Thief

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT delivers a measured performance profile in Thief that lands the combo at rank 2731 out of 3720 tested combinations. The CPU contributes a 89th-percentile standing among all processors, while the GPU sits at the 59th percentile among all graphics cards, yet the combined result trails the median combo in this title. The game, a stealth release from February 2014, shows how this component pair scales across resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s in-game rank is 2731 of 3720, placing it well into the lower third of the database. That rank reflects the aggregate of all measured FPS results across the three tested resolutions and four quality presets. The CPU itself is a Raptor Lake-S part with 16 cores and 24 threads, and its average benchmark score of 46881 puts it in the 89th percentile based on global CPU comparisons. The nearest rivals for that average performance score are the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (deltaPct -0.3), the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (deltaPct +0.5), and the Intel Xeon w3-2535 (deltaPct +0.5). In other words, the i7-13700K sits within a whisker of those processors in general compute, though the game’s own benchmark hierarchy depends heavily on GPU throughput.

The GPU, meanwhile, carries a 7 nm Navi 10 chip with a benchmark score of 16361, placing it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (deltaPct +0.1), the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (deltaPct −0.3), the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (deltaPct −0.3), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (deltaPct −0.9). The RX 5700 XT’s own average benchmark score is 16361, so the combo’s low rank is not due to a fundamentally weak GPU but rather to how the game scales with the specific drivers and rendering paths.

Breaking down the FPS table is more revealing. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 84 FPS; at 4K Ultra, it falls to 34 FPS. That drop (50 FPS) occupies most of the performance margin, implying that the GPU quickly becomes the sole limiting factor when pixel count rises. Conversely, at 1080p Low the system outputs 152 FPS, which is 444% more than the 4K Ultra number, but the CPU still contributes meaningful headroom at lower resolutions. The measured results confirm that for Thief, the i7-13700K is far from a bottleneck; the RX 5700 XT’s 8 GB frame buffer and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the binding constraints once resolution climbs.

FAQ

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations in Thief?

A: It ranks 2731st out of 3720 tested combos, placing it in the lower third of the benchmark pool.

Q: What is the GPU's VRAM capacity and bus width?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s.

Q: What is the CPU’s boost clock?

A: The Intel Core i7-13700K has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo maintain 60+ FPS?

A: The 1080p Medium (115 FPS), 1080p High (88 FPS), and 1080p Low (152 FPS) all remain above 60. At 1440p, only Low (104 FPS) and Medium (79 FPS) exceed 60. At 4K, only Low reaches 61 FPS.

Q: Does the combo manage 60+ FPS at 4K Ultra?

A: No. At 4K Ultra it delivers 34 FPS average; the highest 4K setting above 60 is Low at 61 FPS.

Q: What does the CPU rank in performance compared to all CPUs?

A: The Core i7-13700K has a percentile rank of 89 (meaning it is above 88% of tested CPUs) and an average benchmark score of 46881.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 5700 XT sits at the core of this combo's tradeoffs. Its memory subsystem of 8 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus provides up to 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The base clock is 1605 MHz, the game clock is 1755 MHz, and the boost clock hits 1905 MHz. The GPU also has a memory clock of 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective bandwidth. These numbers directly influence how Thief behaves at higher resolutions: the card’s raw throughput is desirably insufficient for 4K Ultra, but it handles 1440p at medium-to-high settings.

The GPU’s average benchmark score is 16361, with a 59th percentile rating across all GPUs. Its performance in Thief at 1440p High is 60 FPS, which is perfect for a 60 Hz display, but at 4K High it sinks to 35 FPS, suggesting that the missing 8+ GB of memory (the game likely requires more) is not the only issue—the bus width and clock a limited. The nearest GPU rivals in synthetic score reveal that the RX 5700 XT is within a narrow margin (deltaPct ranging from -0.3 to +0.4) of GPUs like the Radeon Pro 5600M and the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, yet the game’s measured data shows that real-world FPS heavily favors those with higher bandwidth.

The GPU’s measured data in Thief shows that low settings at 4K provide 61 FPS, which matches the 1440p High result. That suggests that the performance penalty from 1440p to 4K is roughly linear in pixel count, but the card can only keep up when the texture and geometry loads are reduced. The fact that 1080p Low (152 FPS) is nearly double the 1440p Low (104 FPS) again underscores the GPU as the primary scaling bottleneck.

Level of FPS

The measured FPS breakdown is clear:

• 1920x1080 (Full HD)

Low: 152 FPS

Medium: 115 FPS (min 98, max 133)

High: 88 FPS

Ultra: 84 FPS

• 2560x1440 (Quad HD)

Low: 104 FPS

Medium: 79 FPS (min 67, max 91)

High: 60 FPS

Ultra: 57 FPS

• 3840x2160 (4K UHD)

Low: 61 FPS

Medium: 47 FPS (min 40, max 54)

High: 35 FPS

Ultra: 34 FPS

Across all settings, the average FPS drops from a maximum of 103 FPS to just above 30 FPS at the highest resolution. The measured minimums and maximums are only provided for the Medium preset, so those are the only variance figures available. The 1080p Medium range from 98 to 133 FPS (a gap of 35) and the 1440p Medium 67‑to‑91 (gap 24) show that frame pacing tightens as resolution rises. At 4K Medium, the gap is only 14 (40 to 54), which is consistent with heavy V‑Sync-like pacing or GPU-bound frame output.

The data illustrates that at 1080p, the CPU is plenty strong: the GPU does not exceed 152 FPS, and the CPU (with 89th percentile) has remaining bandwidth. But at 4K, every preset drops to under 61 FPS, even at Low, so the on‑die performance is entirely tied to the GPU.

Resolution Scaling

Looking at the behavior across resolutions for each preset underscores where the workload shifts.

• Starting with Low. 1080p Low = 152, 1440p Low = 104, 4K Low = 61. That’s a reduction of 48 FPS from 1080p, then another 43 FPS from 1440p, for a total of 91 FPS drop when moving to 4K. This is a linear trend with pixel count; the data does not reveal a sudden cliff, so scaling is nearly perfectly pixel-density-limited.
• Medium: 1080p 115, 1440p 79, 4K 47 — a 66 FPS drop between 1080p and 4K, but the 1080p→1440p step (36) and 1440p→4K step (32) are similar.
• High: 88 → 60 → 35. Here the largest absolute drop is from 60 to 35 at 4K, indicating the GPU’s shader capacity begins to limit beyond 1440p.
• Ultra: 84 → 57 → 34. The 28 FPS drop at 4K from High (35) to Ultra (34) is only 1 FPS, suggesting that Ultra adds little additional cost at 4K; the GPU is already saturated.

In every instance, the FPS halving from 1080p to 4K (59% to 43%) is typical. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 30MB of shared L3 cache, is unlikely to become relevant until the FPS exceeds 200. Therefore, the highest data indicates a GPU-bound scenario at resolutions above 1080p. A 1440p High is the sweet spot for a 60 Hz display, while 1440p Low allows beyond 100 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured rows, the best experience per frame rate is heavily dependent on the target display:

• For a 1080p 144 Hz monitor, the Medium preset (115 FPS) is the best balance, because it hints 87 FPS above the 84 Ultra but with higher quality than Low (152) and still headroom above 100. High at 88 is borderline, but Ultra at 84 can only manage slightly less than Medium. So Medium ‡1080p is the optimal from both average and minimum smoothness.

• For 1440p at 60 Hz, the High preset (60 FPS) exactly matches. Dropping to Medium would give 79 FPS (invalid more headroom), but High provides a clear quality increase while staying at the vertical sync boundary. Ultra at 57 falls just below 60, which risks tearing if vsync is off; Medium (79) is safer, but High is acceptable if 60 is the target.

• For 4K, no setting except Low (61 FPS) even reaches 60. Medium (47) and High (35) and Ultra (34) are below even a 50% Playback. The only useable option is Low, which sacrifices almost all details, but yields exactly 1 FPS above 60. Users with a 4K display would need to either drop to 1440p or reduce the res.

The rule of thumb is: 1080p Medium offers 115 FPS, the highest FPS-above-Minimum at any setting. 1440p High matches 60 Hz exactly, 4K Low provides 61 FPS—barely playable. If a 60 Hz limit is strict, then the best visual quality at that threshold is 1440p High.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K has 16 cores (8 performance + 8 efficiency) and 24 threads, with base 3.40 GHz and boost 5.40 GHz. Its integrated graphics is UHD Graphics 770, but it’s not used in the benchmark. The CPU’s maximal capacity is shown by its average 3dB and synthetic scores: Cinebench R23 single‑ and multi‑core yield 2116 and 30745, respectively. Its PassMark multithread score is 45887. These numbers indicate a very capable processor, ranking in the 89th percentile.

The empirical FPS data from Thief points to that CPU playing little limiting part. From 1080p Low at 152 FPS to 1440p Low at 104 and 4K Low at 61, the CPU is never near saturation; if it were, the 152 FPS would cause the GPU to run ahead, but we see the GPU simultaneously decreasing with resolution. For 1080p Ultra, 84 FPS, the CPU is also fine; the boost and L3 are sufficient.

The game’s release year 2014 is ancient enough so that single‑thread performance is still key, and the 13700K with a 5.4 GHz single‑core boost is excellent for that. Its 3DMark single‑thread score is 1136, and Geekbench single‑core 2529top. None of these are necessary to hit the observed FPS, though. Rather, the 13700K’s high single-thread IPC keeps the game thread fed while the GPU is the differing factor.

The GPU’s early order (8 GB VRAM, 256‑bit bus) is more decisive. The fact that 4K High gives 35 FPS and Ultra 34 suggests the GPU’s raw shading throughput is about 30% of the CPU headroom. If the game core used more than 4 threads, a older chip might bottleneck, but Thief relies on modest arcade, and the 13700K does not limit. The utilization of the i7‑13700K’s 24 threads is not measurable, but the FPS results decline with pixel count without any flat spot that would indicate a CPU limitation.

In essence, the i7‑13700K is far more than enough for this 2014 stealth title. The real determinant is the RX 5700 XT, whose 8 GB FPRAM and 256‑bit bus handle 1080p and 1440p with ease, but whose speeds drop off sharply once 4K is demanded. The recommendation from the data is to keep the combo within the 1080p‑1440p region and, if 4K is required, accept the Low preset at 61 FPS.