Thief

Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combine to land in the upper ranks for the 2014 stealth title Thief. The CPU sits at the 90th percentile of the processor database while the GPU holds the 69th percentile of GPUs, and measured frame rates show that the pair delivers from 53 to 210 FPS depending on resolution and preset. The data points to a combination that is heavily GPU-oriented at 4K, rarely CPU-bound at 1440p, and perhaps slightly over-provisioned at 1080p. The i5-14600K with its 14 cores, 20 threads, 3.50 GHz base and 5.30 GHz boost, paired with a 10 nm Raptor Lake architecture, is more than enough to feed the RDNA 4.0 RX 9070 in most of these frames.

Resolution Scaling

The measured results show a clear, uniform pattern: Thief on this combo scales down dramatically as resolution increases. At the Low preset, the average frame rate moves from 210 at 1920×1080 to 164 at 2560×1440 and then to 97 at 3840×2160. That is a large step from 1440p to 4K, roughly a two-thirds reduction in the final 1440p value, and it illustrates that the RX 9070 is doing most of the heavy lifting at those higher resolutions.

Intermediate presets show the same shape. Medium at 1080p runs at 182 FPS, drops to 125 at 1440p, and lands at 73 at 4K. The High setting compresses the range: 139 at 1080p, 95 at 1440p, and 56 at 4K. Ultra also goes from 132 at 1080p to 91 at 1440p and 53 at 4K, meaning that at 4K Ultra the average drops just over half the 1080p number. This is a sign of GPU throughput becoming the limiting factor; the i5-14600K's single-thread boost, measured at 5.30 GHz, is not constrained.

One interesting observation is that the frame count doesn't stabilize at 4K. The Ultra setting at 3840×2160 produces 53 average FPS, which is effectively the floor of the dataset, while Low at the same resolution reaches 97. That means there is roughly a 45% gap between the minimum and maximum settings at 4K, so the game's graphics pipeline still scales heavily with rendering cost at that resolution.

In summary, the scaling behavior indicates the RX 9070 is the component that defines the high-resolution experience. The CPU is never the barrier. At 1920×1080, even the heaviest preset reports 132 average FPS, leaving plenty of headroom in a runner.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured combo holds the 823rd position out of 3,720 CPU‑GPU combinations recorded for Thief. That places it in the top quarter of all tested set‑ups. The ranking comes from the interplay of a CPU with a 90th percentile standing among all processors and a GPU with a 69th percentile standing among all graphics cards, yet the overall record is still a solid upper position.

Look at the CPU's nearest rivals: the i5-14600K sits at an average benchmark score of 48,618, which is within about a percentage point of several close offerings. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H shows 48,698 (+0.2% relative delta), the AMD EPYC 4345P shows 48,470 (+0.3%), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX is 48,287 (+0.7%), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 comes at 48,995 (−0.8%). This CPU is effectively in a dead heat with a set of strong workstation and high‑end desktop parts.

On the GPU side, the RX 9070's average benchmark score is 23,877 and its direct rivals sit within ±1.2%: the GeForce GTX TITAN Z computes 23,736 (+0.6%), the RX 6800S 24,063 (−0.8%), the RTX 3080 Mobile 23,628 (+1.1%), and the RTX 2080 SUPER 24,170 (−1.2%). The low deviation between those numbers means the 9070 in Thief is performing near its expected regional position, but the measured FPS data actually puts the combo higher than the GPU's 69th percentile would suggest.

The rank of 823 indicates that this hardware does not merely punch at an average level; the high CPU headroom and the 16 GB VRAM capacity allow the RX 9070 to run almost unconstrained across the lower two resolutions. At 1080p it can produce far more FPS than a typical 1080p panel can show, and at 1440p it still hits comfortable rates. The 4K result, meanwhile, still stays above the playable edge for a 2014 title but does edge below 60 at the most taxing presets.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 brings a fully matching spec for this (mostly) GPU-bound workload. It uses RDNA 4.0 architecture on a 4 nm node with 53,900 million transistors, 3,584 shading units, 224 texture units, and 128 ROPs. The SMEM clock runs at a game clock of 2070 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz, which gives healthy high frequency for a 2014 engine. The card is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256‑bit interface, for a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. That data rate is directly relevant: Thief has many assets loaded at 4K, and the bandwidth is enough to keep the GPU's compute units busy.

Looking at the measured FPS pattern: at 1080p Medium the frame rate reaches 182, which suggests the pixel fill and texture rate (322.6 GPixel/s, 564.5 GTexel/s) are far above what the scene demands. At 4K Ultra the average is 53, indicating the raw shading load at that resolution becomes the bottleneck. The 4K Medium row includes a recorded minimum of 62 FPS and maximum of 84, which tells a more consistent story than the Ultra preset; the frame time support is still good.

The RX 9070 is also not challenged on memory capacity. Thief with all textures at 4K fits easily inside 16 GB. The total use of the bus is not shown, but the measured levels suggest that the GPU is never outside its memory budget, so the row boundaries are not an issue.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The table below shows the complete measured FPS for each resolution and preset combination. Note that the min and max figures were only recorded for the Medium settings in each resolution.

| Resolution | Preset | Average | Min | Max |

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

| 1920×1080 | Low | 210 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | Medium | 182 | 155 | 209 |

| 1920×1080 | High | 139 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | Ultra | 132 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Low | 164 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Medium | 125 | 106 | 144 |

| 2560×1440 | High | 95 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Ultra | 91 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Low | 97 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Medium | 73 | 62 | 84 |

| 3840×2160 | High | 56 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Ultra | 53 | – | – |

At 1080p the Low preset produces an average of 210, which is already beyond most high‑refresh monitors’ limits; the Medium preset at 182 also stays above a 144 Hz window. High and Ultra both show 139 and 132 respectively, making 1080p perfectly capable of maintaining high refresh rates with full visual options.

Stepping to 1440p the numbers stay very strong: Low 164, Medium 125, High 95, Ultra 91. For a 2014 title, even 4K on Ultra remains playable, though at 53 it may drop below 60‑class target for some playback. The 4K Low row does offer 97; however, the visual trade‑off is severe.

The measured min‑max for Medium at 1440p (106–144) is notable. That spread of the min level is still respectably high, ensuring that nothing dips below the 100 FPS line. 4K Medium has a 62–84 min–max, with an average of 73, which is a smooth and stable operating point.

Overall, the FPS numbers show a combination that can handle Thief with high quality at 1080p/1440p, and is able to keep it playable at 4K only by dropping to Medium or Low.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS that this combination produces in Thief?*

A: The highest recorded average is 1920×1080 at Low with 210 FPS. The Medium and High presets at 1080p still deliver 182 and 139 average FPS respectively.

Q: Can it hold a 60 FPS target at 4K Ultra?

A: No. At 3840×2160 with Ultra settings, the average is 53 and the minimum is not 60. To reach a solid 60+ performance at 4K, the Medium preset averages 73 and has a minimum of 62, which is the best option for a stable 60 FPS at that resolution.

Q: How does the combo rank against other CPU‑GPU pairs in the database?

A: The configuration ranks 823rd among 3,720 tested combinations for the game. Only a high percentile of tested mixes outperform it, along with the CPU’s 90th percentile and the GPU’s 69th percentile rankings.

Q: Is the performance limited by the CPU or the GPU?

A: The GPU is the limiting component. The i5-14600K runs at a 5.30 GHz boost across 20 threads, and the measured FPS scales directly with the GPU load. For instance, at 1080p Low exactly 210 FPS is high but the 4K result for the same preset is 97, showing GPU rather than CPU capable.

Q: How close is the RX 9070 to its closest GPU rivals based on the overall hardware score?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 23,877 is very near that of the GeForce GTX TITAN Z (23,736, +0.6%), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S (24,063, −0.8%), the GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (23,628, +1.1%), and the RTX 2080 SUPER (24,170, −1.2%).

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