Thief

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 lands at rank 1347 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief. That places this configuration in the bottom 18% of all tested systems, a decidedly lower-tier position for a game from 2014. The data shows a substantial gap to the top of the field, but the ranking reflects the age of the GPU more than the CPU. The RTX 2060 sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, meaning nearly half of all tested graphics cards outperform it. The i5-14400F, by contrast, is a strong modern processor at the 88th percentile among all CPUs. This is a combo where the processor has far more headroom than the graphics card can use in Thief.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks illustrate its standing: the Intel Core i7-12800H scores essentially identically (0% delta), while the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 trails by a negligible 0.2%. The AMD Ryzen 7 250 and Intel Core i7-13705H both lead by only 0.2%. These are all close calls, confirming the i5-14400F is a well-balanced mid-range processor. The GPU's rivals tell a similar story of tight competition: the AMD Radeon RX 7600S is 0.5% behind, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 both lead by 1.7%. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 1.8%. For Thief specifically, this combo's low rank indicates that the RTX 2060's older Turing architecture is the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions and settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 brings 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock runs at 1365 MHz with a boost up to 1680 MHz, and the memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The GPU packs 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs, along with 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores. Its FP32 throughput is 6.451 TFLOPS, and it renders at 80.64 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s. The card is built on TSMC's 12 nm process with 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die.

In Thief, the GPU's role becomes clear when looking at the measured FPS across settings. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 144.7 FPS, which drops to 75.7 FPS at Ultra — a 47.7% reduction. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 29.4 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for Thief's 2014-era textures, but the raw compute power of the TU106 chip limits performance at higher settings. The RTX 2060's 58th percentile standing among all GPUs means it is a middle-of-the-pack card, and Thief's results reflect that: playable at 1080p with room to spare, but struggling at 4K. The GPU's 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are irrelevant for Thief, which predates ray tracing and DLSS, so the card's traditional rasterization performance is what matters here.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo playable at 1080p Ultra in Thief?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 75.7 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

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

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the sweet spot. At High settings, it averages 54.1 FPS, and at Low it reaches 99.5 FPS. The 1440p Medium setting hits 74.7 FPS, which balances visual quality and performance.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K in Thief?

A: Only at Low settings, where it averages 58.2 FPS. At Medium, it drops to 44.6 FPS, at High to 34.9 FPS, and at Ultra to 29.4 FPS. For 4K, you would need to stick to Low settings or lower the resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600S is 0.5% behind the RTX 2060 in average benchmark score, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 both lead by 1.7%. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 1.8%. These are all close, but the RTX 2060 holds a slight edge over most of them.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Thief?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The i5-14400F ranks at the 88th percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 2060 sits at the 58th percentile among GPUs. The FPS drops significantly as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU bottlenecking.

Q: What is the CPU's performance relative to its rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-12800H matches it exactly (0% delta), while the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 is 0.2% behind. The AMD Ryzen 7 250 and Intel Core i7-13705H both lead by 0.2%. The i5-14400F is essentially tied with all four rivals.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers strong results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 144.7 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings drop to 107.9 FPS, still very smooth. High settings yield 82.8 FPS, and Ultra settings bring the average down to 75.7 FPS. All four 1080p configurations are playable, with even the most demanding setting staying well above 60 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings average 99.5 FPS, which remains excellent. Medium settings hit 74.7 FPS, still smooth. High settings average 54.1 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. Ultra settings drop to 52.5 FPS, hovering near the edge of smoothness. The 1440p results show that this combo can handle the resolution with settings turned down, but Ultra is borderline.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2060 begins to struggle. Low settings average 58.2 FPS, which is playable. Medium settings drop to 44.6 FPS, High to 34.9 FPS, and Ultra to 29.4 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is below 30 FPS, making it unsuitable for serious gameplay. The data clearly shows that 4K is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the frame rate is not high. This breakdown highlights the GPU's limits as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 144.7 at 1080p to 99.5 at 1440p (a 31.2% drop) and then to 58.2 at 4K (a 59.8% drop from 1440p). At High settings, the progression is 82.8 FPS at 1080p, 54.1 FPS at 1440p, and 34.9 FPS at 4K — a 57.9% total reduction from 1080p to 4K. Ultra settings show a similar pattern: 75.7 FPS at 1080p, 52.5 FPS at 1440p, and 29.4 FPS at 4K, a 61.2% drop overall.

This scaling behavior is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's performance does not degrade with resolution, so the consistent FPS drops across all settings point squarely at the RTX 2060. The i5-14400F has more than enough headroom to feed the GPU at 1080p, but as pixel count increases, the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth become the limiting factor. The 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth and 6.451 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput are simply not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K in Thief. The data suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo, with 1080p being the optimal resolution for high-refresh-rate play.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode, and it offers PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes from the CPU. The processor's launch MSRP is $196.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-14400F scores 21914 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3093 in single-core. Its Geekbench scores are 11209 multi-core and 2333 single-core. The PassMark multi-thread score is 25783, with a single-thread score of 3723. These numbers place the CPU at the 88th percentile among all processors, confirming its strong mid-range positioning. In Thief, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 144.7 FPS, which indicates the CPU can handle high frame rates. The fact that FPS drops consistently as resolution increases, rather than fluctuating due to CPU limits, confirms that the i5-14400F is not the constraint in this system.

The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 0.2% of it, making the i5-14400F a well-matched competitor in its class. Its 10 cores and 16 threads provide ample processing power for Thief's AI and physics, which are not demanding by modern standards. The 20 MB of L3 cache helps with game data locality, and the 4.70 GHz boost clock ensures responsive single-threaded performance. For a game like Thief, the CPU is more than sufficient, and the data shows that the RTX 2060 is the component that holds this combo back from higher rankings.