Thief

The benchmark data for Thief with the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 shows a clear performance hierarchy across its four tested presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 211.1 FPS, while the Medium preset follows closely at 192.4 FPS, and High reaches 158 FPS. The Ultra preset, which typically imposes the heaviest load, still manages a robust 153.9 FPS at this resolution. Moving to 1440p, the pattern shifts slightly: Low produces 184.9 FPS, Medium drops to 143.9 FPS, and both High and Ultra settle into a similar range at 108.7 FPS and 107.1 FPS respectively. At 4K, the differences become more pronounced, with Low yielding 109 FPS, Medium at 83.9 FPS, High at 67 FPS, and Ultra falling to 63.2 FPS. For the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, the High preset at 1440p offers a compelling middle ground, delivering 108.7 FPS while avoiding the steep performance cost of Ultra settings. At 4K, the High preset remains viable at 67 FPS, but users prioritizing higher refresh rates should consider the Medium preset, which provides 83.9 FPS with only a modest reduction in quality compared to High.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that the High preset provides the most efficient experience across all resolutions when considering visual quality against frame rate. At 1080p, High achieves 158 FPS, which is only 5.3 FPS behind Ultra’s 153.9 FPS, yet it offers a substantial margin above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play. The data suggests that the jump from High to Ultra at 1080p yields a negligible frame rate difference, costing only 4.1 FPS, which makes Ultra a reasonable choice for users with high-refresh-rate monitors seeking maximum detail. However, at 1440p, the Ultra preset’s 107.1 FPS is nearly identical to High’s 108.7 FPS, indicating that the extra settings overhead does not translate into a measurable performance penalty. The Medium preset at 1440p, at 143.9 FPS, offers a significant boost over High, making it the superior option for competitive play or for those who prefer higher frame rates over marginal visual improvements. At 4K, the Medium preset stands out as the best experience, delivering 83.9 FPS compared to High’s 67 FPS and Ultra’s 63.2 FPS; this 25% improvement over High makes Medium the clear recommendation for 4K displays, as the visual difference between Medium and High is less impactful than the frame rate gain. The Low preset, while achieving the highest FPS at every resolution, sacrifices too much visual detail for typical gameplay, though it remains useful for benchmarking purposes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070’s memory configuration plays a critical role in Thief’s performance. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient for the game’s texture-heavy environments, as evidenced by the consistent scaling from 1080p to 4K. The GPU’s base clock of 2325 MHz and boost clock of 2512 MHz, combined with its 6144 shading units, drive the frame rates observed in the data. The RTX 5070’s 80 ROPs and 192 TMUs handle pixel and texture throughput effectively, with a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s. The GPU’s FP32 compute of 30.87 TFLOPS supports the game’s lighting and shadow calculations, which are prominent in Thief’s stealth-focused scenes. The RTX 5070’s 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in this 2014 title, as Thief does not natively support ray tracing or DLSS, so the GPU’s rasterization performance is the primary driver. The 250 W TDP and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensure adequate power delivery and bandwidth, but the data shows that the GPU’s memory bandwidth is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K where the frame rate drops significantly from 1440p.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable scaling pattern that highlights the GPU’s role as the primary bottleneck. At 1080p High, the system achieves 158 FPS, which drops to 108.7 FPS at 1440p and further to 67 FPS at 4K. This represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 58% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The Low preset shows a similar trend, falling from 211.1 FPS at 1080p to 184.9 FPS at 1440p (a 12% drop) and then to 109 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop from 1080p). The Medium preset follows the same pattern: 192.4 FPS at 1080p, 143.9 FPS at 1440p, and 83.9 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, drops from 153.9 FPS at 1080p to 107.1 FPS at 1440p and 63.2 FPS at 4K. The consistent scaling across all presets indicates that the GPU is the limiting component; the CPU’s performance remains constant, but the GPU’s workload increases with pixel count. The relatively small drop from 1080p to 1440p compared to the larger drop from 1440p to 4K suggests that the RTX 5070’s 12 GB memory and 192-bit bus are adequate for 1440p but become strained at 4K, where the 672.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at higher quality settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average frame rate at 1080p is 211.1 FPS, achieved with the Low preset. The Medium preset reaches 192.4 FPS, while High and Ultra deliver 158 FPS and 153.9 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Ultra preset produces 107.1 FPS, which is nearly identical to the High preset’s 108.7 FPS. The difference of 1.6 FPS is within the margin of error, indicating that Ultra does not impose a significant additional performance cost at this resolution.

Q: Which preset is recommended for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice for 4K, delivering 83.9 FPS. This is 25% higher than High’s 67 FPS and 33% higher than Ultra’s 63.2 FPS, making it the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K on the High preset?

A: The High preset drops from 158 FPS at 1080p to 67 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 91 FPS or approximately 58%. This significant drop indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the Low preset at 4K outperform the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: No. The Low preset at 4K achieves 109 FPS, while the Ultra preset at 1080p reaches 153.9 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 41% higher frame rates, demonstrating the impact of resolution over settings.

Q: How does the combo’s performance at 1080p Low compare to 1440p Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 211.1 FPS, while at 1440p Low it drops to 184.9 FPS. This represents a 12% reduction, which is relatively modest compared to the 4K Low figure of 109 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination holds a rank of 157 out of 1642 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 9.6% of all configurations. This high percentile ranking reflects the strength of both components in this title. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 47282 places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the Intel Core i7-13700KF (scoring 47334, a 0.1% difference) and the AMD EPYC 4364P (scoring 47131, a 0.3% difference). The GPU’s average benchmark score of 41687 places it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (scoring 41441, a 0.6% difference) and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (scoring 41610, a 0.2% difference). Given that the combo ranks 157th out of 1642, it outperforms the vast majority of configurations, though the data does not provide specific comparison points for other combos in Thief. The ranking suggests that this pairing is well-balanced for the game, with neither component substantially bottlenecking the other, as evidenced by the smooth scaling across resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K’s specifications are substantial but only partially utilized in Thief. The CPU features 16 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample capacity for game data. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39000 and a single-core score of 5505, indicating strong performance across both multi-threaded and single-threaded workloads. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10717 and max-thread score of 12412 further demonstrate its multi-core capability. However, Thief, released in 2014, was designed for platforms with far fewer cores, so the game likely does not fully leverage the CPU’s 16 cores. The single-thread performance, reflected in the 3DMark single-thread score of 1136 and Geekbench single-core score of 2850, is more relevant for this title, as older games often rely heavily on a single primary thread. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensures high single-thread throughput, which helps maintain frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions like 1080p where the GPU is less stressed. The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent with GPU-bound behavior. The CPU’s 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide flexibility, but the game’s performance is ultimately determined by the GPU’s ability to render pixels, not the CPU’s processing power.