS. The memory bus width of 384 grams literally gives a slight advantage at 4K because the card can feed the 10240 shading units without stalling. The card has 112 ROPs, enough to drive 4K resolution. In Thief, the GPU is clearly the gatekeeper at higher resolutions: when stepping from High to Ultra at 4K, the FPS drops from 59 to 56, a -5% change, while at 1080p the Ultra and High differ by 2 FPS (118 vs 120). The GPU is not limited by its VRAM capacity, but by its shader throughput at heavy presets. On the low and medium presets, the GPU is underused, which is why the combination manages 146 FPS at 1080p Low—the game becomes CPU-bound at that point. Still, the 3080 Ti offers a 65-102 FPS span at 4K, making it a viable 4K60 go-to for a 2014 title. The GPU's compute score (40187) percentile 83 confirms it is a top-tier part, only 2% behind the RTX 5070 in raw score, according to the nearest rival data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset contains twelve measured rows, each with average FPS and, for Medium preset, minimum and maximum values. The numbers are exact:

• 1920x1080, Low: 146
• 1920x1080, Medium: 132 (min 112, max 152)
• 1920x1080, High: 120 (no min/max available)
• 1920x1080, Ultra: 118 (no min/max)
• 2560x1440, Low: 129
• 2560x1440, Medium: 117 (min 99, max 134)
• 2560x1440, High: 100 (no min/max)
• 2560x1440, Ultra: 95 (no min/max)
• 3840x2160, Low: 102
• 3840x2160, Medium: 77 (min 66, max 89)
• 3840x2160, High: 59 (no min/max)
• 3840x2160, Ultra: 56 (no min/max)

The largest average FPS figure is 146 at 1080p Low; the smallest is 56 at 4K Ultra. The Medium preset's min/max data shows that at exactly 1/1, the weapon ranges remain smooth, with 1080p Medium max of 152 and min of 112, a span of 40 FPS. At 1440p, the range is 35 FPS (99 to 134), and on 4K, the range is 23 FPS (66-89). The scaling pattern suggests that the higher the resolution, the narrower the FPS variance is, likely because the GPU becomes the limiting factor and its performance is more consistent. The High and Ultra data lack min/max, so the data set is limited to average values, but the averages show that High is always slightly ahead of Ultra (1440p: 100 vs 95; 4K: 59 vs 56; 1080p: 120 vs 118). Overall, the combination is playable at 4K on High (59 FPS) and gets fully fluid at 1080p/1440p on any preset except Ultra, which still only drops to 95 FPS at 1440p. This data confirms that the bottleneck is the screen itself, not this pair.