Thief

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination delivers its best experience in Thief at 1440p with Medium settings, where the 99.2 FPS average balances visual fidelity and fluidity without the steep performance cost of Ultra. At 1080p, the High preset is the sweet spot for competitive play, achieving 108.6 FPS, while the Low preset at 4K remains playable at 78.2 FPS. The data indicates that the Ultra preset is inefficient across all resolutions, offering only marginal gains over High while dropping frame rates by 6.6% at 1080p and 2.5% at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results show a clear hierarchy in Thief’s settings, with the most efficient experience occurring at Medium or High presets rather than the maximum. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 31.0 FPS (from 168.4 to 137.4), but the jump from Medium to High costs another 28.8 FPS (to 108.6). The Ultra preset then only provides a 7.2 FPS reduction over High, making Ultra a poor trade for its visual uplift. The recommended preset is High at 1080p, as it keeps the frame rate above the 100 FPS threshold while delivering the game’s intended visual detail.

At 1440p, the Medium preset emerges as the optimal choice. The 99.2 FPS average is nearly identical to the 1080p High result, but with higher resolution clarity. High at 1440p drops to 75.6 FPS, which is still smooth but noticeably less responsive. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 71.7 FPS, offers no meaningful advantage over High and is the least efficient setting. For 4K, the Low preset is the only playable option, yielding 78.2 FPS, while Medium drops to 57.8 FPS and both High and Ultra fall below 42 FPS, making them unsuitable for consistent gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F provides the processing foundation for this combo, with 6 cores and 12 threads operating at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. In Thief, a game from 2014, the CPU’s single-thread performance is the primary driver, and the 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and PassMark single-thread score of 3481 indicate robust capability for this title. The CPU’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache also helps maintain consistent frame pacing in the game’s stealth-heavy environments.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo, as the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K follows the GPU’s workload curve. At 1080p Low, the CPU can push 168.4 FPS, but this drops to 127.9 FPS at 1440p and 78.2 FPS at 4K, demonstrating that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases. The i5-12400F’s multi-threaded scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 16518, are far above what Thief requires, meaning the CPU has ample headroom even when the GPU is saturated. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all tested processors confirms it is a capable mid-range part that does not hold back the RTX 4060 in this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the dominant component in this pairing, equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2460 MHz and 3072 shading units provide the raw throughput needed for Thief’s geometry and lighting. The GPU’s 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it slightly above average, but its performance in this game is heavily influenced by the settings preset selected.

The RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Thief at all tested settings, as the game’s 2014-era textures do not exceed this capacity. The frame rate deltas between presets illustrate the GPU’s scaling: at 1080p, the RTX 4060 produces 168.4 FPS on Low and 101.4 FPS on Ultra, a 39.8% performance reduction from the lowest to the highest settings. At 4K, the Ultra preset yields just 41.6 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s compute capacity, not VRAM, is the limiting factor at that resolution. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 19545 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 2302 corroborate its mid-range positioning, with nearest rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (0.6% lower average score) and Intel Arc B580 (0.7% higher) confirming that the RTX 4060 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Thief at 4K smoothly?

A: Only on the Low preset, which achieves 78.2 FPS. Medium drops to 57.8 FPS, and both High (40.6 FPS) and Ultra (41.6 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold, making them unsuitable for smooth 4K play.

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset is optimal, delivering 99.2 FPS. High drops to 75.6 FPS, which is still playable, but Ultra at 71.7 FPS offers no significant improvement over High.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060’s average benchmark score is 23181, placing it 0.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti. It is 0.7% above the Intel Arc B580 and 0.8% above the AMD Radeon 760M.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the combo achieves 168.4 FPS on Low, but this drops to 78.2 FPS at 4K, showing the GPU’s workload scaling. The CPU’s single-thread score of 909 (3DMark) is sufficient to avoid limiting frame rates.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1080p with High settings?

A: The combo produces 108.6 FPS on High at 1080p, which is above the 100 FPS mark and suitable for high-refresh-rate displays. Ultra drops this to 101.4 FPS, a negligible difference.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide better performance than High?

A: No. Ultra consistently produces lower frame rates than High across all resolutions. At 4K, Ultra (41.6 FPS) is slightly higher than High (40.6 FPS), but both are unplayable, while at 1080p and 1440p, High outperforms Ultra by 7.2 FPS and 3.9 FPS, respectively.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, with the most significant drops occurring between 1080p and 1440p. On the High preset, the frame rate falls from 108.6 FPS at 1080p to 75.6 FPS at 1440p, a 30.4% reduction, and then to 40.6 FPS at 4K, a further 46.3% drop. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the GPU’s compute throughput (15.11 TFLOPS FP32) is overwhelmed at 4K.

The Low preset shows a similar trend, dropping from 168.4 FPS at 1080p to 127.9 FPS at 1440p (24.1% reduction) and then to 78.2 FPS at 4K (38.9% reduction). The scaling between 1440p and 4K is less severe on Low because the reduced shading load allows the GPU to maintain higher utilization. The Medium preset follows the same pattern, with 137.4 FPS at 1080p, 99.2 FPS at 1440p, and 57.8 FPS at 4K. This consistent behavior confirms that the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU’s performance remains constant regardless of resolution. The 4K results, particularly the 40.6 FPS on High, show that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming beyond the lowest settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. The Low preset achieves 168.4 FPS, Medium drops to 137.4 FPS, High reaches 108.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 101.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 67.0 FPS, with the largest single-step drop occurring between Low and Medium (31.0 FPS). The difference between High and Ultra is only 7.2 FPS, suggesting that Ultra’s additional effects provide minimal visual benefit for a measurable performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low yields 127.9 FPS, Medium produces 99.2 FPS, High delivers 75.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 71.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 28.7 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra narrows to 3.9 FPS. This resolution is the sweet spot for the combo, as Medium and High both remain above 75 FPS, providing a good balance of visual quality and responsiveness.

At 3840x2160, performance degrades significantly. Low is the only preset above 60 FPS at 78.2 FPS, while Medium drops to 57.8 FPS. High and Ultra are nearly identical at 40.6 FPS and 41.6 FPS, respectively, indicating that the GPU hits a hard computational limit at this resolution. The 4K results show that the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM is not the bottleneck—the consistent performance across High and Ultra points to shader and pixel throughput limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 868th out of 1642 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the 53rd percentile of all systems. This mid-pack ranking reflects the balanced but not exceptional nature of the i5-12400F and RTX 4060 pairing. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking (among all processors) is higher than the GPU’s 66th percentile, suggesting that the processor slightly outperforms its graphics counterpart in relative terms. However, in Thief, the GPU’s role is more critical, as evidenced by the FPS scaling patterns.

The combo’s rank is competitive when considering the GPU’s nearest rivals. The RTX 4060’s average score of 23181 is within 1% of the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23321) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (23338), meaning that systems with those GPUs would likely produce similar Thief results. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, has an average score 0.1% higher, indicating that the i5-12400F is effectively on par with that older flagship. The ranking of 868th out of 1642 suggests that while this combo is not a top-tier performer, it sits comfortably in the upper half of tested systems, capable of handling Thief at high settings with smooth frame rates at 1080p and 1440p. The data does not show any significant pairing penalties or unexpected bottlenecks, making this a predictable and reliable combination for this title.