Thief

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Thief shows a clear, predictable drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 139.7 FPS at 1080p to 96.5 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 55.2 FPS at 4K. This represents a 38.3% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 42.8% drop from 1440p to 4K, showing that the GPU becomes progressively more stressed as pixel count rises.

The pattern holds across all four settings presets. At High settings, the transition from 1080p (144.9 FPS) to 1440p (101.3 FPS) costs 43.6 FPS, while moving to 4K (61.4 FPS) costs another 39.9 FPS. Low settings show the largest absolute numbers, starting at 206.5 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 175.2 FPS at 1440p, and settling at 99.7 FPS at 4K. Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 187.8 FPS, 132.3 FPS, and 78.3 FPS respectively.

The scaling behavior indicates that Thief is heavily GPU-bound at 4K, especially at Ultra where the frame rate dips below 60 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 44.5 FPS, while the same comparison at 1080p yields 66.8 FPS — the wider spread at lower resolutions suggests the CPU has headroom to feed the GPU, but at 4K the GPU's workload dominates and compresses the differences. The Intel Core i5-14600KF with 14 cores and 20 threads, boosting to 5.30 GHz, provides enough processing power that it does not appear to be the limiting factor at any tested resolution; the data points to the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT as the primary constraint when pixel count climbs.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting smooth gameplay at 3840x2160, the measured data shows that High settings deliver 61.4 FPS average, which is the only preset at 4K that remains above the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra at 4K drops to 55.2 FPS, a 10.1% reduction from High, while Medium produces 78.3 FPS and Low reaches 99.7 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 6.2 FPS at 4K, suggesting diminishing returns for the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, all four presets remain comfortably playable. Ultra averages 96.5 FPS, High delivers 101.3 FPS, Medium hits 132.3 FPS, and Low reaches 175.2 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 4.8 FPS, making Ultra a reasonable choice for users with 144Hz displays. At 1920x1080, the story is similar — every preset exceeds 139 FPS, with Ultra at 139.7 FPS and Low at 206.5 FPS, so even the most demanding setting provides a high-refresh experience.

The data suggests that High is the optimal balance for 4K, as it maintains 60 FPS while offering substantially better fidelity than Medium. For 1440p, Ultra is viable without sacrificing frame rate, and at 1080p, users can choose based on display refresh rate — Ultra still delivers 139.7 FPS, which suits most monitors. Medium at 4K provides a 27.5% improvement over High (78.3 vs 61.4 FPS) and could be preferred for competitive play, but High appears to be the sweet spot for visual quality per measured frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 1660 MHz, with a boost clock of 2970 MHz and a game clock rated at 2400 MHz. Memory operates at 2518 MHz, effective 20.1 Gbps.

In Thief, the GPU's role is clearly dominant. The benchmark results show that 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 scores 7260, while Geekbench OpenCL scores 160317 and Vulkan scores 184026. The PassMark G3D score of 26795 and GPU compute score of 15864 further characterize the card's capabilities. The GPU sits at the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39647. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (deltaPct -0.1), NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (deltaPct 0.2), AMD Radeon Pro 575X (deltaPct -0.5), and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (deltaPct -0.6), indicating very close overall performance parity despite architectural differences.

The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is more than sufficient for Thief, a game released in 2014, and the measured frame rates do not suggest any memory-related bottlenecks at any resolution or settings level. The 128 ROPs and 256 TMUs provide the pixel and texture throughput needed to sustain the observed FPS, and the boost clock of 2970 MHz helps maintain performance under sustained load. The GPU's pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s align with the frame rates observed, particularly at 4K where fill-rate demands are highest.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT ranks 263rd out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 16% of all configurations. This is a strong result, given the age of the game and the modern hardware pairing. The CPU's percentile ranking against all CPUs is 93, while the GPU's percentile is 82, suggesting the processor is relatively more powerful than the graphics card within their respective pools.

The combo rank of 263 out of 1642 indicates that 1379 other configurations performed worse in this game, while 262 performed better. This places the pairing in the upper echelon of tested systems, consistent with the high frame rates observed across all resolutions. The CPU's average benchmark score of 49367, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i5-14600K (deltaPct 0.4), AMD EPYC 4345P (deltaPct -0.5), AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (deltaPct 0.6), and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (deltaPct 1.4), shows that the processor is competitive with top-tier alternatives. The GPU's average score of 39647 places it near the AMD Radeon Pro 575 and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile, with deltas under 0.6%.

The measured data confirms that this combo delivers playable frame rates even at the most demanding settings and resolution, with 4K Ultra averaging 55.2 FPS and 4K High at 61.4 FPS. The rank reflects a balanced pairing where neither component severely bottlenecks the other, though the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF features 14 cores (6 performance and 8 efficiency) and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It belongs to the Raptor Lake architecture, specifically Raptor Lake-R, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. The L3 cache is 24 MB shared, with 2 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode and has a TDP of 125 watts.

In Thief, the CPU's contribution is evident in the high frame rates at lower resolutions where GPU load is lighter. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 206.5 FPS, which requires sufficient single-thread performance to drive the game logic and draw calls. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score is 4643, and multi-core is 32889, while Geekbench single-core scores 2778 and multi-core 15636. PassMark single-thread scores 4273, and multi-thread 38697. These figures indicate strong per-core performance that Thief, as a 2014 title, likely relies upon more than multi-threading.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Core i5-14600K (deltaPct 0.4), AMD EPYC 4345P (deltaPct -0.5), AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (deltaPct 0.6), and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (deltaPct 1.4), showing that the 14600KF is within 1.4% of these alternatives in average benchmark score. The 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects its strong overall position. PassMark data compression scores 485140, encryption 27608, extended instructions 28785, floating point math 93048, integer math 125982, physics 2449, and random string sorting 52056, all indicating robust computational capability.

The fact that at 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 206.5 FPS and remains above 139 FPS on Ultra suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck in Thief. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 66.8 FPS, which is almost entirely attributable to GPU load changes, not CPU limitations. The CPU's boost clock of 5.30 GHz provides the high single-thread performance needed for older game engines, and the 20 threads ensure no shortage of processing capacity for background tasks.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate measured for this combo in Thief?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 206.5 at 1920x1080 with Low settings, followed by 187.8 at Medium and 175.2 at 1440p Low.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra in Thief?

A: No. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 55.2, which falls below 60 FPS. High settings at 4K achieve 61.4 FPS, so dropping from Ultra to High is sufficient to cross the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49367, which is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K (49166), 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49062), and 1.4% higher than the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698). The AMD EPYC 4345P scores 49595, which is 0.5% higher than the 14600KF.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking and average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT ranks at the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39647. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 575, scores 39703, a delta of -0.1%.

Q: What frame rate difference exists between High and Ultra at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings average 101.3 FPS while Ultra averages 96.5 FPS, a difference of 4.8 FPS. This is the smallest gap between High and Ultra across all tested resolutions.

Q: How many total combos were tested, and where does this pairing rank?

A: This combo ranks 263rd out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 84th percentile of all tested configurations for this game.