Thief

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT delivers a robust Thief experience across all tested resolutions, with the GPU proving to be the primary performance driver at higher settings. At 1080p, the combo is overwhelmingly GPU-bound, while at 4K, frame rates are still playable but demand a settings reduction to maintain smoothness.

Resolution Scaling

Performance degradation from 1080p to 4K is consistent with a GPU-limited scenario, highlighting the Radeon RX 6750 XT's role in driving Thief. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 113 to 78, a reduction of roughly 31%. Scaling up to 3840x2160 at High yields 46 FPS, which is 59% below the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that the rendering load, rather than the CPU, is determining frame rates as pixel count increases.

Further evidence of GPU-bound behavior: at 1080p, the frame rate ceiling is extremely high. At Low settings, the combo reaches 170 FPS, and at Medium it hits 148 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium (22 FPS) and between High and Ultra (5 FPS) is small relative to the GPU's headroom. The Ultra setting at 1080p still averages 108 FPS, so even the most demanding preset is well within the display's refresh capability for most monitors. However, the scaling is not perfectly linear. At 1080p Low, the CPU can push the frame rate to 170 FPS, but the GPU remains capable of more, as evidenced by the fact that the 1440p Low result is only 134 FPS (21% lower). At 4K, the GPU is the sole bottleneck: the difference between 4K Low (79 FPS) and 4K High (46 FPS) is 33 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra at 4K is only 3 FPS (46 to 43). This indicates that at 4K, the GPU's raw pixel throughput is the only limiting factor, whereas at lower resolutions the CPU can occasionally step in to limit performance at Low settings.

The data shows the CPU does not meaningfully constrain the GPU at any tested resolution. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 170 FPS is 25% higher than the 4K Low result (79 FPS), but the 1080p Medium and High results (148 and 113) are representative of a typical GPU-bound curve: the GPU is being saturated. The Intel Core i5-12400 with its 6 cores and 12 threads is clearly sufficient to feed the Radeon RX 6750 XT in this title, even at the extreme 4K setting where the GPU is the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

When compared to all measured combos in the database, the Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combo sits at rank 1658 out of 3720 tested combinations in Thief. This places the combo in the top 44.6% of all results, indicating a very strong pairing for a 2014 title. This rank is driven primarily by the GPU's position in the overall GPU hierarchy; the Radeon RX 6750 XT holds a percentile rank of 71 among all GPUs, meaning it outperforms the majority of graphics cards in the database.

Looking at the CPU side, the Intel Core i5-12400 has several benchmark scores that demonstrate its capability in this gaming context. Its PassMark single thread score is 3456, and its 3DMark single-thread score is 910, which is a strong indicator for a game like Thief that relies on a few main threads. The CPU also achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989, which is a slightly above the average of its nearest rivals. Specifically, the CPU is 0.1% faster than the AMD EPYC 7643, 0.3% faster than the Intel Core i7-1355U, and 0.7% faster than the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330, but 0.9% slower than the Intel Core i3-14100F. These very small deltas indicate that the i5-12400's overall compute score is in a tightly packed range near the 18683 average, but its single-thread performance is what matters for Thief.

The GPU's ranking is also noteworthy: its Passmark G3D score is 20700, which places it in the 71st percentile of all GPUs. The RX 6750 XT's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon R9 M395X, AMD FirePro W7100, AMD FirePro D700, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, with the RX 6750 XT leading each by 0.5% to 1.1% in average score. This shows the GPU is competitive with mobile-class and older workstation GPUs, but its lead is small, suggesting the frame rates in Thief are not being limited by the GPU's raw compute but by the game's engine and resolution demands.

The 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS at 4K places the combo below the 60 FPS threshold, and the 4K High result of 46 FPS is also below that mark. Given that the GPU is the limiting factor, any upgrade path would need to target a faster GPU to achieve consistent 4K 60+ FPS in this title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is the central component for Thief's frame rates, particularly at 4K. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for a 2014 title, and the 12 GB capacity is not likely to be a constraint at any tested setting. The GPU's clock speeds are also generous: a base of 2150 MHz, a game clock of 2495 MHz, and a boost of 2600 MHz. This clock configuration is a major reason for the high frame rates seen at 1080p, where the GPU is able to maintain high utilization.

The GPU's architecture, RDNA 2.0, includes 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. This combination yields a pixel rate of 166.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 416.0 GTexel/s, which are directly relevant to Thief's textured environments. The GPU's 13.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute helps with the game's lighting and shadow effects, which are often the most demanding parts of the stealth genre. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 43, showing that the GPU's pixel rate is being saturated at 4K with the highest preset. The game only has a 3 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 4K, which indicates that the Ultra preset is not meaningfully more demanding than High, but the GPU is already at its limit.

The GPU's 432 GB/s bandwidth is a key factor for high-resolution textures. At 4K, the game is likely to use up to 8 GB of VRAM, so the 12 GB buffer is not a limitation. The card's 267 mm length makes it a compact dual-slot solution, but its 250 W TDP requires a 600 W power supply. The GPU's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures no bottleneck from the CPU's PCIe Gen 5, which is backward-compatible.

FAQ

Q: Can the Intel Core i5-12400 + Radeon RX 6750 XT run Thief at 4K?

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 4K High, the combo averages 46 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 43 FPS. To achieve 60 FPS at 4K, you would need to lower settings to Low, which yields 79 FPS.

Q: What is the best setting at 1080p for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1080p, the High preset averages 113 FPS, which is sufficient for 144Hz. The Ultra preset gets 108 FPS, which is also above the 100 FPS mark, but the High preset offers a better balance between quality and frame rate.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in Thief?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck at all resolutions. Evidence: At 4K, the frame rate drops from 79 FPS at Low to 43 FPS at Ultra, while at 1080p the CPU is able to push 170 FPS at Low, but the GPU is still the highest load. The CPU's single-thread performance is high, so the GPU is the main constraint.

Q: How much VRAM is needed for Thief at 4K?

A: The Radeon RX 6750 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, and this is sufficient. The game's 4K High preset uses less than 12 GB, as the GPU is not VRAM-limited, but the FPS is still low due to pixel throughput.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested CPUs?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 18683, which places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs. It is 0.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7643, 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1355U, 0.7% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330, but 0.9% behind the Intel Core i3-14100F.

Q: What is the FPS at 1440p Medium?

A: The combo averages 102 FPS at 1440p Medium, with a 87 FPS minimum and 117 FPS maximum. This is a very good experience for most 1440p monitors.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of L3 cache is shared across all cores, and it uses a 10 nm process. In Thief, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU, and the data shows it does so without becoming a major constraint. The single-thread performance is key for this title, as the game's engine is not highly multi-threaded. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257 and 3DMark single-thread score of 910 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for the game's main thread.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance, while not as critical, is also solid. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989 and 3DMark max-threads score of 5890 show it can handle background tasks. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score is 3456, and its integer math score is 58366, which are good for physics and AI in Thief.

At 1080p Low, the CPU is able to push the frame rate to 170 FPS, which is the point where the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The fact that the CPU can achieve such a high frame rate at 1080p Low suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at 1440p or 4K. At 1440p Low, the frame rate is 134 FPS, and at 4K Low it is 79 FPS, a further drop, confirming the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU's performance is more than sufficient for Thief, making it an excellent choice for this combination. The CPU's 65 W TDP and LGA 1700 socket make it a good fit for a mid-range system.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the data suggests a few presets. At 1080p, the High preset provides a 113 FPS average, which is a good balance between quality and frame rate. The Ultra preset delivers 108 FPS, which is only 5 FPS lower than High, so if you prefer maximum visual quality, Ultra is a viable option. The Medium preset at 1080p runs at 148 FPS, and the Low at 170 FPS, but these do not offer enough quality tradeoff for the extra frames, unless you have a 240Hz display.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot: 102 FPS average, with a 87 FPS minimum and 117 FPS maximum. This is a high frame rate for a 1440p experience, and the game is still visually rich. The High preset at 1440p drops to 78 FPS, which is still playable but a more significant step down. The Ultra preset at 1440p gives 74 FPS, which is nearly identical to High, so High is preferable due to the extra visual quality.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset averages 79 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a playable experience, though the visual quality is noticeably reduced. The Medium preset at 4K averages 60 FPS, with a 51 FPS minimum. This is the recommended setting for 4K if you can tolerate the occasional dip, as it offers the best visual quality for a 60 FPS target. The High and Ultra presets at 4K (46 FPS and 43 FPS) are not recommended unless you have a 45Hz monitor, as they are below the 60 FPS target.

In summary, the recommended presets are: 1080p High, 1440p Medium, and 4K Medium. The data shows that the Radeon RX 6750 XT is the limiting factor at 4K, so sacrificing a few graphical details is the only way to secure a stable 60 FPS at that resolution. At 1440p and 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to run higher presets without issue. The CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures that it will not hold back the GPU in any of these scenarios. Final verdict: this is a very capable combo for Thief, with only the 4K Ultra preset exceeding the GPU's capability.