Thief

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT delivers a distinctly CPU-bound experience in Thief, a 2014 stealth title that favors high-frequency processing. At 1080p, the combo pushes frame rates past the 150 FPS mark on Low settings, but the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution climbs to 4K. The data shows a system where the 20-core, 28-thread Raptor Lake processor has ample headroom, while the RDNA 1.0 graphics card with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory dictates the upper limits of visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The combo achieves an average of 151.8 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings, which is the highest frame rate recorded across all tested configurations in this dataset.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core i7-14700F scores 54097 on average across all benchmarks, placing it 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X (54450) and 1.1% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681). It also outperforms the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 by 1.2% and the AMD EPYC 7313P by 1.7%.

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

A: The Radeon RX 5700 XT falls into the 68th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24731. Its closest competitor is the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, which scores 24763, a marginal 0.1% difference.

Q: What is the best frame rate achievable at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest average FPS is 63.4, achieved with Low settings. All other settings at 4K fall below 50 FPS, with Ultra settings producing only 35.5 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU's multi-core performance show a significant advantage in this game?

A: The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 35443, and its single-core score is 5003. However, the measured FPS data indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, meaning the CPU's multi-core strength does not directly translate to higher frame rates in Thief beyond 1080p.

Q: How does the combo rank relative to all tested combinations?

A: This specific pairing ranks 1207th out of 1642 total combos tested for Thief, placing it in the lower third of all systems evaluated.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is the decisive component in this system's Thief performance. Operating with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for the game's textures at 1080p and 1440p but shows strain at 4K. The GPU's base clock runs at 1605 MHz, boosting up to 1905 MHz, with a game clock of 1755 MHz. These clocks, combined with 2560 shading units, deliver a FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS.

The role of the GPU becomes clear when examining the FPS scaling across settings. At 1080p, the card drives frame rates from 86.2 FPS on Ultra to 151.8 FPS on Low, demonstrating that the GPU is fully engaged. However, at 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 35.5, indicating that the GPU's pixel throughput (121.9 GPixel/s) and texture rate (304.8 GTexel/s) are insufficient for the increased resolution demand. The GPU's 68th percentile ranking among all cards, with an average score of 24731, places it as a mid-range performer that can handle Thief at 1440p but struggles to maintain fluid motion at 4K with high detail levels.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 1207th out of 1642 tested combos for Thief, placing it in the 26th percentile of all systems. This relatively low ranking is notable given the CPU's strong synthetic scores. The processor sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 54097, yet the overall combo rank is dragged down by the GPU's more modest 68th percentile standing.

The disparity between the CPU's high percentile and the combo's low rank indicates a significant bottleneck in the graphics subsystem. While the i7-14700F outperforms the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X by a 0.6% margin in average benchmarks, that processing headroom cannot be utilized in Thief at higher resolutions. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would yield substantially better results, as the processor is clearly not the limiting factor in this configuration. The combo rank of 1207 out of 1642 reflects a system that is well-balanced for 1080p gaming but falls behind in 4K scenarios where the GPU's limitations are exposed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates reveal a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the system delivers playable frame rates across all settings: 86.2 FPS on Ultra, 89.6 FPS on High, 114.4 FPS on Medium, and 151.8 FPS on Low. The 1080p Ultra result is only 3.4 FPS lower than the High preset, suggesting that the Ultra settings impose a modest additional load that the GPU can still manage.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates show a pronounced drop. Ultra settings yield 58.3 FPS, High produces 63.0 FPS, Medium reaches 82.4 FPS, and Low achieves 105.7 FPS. At this resolution, the GPU is still capable of delivering smooth gameplay, with the Low preset remaining above the 100 FPS threshold. The step from 1440p to 4K, however, reveals the GPU's limits more starkly.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS numbers are 35.5 on Ultra, 38.1 on High, 48.5 on Medium, and 63.4 on Low. The Ultra and High presets both fall below the 40 FPS mark, which is generally considered the minimum for acceptable playability in a stealth title that relies on quick reactions. The Medium preset at 48.5 FPS is borderline, while only the Low preset provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions illustrates a classic GPU-bound scaling curve. From 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drops by 27.3 FPS on Ultra settings (from 86.2 to 58.3), representing a 31.7% reduction. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is even more severe, with Ultra settings falling from 58.3 FPS to 35.5 FPS, a 39.1% decrease. This exponential decline in performance correlates with the pixel count increase: 4K demands four times the pixels of 1080p, and the GPU's raw throughput cannot keep pace.

The Low settings at 4K still manage 63.4 FPS, which is only 58.2% of the 1080p Low result of 151.8 FPS. This relatively smaller drop at Low settings indicates that the GPU has some headroom when texture sampling and shading complexity are reduced. However, the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (27.9 FPS) is larger than at 1080p (65.6 FPS), showing that the card's ROPs and memory bandwidth become saturated more quickly at higher resolutions with maxed-out settings.

The limiting component in this system is clearly the GPU. The CPU's synthetic benchmarks, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35443 and a single-core score of 5003, suggest it can handle the game's logic and draw calls without issue. The fact that the 1080p Low preset reaches 151.8 FPS while the 4K Ultra preset drops to 35.5 FPS points squarely at the RX 5700 XT's pixel processing capabilities as the primary constraint. For users targeting 4K play, the data recommends lowering settings to Medium or Low, while 1080p and 1440p users can expect smooth performance across most presets.