Thief

The Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti combination delivers a strong showing in Thief. The measured data place this combo at rank 700 out of 3,720 tested configurations, with the GPU and CPU each sitting near the 83rd–84th percentile of all components. Resolution scaling is the defining factor: the average framerate plummets from a 3-digit count at 1080p to a comfortable 53–100 range at 4K as rendering load shifts entirely to the graphics card.

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Resolution Scaling

The most telling numbers come from the measured rows. At Low settings, the average framerate is 197 FPS at 1920x1080, 173 FPS at 2560x1440, and 102 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a drop of 26% from 1080p to 1440p and another 41% from 1440p to 4K. While we cannot compute exact percentages here, the pattern is consistent: pixel count drives the workload. At High settings, the same trend appears: 148 FPS at 1440p and 82 FPS at 4K (referring to High averages). At Ultra, the average falls from 139 (1080p) to 95 (1440p) to 56 (4K). The data clearly show that render resolution is the dominant factor, not the CPU. Since the game's release date is 2014 and the CPU has a 10 nm Alder Lake core with 12 active threads and a 4.8 GHz boost clock, it is far beyond the demands of this generation. The measured 197 FPS at 1080p Low exceeds any reasonable refresh-rate target, indicating that at lower resolutions the CPU is not constraining performance.

The Medium preset rows include minimum and maximum framerates, which show consistency: at 1080p Medium, the range is 151–204 FPS; at 1440p Medium, 112–151; and at 4K Medium, 66–89. These tight initial ranges reveal the GPU is delivering stable output even when the GPU reaches higher graphics loads, with no stutter or severe dips that might affect playability.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU+GPU pairing occupies the 700th spot in a list of 3,720 CPU+GPU combinations within the Thief benchmarks. That places it in the top 19% of all tested combos (exact percentile is not in the dataset). The CPU itself sits at the 84th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35,287. Its closest rivals are a group of processors with average scores within a tenth of a point: the Intel Core i5-13600T (35,305, deltaPct -0.1), the i7-12700KF (35,365, -0.2), the i7-13700T (35,403, -0.3), and the Core 5 213PE (35,428, -0.4). These sub-0.5% margins show that the i7-12700K is in a highly competitive tier, but the game itself may exhibit small deltas.

The GPU scores a 83rd percentile with an average 41,187. Its four nearest rival are the Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870, deltaPct 0.8), the Tesla M40 24 GB (41,707, -1.2), the Tesla M40 (41,897, -1.7), and the GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377, +2.0). This means the 3080 Ti is within a 1% of the strongest of those, and the GPU is not a limiting outlier.

Settings Recommendations

The presets hand out a clear differentiation. At 4K, the difference between High and Ultra is only 2 FPS: High averages 59, while Ultra averages 56. Such a narrow gap does not justify the extra quality—though “extra quality” is not quantified in this dataset. For a smooth 4K experience, the High settings is the sweet spot. At 1440p, High (100 FPS) is 5 frames slower than Medium (132 FPS) but allows better visuals; Ultra is 95 FPS, lower than High by 5 frames on average. The recommendation is to choose High at 1440p to keep a framerate above 100 while preserving the best visuals. At 3K is not fully clean, but the drop from High to Ultra is only 3 frames, so High wins again.

The Medium setting offers the best 4K comfort for those prioritizing smoothness over image quality; it yields 77 FPS average at 4K, which is comfortable for 60 Hz displays. At 1080p, Medium also offers a strong 178 FPS average, and Ultra (139) is still above 100.

For a balanced approach: if using a 60 Hz monitor, 4K High at 59 FPS is just a frame short, but 4K Medium at 77 FPS is safe. For 1440p, High at 100 FPS is ideal. The data portrait says that High preset is the most balance across the board—it scales a bit in an ideal place for a premium GPU and CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Below are the entire rows from the dataset, as measured.

#### 1920x1080

| Setting | Avg FPS | Min FPFs | Max FPS |

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

| Low | 197 | – | – |

| Medium | 178 | 151 | 204 |

| High | 146 | – | – |

| Ultra | 139 | – | – |

#### 2560x1440

| Setting | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

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

| Low | 173 | – | – |

| Medium | 132 | 112 | 151 |

| High | 100 | – | – |

| Ultra | 95 | – | – |

#### 3840x2160

| Setting | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

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

| Low | 102 | – | – |

| Medium | 77 | 66 | 89 |

| High | 59 | – | – |

| Ultra | 56 | – | – |

The min and max columns are only populated for Medium settings, which shows the range at each resolution: at 1080p it runs between 151 and 204, at 1440p between 112 and 151, at 4K between 66 and 89. This is a good sign for smoothness on 100 Hz screen (AFR).

GPU Role

The RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit interface with 912.4 GB/s bandwidth. Its boost clock reaches 1665 MHz, with a base of 1365 MHz. The GPU contains 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, 112 ROPs, as well as 80 RT cores and on some 320 tensored. The die is an Alder Lake-ish? No, it's GA102, with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die; it is the successor to GeForce 20. The combination of high bandwidth and large number of cores makes it strong for heavy work.

In this 2014 title, the measured framerates at 4K Ultra (56 FPS) are not particularly high, but the fact that it drops only 3 FPS between High and Ultra indicates that the GPU is mostly challenged by its memory subsystem rather than raw shading. The 384-bit memory bus is fully engaged at this resolution. The GPU’s own percentile (83rd) is consistent with the combo rank 700 out of 3,720.

The nearest rivals for the GPU—AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and the Tesla M40 24 GB—are 0.8% and 1.2% divergent, but they are not gaming cards; they suggest the 3080 Ti splits its marks by a tight margin to some compute-oriented parts.

FAQ

Q: Where does this combination rank among the tested combos for Thief?

A: The combo sits at rank 700 out of 3,720 tested combinations.

Q: Which CPU has nearly identical performance to the i7-12700K?

A: The Intel Core i5-13600T has a deltaPct of -0.1% from the average score, while the i7-12700KF is -0.2% lower. All three are within the closest percent.

Q: What is the GPU's listed memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s across its 384-bit bus.

Q: At Ultra settings, what framerates does the combo achieve at 1080p and 4K?

A: The average at 1080p is 139 FPS, and at 4K it is 56 FPS.

Q: Which preset gives the highest average framerate at 1440p?

A: The Low preset gives 173 FPS; among the other presets, Medium gives 132, High 100, and Ultra 95.

Q: How many threads does the CPU have?

A: The Core i7-12700K has 12 physical cores and 20 threads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread design with a base clock of 3.60 GHz, boost up to 5.00 GHz. It is built on the 10 nm Alder Lake architecture with a 25 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core. The processor supports both DDR4 and DDR5, and has a TDP of 125 W. Its own benchmark Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 19,784, and single-core 1,850.5; in Geekbench, it achieves 15,790 multi-core and 2,308 single-core. In a game like Thief that was released in 2014 (February 24), these scores guarantee a lot of headroom for CPU-bound tasks. The measured framerates in the 4K data begin to show the CPU holds its own: at 1080p Medium, the average reaches 178 FPS, which is far above a typical 144 Hz display. The CPU has 20 threads and 12 cores, yet the high frame rate at 1080p corresponds to the rare few titles.

In this game, the CPU does not act as a limiting factor our findings. If we look at every setting at 1080p, even the Low preset gets 197 FPS and the Ultra preset 139 FPS—promoting that CPU can feed the GTX adequately. But as the resolution climbs, the FPS is halved at High (146–59), which indicates that the bottlenose is the GPU’s pixel rate, not the CPU bottleneck. The base boost of the 12700K’s 10 nm architecture pairs well with the game’s time on a core that prefers single-threaded performance, matching the single-thread score of 2,308 in GeekBench.

The r neighbors within the analysis are Intel CPUs only - i5-13600T, i7-12700KF, i7-13700T, Core5 213PE - all with average ~35k, but for this title, the GPU confines the result.