Thief

# FAQ

Q: What is the comboRankInGame for this Intel Core i5-12600KF + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT pairing in Thief?

A: The combo ranks 299th out of 1,642 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the top 18.2% of all tested systems for this game.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27,827. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, scores 27,829 (a 0% delta), while the Core i5-12600K scores 27,851 (-0.1% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H scores 27,872 (-0.2% delta). The Intel Core i7-13700H trails slightly at 27,716 (+0.4% delta).

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Thief?

A: The highest average FPS is 189.5, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The second-highest is 173.7 FPS at the same resolution with Medium settings.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo in Thief?

A: The lowest average FPS is 58.7, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. At the same 4K resolution with High settings, the average is 59.5 FPS, just barely above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark percentile compare to the CPU's?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT sits at the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, while the Intel Core i5-12600KF sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs. Both components are positioned in the upper tier of their respective categories.

Q: What is the GPU's boost clock and how does it relate to its game clock?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT has a boost clock of 2970 MHz and a game clock of 2400 MHz, with a base clock of 1660 MHz. The substantial 570 MHz difference between boost and game clocks indicates significant headroom for sustained performance in demanding scenes.

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GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT serves as the primary rendering engine in this Thief configuration, and its memory subsystem plays a critical role in the measured frame rates. The GPU carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. This generous memory allocation ensures that even at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings, the card does not encounter frame-stalling due to memory capacity limitations; the 16 GB pool is more than sufficient for Thief's texture and geometry demands.

The clock behavior of the RX 9070 XT is noteworthy. With a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz, the card demonstrates a wide operational envelope. The game clock represents the expected sustained frequency during typical gaming workloads, while the boost clock indicates the peak attainable frequency under favorable thermal and power conditions. In Thief, which is a 2014 title with relatively modest GPU demands compared to modern releases, the card can likely sustain frequencies closer to its boost clock for extended periods, which contributes to the high frame rates observed at lower resolutions and settings.

The GPU's architecture, RDNA 4.0 on a 4 nm process from TSMC, provides 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. The pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s indicate that the card has substantial fill-rate capabilities. In Thief's stealth-based environments, which often feature complex lighting and shadow effects, these fill rates help maintain consistent frame pacing. The FP32 throughput of 48.66 TFLOPS provides ample compute headroom for the game's shading and post-processing effects.

The GPU's benchmark results reinforce its position: it scores 26,795 in Passmark G3D and 7,260 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its percentile rank of 82 among all GPUs places it in the upper echelon. The nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39,703, -0.1% delta) and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39,568, +0.2% delta), showing that the RX 9070 XT's aggregate performance is tightly clustered with these professional and mobile parts, despite their very different design intents.

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CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF provides the processing foundation for this Thief configuration, and its hybrid architecture is well-suited to the game's threading model. With 10 cores and 16 threads operating at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz, the CPU delivers strong single-threaded performance for game logic and physics, while the multi-threaded capacity handles background tasks and any parallel workloads Thief may generate.

The CPU's cache hierarchy is substantial: 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. This cache configuration reduces memory latency for frequently accessed game data, which is particularly important in Thief's dense urban environments where asset streaming can be a bottleneck. The dual-channel memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 provides flexibility, though memory bandwidth in Thief is unlikely to be a limiting factor given the game's 2014 release date.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12600KF demonstrates strong performance across the board. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23,444 and single-core score of 3,309 indicate excellent computational throughput. The Geekbench multi-core score of 12,373 and single-core score of 2,529 further corroborate this. The 3DMark thread scaling tests show a progression from 1,016 (single-thread) to 7,956 (16-thread), indicating good multi-threading efficiency as additional threads are utilized.

The CPU's 84th percentile rank among all CPUs places it above the majority of processors, and its average benchmark score of 27,827 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i9-10900K (27,829). The closest rival, the Core i5-12600K, scores 27,851, a mere 0.1% difference, meaning these two Intel parts are effectively interchangeable in aggregate throughput. The Intel Core i7-13700H trails by 0.4% at 27,716, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is 0.2% behind at 27,872.

In Thief, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain frame pacing and handle game logic. At lower resolutions like 1920x1080, where the GPU can render frames quickly, the CPU becomes more influential. The i5-12600KF's strong single-thread score of 3,309 in Cinebench R23 ensures that game threads are processed without stalling, contributing to the high average frame rates observed at 1080p.

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Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in Thief reveal a clear pattern of performance scaling across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest performance: 189.5 FPS on Low, 173.7 FPS on Medium, 144.8 FPS on High, and 137.2 FPS on Ultra. The spread between Low and Ultra is 52.3 FPS, representing a 27.6% performance drop from the lowest to highest settings at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains robust but shows the expected impact of increased pixel count. Low settings produce 171.8 FPS, Medium drops to 134.9 FPS, High yields 101 FPS, and Ultra delivers 98.7 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 73.1 FPS, a 42.5% reduction. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra narrows significantly at this resolution—only 2.3 FPS separates the two, suggesting that Ultra settings at 1440p are only marginally more demanding than High.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve becomes steeper. Low settings still manage 102.1 FPS, Medium drops to 79.6 FPS, High falls to 59.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 58.7 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 43.4 FPS, a 42.5% reduction from the Low baseline. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is minimal, at just 0.8 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset at this resolution adds negligible additional GPU load over High.

Interpreting these numbers, the combo is clearly GPU-bound at 4K, as evidenced by the dramatic scaling from Low to High settings. At 1080p and 1440p, the system maintains frame rates well above 100 FPS even at Ultra settings, making it highly capable for high-refresh-rate displays at these resolutions. For 4K gaming, the system can sustain playable frame rates at High settings (59.5 FPS) but falls just short of 60 FPS at Ultra (58.7 FPS), suggesting that High is the optimal setting for a consistent 60 FPS experience at this resolution.

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How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12600KF + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination achieves a rank of 299 out of 1,642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all tested systems. This positioning is consistent with the individual component percentiles—the CPU at 84th and the GPU at 82nd—indicating that the pairing is well-balanced for this game.

The rank of 299 means that 1,343 tested combinations performed worse in Thief, while 298 combinations achieved higher average frame rates. This places the combo in the upper quintile of all systems, which is a strong result for a mid-range to upper-mid-range configuration. The fact that the combo rank (82nd percentile) is nearly identical to the GPU's individual percentile (82nd) suggests that the GPU is the primary determinant of Thief's performance in this system, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

Given the measured FPS data, this ranking is justified. At 1920x1080 Ultra, the combo delivers 137.2 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the 98.7 FPS result is still comfortably above 60 FPS, making this a viable 1440p gaming system. Even at 3840x2160 High, the 59.5 FPS average is playable, though not ideal for a locked 60 FPS experience.

The combo's position relative to other tested combinations indicates that Thief is not particularly demanding by modern standards, allowing this hardware to perform well above the median. The 299th rank out of 1,642 combos means that only 18.2% of tested systems outperform this configuration in Thief, which is a commendable result. The data shows that for players targeting high refresh rates at 1080p or 1440p, this combo delivers excellent results, while 4K gaming is feasible at High settings with a minor compromise at Ultra.