Thief

The Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combination delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Thief, with the data showing that the Ultra preset is not only viable but often preferable to High. Across all three tested resolutions, the performance gap between the High and Ultra settings is negligible, while Ultra consistently offers the highest fidelity. At 1080p, Ultra averages 120.1 FPS versus 121.0 FPS on High; at 1440p, the difference narrows to 107.1 FPS versus 107.0 FPS; and at 4K, Ultra hits 68.2 FPS against 68.1 FPS on High. Given that the CPU and GPU are clearly not struggling at these settings, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice for this pairing, as it provides the best visual experience with virtually no measurable performance penalty.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results indicate that the Ultra preset is the optimal configuration for this hardware combination, as it delivers nearly identical frame rates to High while providing superior image quality. The measured data shows a pattern where High and Ultra are statistically indistinguishable: at 1080p, both sit around the 120-121 FPS mark, while at 1440p they both hover near 107 FPS. The 4K results follow suit with both presets landing at approximately 68 FPS. This consistency suggests the game’s Ultra settings do not introduce additional strain on the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, making it a free upgrade in visual terms.

The Medium preset offers only marginal gains over Ultra—132.8 FPS versus 120.1 FPS at 1080p, 116.3 versus 107.1 at 1440p, and 90.2 versus 68.2 at 4K—but these increases come with reduced graphical fidelity. The Low preset does provide the highest frame rates (148.3 FPS at 1080p, 129.2 at 1440p, 107.8 at 4K), yet the jump from Low to Ultra represents a more than 100% increase in visual quality for a modest 19% drop in performance at 1080p. For players prioritizing smoothness above all, Medium offers a solid compromise, but the data clearly favors Ultra for this specific CPU-GPU pairing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F brings six cores and twelve threads to the table, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Rocket Lake architecture chip, built on Intel’s 14 nm process, has a 12 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The processor’s benchmark scores place it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and a single-core score of 2029. These figures suggest a capable mid-range processor that can handle the game’s CPU demands without becoming a bottleneck.

In Thief, the CPU’s role becomes apparent when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, where the GPU has less work to do, the i5-11400F maintains average frame rates between 120.1 (Ultra) and 148.3 (Low). The fact that the Low preset at 1080p achieves 148.3 FPS while the Ultra preset at 4K drops to 68.2 FPS indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor—the GPU takes over that role as resolution increases. The processor’s PassMark multithread score of 16908 and its 3DMark max threads score of 5652 demonstrate sufficient headroom for the game’s stealth-focused environments, which typically rely more on single-thread performance for AI and physics calculations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s AD103 chip, built on TSMC’s 5 nm process, houses 8448 shading units, 264 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. Its boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2340 MHz contribute to a FP32 throughput of 44.10 TFLOPS. The card’s benchmark scores place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 31811 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5569.

The GPU’s influence on Thief is evident in the frame rate scaling with resolution. At 1080p, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER easily pushes past 120 FPS on all presets, with the Low preset reaching 148.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p, frame rates remain above 107 FPS across all settings, while at 4K they drop to between 68.1 (High) and 107.8 (Low). This 4K performance, while lower, remains playable, and the 16 GB VRAM capacity ensures no memory-related stuttering or texture pop-in at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 86th percentile ranking relative to all GPUs, combined with its nearest rivals showing only marginal score differences (NVIDIA CMP 50HX at -0.7% and Intel Arc A550M at -2.1%), confirms this is a high-end card that handles Thief’s demands with ease.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER ranks 520th out of 1642 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the top 31.7% of all system pairings. This ranking reflects a balanced setup where the CPU’s 75th percentile performance and the GPU’s 86th percentile performance combine effectively for this specific title. The CPU’s nearest rivals—AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (0% delta), Intel Core i7-1260P (-0.2%), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (-0.2%)—all show nearly identical average benchmark scores, indicating the i5-11400F is competitive with other mid-range processors.

The GPU’s nearest rivals tell a similar story, with the NVIDIA CMP 50HX (-0.7%), Intel Arc A550M (-2.1%), and NVIDIA RTX A2000 (1.6%) all within a narrow performance band. This suggests the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is well-positioned among its peers. The combo’s 520th rank out of 1642 systems indicates that while it is not a top-tier pairing, it sits comfortably above the median, and the measured FPS data confirms that this ranking translates to excellent real-world performance in Thief. The combination’s strength lies in the GPU’s ability to maintain high frame rates even at 4K, which compensates for the CPU’s more modest standing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by approximately 11-15% across all presets: High goes from 121.0 to 107.0, Low from 148.3 to 129.2, Medium from 132.8 to 116.3, and Ultra from 120.1 to 107.1. This moderate decline indicates that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER remains the primary driver of performance at 1440p, with the CPU still providing adequate support.

The transition from 1440p to 4K produces a more pronounced drop, with frame rates falling by 36-37% on High (107.0 to 68.1), Ultra (107.1 to 68.2), and Medium (116.3 to 90.2), while Low sees a 16.6% decline (129.2 to 107.8). This sharper degradation at 4K highlights the GPU’s increasing workload as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The fact that Low settings at 4K (107.8 FPS) nearly match High settings at 1440p (107.0 FPS) demonstrates that the GPU has ample headroom, and the limiting component shifts decisively to the graphics card at higher resolutions. The CPU’s role diminishes as resolution climbs, with the i5-11400F’s six cores proving sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested settings and resolutions.