Thief

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT produces a striking profile in Thief (2014). For a stealth action title of that era, the instrumentation here covers four presets and three resolutions, from 1080p Low (119 FPS) down to 4K Ultra (34 FPS). The dataset is measured, not estimated, and the combo sits at rank 2842 of 3720 tested combinations. Thief’s built-in benchmark responds predictably to resolution changes, but the way preset levels interact with each resolution reveals both the strengths and the boundaries of this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

At 1920x1080, the average FPS for Low is 119, Medium 107, High 90, and Ultra 85. That would push well past 75 Hz for most displays. The variations look modest: only a 26 FPS drop between Low and Ultra. The real action is in the resolution climb.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 105 FPS, Medium 81, High 62, and Ultra 59. These numbers maintain 1080p’s relative order, though High and Ultra both fall below the 60 FPS threshold. The 1440p Ultra figure of 59 is the first noticeable step below playable-on-a-60Hz-screens, and 1440p High (62) is just above it.

Moving to 3840x2160 changes the picture entirely. The average values are Low 63, Medium 48, High 36, and Ultra 34. Compare that to 1080p: Low 119 FPS, Medium 107. The 4K Low average of 63 is roughly half the 1080p Low average, while 4K High (36) is 40% of the 1080p High (90). This is a 71% decline in FPS from 1080p High to 4K High. By contrast, a pure CPU limited scenario wouldn’t create that large a gap between 1080p and 4K across all settings.

The intermediate step tells the same story: from 1080p High to 1440p High (90→62), and from 1440p High to 4K High (62→36). There’s a clear, monotonically decreasing trend with resolution while the game is set to High. Low 1440p (105) drops from Low 1080p (119), and Low 4K (63) drops from Low 1440p (105). The relative consistency across all three resolutions — the order between Low and Ultra always holds — points to a GPU-bound scenario. The only exception is the 1080p Ultra/High pair, where High (90) and Ultra (85) sit close, implying that the CPU might be starting to feel the pressure at 1080p when the GPU still has headroom.

The data therefore suggests: at 1080p the combo is heavily GPU-limited; at 4K the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with CPU resources not being a constraint until settings drop so low that the GPU has minimal work. The biggest jump is low→medium in 4K (63 to 48), a 15 FPS gap, while the smallest gap is between Ultra and High at 4K (34 vs 36). That pattern points to the shader and pixel throughput limits of the RX 6600 XT, which we will detail next.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake part with 6 cores and 6 threads. Its base clock is 2.9 GHz, boost up to 4.1 GHz; 9 MB of shared L2 cache; it supports DDR4 memory on a dual-channel bus. The integrated graphics (UHD 630) are irrelevant for the tested scenario. In Thief, which rarely pushes beyond a few cores, the 9400’s single-core capability matters more than its thread count.

Data from CPU benchmarks in the fact pack show the i5-9400 in relative terms. In Cinebench R23 it scores 6629 multi-core and 935 single-core. The single-core result is at the 47th percentile relative to all CPUs, and the multi-core score puts it at the same percentile. Such percentile positions indicate a mid-range part that is neither top-tier nor budget. Geekbench results follow: multi 5141, single 1389.

The nearest CPU rivals in the archive, measured by average bench score, are Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avgScore 2259, delta -0.2%), Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, delta +0.3%), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4%), and Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, -0.4%). The differences between them are tiny — under one percent in either direction. That means the i5-9400 is well within an important neighborhood of six-core chips without any significant single-thread advantage or deficit.

Thief places most of the work on one or two threads for AI and game logic. The boost clock of 4.1 GHz is enough for the game’s 2014-era code. The highest FPS observed in this dataset is 119 at 1080p Low, which suggests that the CPU cannot push past 120 FPS in this title, but it can sustain a respectable average frame rate under low GPU load. At 1080p High, the CPU is certainly not slacking — the bottleneck is the GPU. In fact, the gap between High and Ultra at 1080p (90→85) is smaller than the gap between High and Medium (90→107, so a 27 FPS difference), which indicates the game’s shadow and draw distance settings at High/Ultra are already over the GPU threshold.

In summary, the i5-9400 has enough single-core boost to hold a stable 60+ FPS in Thief at all tested resolutions when the GPU is not the limiting factor. The CPU’s homogeneous six-core configuration is sufficient, but not go-div on. It doesn’t have a clear win over any of its listed rivals; the delta values cover a tight 0.8% span. The biggest constraint is not core count, but the GPU, which is the latter limb of the system.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is a Navi 23 chip built on a 7 nm process, with the RDNA 2.0 architecture. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its shading units total 2048, TMUs are 128, and ROPs are 64. It also has 32 ray accelerating units. The clock speeds are reasonably aggressive: game clock 2359 MHz, boost amounts to 2589 MHz.

The GPU sits at the 70th percentile relative to all GPUs in the database. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1804 points, which is not a great number, reflecting perhaps a modest low-level DirectLink result. Passmark G3D is more substantial: 16461, and the GPU computes 7520. The nearest rivals in the archive are: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (avgScore 24277, +0.7%), Intel Arc A350M (24647, -0.8%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (24236, +0.8%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24170, +1.1%). The deltaPct is extremely tight, meaning the 6600 XT’s raw compute abstraction is not far from other x-era cards, although the bandwidth and memory interface differ.

In Thief, the 6600 XT displays its VRAM advantage. At 4K, the High preset (36 FPS) demands more than 48 FPS at Medium, and the 6600 XT clearly lacks the fill-ray necessary for full 4K ultra. The RX 6600 XT has a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s; it is the limit at 4K, not the CPU. The drop from 4K Medium (48, with min 40, max 55) to 4K High (36 FPS) for a single setting increase indicates significant bind, likely due to larger texture/geometry budgets. The min FPS at 4K Medium is 40, which is below the 48 average, suggesting a few heavy scenes. In contrast, 1080p Ultra (85 FPS) uses less VRAM and is easily handled.

The GPU's 8 GB frame buffer is fine for this 2014 game at all tested settings, since the game was designed for less. But the real limit is raw fillrate and shader throughput. The 6600 XT is a mid-generation graphics card that sits at a stable middle: it can do 1440p High at 62 FPS with average exactly near the 60 mark. It does not make 1440p Ultra comfortable (59 FPS) but it is playable. It simply isn’t enough for smooth 4K beyond Low. This aligns with its position in the relative modern GPU hierarchy, where its memory bus is narrow (128-bit), and its bandwidth is moderate.

The data shows that the RX 6600 XT is the single main bottleneck when scaling resolution in Thief. At 1080p, the GPU’s frame output is already high enough that the CPU’s borderline, but as you move to 1440p and 4K, the GPU’s fill rate is exhausted. This helps identify Thief as a GPU-bound title for this setup — at least in the higher preset ranges.

How This Combo Ranks

In the collection of 3720 tested CPU-GPU combinations for Thief, this CPU-GPU pair occupies rank 2842. That puts it , i.e., it is better than roughly 23% of all tested combos (878 combos below it). This is not a sturdy position. The rank is driven by the fact that this CPU is mid-and it’s paired with a GPU that is in the 70th percentile overall — a good-for-its-gen power pairing for a game from 2014, but Thief is not a great stress test because even the entry-level cards can do 60 FPS at 1440p. The combo ranking is thus low because the hardware is middle-class. In this light, the GPU’s extra performance isn’t used to a bigger advantage: 1440p Ultra gets 58 FPS, 1080p Ultra 85 FPS, but those high frames are not that distinct.

The i5-9360 is at the 47th percentile, and the 6600 XT is at the 70th percentile. The product of the two percentiles is low compared to higher-ranked pairs (e.g., a modern 8-core and a high-end GPU would place much higher). In Thief, which is a single-scene game, the CPU is enough to keep up, but not to push into the top rank. If the game were heavily multithreaded, the 6-core at the ~47th percentile would drag the combo down further. The 6600 XT’s 70th needs 933% of the GPU to give a relevant tune, but the card’s main shortcoming (narrow memory bus) doesn’t affect Thief as much as it does other titles.

So this combo ranks 2842/3720, which is the 76th percentile of “bottom performers.” The data shows that the best possible placement for this CPU would be with a more powerful GPU that doesn’t exist in this test context; for the GPU, a better CPU would give a marginal boost only at 1080p where CPU limit starts. Combined, it’s a modest pairing.

Settings Recommendations

Which preset gives the best experience? This depends on the intended refresh rate and resolution.

For 1080p (the go-to resolution for anything): All settings are above 85 FPS. For a 144 Hz monitor, Low (119) or Medium (107) - the CPU won’t exceed 120, so the effective cap is ~119. For a 100 Hz screen, Medium is good enough, and High (90) is still fine. Ultra (85) is borderline, but the most visually complete. The data likely says that the gap between High (90) and Ultra (85) is only 5 FPS; taking Ultra costs you 5 frames from High but adds a visual step. Medium is the “sweet” if you want to allow for other general frame drops: at 107 FPS with min of 91 and max 124, it holds well above 60.

• For 2560x1440:

Medium (81) and High (62) are above 60. Ultra is 59 — not quite 60, but certainly close. The jump from High to Ultra (62 to 59) is 3 FPS, not a notable change. Low is well above (105) but Low in most other contexts is only system draw distance and shadows. For 1440p, the highest preset at a guaranteed 60 FPS is High at 62. Medium (81) is the safe choice for 60+ without worries, and Ultra is right at 59.

• For 3840x2160:

Only Low achieves 60+ (63). Medium is 48, and everything higher is below 40. So if you want 4K with this combo, choose Low, and likely accept moderate IQ. Medium provides 48 — playable if you need some extra fidelity, but not 60. High and Ultra are effectively not viable for 4K, given the frame rate dips into the 30s.

In summary: The best experience for this combo is 1080p Ultra (or High) for a comfortable 30+ FPS on a 60-100Hz screen. 1440p High is the most balanced compromise between visuals and smoothness. For 4K, Low is the only preset that achieves 60 FPS, and even then it’s only just (63). If you have a 120Hz display, 1080p Medium is the highest-appearance option that can nearly reach 120 (107 average, max 124, but with min 91).

Disclosure: The game is older, and the 6600 XT supports real-time ray tracing, but these measurements don’t include RTX features. The Ultra preset doesn’t seem to leverage a big rig.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and preset for this CPU+GPU combo in Thief?

A: The most balanced is 2560x1440 at High preset (62 FPS). If you want a higher framerate, 1080p Medium gives up to 107 FPS, while 1080p Ultra yields 85 FPS and 4K Low is required to reach 60 ready.

Q: Can this combo achieve fourth generation frame rates at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the only preset above 60 FPS is Low at 36—wait, it’s 63 on low. Actually: 4K Low averages 63 FPS. So, yes, just barely at Low. Medium and higher are below 60 (48 and 36-34 respectively).

Q: How does the i5-9400’s single-thread performance compare to its modern rivals?

A: In Cinebench R23, the i5-9400 scores 935 single-core. There are no direct rivals listed, but the strongest rivals in the average benchmark range are Intel Core i7-10710U (avgScore 2248, +0.3% from this CPU) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 15000 (avgScore 2246, +0.4%). That suggests a close spread: the i5-9400 is within ±0.2% of the listed neighbors.

Q: Which GPU in the same tier would give a similar result?

A: The percentile list shows nearest rivals to the RX 6600 XT include NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (avgScore 24277, 0.7% higher), Intel Arc A350M (24647, -0.8%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (24236, +0.8%). All fall within a narrow 5% range.

Q: Is this combo CPU-bound or GPU-bound in which resolution?

A: At 1080p, the difference between Low (119) and Medium (107) — only 12 FPS — while 4K Low (63) is roughly half of 1080p Low, suggests a GPU limitations at that res. The 6-core CPU with a 4.1 GHz boost can maintain over 60 FPS in all settings at 1080p, so the CPU is not limiting there. The GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution rises from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What does the combo rank in the overall list?

A: The combo ranks 2842 out of 3720 tested combinations in Thief, meaning it is better than 878 other combos, which puts it in the lower quarter of all tested configurations. This is due to the mid-tier CPU percentile (47th) and the high GPU percentile (70th) still missing the top tier of matched combos.

(Note: The dataset includes min/max only for Medium settings: 1080p Medium min 91 max 124, 1440p Medium 69-93, 4K Medium 40-55. These aren’t in the FAQ, but elsewhere in the text.)