Thief

# FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12400F compare to its nearest rival in raw CPU performance?

A: The i5-12400F posts an average benchmark score of 19,221, which is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-8700K at 19,210 (a 0.1% delta). It sits slightly ahead of the Intel Core i5-1335U (19,167, +0.3%) and the AMD EPYC 7773X (18,979, +1.3%), while trailing the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (19,364, -0.7%).

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile relative to all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT sits in the 76th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32,619. Its closest rival is the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 at 32,540 (a 0.2% delta), while the NVIDIA P104-100 scores 32,747 (-0.4%) and the NVIDIA T600 Mobile scores 32,849 (-0.7%).

Q: What frame rate does this combo achieve at 1080p on Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 129.2. This is nearly identical to the High preset's 130.1 FPS, suggesting the Ultra preset offers no meaningful performance penalty at this resolution.

Q: How does the FPS drop when moving from 1440p to 4K on High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 High, the combo delivers 92.3 FPS. At 3840x2160 High, it drops to 50.9 FPS — a reduction of roughly 45%. This substantial scaling factor indicates the GPU becomes the dominant constraint at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations in this game?

A: This combo ranks 545th out of 1,642 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all tested systems. The data indicates a strong pairing, though not at the very top tier.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck at 4K Low settings?

A: At 3840x2160 Low, the combo reaches 94.1 FPS, which is still high. The gap between Low (94.1 FPS) and Ultra (52.5 FPS) at 4K is 41.6 FPS, showing the GPU's workload scales heavily with settings — meaning the GPU is the limiting factor here, not the CPU.

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CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This is an Alder Lake-S architecture part built on Intel's 10 nm process, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. The 18 MB shared L3 cache is substantial for a mainstream desktop chip.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12400F shows strong single-thread performance: 3,481 in Passmark single-thread, 2,332 in Cinebench R23 single-core, and 909 in 3DMark single-thread. Multi-threaded results are equally telling — 16,518 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 19,433 in Passmark multithread. These scores place the CPU in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,221.

For a 2014 stealth title like Thief, the CPU's single-thread performance matters more than raw core count. The game's engine was designed for an era of 4-core CPUs, so the i5-12400F's boost clock of 4.40 GHz and high IPC (instructions per clock) from Alder Lake should prevent any CPU-side bottleneck. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,699 and 4-thread score of 3,067 suggest the CPU can handle lightly-threaded workloads with ease.

The data confirms this: at 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 172.5 FPS, which is far beyond what a 2014 game would demand. Even at 4K Low, it hits 94.1 FPS. These numbers indicate the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. The 65W TDP and dual-channel memory bus are modest, but they do not appear to constrain performance in this title.

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GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is a RDNA 3.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring the Navi 32 chip with 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock runs at 2430 MHz, with a game clock of 2124 MHz.

This GPU's compute capabilities are significant: 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, producing 37.32 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 60 ray-tracing cores are present but largely irrelevant for a 2014 game like Thief, which predates hardware ray tracing by several years. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is far more than this game requires, even at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's benchmark results show a Passmark G3D score of 24,176 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 139,381, placing it in the 76th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 32,619 is competitive, with nearest rivals all within 0.7% — the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 (32,540, +0.2%), NVIDIA P104-100 (32,747, -0.4%), and AMD FirePro S10000 (32,388, +0.7%).

In Thief, the GPU's role scales dramatically with settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 172.5 FPS; at 1080p Ultra, it falls to 129.2 FPS — a difference of 43.3 FPS. At 4K, the spread widens: Low delivers 94.1 FPS while Ultra drops to 52.5 FPS. This sensitivity to settings indicates the GPU is doing heavy lifting in this title, particularly at higher resolutions and quality presets.

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Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p Resolution:

• Low: 172.5 FPS
• Medium: 157.3 FPS
• High: 130.1 FPS
• Ultra: 129.2 FPS

The 1080p data shows a clear pattern: Low and Medium presets deliver well above 150 FPS, while High and Ultra cluster around 130 FPS. The gap between Medium (157.3) and High (130.1) is 27.2 FPS, which is the largest jump in the 1080p ladder. Interestingly, High and Ultra are nearly identical (130.1 vs 129.2), suggesting the Ultra preset adds minimal GPU load over High at this resolution.

1440p Resolution:

• Low: 149.3 FPS
• Medium: 117 FPS
• High: 92.3 FPS
• Ultra: 83.8 FPS

At 1440p, the scaling becomes steeper. Low still delivers a smooth 149.3 FPS, but Medium drops to 117 FPS. High falls below 100 FPS at 92.3, and Ultra bottoms out at 83.8. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 65.5 FPS, showing how much the GPU workload expands with settings.

4K Resolution:

• Low: 94.1 FPS
• Medium: 67.4 FPS
• High: 50.9 FPS
• Ultra: 52.5 FPS

At 3840x2160, the combo remains playable on Low (94.1 FPS) but struggles on higher presets. Medium delivers 67.4 FPS, High drops to 50.9, and Ultra recovers slightly to 52.5. The non-monotonic behavior between High and Ultra (50.9 vs 52.5) suggests that certain Ultra effects may not add proportional GPU load in this title, or that the engine handles these settings differently.

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Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear resolution scaling trend. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the frame rate drops from 130.1 to 92.3 FPS — a 29% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High, it falls from 92.3 to 50.9 FPS, another 45% drop. The total scaling from 1080p High to 4K High is a 61% reduction in FPS.

On Low settings, the scaling is less severe: 172.5 FPS at 1080p, 149.3 at 1440p, and 94.1 at 4K. The 4K Low result is still 54% of the 1080p Low figure, indicating that even at low quality, the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The CPU's role is minimal here — if the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect FPS to remain constant across resolutions, which is clearly not the case.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 157.3 FPS at 1080p, 117 at 1440p, and 67.4 at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K on Medium is a 42% drop, consistent with the High preset's 45% drop. This consistency implies the GPU's pixel throughput is the dominant constraint as resolution increases.

The Ultra preset behaves slightly differently: 129.2 FPS at 1080p, 83.8 at 1440p, and 52.5 at 4K. The 1440p-to-4K drop is 37%, less severe than other presets, suggesting Ultra settings may engage certain CPU-side effects that mitigate the GPU load at higher resolutions.

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Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear optimal configuration for this combo. At 1080p, the High preset (130.1 FPS) delivers nearly the same performance as Ultra (129.2 FPS) — the 0.9 FPS difference is negligible. Since Ultra offers no measurable FPS penalty at 1080p, players with high-refresh displays can safely enable Ultra without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1440p, the choice becomes more nuanced. High delivers 92.3 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play. Ultra drops to 83.8 FPS, still playable but with a more noticeable performance cost. Medium at 117 FPS is the best option for players prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity.

At 4K, the data suggests Low (94.1 FPS) is the only preset that maintains a consistently smooth experience. Medium (67.4 FPS) is borderline, while High (50.9) and Ultra (52.5) dip below 60 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Low preset avoids the sub-60 FPS penalty that higher settings impose.

Across all resolutions, the High preset appears to be the sweet spot for visual quality versus performance. It consistently delivers within 5% of Ultra at 1080p and 1440p, while providing a meaningful FPS boost over Ultra at 1440p (92.3 vs 83.8). The data indicates that High is the most efficient preset for this hardware combination.

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How This Combo Ranks

This Intel Core i5-12400F + AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination ranks 545th out of 1,642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 67th percentile of all tested systems. The rank reflects a strong pairing that handles the game well across most settings and resolutions.

The CPU's 77th percentile ranking and the GPU's 76th percentile ranking are closely matched, suggesting a balanced system with no single component severely bottlenecking the other. The CPU's nearest rival (Intel Core i7-8700K) is within 0.1% in average score, while the GPU's closest competitor (AMD FirePro S9300 X2) is within 0.2% — both components sit comfortably in the mid-upper tier of their respective markets.

Given that Thief is a 2014 title, the combo's rank of 545/1,642 indicates it outperforms the majority of tested systems. The measured FPS data supports this: even at 4K Ultra, the combo maintains 52.5 FPS, which is above the 30 FPS console-era standard for this game. At 1080p, every preset exceeds 129 FPS, making this an excellent setup for high-refresh-rate monitors.

The rank also reflects the combo's versatility. While it does not reach the top 100 combos, it delivers playable frame rates across all tested configurations — from 1080p Low (172.5 FPS) to 4K Ultra (52.5 FPS). The consistent performance across the resolution and settings matrix suggests this is a well-balanced pairing for a game of this era, with the GPU providing headroom for higher resolutions and the CPU never becoming a limiting factor.