Thief

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers a strong performance profile in Thief, but the data reveals a clear hierarchy where resolution and settings dictate the experience. At 1080p, the combination is heavily CPU-bound, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant factor. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to explain the scaling behavior, optimal settings, and the hardware's role in this 2014 stealth title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that decline varies significantly by settings preset. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 117.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 108.7 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 9.1 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average falls further to 78.3 FPS, representing a substantial 39.5 FPS drop from 1080p. This pattern suggests that at 1080p, the Core i5-11400F's six cores and 12 threads are likely limiting performance, as the RTX 4080 SUPER is capable of far higher frame rates. The relatively modest decline from 1080p to 1440p (only 9.1 FPS) indicates that the CPU can still feed the GPU adequately at 1440p, but the larger jump to 4K shows the GPU beginning to hit its rendering limits.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling is more linear but still reveals the CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 147.9 FPS, dropping to 127.2 FPS at 1440p and 110.2 FPS at 4K. The 37.7 FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is smaller than the 39.5 FPS difference at High, which suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is more consistently the limiting factor across all resolutions. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for this game, so the frame rate ceiling at 1080p Low is almost certainly imposed by the i5-11400F's single-thread performance, which scores 868 in 3dmark_single_thread.

The Ultra preset tells a different story. Here, the 1080p average is 120 FPS, dropping to 106.6 FPS at 1440p and 74.3 FPS at 4K. The 45.7 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is the largest of any preset, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this quality level. The RTX 4080 SUPER, with its 10240 shading units and 52.22 TFLOPS FP32 performance, is being pushed harder by the Ultra settings' increased rendering load, making the 4K Ultra result of 74.3 FPS the most GPU-bound scenario in the dataset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium yields 134.8 FPS, which is 17 FPS higher than High and 14.8 FPS lower than Low. The jump from Medium to High costs 17 FPS at 1080p, while the jump from Low to Medium only costs 13.1 FPS. This indicates that Medium provides a substantial performance headroom over High while still offering better visuals than Low.

At 1440p, Medium delivers 118.5 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The difference between Medium and High at 1440p is only 9.8 FPS (118.5 vs 108.7), which is smaller than the 1080p gap. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is becoming more involved, but Medium still leaves enough headroom for demanding scenes. For 4K, Medium produces 100.4 FPS, which is 22 FPS higher than High's 78.3 FPS. Given that Thief is a stealth game where frame pacing matters for smooth movement, the Medium preset at 4K is the recommended choice for maintaining high frame rates without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.

The Ultra preset, while offering the best visuals, only achieves 120 FPS at 1080p and drops to 74.3 FPS at 4K. The 45.7 FPS penalty from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is steep, and the 4K result is the lowest in the entire dataset. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors, the High preset at 1440p (108.7 FPS) or Medium at 4K (100.4 FPS) are better choices than Ultra, as they provide more consistent frame rates without the extreme performance cost.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Thief?*

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 with Medium settings offers the best combination of performance and quality, delivering 118.5 FPS. This is only 9.8 FPS lower than the 1080p Medium result but provides significantly more detail. At 4K, the Medium preset still achieves 100.4 FPS, making it viable, but 1440p offers a more comfortable margin for demanding scenes.

*Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB VRAM affect performance in Thief?*

A: The 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 736.3 GB/s bandwidth is far more than Thief requires, even at 4K Ultra. The measured FPS drops at higher resolutions are due to GPU compute load, not memory capacity. The data shows no evidence of VRAM-related stuttering or frame drops, confirming that the memory allocation is not a limiting factor in this title.

Q: Is the Core i5-11400F bottlenecking the RTX 4080 SUPER at 1080p?

A: Yes, the data strongly suggests this. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 147.9 FPS, but the RTX 4080 SUPER is capable of much higher frame rates in less demanding titles. The 3dmark_single_thread score of 868 for the CPU indicates moderate single-thread performance, which is likely the ceiling at 1080p in Thief. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop is only 20.7 FPS at Low settings, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 17 FPS, confirms that the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p.

*Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations in Thief?*

A: The combo ranks 474 out of 1642 tested combinations, placing it in the top 28.9% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the strong overall performance, though the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions prevents it from ranking higher. The i5-11400F's percentileVsAllCpus of 75 and the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 88 indicate that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 110.2 FPS, while Ultra achieves 74.3 FPS, a difference of 35.9 FPS. This 32.6% reduction in frame rate from Low to Ultra demonstrates the significant GPU load increase from the Ultra settings. The Medium preset at 100.4 FPS sits between the two, offering a more moderate performance cost.

Q: Does the game show better scaling at 1440p compared to 4K?

A: Yes. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the FPS drops from 108.7 to 78.3, a 30.4 FPS reduction. In contrast, from 1080p to 1440p at High, the drop is only 9.1 FPS. This nonlinear scaling indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K, while the CPU manages to keep up at 1440p. The pattern is consistent across all settings presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 474 out of 1642 tested configurations places it in the 71.1th percentile of all combos tested in Thief. This is a strong showing, given that the CPU is a mid-range part from 2021, while the GPU is a high-end part from 2024. The i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17181 puts it near the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, deltaPct 0) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, deltaPct -0.2), indicating that its multi-threaded performance is competitive with newer mobile parts. The GPU's average benchmark score of 53610 places it just ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53489, deltaPct 0.2) and behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (53414, deltaPct 0.4).

The ranking suggests that in Thief, the combo performs better than the raw CPU benchmark scores might imply. The game's age (released 2014-02-24) means it does not heavily utilize the CPU's multi-threading capabilities, allowing the RTX 4080 SUPER to dominate the frame rate calculations. The 4K results, where the GPU is the limiting factor, are particularly strong, with the High preset achieving 78.3 FPS. This puts the combo in a favorable position for 4K gaming, even if the CPU holds back 1080p performance. The rank of 474 indicates that most higher-ranked combos likely pair the RTX 4080 SUPER with a more powerful CPU, but the difference in Thief's actual gameplay is likely small due to the CPU bottleneck being mitigated at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing for Thief, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game's textures and geometry. The GPU's boost clock of 2550 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz are high for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and its 10240 shading units deliver 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This raw compute power is what drives the 4K results, where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER scales well with resolution. At 1080p High, it achieves 117.8 FPS, but the CPU limits it to that level. At 4K High, it manages 78.3 FPS, which is a 33.5% reduction from 1080p. This scaling is consistent with the GPU being the limiting factor at 4K, as the increased pixel count directly impacts the GPU's rendering load. The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are not heavily utilized in Thief, as the game predates widespread ray tracing adoption, but the standard rasterization performance is more than adequate.

The GPU's role is also evident in the settings scaling. From Low to Ultra at 4K, the FPS drops from 110.2 to 74.3, a 35.9 FPS reduction. This 32.6% performance cost for Ultra settings is a clear indication that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s ensures that even at Ultra settings, there is no memory bandwidth bottleneck. The GPU's 45,900 million transistors on a 5 nm process from TSMC provide ample headroom for this older title, making the RTX 4080 SUPER the clear performance driver in most scenarios, with the exception of 1080p where the CPU takes over as the limiter.