Thief

The data for Thief with an Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 shows a clear progression from a CPU-bound state at lower resolutions to a GPU-bound state at 4K. The measured frame rates reveal how this 2014 stealth title scales with modern hardware, with the most significant performance drop occurring between 1440p and 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable curve, but the magnitude of the drop at the highest resolution signals a definitive shift in the limiting component. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of 88.6 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, that figure drops to 61.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 30%. The jump to 3840x2160 is more punishing, with the average falling to 34.6 FPS—a further 44% decrease from the 1440p result.

This pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, 1080p yields 156.8 FPS, 1440p produces 109 FPS, and 4K drops to 62.9 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p on Low is a 47.8 FPS loss, while the 1440p to 4K transition costs an additional 46.1 FPS. The similarity in these absolute losses suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint as pixel count increases, but the drop-off is more severe in percentage terms when moving to 4K.

The Medium settings data reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p, the average is 118.5 FPS. At 1440p, it falls to 80.4 FPS, and at 4K, it reaches 46.6 FPS. The 4K result is only 39% of the 1080p figure, indicating that the RX 7600's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus are being taxed heavily at the highest resolution. The data suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for maintaining playable frame rates above 60 FPS across most settings, with only the Low preset achieving that target at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides a solid foundation for this title, with its 6 cores and 12 threads operating at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The processor's benchmarks place it in the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19850. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, scores 19831, a negligible 0.1% difference, while the Intel Core i7-8700 sits 0.2% ahead.

At 1080p, the CPU appears to be the primary limiter. The fact that Ultra settings produce 88.6 FPS while Low settings reach 156.8 FPS indicates that the i5-12400 can push very high frame rates, but the GPU is still capable of more. The single-thread performance, measured at 910 in the 3DMark single-thread test and 2249 in Cinebench R23 single-core, suggests that Thief's reliance on fewer threads is well-served by this processor's Alder Lake architecture.

The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core provide adequate bandwidth for game logic and scene management. In the Passmark physics test, the CPU scores 1105, and its multithread score of 18747 indicates strong overall throughput. However, the frame rates at 1440p and 4K show that the CPU is no longer the bottleneck once resolution increases, as the GPU takes over as the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the 4K performance ceiling. With a base clock of 1720 MHz, a game clock of 2250 MHz, and a boost clock of 2655 MHz, the RDNA 3.0 architecture delivers 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it ranks in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20258. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, scores 20146, a 0.6% difference, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile is 1.3% ahead. The RX 7600's 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs handle the pixel throughput, with a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s.

At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 34.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. The drop from High settings at 4K (35.8 FPS) to Ultra (34.6 FPS) is slight, indicating that the GPU is already saturated. The 4K Low result of 62.9 FPS shows that reducing settings can recover playability, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity is a limiting factor at this resolution, particularly with higher texture quality settings.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combination run Thief at 4K with playable frame rates?*

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where the average FPS is 62.9. At Medium, High, and Ultra settings, the averages drop to 46.6, 35.8, and 34.6 FPS respectively, which are below the 60 FPS mark.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, placing it 0.1% ahead of the Core i7-9700 and 0.4% ahead of the Core i5-11600K. It trails the Core i7-8700 by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by 0.4%.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1440p, all settings presets except Ultra (61.8 FPS) maintain averages above 60 FPS. High produces 64.7 FPS, Medium 80.4 FPS, and Low 109 FPS. At 1080p, all presets exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra at 88.6 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's performance rank among all GPUs?

A: The Radeon RX 7600 sits in the 63rd percentile, with an average benchmark score of 20258. It is 0.6% ahead of the RX 7600 XT and 0.8% ahead of the RX 460, while trailing the RTX 3070 Mobile by 1.3% and the Intel Arc B570 by 1.5%.

Q: Is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K consistent across settings?

A: The drop is more severe in percentage terms at higher settings. On Low, 4K is 60% of the 1080p score (62.9 vs 156.8), while on Ultra, 4K is 39% of the 1080p score (34.6 vs 88.6).

Q: What does the data say about the GPU being the bottleneck at 4K?

A: The minimal difference between 4K High (35.8 FPS) and 4K Ultra (34.6 FPS) indicates the GPU is fully saturated. The larger gap between 4K Low (62.9 FPS) and 4K Medium (46.6 FPS) shows that reducing settings has a significant impact, confirming the GPU is the limiting component.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings average 156.8 FPS, Medium averages 118.5 FPS, High averages 92.8 FPS, and Ultra averages 88.6 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 4.2 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns from the highest preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 109 FPS on Low, 80.4 FPS on Medium, 64.7 FPS on High, and 61.8 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Medium and High widens to 15.7 FPS, and High to Ultra narrows to 2.9 FPS. This resolution still allows for smooth gameplay on most presets.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low settings produce 62.9 FPS, which is the only preset above 60 FPS. Medium falls to 46.6 FPS, High to 35.8 FPS, and Ultra to 34.6 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is just 1.2 FPS, indicating that the GPU is maxed out at this resolution. The data shows that 4K is only viable with Low settings, while 1440p offers a balanced experience across all presets, and 1080p provides headroom above 60 FPS even at Ultra.