Thief

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Thief, with the data showing that the GPU is the primary performance arbiter across all tested resolutions. The measured FPS reveals a system that scales predictably with settings, but the gap between resolutions indicates that this combination is heavily optimized for high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p play, while 4K remains viable only at lower presets. The benchmark data places this combo in the 88th percentile of all tested configurations, a strong showing that reflects the balance between the CPU's high single-threaded throughput and the GPU's substantial memory bandwidth.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K in Thief is steep, and the data confirms that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting component as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 157 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same preset drops that to 112 FPS, a 29% reduction. Pushing to 3840x2160 at High yields 66 FPS, which is a 58% drop from the 1080p result. This pattern—where the 1440p to 4K transition costs more than the 1080p to 1440p transition—is classic GPU-bound behavior, as the sheer number of pixels overwhelms the rasterization throughput.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with a larger absolute range. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 192 FPS, which drops to 169 FPS at 1440p and 114 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is still above 60 FPS, indicating that the GPU has enough headroom to maintain playability even when the resolution is maxed, but the 78 FPS gap between 1080p and 4K Low demonstrates that the RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily. The Medium preset shows the most complete data, with 174 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS values at Medium are 148 at 1080p and 125 at 1440p, which are remarkably stable for a 2014 title, but at 4K the minimum of 74 FPS suggests occasional stutter that could be noticeable on high-refresh displays.

Ultra settings are where the resolution scaling becomes most punishing. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 155 FPS, dropping only slightly to 107 FPS at 1440p. However, 4K Ultra collapses to 63 FPS, a 59% reduction from the 1080p result. This data point strongly suggests that while the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower resolutions, the RTX 4070 SUPER's 80 ROPS and 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are simply not enough to sustain Ultra settings at 4K without dipping below the 60 FPS threshold. The scaling pattern across all presets indicates that the system is GPU-limited at 4K, with the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads providing ample headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF's role in Thief is to provide a stable foundation that never becomes a bottleneck, and the benchmark data supports this. The CPU's 10 cores (with 16 threads) and boost clock of 4.90 GHz are reflected in its strong synthetic scores, particularly the 3DMark 16-thread score of 7956 and the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391. In a game like Thief, which launched in 2014 and is primarily single-threaded in its engine, the i5-12600KF's single-core performance is the key metric. Its Geekbench single-core score of 2157 and 3DMark single-thread score of 1016 indicate that it handles the game's logic and AI calculations without introducing frame-time spikes.

The data shows that at 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the combo still delivers 192 FPS. This is a strong indicator that the CPU is not holding back the frame rate, as the RTX 4070 SUPER is capable of far higher output in less demanding scenarios. The drop from 192 FPS at 1080p Low to 169 FPS at 1440p Low is purely a GPU load increase, but the fact that the 1080p result doesn't exceed 200 FPS (the max FPS at Medium is exactly 200) suggests the CPU is approaching its practical limit for this engine. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1995 and 4-thread score of 3806 show that the CPU scales well with thread count, which helps in maintaining smooth minimums.

The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache is also relevant. Thief's level streaming and object culling benefit from larger caches, and the i5-12600KF's cache hierarchy (80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core) provides sufficient data locality to prevent cache misses from becoming a limiting factor. The benchmark results, particularly the PassMark single-thread score of 3925, place the CPU in the 79th percentile of all processors, which is adequate for a game that is not heavily threaded. The nearest rival data shows the i5-12600KF is within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D in average benchmark score, meaning the CPU choice has negligible impact on Thief's performance compared to the GPU's influence.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured FPS results. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Thief's textures and geometry at 1440p High (112 FPS) but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra (63 FPS). The memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) and the 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are the primary drivers of the rasterization performance, and the data shows that the GPU scales almost linearly with resolution until it hits memory bandwidth constraints.

The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz are high for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and this is reflected in the PassMark G3D score of 29995, which places the GPU in the 83rd percentile of all graphics cards. However, the nearest rival data shows the RTX 4070 SUPER is within 1% of the RTX 4090 Mobile, which is a laptop part, indicating that the desktop GPU's performance is well-tuned for its target resolution range. The 7168 shading units and 224 texture mapping units provide ample pixel throughput, as evidenced by the 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 554.4 GTexel/s texture rate.

At 4K, the GPU's 80 ROPS become a bottleneck. The drop from 87 FPS at Medium to 63 FPS at Ultra (a 28% reduction) is steeper than the 1080p drop from 174 FPS to 155 FPS (11% reduction), because the 12 GB VRAM is being filled with higher-resolution textures, and the memory controller is saturating. The Vulkan score of 205624 and OpenCL score of 172795 in Geekbench suggest that the GPU handles compute-heavy workloads well, but Thief's DirectX 11/12 path (the PassMark DirectX 12 score is 110) is where the frame rate is ultimately determined. The GPU's 220 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate it is a power-hungry part, but the measured FPS shows it delivers the expected performance for its class.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Thief?*

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at High settings provides 112 FPS average, which balances visual quality with a high refresh rate. At 1920x1080 High, the combo hits 157 FPS, but the 1440p result is strong enough to justify the higher resolution without sacrificing smoothness.

*Q: Can this combo run Thief at 4K Ultra settings?*

A: Yes, but barely. The measured 4K Ultra result is 63 FPS average, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold for playability. However, the lack of minimum FPS data for Ultra suggests potential instability, and the 4K Medium result of 87 FPS with a 74 FPS minimum is safer for consistent performance.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-12600KF's average benchmark score is 27799, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27896) and 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (27712). Its performance is essentially identical to the Intel Core i9-10900K (27872, delta -0.3%).

Q: Is the GPU or CPU more important for this game's performance?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at the same settings (e.g., from 157 to 66 FPS at High) is far more dramatic than any CPU-related bottleneck would cause. The CPU's single-thread performance is sufficient to avoid limiting the GPU at 1080p and 1440p.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 446 out of 3720 tested combinations, placing it in the top 12% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the strong balance between the i5-12600KF and RTX 4070 SUPER for this specific title.

Q: Why does the Medium preset show minimum FPS data but High and Ultra do not?

A: The FACT PACK only includes minimum and maximum FPS values for the Medium preset across all resolutions. The data for High, Low, and Ultra presets only reports average FPS, so no comparison of frame-time consistency is possible for those settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 446 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief, which puts it in the 88th percentile of all systems tested. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with an upper-mid-range GPU, and it indicates that the combo outperforms a significant majority of configurations in this specific game. The ranking is driven primarily by the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, while the CPU ensures that the system never falls behind in CPU-bound scenarios.

The rank of 446 is notably high given that the CPU is only in the 79th percentile of all processors and the GPU is in the 83rd percentile. This suggests that Thief's engine is well-optimized for the combination of a high-clock Alder Lake CPU and an Ada Lovelace GPU with fast GDDR6X memory. The data shows that the combo beats many systems with more expensive CPUs or GPUs, as evidenced by the fact that the RTX 4070 SUPER's nearest rival, the RTX 4090 Mobile, has a lower average benchmark score (43667 vs 43223, delta -1%). This ranking is also better than the CPU's nearest rival comparison, where the i5-12600KF is effectively tied with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

When considering the measured FPS across all resolutions, the combo's ranking is justified by its ability to deliver over 100 FPS at 1440p High and over 150 FPS at 1080p High. The 4K performance is weaker, but the rank of 446 reflects the overall versatility of the combo across the tested spectrum rather than peak performance at any single resolution. The percentile ranking of 88% means that only 12% of tested combos outperform this system, which is a significant achievement for a configuration that does not feature top-tier components.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 155 FPS average, which is only 2 FPS lower than High (157 FPS) and 19 FPS lower than Medium (174 FPS). Given that Ultra provides the best visual quality with no meaningful performance penalty at 1080p, it is the recommended preset for this resolution. The 155 FPS result is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate threshold for most monitors, so there is no reason to compromise on settings.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts to High settings. The High preset yields 112 FPS, which is 5 FPS higher than Ultra (107 FPS) but 35 FPS lower than Medium (147 FPS). The jump from High to Ultra costs only 5 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High costs 35 FPS, suggesting that High is the sweet spot for visual fidelity and smoothness. The 112 FPS average is sufficient for 120 Hz displays, and the lack of minimum FPS data for High makes it a safer bet than Ultra, which may have occasional dips below 100 FPS.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the clear choice. The Medium result of 87 FPS average with a 74 FPS minimum is the only 4K preset with frame-time data, and it provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. High at 4K drops to 66 FPS, which is still playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, and Ultra at 63 FPS is borderline. The Low preset at 4K (114 FPS) is playable but sacrifices too much visual quality for a game like Thief where lighting and shadow play a crucial role. Therefore, the data-driven recommendation is Medium at 4K, High at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p for the best balance of performance and visual quality.