Thief

# Thief: Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti produces a clear performance profile in Thief, a 2014 stealth title that scales predictably with resolution. At 1080p High settings, the combo delivers 119.6 FPS average; at 1440p High, it reaches 108.3 FPS; and at 4K High, it drops to 75.9 FPS. This represents a 37% performance reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom across all tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression across resolutions reveals a consistent pattern of diminishing returns as pixel count increases. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 119.6 to 108.3, a 9.4% decrease. The jump from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced: 108.3 FPS falls to 75.9, a 29.9% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that the RTX 5070 Ti's rendering pipeline becomes increasingly saturated at 4K, where the 16 GB GDDR7 memory buffer and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth are taxed by the higher pixel throughput.

At Ultra settings, the resolution scaling is even steeper. The combo achieves 120.2 FPS at 1080p, 105 FPS at 1440p, and 67.9 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 43.5% lower than the 1080p Ultra figure, highlighting that the most demanding settings combination forces the GPU into a lower efficiency operating range. Conversely, at Low settings, the performance gap narrows: 143.9 FPS at 1080p, 130.7 FPS at 1440p, and 110.3 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is 23.3% below 1080p Low, demonstrating that when graphics load is reduced, the system scales more gracefully.

The data indicates that this combo is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where the average FPS across all settings ranges from 105 to 130.7. At 1080p, the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads appear sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the relatively modest FPS gains from 1440p to 1080p (e.g., 108.3 to 119.6 at High). At 4K, the GPU's raw compute — 43.94 TFLOPS FP32 — becomes the bottleneck, with the 2,452 MHz boost clock working harder to maintain frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory over a 256-bit bus delivers 896.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is critical for Thief's texture-heavy environments at 4K. The GPU's 8,960 shading units and 280 texture mapping units provide ample parallel processing capability, yet the benchmark results show that even this hardware struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra, where the average sits at 67.9 FPS.

The GPU's clock behavior is notable: a base clock of 2,295 MHz and boost clock of 2,452 MHz. These relatively high frequencies contribute to the card's performance in Thief, which benefits from raw pixel throughput. The pixel rate of 235.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s are the key specifications driving the resolution scaling observed. At 4K High (75.9 FPS), the GPU is processing approximately 33 million pixels per frame, and the data suggests it handles this load efficiently but with diminishing headroom for Ultra settings.

Comparing to the nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 5070 Ti's average benchmark score of 52,086 is effectively identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (52,085, deltaPct 0). It sits 0.8% below the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (52,505) and 2.5% above the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (50,826). In Thief specifically, the GPU's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates strong performance, but the 4K Ultra result (67.9 FPS) reveals that the card is not overkill for this title at maximum settings.

The memory subsystem plays a critical role in Thief's performance. The 16 GB capacity ensures no texture thrashing at any resolution, while the 896.0 GB/s bandwidth supports the high-resolution framebuffer. The 1,750 MHz memory clock (28 Gbps effective) provides the necessary data throughput to sustain the observed frame rates. At 4K Low (110.3 FPS), the GPU demonstrates its ability to exceed 100 FPS, but the 42.4 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K underscores how much the GPU's shading units are stressed by the game's advanced lighting effects.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide the computational foundation for the combo. The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are adequate for Thief's AI and physics calculations, which are not excessively demanding for a 2014 title.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any resolution tested. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 119.6 FPS, which is 76.6% of the 4K Low result (110.3 FPS). The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by 3dmark_single_thread (868) and cinebench_r23_singlecore (2,029), is sufficient to drive the GPU at lower resolutions. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 5,619 and cinebench_r23_multicore score of 14,372 indicate robust multi-threaded capability, though Thief typically utilizes fewer threads.

The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it in the upper quartile, with an average benchmark score of 17,181. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17,189, deltaPct 0) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17,212, deltaPct -0.2). This positioning suggests that the i5-11400F provides balanced performance for gaming workloads. In Thief, the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than adequate, as evidenced by the fact that FPS differences between 1080p and 1440p at the same settings are relatively small (e.g., 11.3 FPS difference at High), indicating the GPU is the primary scaling factor.

The CPU's boost clock of 4.40 GHz is crucial for maintaining frame times in Thief, which features CPU-driven stealth AI routines. The 3dmark_2_threads score of 1,691 and 3dmark_4_threads score of 3,171 show that the CPU handles low-thread-count workloads efficiently, which is typical for older game engines. The 65 W TDP and 276 mm² die size reflect a design focused on power efficiency, though the 14 nm process node is older compared to the GPU's 5 nm node, creating a generational mismatch that the benchmark results show is not problematic for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p High settings with this combo?

A: The combo delivers 108.3 FPS average at 2560x1440 with High settings, which is 8.1% lower than the 1080p High result of 119.6 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 5070 Ti bottleneck the i5-11400F at 1080p?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU does not significantly bottleneck at 1080p. The FPS difference between 1080p High (119.6) and 1440p High (108.3) is 9.4%, suggesting the CPU maintains adequate frame delivery at lower resolutions.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 67.9, which is 43.5% below the 1080p Ultra result of 120.2 FPS. This indicates the GPU's compute resources (43.94 TFLOPS FP32) are heavily taxed at 4K Ultra.

*Q: What is the combo's ranking among tested configurations in Thief?*

A: This combo ranks 496th out of 1,642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 69.8th percentile of all configurations tested.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 Ti compare to its nearest rival in the GPU benchmark database?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti's average benchmark score of 52,086 is identical to the RTX 4080 (52,085, deltaPct 0) and 0.8% below the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (52,505).

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

A: At 3840x2160, the Low setting averages 110.3 FPS, while Ultra averages 67.9 FPS. The 42.4 FPS gap represents a 38.4% performance reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of 1,642 tested combos for Thief, this configuration holds the 496th position, placing it in the upper 30% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects a strong but not top-tier performance level for the game. The combo's position is influenced by both components: the RTX 5070 Ti's 87th percentile GPU ranking and the i5-11400F's 75th percentile CPU ranking.

The GPU's benchmark performance is a key driver of this ranking. With an average score of 52,086, the RTX 5070 Ti sits at parity with the RTX 4080 (deltaPct 0) and slightly below the RX 7700S (deltaPct -0.8). This places the GPU in the top 13% of all GPUs, which translates to strong Thief performance. The CPU, with an average score of 17,181, is positioned between the Ryzen 7 5700U (17,189) and the i7-1260P (17,212), indicating that its processing power is adequate but not exceptional for this title.

The rank of 496 out of 1,642 suggests that while the GPU delivers excellent frame rates, the overall combo is held back by the CPU's mid-range positioning. At 1080p, where the CPU could become more relevant, the combo achieves 119.6 FPS at High settings, which is respectable. However, at 4K Ultra (67.9 FPS), the result is below the 70 FPS threshold that many gamers consider optimal, indicating that the combo is better suited for 1440p high-refresh-rate gaming rather than 4K maximum settings.

The data reveals that this combo's ranking is primarily determined by the GPU's strong performance in the 87th percentile, with the CPU's 75th percentile ranking providing adequate support. The 4K Low result of 110.3 FPS demonstrates that the GPU can deliver high frame rates when not constrained by maximum graphics settings, while the 1080p Ultra result of 120.2 FPS shows that the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output. This balance makes the combo a capable performer for Thief, ranking in the top 30% of all tested configurations.