Thief

# Thief with Intel Core i7-14700F + AMD Radeon RX 9060

The data for Thief with the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 shows a combo that ranks 1586th out of 2851 tested combinations, placing it in the 44th percentile of all tested systems. This is a measured dataset, not an estimate, and the results reveal a system that handles the 2014 stealth classic with plenty of headroom at lower resolutions but begins to show its limitations as pixel count climbs. The FPS progression across the four tested settings tiers and three resolutions tells a clear story about where this hardware pairing excels and where it strains.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a steep and consistent drop as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, which points directly at the GPU as the primary limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p High settings, the system delivers 99 FPS on average. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 68 FPS, a 31% reduction, and then 4K High falls to 40 FPS, which is 41% below the 1440p figure and 60% below the 1080p result.

The Low settings tier tells a similar story with even steeper absolute drops. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 171 FPS, which is a high-refresh-rate experience. At 1440p Low, it drops to 117 FPS, a 32% decline. At 4K Low, the average falls to 69 FPS, which is 41% below the 1440p number and 60% below 1080p. This pattern — roughly a 30% drop from 1080p to 1440p and another 40% from 1440p to 4K — is remarkably consistent across all four settings tiers, suggesting that resolution scaling is the dominant variable.

The Medium settings tier provides the most complete data with min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 130 FPS with a min of 110 and max of 149. At 1440p Medium, the average is 89 FPS with min 76 and max 102. At 4K Medium, the average is 52 FPS with min 45 and max 60. The frame-time variance, measured as the gap between min and max, shrinks proportionally as resolution increases, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios.

Ultra settings show the heaviest load. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 94 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 65 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average is 38 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS threshold often considered the minimum for a playable experience. The fact that the drop from 1440p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 42% — nearly identical to the scaling seen in other tiers — reinforces that the GPU's pixel throughput is the bottleneck.

What the data implies is that this combo is not CPU-limited in Thief at any resolution. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect the FPS to plateau or scale differently across resolutions. Instead, the consistent percentage drops with each resolution increase indicate that the Radeon RX 9060's rendering pipeline is being saturated. The 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus, paired with 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, are likely the physical constraints that explain why 4K performance falls so sharply.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1586 out of 2851 places this system in the middle of the pack, at roughly the 44th percentile of all tested combinations. This is a significant finding because the individual components have very different percentile standings. The Intel Core i7-14700F sits at the 91st percentile among all CPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX 9060 sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs. The combo's rank of 1586 indicates that the GPU is dragging the overall system down relative to what the CPU alone might suggest.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals provides context. The Radeon RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, which is 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's score of 16129. It is 1% above the AMD Radeon R9 370X at 15862 and 1% above the AMD Radeon RX 7700 at 15852. The RX 9060 is 2.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 at 15679. These are all very close scores, meaning the GPU is performing right at the level of these rivals, neither notably ahead nor behind.

For the CPU, the Intel Core i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 53620, placing it 0.2% below the Intel Xeon 6505P at 53701, 0.3% above the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 at 53469, 0.6% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X at 53288, and 0.8% above the AMD EPYC 7313P at 53206. The CPU is clearly a high performer, but in Thief specifically, the game's engine appears to be more GPU-dependent given the measured FPS scaling.

The rank of 1586 suggests that many combos with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs outperform this pairing in Thief. The game was released in 2014 and its engine likely does not utilize the 20 cores and 28 threads of the i7-14700F effectively. The CPU's multi-core strength, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35122, is largely irrelevant if the game only uses a few threads. Meanwhile, the GPU's 59th percentile standing among all GPUs directly limits frame rates, especially at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Thief?

A: The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where all settings tiers maintain averages above 90 FPS. At 1440p, Low and Medium settings stay above 89 FPS, but High and Ultra drop to 68 and 65 FPS respectively. At 4K, every settings tier falls below 70 FPS, with Ultra dropping to 38 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9060's average benchmark score of 16014 is 0.7% lower than the RTX 3060 Ti at 16129, and 1% higher than both the R9 370X at 15862 and the RX 7700 at 15852. It is 2.1% higher than the Pro W5500 at 15679.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. FPS drops by roughly 30% from 1080p to 1440p and another 40% from 1440p to 4K across all settings tiers. If the CPU were limiting, these percentages would be much smaller or non-existent.

Q: What FPS can be expected at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 4K Ultra is 38 FPS. This is the lowest average in the entire dataset and is below the 40 FPS mark that many players consider the floor for playability.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM of the RX 9060 affect Thief's performance?

A: The data does not directly isolate VRAM usage, but the consistent FPS drops at 4K suggest memory bandwidth may be a factor. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is modest for 4K rendering.

Q: How does this combo's rank compare to the individual component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 1586th out of 2851, which is the 44th percentile. The CPU is at the 91st percentile and the GPU is at the 59th percentile, so the combo's rank is pulled down by the GPU's lower standing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 171 FPS. Medium settings average 130 FPS with a minimum of 110 and maximum of 149. High settings average 99 FPS. Ultra settings average 94 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 77 FPS, meaning the settings tier has a significant impact at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably but remains playable. Low settings average 117 FPS. Medium settings average 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 102. High settings average 68 FPS. Ultra settings average 65 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 52 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a constraint.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings average 69 FPS. Medium settings average 52 FPS with a minimum of 45 and maximum of 60. High settings average 40 FPS. Ultra settings average 38 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 31 FPS, the narrowest of all resolutions, which strongly suggests the GPU is saturated and settings changes have diminishing returns.

The Medium settings tier is the only one with complete min and max data at all three resolutions. At 1080p, the min of 110 and max of 149 show a 39 FPS range. At 1440p, the min of 76 and max of 102 show a 26 FPS range. At 4K, the min of 45 and max of 60 show a 15 FPS range. This shrinking frame-time variance as resolution increases is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance, where the render pipeline is consistently busy.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has a boost clock of 2990 MHz and a game clock of 2400 MHz, with a base clock of 1700 MHz. It has 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The pixel rate is 191.4 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 334.9 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 21.43 TFLOPS. These specifications place the GPU at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014.

The memory subsystem is likely the key constraint in Thief at high resolutions. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 2250 MHz, or 18 Gbps effective. This is a relatively narrow bus for a GPU targeting modern games, and Thief's 4K textures can pressure the 8 GB capacity. The measured FPS data supports this: at 4K, even Low settings only produce 69 FPS, which is a 60% drop from the 1080p Low figure of 171 FPS.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all within 2.1% of its average score. The RTX 3060 Ti is 0.7% ahead, the R9 370X and RX 7700 are 1% behind, and the Pro W5500 is 2.1% behind. This means the RX 9060 is performing exactly where its benchmark score predicts it should, and Thief is not somehow favoring or punishing this GPU relative to its peers.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and 12_2 feature level are relevant for modern games, but Thief was released before DX12 was common. The game likely runs through a DX11 path, where the GPU's Passmark DirectX 11 score of 182 and DirectX 10 score of 104 are the relevant metrics. These scores, while not directly translatable to FPS, confirm that the GPU's DX11 performance is adequate but not exceptional.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It has an L3 cache of 33 MB shared, with 80 KB of L1 and 2 MB of L2 per core. The CPU has a TDP of 65 watts and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. It sits at the 91st percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 53620.

In Thief, the CPU's role appears minimal based on the FPS data. The game released in 2014 and was designed for the CPU architectures of that era, which typically had 4 to 8 cores. The i7-14700F's 20 cores and 28 threads are unlikely to be fully utilized. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35122 demonstrates massive parallel processing power, but Thief's engine likely uses only a few threads.

The single-thread performance is what matters more for an older game like Thief. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4958 and Geekbench single-core score of 2429 indicate strong single-thread capability. The Passmark single-thread score of 4257 confirms this. With a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, the CPU should be more than capable of feeding the GPU at 1080p and 1440p.

The fact that FPS scales almost exactly with resolution changes, rather than plateauing at a CPU-imposed limit, is the strongest evidence that the CPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system hits 171 FPS. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect similar FPS at 1440p Low, but instead it drops to 117 FPS. This 32% drop is too large to be explained by CPU limitations and points squarely at the GPU.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all within 0.8% of its average score. The Xeon 6505P is 0.2% ahead, while the Xeon Phi 7290 is 0.3% behind, the Ryzen 9 7900X is 0.6% behind, and the EPYC 7313P is 0.8% behind. These are extremely tight margins, meaning the i7-14700F is performing at the expected level for its class.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows that the best experience depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, all settings tiers are playable, but Medium settings provide the best balance of performance and quality. The 130 FPS average with a minimum of 110 FPS is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the max of 149 FPS leaves headroom for demanding scenes. High settings at 99 FPS are also excellent, but Ultra at 94 FPS offers only a 5% visual uplift for a 28% FPS cost compared to Medium.

At 1440p, Medium settings are the clear recommendation. The 89 FPS average with a minimum of 76 FPS maintains smooth gameplay, while Low at 117 FPS sacrifices visual fidelity for a 31% FPS gain that may not be necessary. High settings at 68 FPS are borderline, and Ultra at 65 FPS drops below the 70 FPS threshold that many players prefer for smooth motion. The Medium tier's min of 76 FPS ensures that even the heaviest scenes stay above 60 FPS.

At 4K, the data presents a difficult choice. Low settings at 69 FPS is the only tier that clears the 60 FPS threshold, but the visual downgrade is substantial. Medium at 52 FPS is playable but may feel less smooth, while High at 40 FPS and Ultra at 38 FPS are below the 40 FPS floor for comfortable play. The Medium tier's min of 45 FPS means some scenes will dip noticeably lower.

For players prioritizing a consistent frame rate, the recommendation is 1080p Medium for the best overall experience, or 1440p Medium for a resolution upgrade that still maintains 89 FPS average. At 4K, the data suggests Low settings are the only option for smoother gameplay, but the 69 FPS average is still a 31% drop from the 1080p Low result. The Ultra preset is only recommended at 1080p, where the 94 FPS average remains respectable.