Thief

# Thief Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a robust experience in Thief, a 2014 stealth title that remains demanding at high resolutions. Across all tested configurations, this combo produces playable frame rates, with 1080p results exceeding 140 FPS at every quality setting. The data indicates a system well-balanced for this game, though 4K Ultra pushes the GPU to its limits. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, component roles, and how this pairing ranks among 1,642 tested combinations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best frame rate this combo achieves in Thief?

A: The highest measured average is 180.4 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Ultra settings still deliver 142.6 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Thief?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 3840x2160, High settings produce 59.2 FPS average, while Ultra yields 60.1 FPS. Low settings at 4K reach 103 FPS, and Medium hits 77.8 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 scores 37,283 on average. It trails the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 by 0.6%, sits 1.9% behind the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A, and is 2.2% behind the RTX 4080 Mobile. It leads the AMD Radeon RX 5300M by 2.5%.

Q: What CPU benchmark scores stand out for the i5-13400F?

A: The processor achieves 21,279 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 8,937 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, and 10,971 in Geekbench multi-core. Single-thread performance is strong at 3,004 in Cinebench R23 and 3,634 in PassMark single-thread.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded 3DMark performance?

A: In 3DMark with 16 threads, the i5-13400F scores 7,314. Max-thread testing yields 7,307, while 8-thread and 4-thread scores are 5,591 and 3,459, respectively.

Q: How does the i5-13400F rank against all CPUs?

A: The processor sits in the 82nd percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25,236. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13620H, is nearly identical at 25,201, a 0.1% difference.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the primary driver of Thief's visual output, and its memory configuration proves critical at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This capacity is sufficient for Thief's textures, even at 4K, where the card maintains playable frame rates across all settings.

Clock speeds are substantial: the base clock runs at 1920 MHz, boosting to 2475 MHz. The memory operates at 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective. These clocks enable a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s, which directly correlate with the measured FPS scaling. The GPU's 5,888 shading units and 64 ROPs handle Thief's lighting and shadow computations, while 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores provide headroom for modern API features, though Thief predates widespread ray tracing adoption.

The GPU's 81st percentile ranking versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,283, indicates strong overall capability. In Thief specifically, the FPS data shows the RTX 4070 scales predictably with resolution. At 1920x1080, the gap between Low (180.4 FPS) and Ultra (142.6 FPS) is 37.8 FPS, a 26.5% penalty for maximum quality. At 2560x1440, that gap narrows to 65.8 FPS between Low (161.1 FPS) and Ultra (95.3 FPS), representing a 69% performance drop from the lowest to highest settings. At 3840x2160, the spread is 42.9 FPS between Low (103 FPS) and Ultra (60.1 FPS), showing the GPU becomes the bottleneck as pixel count rises.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, which scores 37,507 (0.6% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A at 38,008 (1.9% higher). These deltas are marginal, suggesting the RTX 4070's real-world Thief performance is representative of its class, though the measured FPS data here is specific to this pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 1,642 tested combinations, this i5-13400F + RTX 4070 pairing ranks 356th in Thief. This places it in the top 21.7% of all tested configurations, a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the system's ability to maintain high frame rates across all resolutions, with the weakest result being 59.2 FPS at 4K High.

The combo's ranking is influenced by both components' synthetic performance. The CPU's 82nd percentile standing and the GPU's 81st percentile standing suggest balanced capabilities, though the GPU's 12 GB memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are more critical for Thief's visual fidelity than the CPU's 10 cores. The ranking indicates that this pairing outperforms the majority of systems, but it is not among the elite configurations that achieve 4K 120+ FPS in demanding titles.

Comparatively, the GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the RX Vega 56, MX570 A, and RTX 4080 Mobile—all score within 2.2% of the RTX 4070. This tight clustering suggests that systems using these GPUs with similar CPUs would likely rank closely in Thief, though the exact FPS would vary based on CPU and memory configurations. The CPU's nearest rival, the i7-13620H, scores 25,201, a 0.1% delta, indicating that swapping between these processors would yield negligible performance changes in Thief.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance. Low settings produce 180.4 FPS average, Medium reaches 159 FPS, High hits 146.7 FPS, and Ultra maintains 142.6 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 21% reduction, showing the GPU has ample headroom at this resolution. Even at Ultra, the frame rate exceeds 140 FPS, making 1080p gaming smooth on high-refresh-rate displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows more variation. Low settings yield 161.1 FPS, Medium drops to 134.1 FPS, High achieves 101.6 FPS, and Ultra sits at 95.3 FPS. The transition from Low to Ultra represents a 40.8% performance loss, indicating the GPU is working harder to fill the additional pixels. High and Ultra settings both remain above 95 FPS, which is comfortable for most gaming monitors.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limits become apparent. Low settings produce 103 FPS, Medium drops to 77.8 FPS, High falls to 59.2 FPS, and Ultra recovers slightly to 60.1 FPS. The non-linear scaling—where Ultra outperforms High by 0.9 FPS—suggests that certain High settings introduce inefficiencies that Ultra settings optimize or that the differences are within measurement variance. The 4K results show that 60 FPS is achievable at Ultra, but only barely, and High settings dip just below the 60 FPS threshold.

The data reveals that the RTX 4070 excels at 1080p and 1440p, where it consistently exceeds 95 FPS at all settings. At 4K, users must choose between Low (103 FPS) for high refresh rates or Ultra (60.1 FPS) for maximum visual quality, with Medium (77.8 FPS) offering a middle ground. The 12 GB VRAM is not the limiting factor here; rather, the GPU's raw compute power at 4K pixel counts drives the performance envelope.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides the computational foundation for this system, featuring 10 cores and 16 threads. This configuration—likely a mix of performance and efficiency cores—delivers strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21,279 and Geekbench multi-core score of 10,971. The CPU operates at a 2.50 GHz base clock and boosts to 4.60 GHz, with a 65 W TDP that keeps thermal demands modest.

In Thief, the CPU's role is less critical than the GPU, given the game's 2014 release date and the high frame rates observed. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the CPU must keep up with 180.4 FPS. The i5-13400F's single-thread performance—3,004 in Cinebench R23 and 3,634 in PassMark—ensures that game logic and draw calls are processed without bottlenecking the GPU. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide fast access to frequently used data, reducing latency in frame rendering.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are demonstrated in 3DMark tests: 7,314 with 16 threads and 7,307 at max threads, showing near-linear scaling. This indicates that Thief, which may use multiple threads for physics and AI, benefits from the 16-thread count. However, the 2-thread score of 1,880 and single-thread score of 960 in 3DMark show that the CPU's per-core performance is adequate but not exceptional, which is typical for a 13th-gen mid-range part.

The CPU's 82nd percentile ranking versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25,236, places it slightly above the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25,365, 0.5% higher) and the AMD EPYC 9474F (25,103, 0.5% lower). These rivals are within 0.5% of the i5-13400F, indicating that in CPU-bound scenarios, swapping among these processors would yield imperceptible differences. In Thief, where the GPU dominates at higher resolutions, the CPU's role diminishes further, but its strong single-thread performance ensures that even at 1080p Low, the system is not CPU-limited.