Thief

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 represents a classic mismatch in Thief's benchmark data: a modern, high-core-count CPU skies a decade-old entry-level GPU that was end-of-life by the time the measurements were taken. Measured scores show the GPU limiting playability at every resolution and preset, with the CPU's capabilities only surfacing in the widest gaps between Low and High settings. In Thief, a 2014 stealth title, this combination produces frame rates that range from borderline playable at 1080p Low to completely slideshow territory at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What framerate does this combo achieve at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows an average of 74 FPS at 1920x1080 Low, 56 at Medium, 43 at High, and 41 at Ultra. The drop from Low to High is substantial, losing about 57% of the Low preset's frame rate.

Q: Is this combination capable of running Thief at 1440p?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 2560x1440, it delivers 51 FPS on Low, 39 on Medium, 29 on High, and only 28 on Ultra. The medium preset maintains reasonably smooth motion (33–45 FPS range), while Ultra stays just below the 30 FPSsmooth line.

Q: Can it handle 4K?

A: No, not practically. At 3840x2160 the Low preset averages 30 FPS, and every other preset falls to 23 FPS or lower (High and Ultra both at 17 FPS). Even at 4K Low, a 47% performance drop from the 1080p Low average (74 to 30) indicates the GPU's 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are overwhelmed.

Q: How does the CPU perform relative to other microprocessors?

A: The i5-12600KF sits in the 79th percentile among all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 27799. It is essentially tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, scoring just from 0.3% below those rivals, and is likewise 0.3% above the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE. The CPU is not a bottleneck here.

Q: What about the GPU's percentile ranking?

A: The GeForce GTX 1650 lands at the 40th percentile of all GPUs tested, with an average score of 7472. Its nearest mean the AMD Radeon HD 8850M (0.3% higher), Intel UHD Graphics 750 (0.4% higher), and the AMD Radeon R7 350 (0.6% higher). It trails only the Intel Arc A310 by 1%.

Q: What is the best resolution to play at for a stable 60 FPS?

A: Only the 1920x1080 Low preset reaches an average 74 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS. Every other 1080p preset (Medium, High, Ultra) stays below 60 FPS, and at 5 1440p only Low (51 FPS) and Medium (39 FPS) are half-decent. 4K is unusable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a desktop chip from the 12th generation, built on the Alder Lake architecture (codename Alder Lake-S) using Intel's 10 nm process. It has 10 physical cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The power envelope is 125 W TDP. In Thief, which is primarily a GPU-limited title, this CPU's role is to provide surplus headroom rather than a performance barrier.

Key cache numbers: 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and a 20 MB shared L3. The memory controller supports DDR4 and DDR5 in a dual-channel configuration, and the socket is Intel 1700. The CPU has 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes available. Benchmark results show a strong 23,391 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 3,302 in single-core, and a GeekBench multi-core score of 12,137. At the 79th percentile of all CPUs, the 12600KF is neck-and-neck with the Intel Core i9-10900K (-0.3% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (+0.3%), and slightly slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (-0.3%). This means in Thief, when the GPU is actually the limiting factor, the CPU almost always has spare capacity.

The launch MSRP of the i5-12600KF is $264. It is an unlocked multiplier, so a user could overclock, but the measured data here does not reflect any overclock - the values are at stock. The L3 20 MB cache is large for a mid-range chip, aiding game loading and physics, but Thief does not stress it heavily. The absolute single-thread performance (3,302 in R23, 3925 in PassMark) ensures the game's main thread is never starved, even when the GPU is working at full capacity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is a 2019 GPU based on the Turing architecture (TU117 chip), manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. Memory is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s and an effective speed of 8 Gbps with a memory clock of 12001 MHz. The card has 896 shading units, 56 texture units, and 32 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s. It is a dual-slot card, 229mm long, with a 75 W TDP and a suggested PSU of 250 W. It is in production "Nearly" status, marked end-of-life.

In the benchmark database, the GTX 1650 sits at the 40th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 7472. Reagents: the AMD Radeon HD 8850M is 0.3% faster, Intel UHD Graphics 750 is 0.4% faster, AMD Radeon R7 350 is 0.6% faster, and the Intel Arc A310 is 1% slower. These are the test results in Thief. So the 1650 is in a GRADE, literally being around the performance of some integrated graphics. The card's low memory bandwidth, limited 4 GB VRAM, and 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are all on the lower edge — and this shows in the measured rows.

The launch MSRP of the GTX 1650 was 149 USD. It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which are sufficient for Thief (which uses DX11-era features).

In Thief, the 1650's 4 GB VRAM is ample for a 2014 game, but the halo: what matters is the fill rate and shader power. The ROPs 32 and 93.24 GTexel/s texture rate are modest, so at higher resolutions the GPU spends extra time, time. The data's average frame drops at 4K are a clear example: the GTX 1650 is the primary performance limiter, not the CPU.

Settings and Recommendations

Given the measured FPS across three resolutions, the optimal settings are straightforward: play at 1920x1080 with the Low preset if you want a solid 74 FPS average. If you are willing to accept a sacrifice, toggle to Medium, which reduces the average to 56 FPS — still a solid 48 FPS difference from Low, but with more visual fidelity. The jump to High yields 43 FPS and Ultra yields only 41 FPS, both below 60 FPS and likely to feel stuttery in a game that relies on smooth movement in stealth-fire.

At 2560x1440, the best option for playability is Low, which produces an average of 51 FPS. Medium flips to 39 FPS (33–42 range) which could be acceptable for a single-player game, but High and Ultra (29 and 28 FPS) are not recommended. 3840x2160 should be avoided altogether; even Low delivers only 18 FPS at 4K.

Looking at the pattern: the High and Ultra presets barely differ in framerate across all three resolutions (e.g., 38 vs 40 FPS at 1080p, 29 vs 28 at 1440p, 17 vs 17 at 4K). This suggests that the Ultra preset's extra effects hit the GPU a little more, but the frame rate ceiling is already low due to the GTX 1650's limitations. In short, Medium at 1080p offers the best visual quality per frame rate, but Low at 1080p once the only way to stay above 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3720 CPU+GPU combinations tested for Thief, this combo lands at rank 3595 - that is, only 125 other configurations measure worse performance. This places the i5-12600KF + GTX 1650 in the bottom 3.4% of the class. This ranking is not a surprise: the GPU alone sits at the 40th percentile of all GPUs (which is low for desktop frames), and the high-end processor does nothing to boost the pair's ability because the GPU is the exclusive bottleneck.

Comparing to the raw CPU and GPU peaks: the CPU is fine, but the GPU-side scoring drags the combined result down. If you were to pair the i5-12600KF with a stronger GPU, the rank would likely jump into the top half — but that's beyond the measured data. Within the 3720 combos, this particular pairing is explicitly a low-end entry point, suitable only for a minimum performance target.

Measured Practical Breakdown

The measured FPS rows (average, and where recorded, min/max) for each resolution and settings are:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min / Max |

|------------|----------|---------|-----------|

| 3840x2160 | Low | 30 | — |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 30 (sic) | — |

| 3840x2160 | High | 17 | — |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 17 | — |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 23 | 19 / 26 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 51 | — |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 39 | 33 / 45 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 29 | — |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 28 | — |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 74 | — |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 56 | 48 / 65 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 43 | — |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 41 | — |

(The 3840x2160 Medium average is reported as 23 FPS, with the min/max 19/26, from the raw data; note the row for 3840x2160 Ultra and High age 17 FPS.)

At 1080p the full range is visible: Low (74), then a drop to Medium (56, with 48–65 range), then High (43), Ultra (41). The step from Low to Medium incurs a 24% reduction in average, yet Medium still remains above 55, which is the most balanced choice. High and Ultra add negligible visual improvements over the J that cost 24% and 25% of the framerate respectively. If you aim for the 60 FPS mark, cap it via Low; for balance choose Medium and accept slight dips into the the 40s.

At 1440p the drop is non-linear but pronounced. You lose 30% from Low (51) to Medium (39), and Medium has a 33–45 range that includes occasional 31 FPS dips. High (29) and Ultra (28) are essentially tied, 41% below Low. No single setting can maintain 60 FPS, so the realistic expectation is a smoother-action game that rarely trips 45 FPS.

At 4K the situation worsens: Low averages only 30 FPS, Medium 23 FPS (9–26), and both High and Ultra sink to 17 FPS. No preset touches the theatrical 60 FPS, and even the L is a 30 FPS average -- a slide of 83% relative to the same Low preset at 1080. The GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are simply too narrow, causing the frame-rate to free-fall over 4x resolution.

In summary, the only acceptable gaming experience with this combo is at 1920x1080 on Low (74 avg) or Medium (56 avg); everything above 1440p is three-figure plastic, and 4K is a latency-thick slide. The data is clean, and the conclusion is derived: this combination is bottom-of-the-pack for running Thief. Users can still play the game, but any preservation of visual quality requires a 2014-era game to be run at modern minimum — and even then, they'll be about a third of their CPU's and GPU's maximum.

Benchmark measurements indicate a hard performance ceiling: the GPU delivers playable but Not Smooth 1080p results (74 FPS max), and CPU headroom is wasted. If your target is Thief specifically and you have this hardware, choose Low at 1080p and enjoy the stealth gameplay without chasing higher resolutions. If you want raytrace-free visuals or better scaling, a better measure would be to run a stronger GPU, but that's outside this measurement.

The final numbers are what they are: no ruffling. Low at 1080p is the only preset that crosses the 60 FPS bar; everything else slides below it, and 4K is effectively unplayable (average 17-30 FPS). The data does not show any inspiration to push the CPU or overclock; the bottleneck is the GTX 1650.