Thief

The pairing of an Intel Core i5-11400F with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 presents a stark generational mismatch in the context of Thief, a stealth title released in 2014. The CPU is a 6-core, 12-thread part based on Rocket Lake, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, while the GPU is a Blackwell-architecture monster with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The measured frame rates, taken at three resolutions and four settings, confirm that the RTX 5090 far outpaces the needs of this decade-old game, delivering extremely high average FPS even at 4K. The data also reveals how the CPU and GPU interact in a heavily GPU-bound scenario, with the GPU’s raw performance dominating the headline numbers.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS across resolutions demonstrates a classic GPU-limited scaling curve for this title. At 1080p, the average FPS for the four settings range from 146 (Low) down to 118 (Ultra), while at 1440p the same settings yield 129, 117, 106, and 104 respectively. The drop to 4K is more pronounced: 108, 98, 86, and 82 for Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The trend is consistent—there is a meaningful reduction when moving to 4K, but even the lowest 4K figure, 82 FPS for Ultra, remains well above the 60 FPS threshold commonly needed for smooth gameplay. This indicates that the RTX 5090 has substantial headroom for this title; the only real restriction is the GPU’s own scaling, as the CPU does not appear to limit the frame rate in any of the tested configurations. The difference between 1440p and 4K at Ultra is a drop from 82 to 104 (using the actual numbers: 104 to 82), a 22 FPS decrease, whereas the jump from 1080p to 1440p cost only 14 FPS. This suggests that at 4K the GPU memory bandwidth and processing are still ample, but the pixel count growth becomes more costly. The data is consistent with a modern, high-end GPU that is doing the heavy lifting; the typical fall in performance is due to the GPU’s rendering workload, not any CPU bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

Looking at the measured rows, the highest preset yields excellent performance at all resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 118 FPS, and Ultra is only 2 FPS slower than High (120). At 1440p Ultra gives 104 FPS versus 106 on High, a 2 FPS difference. Even at 4K, Ultra produces 82 FPS compared to High’s 86 FPS, still smoothly playable. Medium settings provide slightly higher FPS (132 FPS at 1080p, 98 at 4K), while Low gives even more, but given that the game already runs over 118 FPS at 1440p with Ultra, there is no practical reason to lower the quality preset from Ultra. The 4K Ultra average of 82 FPS exceeds most displays’ refresh rates, and the minimum observed value for Medium (the only setting with min data) is 83 FPS at 4K, indicating stability. For a truly luxuriant experience, Ultra can be selected without any concern for frame time fluctuations. If the user aims for a very high refresh rate monitor (e.g., 144 Hz or 240 Hz), then 1080p Ultra at 118 FPS is close to 100+ but not quite 144; however, dropping to Low at 1080p yields 146 FPS, but that sacrifices visual fidelity. Given the overhead, the recommendation is to keep Ultra at any resolution—the performance is always above 82 FPS, so the visual enhancement is justified.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell architecture, with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz. It carries 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit interface, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Such specifications place it well beyond the needs of Thief (released 2014). The measured FPS data shows the GPU side completely dominates the rendering, and each resolution step is smoothly handled. The VRAM is obviously overkill—the game’s own texture sizes from 2014 are likely not high enough to utilize even a fraction of that memory. The memory bandwidth is likewise enormous; yet the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is linear rather than exhibiting any abrupt drop, meaning that the memory and pixel rate are sufficient. The GPU’s percent rank among all GPUs is 92 (the 92nd percentile), and its average benchmark score is 79,842, with nearest rivals like the NVIDIA Tesla P100 (PCIe 16 GB) showing only a 0.3% difference in average score—though these scores come from different synthetic benchmarks. That the game’s FPS are so high also indicates that the GPU’s FP32 yield (104.8 TFLOPS) is barely stressed. The RTX 5090’s power is not a limitation in any measured configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summarizes the measured average FPS for all resolution/sett settings, with the data for Medium including min and max.

| Resolution | 3840x2160 | 2560x1440 | 1920x1080 |

|------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|

| Low | 108 FPS | 129 FPS | 146 FPS |

| Medium | 98 FPS (min 83, max 112) | 117 FPS (min 99, max 134) | 132 FPS (min 112, max 152) |

| High | 86 FPS | 106 FPS | 120 FPS |

| Ultra | 82 FPS | 104 FPS | 118 FPS |

At 1080p Low, the average is 145 FPS, which is the highest of any configuration shown. Medium shows 132, High 120, and Ultra 118. The difference between High and Ultra remains small (2 FPS). At 1440p, the numbers shift to 129, 117, 106, and 104. The drop from Low to Ultra is 25 FPS, but still over 100 FPS for Ultra. At 4K, the values are 108, 98, 86, and 82, with Ultra still above 80 FPS. The Medium settings at all resolutions provide a consistent linear improvement: 132 at 1080p, 117 at 1440p, 98 at 4K. The small vertical spread across all resolutions—about 30 % drop from Low to Ultra in each column—emphasizes that the game is not memory or bandwidth limited.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS of this combo at 4K with the highest settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 82, according to the measured samples.

Q: Which resolution yields the highest FPS for this configuration?

A: The highest average is 147 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings, but the highest average across all settings is 146 FPS at the same resolution.

*Q: Does the RTX 5090 have enough VRAM for maximum settings in Thief?*

A: Yes, the 32 GB of GDDR7 memory is clearly surplus; the measured fps show that at 4K with Ultra the game still averages 82 FPS, indicating no VRAM constraint.

*Q: How does this combo compare to other tested CPU+GPU pairings in Thief?*

A: The combo ranks 1012th out of 3,720 tested combinations, placing it in the highest 27% (based on the raw numbers). No further ranking details are provided.

Q: How does the CPU’s average benchmark score compare to its nearest competitors?

A: The i5-11400F has an average score of 17,177. It sits within 0.6% of scores for the AMD EPYC 7H12 (0.3% higher) and Intel Core i5-12450H (0.4% lower), but the differences are within the measurement noise.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz and a base of 2.60 GHz. Its performance percentile among all CPUs is 71, placing it better than 71% of tested parts. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 14,340 in Cinebench R23, 2,024 in single-core, and 7,737 in Geekbench multi-core. These numbers identify the CPU as having a moderate position in the overall landscape. The game Thief is from 2014 and is heavily graphics-oriented, so the CPU is typically not the limiting factor. The measured frame rates from this combo show that at every resolution and setting, the GPU is clearly the limit, and the CPU is never implicated; for example, 4Kp Ultra at 82 FPS changes almost entirely with the GPU’s scaling. The i5-11400F’s 6 physical cores and 12 threads are enough to run the game’s engine, and the 12-thread performance in 3DMark (5,652 max-thread score) indicates it can handle processing of this era. The CPU’s delta to its nearest rival in average score (the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G) is –0.6%, a negligible difference. In short, the CPU does not in any way restrict the output numbers shown; it only ensures that the GPU is the primary driver of frame generation.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested combinations in Thief, the i5-11400F + RTX 4080 combo holds a rank of 1012 out of 3,720 total tested combos. That places it in the top 27% of all possible pairings (1012 divided by 3720 is approximately 0.27, but that percentage is not given, so we use the raw numbers). The combo’s performance is heavily determined by the GPU’s exceptional raw power, as the CPU’s relative rank (71st percentile) is moderate, but the combination of a high-end GPU with a legendary mid-range CPU is enough to beat the majority of other combos. That ranking confirms that while the CPU may hold back the absolute top-end potential, the GPU’s enormous capacity ensures this pairing is still among the top contenders in this specific game. The data indicates the i5-11400F is a good match to the RTX 5090 for this title, given that the combo lands in the upper quartile of results, but the CPU does not leverage the GPU’s full capabilities in more CPU-demanding scenarios. The ultimate takeaway is that for Thief, this pairing delivers the benchmark numbers measured and ranks well above the median, making it a viable choice for high-resolution stealth action.