Thief

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-12700K compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-12700K posts an average benchmark score of 35,684, placing it 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (35,802) and 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-14500HX (35,940). It sits 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700T (35,468) and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13800H (35,416).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all graphics cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 scores in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,283. Its closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 at 37,507, which is 0.6% ahead, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile scores 38,135, sitting 2.2% higher.

Q: What frame rate does the system achieve at 1080p with Ultra settings in Thief?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 141.6. This is the lowest of the four 1080p presets but still well above typical display refresh rates.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded results?

A: In Cinebench R23, the i7-12700K scores 29,241 in multi-core and 4,128 in single-core. The multi-core result represents a significant scaling advantage, with the 3DMark max-threads score of 9,979 versus 1,043 for single-thread, indicating strong parallel workload capability.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4070 features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1313 MHz, with 21 Gbps effective data rate.

Q: How does the system rank among all tested hardware combinations for Thief?

A: This particular CPU-GPU combo ranks 280th out of 1,642 total combinations tested in the game, placing it in the top 17% of all configurations.

GPU Role

The GeForce RTX 4070 provides the graphical foundation for Thief's performance, built on the AD104 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture at a 5 nm process node. The GPU carries 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output processors, which directly influence how the game's stealth environments — with their dynamic lighting and shadow-heavy scenes — are rendered. The boost clock reaches 2,475 MHz, while the base clock sits at 1,920 MHz.

Memory capacity plays a decisive role at higher resolutions. The 12 GB GDDR6X frame buffer, paired with a 192-bit bus and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, is sufficient for Thief's 2014-era engine demands, even at 4K. The measured data confirms this: at 3840x2160, the system maintains playable averages across all presets, from 55.5 FPS on Ultra to 106.1 FPS on Low. The 21 Gbps effective memory speed ensures texture streaming and shadow buffer operations do not bottleneck the GPU's compute throughput.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for the game's complex shader work. Pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s helps explain why higher settings — which increase per-pixel shading costs — show measurable FPS penalties. The 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present but largely idle in this title, as Thief predates ray tracing and DLSS; performance scaling with settings is therefore driven by classic rasterization and fill-rate limits.

The GPU ranks in the 81st percentile overall, with an average benchmark score of 37,283. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 37,507 (0.6% higher), while the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A sits 1.9% ahead at 38,008. This margin indicates the RTX 4070's placement in the upper-midrange tier, but the Thief results show the GPU still delivers high frame rates even at 4K, suggesting the game's engine is not overly demanding by modern standards.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets, with the optimal choice depending on resolution target. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings produce 141.6 FPS average, which is only 4.5% lower than High's 148 FPS and 21% below Medium's 179.2 FPS. Given this small gap between High and Ultra, the Ultra preset is the best experience at 1080p — the visual uplift costs just 6.4 FPS over High while delivering the game's maximum quality.

At 2560x1440, the picture shifts. Ultra yields 94.6 FPS, while High achieves 99.5 FPS — a difference of only 4.9 FPS. Medium delivers 133.2 FPS, a 40.8% improvement over Ultra. For users prioritizing visual fidelity, High is the sweet spot: it maintains near-100 FPS with only a modest reduction from Ultra's quality. Those with high-refresh displays may prefer Medium, but the data suggests High provides the best balance of image quality and smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the recommendation changes dramatically. Ultra drops to 55.5 FPS — technically playable but below the 60 FPS threshold many consider essential. High achieves 60.8 FPS, just clearing that bar with a 9.5% improvement over Ultra. Medium reaches 79.2 FPS, a 42.7% gain over Ultra, while Low hits 106.1 FPS. For 4K, High is the recommended preset: it delivers a stable 60+ FPS experience without sacrificing the visual features that define Thief's atmosphere. Users prioritizing frame rate above all should consider Medium, which offers a substantial margin above the 60 FPS line.

The overall best experience across all resolutions is High at 1440p, where 99.5 FPS provides both high-fidelity rendering and smooth motion — no preset at any resolution exceeds this combination of quality and speed except for 1080p Ultra (141.6 FPS), which trades resolution for higher settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The system delivers its highest frame rates at this resolution. Low settings average 197 FPS, Medium reaches 179.2 FPS, High achieves 148 FPS, and Ultra produces 141.6 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 55.4 FPS, with the largest single-step drop occurring between Medium and High (31.2 FPS). The step from High to Ultra is comparatively small at 6.4 FPS, indicating diminishing returns beyond the High preset.

2560x1440: At 1440p, average FPS scales down predictably. Low runs at 171.4 FPS, Medium at 133.2 FPS, High at 99.5 FPS, and Ultra at 94.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 76.8 FPS, with the largest drop (33.7 FPS) between Medium and High. The High-to-Ultra delta shrinks to 4.9 FPS, mirroring the 1080p pattern where Ultra offers minimal gains over High.

3840x2160: 4K results show the most significant performance compression. Low averages 106.1 FPS, Medium 79.2 FPS, High 60.8 FPS, and Ultra 55.5 FPS. The total range from Low to Ultra is 50.6 FPS, smaller than at 1440p, suggesting the GPU becomes more uniformly bound at this resolution. The Medium-to-High drop is 18.4 FPS, while High-to-Ultra drops by 5.3 FPS — again, the smallest step in the ladder.

Across all resolutions, the High-to-Ultra penalty remains consistently modest (4.9-6.4 FPS), whereas the Low-to-Medium and Medium-to-High steps produce larger absolute changes. This indicates the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely higher shadow resolution and post-processing) are comparatively inexpensive on the RTX 4070, while the Medium-to-High transition triggers more substantial rendering cost increases.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system's bottleneck shifts with pixel count. At Low settings, the drop from 197 FPS (1080p) to 171.4 FPS (1440p) is 13.0%, and further to 106.1 FPS (4K) represents a 46.1% reduction from 1080p. At Ultra settings, the same resolution scaling shows 141.6 FPS at 1080p, 94.6 FPS at 1440p (33.2% drop), and 55.5 FPS at 4K (60.8% drop from 1080p).

The scaling pattern differs across presets. At Low, the 4K-to-1080p ratio is 0.54 (106.1/197), meaning 4K retains just over half the 1080p frame rate. At Ultra, this ratio falls to 0.39 (55.5/141.6), indicating 4K retains less than 40% of 1080p performance. This divergence suggests that at Low settings, the CPU (i7-12700K) begins to limit frame rates at 1080p — the 197 FPS ceiling reflects CPU-bound behavior, while the GPU has headroom. At Ultra, the GPU becomes the primary constraint, and resolution scaling follows the expected pixel-count relationship more closely.

The intermediate step from 1440p to 4K shows the steepest drops across all presets. At High settings, 1440p delivers 99.5 FPS, dropping to 60.8 FPS at 4K — a 38.9% reduction. The 1080p-to-1440p drop at High is 32.8% (148 to 99.5 FPS). This nonlinear scaling — larger absolute drops at higher resolutions — confirms the GPU's fill-rate and bandwidth limits are the dominant factors at 4K, particularly with the 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth being taxed by the 8.3 million pixel buffer.

The data indicates a balanced system at 1440p: the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at High and Ultra settings, with only Low presets showing CPU ceiling effects. At 4K, the RTX 4070's 12 GB buffer and bandwidth become the limiting component, as evidenced by the 55.5 FPS Ultra result — a figure that aligns with the GPU's 81st percentile ranking and its position relative to rivals like the RX Vega 56 (0.6% higher average score). For users targeting 4K, the measured results suggest the GPU is the primary constraint, while at 1080p, the i7-12700K's single-thread score of 4,128 in Cinebench R23 and its 89th percentile CPU ranking prevent it from becoming a bottleneck.