Thief

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces a frame-rate profile in Thief that is heavily dictated by the graphics card’s immense headroom, particularly at lower resolutions. Across the twelve measured configurations, the combination demonstrates that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor, with the GPU’s raw throughput allowing the system to scale past 160 FPS at 1080p on every preset tested. The data reveals a system that is overqualified for the game’s demands, where the primary differentiator between presets is not the CPU’s 12 cores or 20 threads, but the GPU’s ability to maintain high output even as resolution climbs.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly by preset. At the Low preset, the system achieves 199.4 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 176.5 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 22.9 FPS, and then to 143.6 FPS at 4K, a further reduction of 32.9 FPS. This represents a total decline of 28% from 1080p to 4K on Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical load, the RTX 4090’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to keep the frame rate high, but the scaling is not linear.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 177.2 FPS at 1080p, 154.6 FPS at 1440p, and 112.1 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 42.5 FPS, which is steeper than the 22.6 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that at Medium settings, the GPU begins to feel the pressure of the higher pixel count, but the absolute numbers remain far above playable thresholds. The High preset further emphasizes this trend, with 163.8 FPS at 1080p, 139.3 FPS at 1440p, and 82.2 FPS at 4K. Here, the 4K figure is less than half of the 1080p figure, indicating a substantial reliance on the GPU’s shading units and texture rate as the workload scales.

The Ultra preset delivers the lowest performance across the board, with 161.2 FPS at 1080p, 137.4 FPS at 1440p, and 79.7 FPS at 4K. The difference between High and Ultra at each resolution is small—roughly 2-3 FPS at 1080p and 2.5 FPS at 4K—which implies that the Ultra preset’s additional graphical features do not impose a significant extra burden on the RTX 4090’s 16,384 shading units or 512 texture mapping units. The limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU’s pixel throughput, as the CPU’s 3.60 GHz base clock and 5.00 GHz boost clock are more than capable of feeding the graphics card at lower resolutions.

The data indicates that the 1440p to 4K transition is the most punishing, with an average drop of roughly 30-40 FPS across all presets, whereas the 1080p to 1440p transition is milder, averaging a 20-25 FPS drop. This suggests that Thief’s engine becomes increasingly pixel-bound at higher resolutions, and the RTX 4090’s 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate is the key specification driving the 4K results. At 1080p, the system is likely CPU-bound in certain scenes, but the benchmark results show that even the Low preset’s 199.4 FPS does not exceed the CPU’s capabilities, as the i7-12700K’s 3dmark_single_thread score of 1043 and passmark_single_thread score of 4013 indicate robust single-core performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 199.4, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. This is the only configuration that approaches 200 FPS, and it demonstrates the GPU’s ability to push extreme frame rates when graphical load is minimal.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K on the Ultra preset?

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 161.2 at 1080p to 79.7 at 4K, a reduction of 81.5 FPS, or roughly 50%. This indicates that 4K Ultra is the most demanding configuration tested, with the GPU’s 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute being the primary bottleneck.

Q: Does the High preset outperform the Medium preset at all resolutions?

A: No. The Medium preset consistently delivers higher average FPS than High at every resolution. For example, at 1440p, Medium achieves 154.6 FPS while High achieves 139.3 FPS. The gap widens at 4K, where Medium’s 112.1 FPS is substantially ahead of High’s 82.2 FPS, suggesting that High enables heavier effects that tax the GPU more than Medium.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p Low?

A: The benchmark data suggests the GPU is still the limiting factor, as the CPU’s 3dmark_16_threads score of 9276 and cinebench_r23_multicore score of 29241 indicate ample headroom. The 199.4 FPS at 1080p Low is likely near the engine’s draw-call limit, but the CPU’s 12 cores and 20 threads are not saturated.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 4K Low?

A: The 4K Ultra preset delivers 79.7 FPS, while 4K Low delivers 143.6 FPS. This represents a 63.9 FPS difference, or a 44% reduction in performance when moving from Low to Ultra at the same resolution, highlighting the significant GPU workload increase from higher preset details.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations in Thief?

A: The combo ranks 54th out of 1,642 tested combos, placing it in the top 3.3% of all configurations. This indicates that while the system is very fast, there are 53 other combos that achieve higher frame rates, likely due to more specialized hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. The GPU’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory is far more than Thief requires, but the 384-bit bus width and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensure that texture streaming is never a bottleneck, even at 4K Ultra. The boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 16,384 shading units, drives the high FPS figures, but the data shows that the GPU’s compute capabilities are not fully utilized at lower resolutions. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system hits 199.4 FPS, but this is likely constrained by the game engine’s rendering pipeline rather than the GPU’s raw power.

The GPU’s 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores are present but not directly relevant to Thief’s traditional rasterization workload, as the game predates widespread RT adoption. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s is the specification that matters most for 4K performance, where the Ultra preset’s 79.7 FPS aligns with the expected throughput given the 8.3 million pixels at 3840x2160. The texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s ensures that the 512 TMUs are kept busy, but the measured FPS differences between High and Ultra at each resolution are small (e.g., 2.6 FPS at 1080p), suggesting that the GPU’s ROPs are not the limiting factor.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 66,473 and percentile rank of 91 across all GPUs place it well above the median, but its nearest rivals—such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 with a delta of -0.4%—are not consumer gaming cards. This indicates that the RTX 4090’s gaming performance is exceptional, but the benchmark data in Thief shows that the GPU is often overkill. The 450 W TDP and 850 W suggested PSU are not directly reflected in the FPS numbers, but they imply that the system draws significant power under load, which is consistent with the sustained high frame rates observed.

The GPU’s 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 9,223 is a synthetic measure that does not correlate perfectly with Thief’s performance, but it confirms the card’s DirectX 12 capability, which is relevant since Thief supports modern APIs. The passmark_g3d score of 38,194 further validates the GPU’s overall strength, yet the measured FPS in Thief reveal that the game’s engine does not fully exploit the RTX 4090’s architecture. The GPU’s VRAM capacity is never a concern, as even the highest 4K Ultra preset likely uses less than 24 GB, but the data cannot confirm exact usage.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field places this system at rank 54 out of 1,642 tested combos, which is a strong showing but not the top tier. This rank means that 53 other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher average frame rates in Thief, likely due to more optimized combinations or higher-clocked components. The i7-12700K’s percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs is high, but its nearest rivals—such as the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 with a delta of -0.3% and the Intel Core i5-14500HX with a delta of -0.7%—show that the CPU’s performance is competitive but not dominant. The RTX 4090’s percentile rank of 91 is similarly strong, but its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (delta -0.4%) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (delta -0.9%), which are not gaming-focused cards.

The rank of 54 suggests that there is room for improvement, but the measured FPS data shows that the system is already delivering high frame rates. At 1080p, every preset exceeds 160 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most monitors. The 4K Ultra figure of 79.7 FPS is the only configuration that falls below 80 FPS, but it remains playable. The rank is likely influenced by other combos that use higher-clocked CPUs or more game-specific optimizations, but the raw FPS numbers indicate that this combo is in the upper echelon.

The deltaPct values for the CPU’s nearest rivals are all within 1% of the i7-12700K’s average benchmark score, which means that swapping to a Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 or Core i7-13700T would result in negligible CPU performance changes. Similarly, the GPU’s nearest rivals are within 1.3% of the RTX 4090’s average score, but those rivals are professional or datacenter cards that would not be used for gaming. The combo’s rank of 54 is therefore a reflection of the GPU’s dominance, as the CPU is more than capable of supporting it. The data suggests that no other consumer GPU in the tested set outperforms the RTX 4090 in Thief, but the rank indicates that some combos with different CPUs achieve higher FPS, possibly due to memory bandwidth or cache advantages.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal preset depends on the target resolution and frame rate preference. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 161.2 FPS, which is only 5.4 FPS lower than High’s 163.8 FPS and 16 FPS lower than Medium’s 177.2 FPS. Since all presets at 1080p exceed 160 FPS, the Ultra preset is the best choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing playability, as the 161.2 FPS figure is still exceptionally high. The Low preset’s 199.4 FPS is unnecessary for most users, and the difference between Medium and Ultra is only 16 FPS, making Ultra the clear winner at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset achieves 137.4 FPS, which is still above 120 FPS, but the High preset’s 139.3 FPS is nearly identical. The Medium preset offers a slight advantage at 154.6 FPS, but the visual quality loss from Ultra to Medium is noticeable. Given that 1440p Ultra’s 137.4 FPS is only 2 FPS below High, the Ultra preset is recommended for users with high-refresh-rate 1440p displays, as the frame rate remains well above 130 FPS. The Low preset’s 176.5 FPS is available for competitive play, but it sacrifices too much graphical detail for a marginal FPS gain.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes markedly. The Ultra preset’s 79.7 FPS is just below the 80 FPS threshold, while High’s 82.2 FPS is barely better. The Medium preset delivers 112.1 FPS, which is a significant 32.4 FPS improvement over High and 32.4 FPS over Ultra. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the best balance, as it provides a smooth experience above 110 FPS while retaining acceptable visual quality. The Low preset’s 143.6 FPS is available, but the graphical compromises are severe. The data shows that 4K Ultra is the only configuration that dips below 80 FPS, so users with 4K displays should prioritize Medium or High settings to maintain higher frame rates. Ultimately, the Medium preset at 4K is the recommended configuration for this combo, as it offers the largest FPS improvement over the higher presets while keeping the game visually appealing.