Thief

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Thief, with the data suggesting that the GPU is the primary engine driving frame rates across all tested resolutions. The measured FPS values from 1080p to 4K reveal a clear scaling pattern that underscores the RTX 4070's capability, while the 6-core/12-thread CPU appears to provide sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a bottleneck, even at lower resolutions where CPU load typically increases. This combination ranks in the 407th position out of 1642 tested combos in the game, placing it comfortably within the top quartile of all configurations. The benchmark results indicate that this system is built for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming, with 4K performance remaining respectable, though the step from Medium to Ultra settings at that resolution incurs a significant performance cost.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data for Thief shows a predictable decline in average FPS as pixel count increases, but the rate of that decline reveals important insights about the system's balance. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 138.7 FPS to 98.9 FPS, a reduction of roughly 29%. This is a substantial hit, but the absolute numbers remain high, suggesting the RTX 4070 is still well within its comfort zone at 1440p. However, the scaling from 1440p to 4K at the same settings is steeper, as the frame rate falls from 98.9 FPS to 62.8 FPS, a 37% decrease. This larger proportional drop at higher resolutions points directly to the GPU as the limiting component, as the increased pixel workload strains the rasterization and memory bandwidth of the RTX 4070.

At Low settings, the pattern becomes even more telling. The 1080p Low preset achieves 173.1 FPS, while 1440p Low drops to 152.4 FPS, a modest 12% decline. But when jumping to 4K Low, the average plummets to 103.2 FPS, a 32% reduction from 1440p. The fact that the 1080p-to-1440p transition is so gentle at Low settings indicates that the CPU is managing the lower-quality geometry and effects with ease, and the GPU still has ample headroom. The sharper 4K drop is almost certainly a GPU limitation, as the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed by the 8.3 million pixels of 4K output. The data suggests that this combo is not CPU-bound at any resolution, as the frame rates scale consistently with GPU load rather than showing the plateau that would indicate a processor bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS at Ultra settings?

A: The data shows that at 2560x1440 Ultra, the system achieves 95.7 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average drops to 58.3 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold. Therefore, 1440p is the highest resolution where Ultra settings remain playable without compromise.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between Medium and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset yields 153.6 FPS, while Ultra yields 141 FPS. This represents a performance advantage of 12.6 FPS for Medium, or roughly 8% higher frame rate, while Ultra provides higher visual fidelity.

Q: Does the CPU hold back the GPU at lower resolutions?

A: The benchmark results do not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system produces 173.1 FPS, and at 1440p Low it produces 152.4 FPS. The relatively small drop between these resolutions suggests the CPU is keeping up, as a weaker processor would show a smaller gap or flat frame rates due to thread limits.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 62.8 FPS, while Ultra averages 58.3 FPS. The difference is only 4.5 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset adds significant visual effects that cost little performance at this resolution, but both are near the edge of smooth playability.

Q: Is the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K in this game?

A: The measured data shows playable frame rates at 4K, with Low at 103.2 FPS and Medium at 76.9 FPS. The consistent performance across settings suggests that 12 GB of memory is not causing a capacity-related stutter or crash, though the GPU's raw compute power is the more likely limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The comboRankInGame field places this configuration at rank 407 out of 1642 combos. This puts it in the 75th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly three-quarters of all tested systems in Thief.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data points to the Medium preset at 2560x1440 as the sweet spot for this combination. At 1440p Medium, the system delivers 134.2 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, while still providing a substantial visual upgrade over Low. The jump from Medium to High at this resolution costs 35.3 FPS (from 134.2 to 98.9), which is a significant 26% performance penalty for what is likely a marginal visual gain in most scenes. For players with 144Hz displays, the High preset at 1440p still clears 98.9 FPS, but Medium offers more headroom for frame time consistency.

At 4K, the choice is starker. The Medium preset at 3840x2160 produces 76.9 FPS, which is the only setting above 60 FPS other than Low. The High preset at 62.8 FPS is playable, but it sits close to the edge, and any demanding scene could push it below 60. For a locked 60 FPS experience at 4K, Medium is the recommended preset, as it provides a 14.1 FPS buffer over High. At 1080p, the situation is reversed, as all presets exceed 138 FPS, so players can freely choose Ultra at 141 FPS without worrying about performance, making it the best option for maximum quality on 1080p displays.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a tight spread across all settings. The Low preset averages 173.1 FPS, Medium follows at 153.6 FPS, High at 138.7 FPS, and Ultra at 141 FPS. Interestingly, the Ultra preset slightly outperforms High by 2.3 FPS, which is unusual and may indicate that the High preset applies certain effects that are less optimized than Ultra's full feature set. The gap between Low and Ultra is 32.1 FPS, or 18.5%, showing that even at the lowest quality settings, the GPU is not fully saturated.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but the spread widens. Low produces 152.4 FPS, Medium 134.2 FPS, High 98.9 FPS, and Ultra 95.7 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 18.2 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High is a much larger 35.3 FPS, indicating that the High preset introduces significant shading or shadow work that costs performance. Ultra is only 3.2 FPS slower than High, suggesting that the additional Ultra effects are relatively lightweight.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more aggressive. Low averages 103.2 FPS, Medium 76.9 FPS, High 62.8 FPS, and Ultra 58.3 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 26.3 FPS, and from Medium to High costs another 14.1 FPS. The final step to Ultra costs only 4.5 FPS. This pattern shows that the GPU's pixel processing capacity is the primary constraint at 4K, as the incremental cost of each preset decreases as the resolution becomes more demanding.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all 1642 tested combinations, this specific CPU-GPU pairing achieves a rank of 407. This position places it in the top 24.8% of all systems, indicating that it is a strong performer for Thief. The nearest rival CPUs in terms of average benchmark score include the Intel Core i7-8700K (with a deltaPct of 0.1%) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (with a deltaPct of -0.7%), but these comparisons are based on synthetic CPU tests, not in-game FPS. The GPU's nearest rivals by average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (with a deltaPct of -0.6%) and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (with a deltaPct of -1.9%), but the actual in-game performance of the RTX 4070 in Thief is what determines the 407th rank.

The rank of 407 out of 1642 suggests that many combos with higher-end CPUs or newer GPUs outperform this setup, but the measured FPS data shows that this pairing is still highly capable. The fact that the system achieves over 100 FPS at 1080p Low and over 60 FPS at 4K Medium indicates that it is well-suited for the game's stealth-based gameplay, where smooth frame pacing matters more than raw peak frame rates. The ranking also implies that there is room for improvement, perhaps with a faster CPU, but the data does not show the CPU being a limiting factor at any resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (for both DDR4 and DDR5) provide the memory bandwidth needed for gaming. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 16,518 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2,332 in single-core, with a passmark single-thread score of 3,481. These numbers indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for a game like Thief that may rely on a few main threads for gameplay logic.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU, as frame rates scale appropriately with resolution. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect similar FPS across all resolutions at a given setting, but instead we see 173.1 FPS at 1080p Low versus 103.2 FPS at 4K Low, a 40% difference that is clearly GPU-driven. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 4070, even at 1080p where CPU overhead is highest. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5,895 and 8-thread score of 4,779 suggest that the processor scales well with multi-threaded workloads, but Thief's engine appears to be more sensitive to single-thread performance, where the 12400F's boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides a solid foundation.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the clear workhorse in this combo, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. Its boost clock of 2475 MHz and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus deliver a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, which is ample for Thief's 2014-era engine. The GPU's FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s explain why the game runs so fluidly at 1080p and 1440p, as the card has massive compute headroom for a title of this era.

The GPU's role as the primary bottleneck is confirmed by the resolution scaling. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset at 141 FPS does not saturate the card, as the Low preset shows 173.1 FPS. However, at 4K, the GPU is clearly taxed, with Ultra dropping to 58.3 FPS. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is not the issue, as the game's textures from 2014 are unlikely to exceed even 4 GB, but the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are stressed at 4K. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 26,927 and its 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs confirm that it is a high-end part, but the 4K Ultra result shows the limits of its 192-bit memory interface. The data implies that for players targeting 4K, the RTX 4070 can handle Medium settings easily, but pushing to Ultra requires a more powerful card with wider memory bandwidth.