Thief

The Intel Core i5-14600K (launch MSRP $319) paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (launch MSRP 379 USD) delivers a measured performance profile in Thief that is heavily influenced by resolution and graphics settings. The data set includes average FPS at three resolutions and four quality presets, with no minimum or maximum frame times recorded. This combination ranks 1135th out of 1642 tested combos, placing it in the lower half of the field despite the CPU’s strong individual standing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS across resolutions reveals a clear GPU-bound trend. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 91.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 61.5 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 38.5 FPS at 3840x2160. The decline is consistent, though the absolute reduction between 1080p and 1440p (29.6 FPS) is larger than between 1440p and 4K (23.0 FPS). This pattern suggests that the RX 6600 XT’s rendering capacity is the primary constraint as pixel count increases.

Low settings show a similar scaling curve but with higher absolute values: 153.6 FPS at 1080p, 107.6 FPS at 1440p, and 62.5 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result remains above 60 FPS, indicating that the game is playable at that resolution when visual quality is reduced. Medium settings produce 116.6 FPS at 1080p, 82.5 FPS at 1440p, and 48.9 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings yield the lowest numbers: 85.8 FPS at 1080p, 61.3 FPS at 1440p, and 37.3 FPS at 4K.

The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial. At 1080p, the difference is 67.8 FPS (153.6 vs. 85.8); at 1440p, it is 46.3 FPS (107.6 vs. 61.3); at 4K, it is 25.2 FPS (62.5 vs. 37.3). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the workload—when the GPU is already saturated, reducing settings has less impact.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock is 1968 MHz, with a game clock of 2359 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz. It contains 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. These specifications are directly relevant to Thief’s performance, as the game’s rendering load scales with resolution and settings.

The GPU’s average benchmark score is 27985, placing it in the 71st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (27956, 0.1% delta), AMD Radeon R9 M395X (27883, 0.4% delta), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (28238, -0.9% delta), and AMD FirePro S7150 (28409, -1.5% delta). These comparisons show that the RX 6600 XT sits in a performance band where small differences separate it from both older and newer cards.

In Thief, the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for the tested configurations, as no memory-related stutter or frame drops are indicated in the average FPS data. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for the game’s texture and geometry loads, even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS falls to 37.3. The boost clock of 2589 MHz is the highest operational frequency, and the measured results suggest that the GPU is running near its thermal and power limits under load, given the consistent scaling pattern.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 1135th out of 1642 tested combos in Thief. This places it in the lower third of the field, with 507 combos performing worse and 1134 performing better. The CPU alone is in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49166. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49062, 0.2% delta), Intel Core i5-14600KF (49367, -0.4% delta), AMD EPYC 4345P (49595, -0.9% delta), and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698, 1% delta). The GPU’s percentile is 71, with an average score of 27985.

The disparity between the CPU’s high percentile and the combo’s low rank indicates that Thief is not CPU-limited in this configuration. The i5-14600K’s 14 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, provide ample headroom for the game’s logic and physics. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling and the fact that the combo rank is far below what the CPU alone would suggest. In a title like Thief, which is a 2014 stealth game, the rendering pipeline is likely to be more dependent on the graphics card than on the processor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists all measured average FPS values from the FACT PACK. No minimum or maximum frame rates were recorded.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

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

| 3840x2160 | High | 38.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 62.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 48.9 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 37.3 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 61.5 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 107.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 82.5 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 61.3 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 91.1 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 153.6 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 116.6 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 85.8 |

At 1080p, all settings exceed 85 FPS, with Low reaching 153.6 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium stay above 80 FPS, while High and Ultra hover near 61 FPS. At 4K, only Low achieves a playable 62.5 FPS; Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below 50 FPS, with Ultra at 37.3 FPS. These numbers provide a clear picture of the combo’s capabilities: it is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but 4K requires significant settings reductions to maintain smooth frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p Ultra?

A: The average FPS is 85.8.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combos in Thief?

A: It ranks 1135th out of 1642 combos.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory size and type?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Q: What is the CPU’s boost clock?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K has a boost clock of 5.30 GHz.

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Low?

A: The average FPS is 62.5.

Q: What is the GPU’s boost clock?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT has a boost clock of 2589 MHz.