Thief

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing delivers exceptional performance in the 2014 stealth classic Thief, producing frame rates that range from very smooth at 4K Ultra to exceptionally high at 1080p Low. The data shows a system capable of dominating this title at any setting, with the combination ranking 33rd out of 1,642 tested combos.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and setting combo for this system in Thief?*

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system achieves 78.5 FPS average. Dropping to High settings at the same resolution yields 83.2 FPS, while Medium and Low produce 111.8 and 144.7 FPS respectively.

Q: How much performance does the RTX 4090 deliver at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rates range from 136.8 FPS at Ultra settings to 182 FPS at Low settings. High and Medium settings produce 141.7 and 166.7 FPS respectively.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 206.4 FPS at Low settings, 191.6 FPS at Medium, 173.7 FPS at High, and 170.3 FPS at Ultra, showing scaling consistent with GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark percentile ranking?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F sits in the 94th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,097. Its closest rival is the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, which scores 54,450, a delta of -0.6%.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 66,473, placing it in the 91st percentile versus all GPUs. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 is -0.4% behind, the Tesla P40 is 0.5% ahead, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is -0.9% behind.

*Q: What is the system's overall ranking among tested combos in Thief?*

A: This specific combination of CPU and GPU ranks 33rd out of 1,642 total tested combinations in the game, placing it in the top 2% of all systems tested.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes.

In Thief, a game from 2014, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The benchmark results show that at 1080p, the frame rates are consistently above 170 FPS across all settings, which indicates that the CPU's single-thread performance is more than adequate for this title. The processor scores 5,003 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 35,443 in multi-core, demonstrating strong per-thread capability that prevents it from limiting the RTX 4090.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking reflects its overall strength, with a delta of only -0.6% against the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and -1.1% against the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D. In slower-paced stealth gameplay like Thief, the CPU's ability to maintain high minimum frame rates matters more than raw multi-core throughput, and the data shows no evidence of CPU-induced stuttering or frame pacing issues at any resolution tested.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the flagship of the GeForce 40-series, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process. It features 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The card has a 450 W TDP and requires an 850 W power supply.

For Thief, the RTX 4090's immense compute resources translate into extremely high frame rates that scale predictably with resolution. At 4K, the GPU delivers 78.5 FPS at Ultra settings, which is the most demanding configuration tested. The data shows a clear relationship between settings and performance: at 4K, dropping from Ultra to High increases the average FPS by 4.7 points, while moving to Medium adds 28.3 FPS over Ultra, and Low adds 66.2 FPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its dominance. It achieves 38,194 in Passmark G3D and 317,684 in Geekbench OpenCL. Its nearest rival in the database, the NVIDIA Tesla T4, is only -0.4% behind in average score, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is -0.9% behind. The RTX 4090's 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms that it is one of the most powerful graphics cards available, and the measured performance in Thief reflects this.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the system produces an average of 78.5 FPS at Ultra settings, which is a playable frame rate for a stealth game. High settings at 4K increase the average to 83.2 FPS, a modest 4.7 FPS gain. Medium settings deliver 111.8 FPS, representing a 33.3 FPS improvement over Ultra. Low settings at 4K produce 144.7 FPS, which is 66.2 FPS higher than Ultra and shows the headroom available when reducing graphical fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales significantly. Ultra settings average 136.8 FPS, which is 58.3 FPS higher than the same settings at 4K. High settings at 1440p deliver 141.7 FPS, while Medium reaches 166.7 FPS and Low hits 182 FPS. The gap between Ultra and High at 1440p is just 4.9 FPS, while the jump from High to Medium is 25 FPS, and from Medium to Low is 15.3 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates. Ultra settings produce 170.3 FPS, High settings 173.7 FPS, Medium 191.6 FPS, and Low 206.4 FPS. The difference between Ultra and High at 1080p is only 3.4 FPS, indicating that the game's Ultra preset adds minimal overhead relative to High at this resolution. The scaling from High to Medium is 17.9 FPS, and from Medium to Low is 14.8 FPS.

The overall trend across all resolutions shows diminishing returns from lowering settings at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Ultra and Low is 36.1 FPS, while at 4K the same comparison yields a 66.2 FPS difference. This suggests that the GPU becomes more settings-sensitive as resolution increases, which is consistent with the RTX 4090's memory bandwidth and compute capacity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 33rd out of 1,642 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the top 2% of all systems. This ranking reflects the synergy between a top-tier CPU and an end-of-life flagship GPU that still leads the benchmark charts.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking and the GPU's 91st percentile ranking combine to create a system that outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations. The 4K Ultra result of 78.5 FPS is particularly notable for a game released in 2014, as it demonstrates that modern high-end hardware can run this title at maximum fidelity with high refresh rates.

The rank of 33rd indicates that there are 32 other combinations that perform better in Thief, but these are likely to feature newer or more specialized hardware. The measured data shows no significant bottleneck between the two components; the CPU's single-core score of 5,003 in Cinebench R23 and the GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput are both more than sufficient for this game's engine.

Given that the RTX 4090 is marked as end-of-life and the CPU is still active in production, this combo represents a mature pairing that continues to deliver top-tier performance. The 24 GB of VRAM ensures that even future titles with higher memory demands will not be constrained, and the 33rd place ranking out of 1,642 combos solidifies this system's position as one of the best configurations available for Thief.