Thief

The data for Thief with the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER shows a combination that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet surprisingly CPU-limited at 1080p. Across the twelve measured configurations, the system delivers playable frame rates in every scenario, but the scaling behavior reveals distinct bottlenecks that shape the optimal settings profile.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, but the pattern is not uniform across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 193.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 129.1 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 64.6 FPS or roughly 33%. This relatively modest decline suggests that even at Low settings, the CPU is beginning to cap performance at lower resolutions, preventing the GPU from fully stretching its legs. At Medium settings, the drop is steeper: from 173.9 FPS at 1080p to 101.5 FPS at 4K, a 72.4 FPS decrease (about 42%). The High preset shows a similar percentage drop, going from 155.6 FPS to 78.3 FPS, a 77.3 FPS reduction (nearly 50%). The Ultra preset exhibits the largest absolute decline, from 152.9 FPS down to 73.4 FPS, a 79.5 FPS difference (52%).

The scaling behavior indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the primary limiting component. At 1080p, the gap between Low (193.7 FPS) and Ultra (152.9 FPS) is only 40.8 FPS, suggesting that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately even at high settings. However, at 4K, the spread widens: Low delivers 129.1 FPS while Ultra manages 73.4 FPS, a 55.7 FPS difference. This widening gap confirms that the RTX 4080 SUPER's rendering workload at 4K overwhelms the CPU's ability to provide frames, making the GPU the clear bottleneck. The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing: at High settings, the drop from 128.4 FPS to 78.3 FPS represents a 39% loss, while at Ultra, the decline from 122.0 FPS to 73.4 FPS is 40%. These numbers point to a system where 1440p is the sweet spot for balancing load, while 4K demands significant graphical compromises to maintain high refresh rates.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Thief, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a rank of 114 out of 1642 total combos. This places the system in the top 7% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the overall average performance across all resolutions and settings, and the data indicates that the combo punches above its weight class.

The CPU itself sits at the 84th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 27,827. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, scores 27,829 with a delta of 0%, meaning the two are effectively tied in synthetic benchmarks. The i5-12600KF also matches the Intel Core i5-12600K (27,851, -0.1% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (27,872, -0.2% delta), while slightly ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700H (27,716, +0.4% delta). This tight clustering suggests that the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo's ranking; rather, the GPU's dominance drives the position.

The GPU ranks at the 88th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 53,610. Its closest competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, scores 53,489 with a delta of 0.2%, indicating near-parity. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M trails slightly at 53,414 (+0.4% delta), while the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (52,505, +2.1% delta) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (52,086, +2.9% delta) sit further behind. In Thief specifically, the combo's rank of 114 out of 1642 suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER's raw throughput is well-suited to the game's engine, which favors high pixel fill rates and texture bandwidth.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly favors the High preset as the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate performance. At 2560x1440, High delivers 128.4 FPS, which is only 6.4 FPS below the Medium preset's 154.0 FPS, but the visual quality jump is significant. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 122.0 FPS, a mere 6.4 FPS less than High, but the marginal gain from High to Ultra does not justify the additional GPU load, especially considering the 4K numbers. For 3840x2160, High produces 78.3 FPS, which is playable but below the 90 FPS threshold many players prefer for smooth motion. Medium at 4K offers 101.5 FPS, providing a more comfortable margin, but the drop in texture quality and shadow detail is noticeable in a stealth game where environmental cues matter.

At 1920x1080, the choice is less critical because all presets exceed 150 FPS. High at 155.6 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it provides ample headroom for competitive play without sacrificing visual clarity. Low settings are unnecessary at 1080p since even Ultra maintains 152.9 FPS, proving the CPU can keep pace. The data suggests that for 1440p displays, High is the optimal preset, offering 128.4 FPS with substantial visual improvements over Medium. For 4K users, Medium at 101.5 FPS is the pragmatic choice, as it keeps the frame rate above 100 while preserving enough detail for the game's atmospheric lighting and shadow work. Ultra is only advisable for players who prioritize image quality over smoothness and can tolerate 73.4 FPS at 4K or 122.0 FPS at 1440p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. Low settings produce 193.7 FPS, Medium reaches 173.9 FPS, High hits 155.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 152.9 FPS. The narrow range of 40.8 FPS between Low and Ultra indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution, as even the highest graphical demands cannot push the GPU to its limits. The difference between High and Ultra is only 2.7 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are nearly free in terms of performance cost at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but begin to show GPU influence. Low delivers 168.3 FPS, Medium 154.0 FPS, High 128.4 FPS, and Ultra 122.0 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra widens to 46.3 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra narrows to 6.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is starting to become more involved in the rendering pipeline. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at High settings is 27.2 FPS (155.6 to 128.4), a 17.5% reduction, which is modest compared to the 4K drop.

At 3840x2160, the GPU asserts its dominance. Low settings yield 129.1 FPS, Medium 101.5 FPS, High 78.3 FPS, and Ultra 73.4 FPS. The range from Low to Ultra expands to 55.7 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra shrinks to 4.9 FPS. The most striking observation is that 4K Low (129.1 FPS) is nearly identical to 1440p High (128.4 FPS), demonstrating that the RTX 4080 SUPER can handle 4K but only with reduced graphical settings. The difference between 1440p Ultra (122.0 FPS) and 4K Ultra (73.4 FPS) is 48.6 FPS, a 40% reduction, which underscores the pixel count penalty at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this combo, and its specifications explain the observed performance patterns. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz, which are high frequencies for the Ada Lovelace architecture. The memory subsystem is particularly notable: 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Thief's detailed textures and large open environments. The effective memory clock of 23 Gbps ensures that texture streaming does not become a bottleneck at high resolutions.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial, with 10,240 shading units and 320 texture mapping units, producing a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s. These figures translate directly to the frame rates seen in the data: at 4K, the GPU must fill over 8.3 million pixels per frame, and the measured 73.4 FPS at Ultra indicates the pixel rate is nearly saturated. The RTX 4080 SUPER's FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS provides ample headroom for the game's lighting calculations, but the data shows that memory bandwidth becomes more critical at higher resolutions.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for Thief, which was released in 2014 and does not demand the same memory footprint as modern titles. This means the GPU is never texture-swapping to system memory, allowing consistent frame times across all settings. The 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process, enable high clock speeds without excessive power draw, though the 320 W TDP does require a robust power supply. The GPU's percentile ranking of 88 among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 53,610, places it near the top of the performance hierarchy, and the measured results in Thief confirm that this compute power translates to real-world frame rates, particularly at 1440p where the CPU can still feed the GPU effectively.