Thief

# Thief — Intel Core i5-14600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers a striking performance envelope in Thief, a 2014 stealth title that clearly scales well with modern hardware. Across the twelve measured configurations spanning three resolutions and four quality presets, this combo produces average frame rates from 71.3 FPS at 4K Ultra to 211.3 FPS at 1080p Low. The data reveals a system that is remarkably consistent in its behavior: the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution drops, while the absolute frame rates remain high enough that even the most demanding preset at 4K stays comfortably above 60 FPS. The measured results are entirely empirical, and the pattern they show is one of a GPU-bound experience at higher resolutions, with the CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads providing ample headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K exposes a clear GPU-centric scaling pattern. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 172.9 at 1920x1080 to 128.7 at 2560x1440, then falls further to 73.7 at 3840x2160. That represents a 57.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a substantial hit that indicates the RTX 4080 SUPER is doing progressively heavier lifting as pixel count rises. The Low preset tells a similar story but with a different slope: 211.3 FPS at 1080p falls to 184 at 1440p, then to 130.2 at 4K — a 38.4% drop from 1080p to 4K. Interestingly, the percentage decline is smaller for Low settings, suggesting that at lower quality levels, the CPU begins to play a more significant role in limiting performance, particularly at 1080p where the 211.3 FPS figure approaches what a single-threaded game engine might cap.

The Medium preset shows the steepest relative decline from 1080p to 1440p, going from 189.6 to 166.3 FPS (a 12.3% drop), but then a more moderate fall to 100.5 at 4K (a 39.5% drop from 1080p). Ultra, meanwhile, behaves almost identically to High in terms of scaling: 169.8 at 1080p, 124.4 at 1440p, 71.3 at 4K. This similarity between High and Ultra across resolutions suggests that the additional graphical features enabled by Ultra are not disproportionately taxing the GPU at higher resolutions — the bottleneck shifts uniformly. The data implies that at 4K, the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are being utilized heavily, while at 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the CPU's single-thread performance (a Geekbench single-core score of 2803) becomes the more relevant constraint.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 4K, the choice between High and Ultra is nearly a wash in terms of visual fidelity per frame. High produces 73.7 FPS, while Ultra delivers 71.3 FPS — a difference of just 3.3% — which is negligible for a stealth game where smoothness matters more than absolute frame rates. However, the Medium preset at 4K jumps to 100.5 FPS, a 36.3% improvement over Ultra, and this is likely the sweet spot for 4K displays with 60 Hz or 120 Hz refresh rates. The data suggests that Medium at 4K offers the best balance, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while preserving enough visual detail for a game that relies on shadow and lighting cues inherent to the stealth genre.

At 1440p, the situation changes. High hits 128.7 FPS, and Medium reaches 166.3 FPS, while Ultra stays at 124.4 FPS. The jump from Ultra to Medium is 33.7%, which is substantial, and for 1440p monitors with high refresh rates, Medium or High are the sensible picks. Low at 1440p yields 184 FPS, but that preset likely sacrifices too much environmental detail for a game where observing sightlines and enemy patterns is critical. At 1080p, the story is different: even Ultra achieves 169.8 FPS, so players with 1080p displays can safely max out settings without worrying about frame rate drops — the 211.3 FPS Low figure is more of a theoretical ceiling than a practical target. Across all resolutions, the data indicates that High is a robust default, but Medium offers the most headroom for high-refresh-rate displays.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this combo, and its specifications align well with the measured results. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the card delivers 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Thief's 2014-era textures and geometry. The boost clock of 2550 MHz and 10240 shading units provide the raw compute (52.22 TFLOPS FP32) needed to push 4K frame rates, and the data confirms this: at 4K Ultra, the card still manages 71.3 FPS, which is respectable for a game from that era. The pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s are high enough that neither fill-rate nor texture throughput appears to be a limiting factor in the measured results.

The GPU's performance relative to its peers reinforces its standing. Its average benchmark score of 53610 places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, scores 53489 — a delta of just 0.2%. This near-tie in synthetic benchmarks translates to the real-world game data, where the RTX 4080 SUPER's frame rates are consistently high across all settings. The 16 GB memory capacity is notable because Thief, even at 4K Ultra, is unlikely to exceed 8 GB of VRAM usage, leaving plenty of headroom for texture mods or higher resolutions. The card's end-of-life production status and release date of January 2024 suggest it is a mature product, and the measured FPS data reflects a stable, well-optimized driver stack.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest frame rates across all presets. Low averages 211.3 FPS, Medium 189.6 FPS, High 172.9 FPS, and Ultra 169.8 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 41.5 FPS, or 19.6% of the Low figure, which indicates that even at 1080p, the graphics settings have a meaningful impact on performance. The gap between High and Ultra is just 3.1 FPS (1.8%), suggesting that Ultra's additional effects are cheap to render at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show more differentiation. Low leads with 184 FPS, followed by Medium at 166.3 FPS, High at 128.7 FPS, and Ultra at 124.4 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread widens to 59.6 FPS (32.4% of Low), and the Medium-to-High gap grows to 37.6 FPS, which is a significant jump. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is starting to feel the load from higher-quality shadows and lighting, but the 4080 SUPER still has plenty of headroom.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates cluster more tightly. Medium produces 100.5 FPS, High 73.7 FPS, and Ultra 71.3 FPS, while Low reaches 130.2 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 58.9 FPS (45.2% of Low), and the High-to-Ultra difference is just 2.4 FPS. The Medium-to-High gap is 26.8 FPS, which is the largest single-step drop in the entire dataset, indicating that High settings introduce a significant rendering cost at 4K. Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low is always the fastest, Medium offers a substantial step up in quality, High and Ultra are nearly identical, and the RTX 4080 SUPER never dips below 71 FPS in any measured configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 61st out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 3.7% of all systems. This is a strong showing, especially considering the game's age and the fact that many newer titles might favor more recent hardware. The rank reflects the combo's ability to maintain high frame rates across all settings, and the data suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER's 88th percentile GPU score, combined with the i5-14600K's 93rd percentile CPU score, creates a balanced system that performs well in this title.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context for its contribution. The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X scores 49062, a delta of 0.2% from the i5-14600K's 49166 average benchmark score, while the Intel Core i5-14600KF scores 49367, a -0.4% delta. These near-ties mean that the CPU choice is unlikely to be the differentiating factor in Thief's frame rates — the GPU does the heavy lifting. The GPU's nearest rivals similarly show tight competition: the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is just 0.2% behind, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti trails by 2.9%. This suggests that swapping in a different high-end GPU would produce similar results, but the 4080 SUPER's combination of memory bandwidth and shading units gives it a slight edge in this particular game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Thief?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 211.3, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest is 71.3 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How much does resolution affect performance at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 172.9 at 1080p to 128.7 at 1440p, then to 73.7 at 4K. This represents a 57.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER's VRAM sufficient for Thief?

A: Yes, the 16 GB GDDR6X memory is more than adequate. The game from 2014 is unlikely to exceed 8 GB even at 4K Ultra, so the 4080 SUPER has ample headroom.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 61st out of 1642 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the top 3.7% of all systems tested.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, High averages 73.7 FPS while Ultra averages 71.3 FPS, a difference of just 2.4 FPS (3.3%). The visual difference may not justify the slight performance cost.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests minimal CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, the 211.3 FPS figure approaches single-thread limits, but the i5-14600K's Geekbench single-core score of 2803 indicates strong per-core performance that keeps up with the GPU's output.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K plays a supporting but essential role in this combo. With 14 cores (a mix of performance and efficiency cores) and 20 threads, the CPU provides more than enough parallelism for Thief's threads. The base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz are critical for the game's single-threaded rendering logic, and the measured frame rates at 1080p Low (211.3 FPS) suggest that the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently even at high frame rates. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for a game that relies on frequent draw calls and AI updates.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark scores reinforce its capability. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32881 and single-core score of 4642 are strong, and its average benchmark score of 49166 places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, scores 49062 (a 0.2% delta), meaning the i5-14600K is effectively tied with a high-end 16-core part. In Thief, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where frame rates exceed 180 FPS — at 1080p Low and Medium, the GPU is not the primary constraint, and the CPU's ability to maintain high draw call throughput becomes the limiting factor. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make it a mainstream choice, and its 14 cores ensure that background tasks won't interfere with game performance. The data indicates that this CPU is not a bottleneck in Thief, even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly the dominant component.