Thief

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS for this combination at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K with Intel Arc B390 delivers an average of 86 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Arc B390 scores 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. This places it 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce 800M, 2.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710.

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

A: The Intel Arc B390 sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs in the database, indicating that its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 is below the majority of recorded graphics hardware.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking and its average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355 across all recorded tests.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in Thief?

A: This CPU and GPU pair ranks 3307 out of 3720 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the lower portion of the database for this specific game.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces an average of 59 FPS, while the Ultra preset produces an average of 33 FPS. This represents a 26 FPS drop when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, using the Panther Lake chip. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The GPU's memory configuration is entirely system shared, meaning it draws from the host system's memory rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bus width is also system shared, and the bandwidth is system dependent, which makes the overall memory performance heavily reliant on the CPU and platform configuration.

The GPU contains 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster output units, and 12 ray tracing cores. Its pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is 7.680 TFLOPS, while FP16 performance reaches 15.36 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and it consumes 80 W of power. It is classified as an IGP with no power connectors and no dedicated slot width, which confirms its integrated nature.

In the database's GPU rankings, the Arc B390 sits in the 9th percentile. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 puts it just ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% delta), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443, 2.7% delta). These deltas are small, meaning the Arc B390 performs at a level comparable to these older, entry-level discrete GPUs. The data indicates that in Thief, the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the integrated memory system cannot supply bandwidth at the rate the game demands.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz, and its boost clock reaches 5.60 GHz. The CPU has a 125 W TDP and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus. It includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor uses Intel Socket 1700 and provides PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes from the CPU. It also has an integrated UHD Graphics 770 unit.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark results show strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 33440.5 multi-core and 2160 single-core. Cinebench R20 yields 18544 multi-core and 2617 single-core, while Cinebench R15 produces 5035 multi-core and 313.5 single-core. Geekbench results are 20767 multi-core and 2569 single-core. Passmark tests show 52392 multi-thread, 4472 single-thread, 134222 floating point math, 182876 integer math, 40091 data encryption, and 695234 data compression.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 69355, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 9115 (average score 69288, 0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, -0.2% delta), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, -0.7% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996, -0.9% delta). These deltas are within 1% of the i7-14700K's average score, indicating the CPU is well within the performance band of these high-end processors.

In Thief, the CPU's role is to feed frames to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 86 FPS, which is the highest recorded average in the entire dataset. At 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 48 FPS. The CPU has ample headroom for this game, as the FPS ceiling appears to be dictated by the GPU's rendering capability rather than the processor's compute throughput. The 20 cores and 28 threads provide more than enough processing power for a 2014 stealth title, and the high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance for game logic.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and the Intel Arc B390 ranks 3307 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief. This places the combo in the bottom 11% of all recorded configurations for this game. The ranking reflects the significant mismatch between the CPU's high performance tier and the GPU's low performance tier. The CPU sits in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 9th percentile among all GPUs. This imbalance means the combo's overall standing in Thief is dragged down by the GPU's inability to convert the CPU's computational strength into high frame rates.

The recorded data shows that the combo's FPS is consistently low across all resolutions and settings. At 4K Ultra, the average is 19 FPS, and at 1080p Low, the average is 86 FPS. Even the best case scenario, 1080p Low, does not reach the 90 FPS mark, which would be expected from a high-end CPU paired with a more capable GPU. The combo's rank of 3307 out of 3720 indicates that most other tested pairs, including those with much weaker CPUs, outperform this configuration in Thief due to having better graphics hardware.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database are all low-end discrete GPUs from the NVIDIA GT 700 and GT 500 series, as well as the GeForce 800M. The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 is only 1.3% to 2.7% higher than these older parts, confirming that it operates in the entry-level segment. The delta values between the Arc B390 and its rivals are small, meaning any of these GPUs would likely produce similar frame rates in Thief. The CPU's high percentile ranking does little to change the overall combo rank because the game's performance is primarily bound by the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the recorded data shows a clear progression across settings. Low settings produce an average of 86 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 66 FPS, with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 75 FPS. High settings produce an average of 50 FPS. Ultra settings produce an average of 48 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 20 FPS drop, while the step from Medium to High is a 16 FPS drop, and the step from High to Ultra is only a 2 FPS drop.

At 2560x1440, the averages are lower across the board. Low settings produce an average of 59 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 45 FPS, with a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 52 FPS. High settings produce an average of 34 FPS. Ultra settings produce an average of 33 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 14 FPS, from Medium to High is 11 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 1 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages fall further. Low settings produce an average of 35 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 26 FPS, with a minimum of 22 FPS and a maximum of 30 FPS. High settings produce an average of 20 FPS. Ultra settings produce an average of 19 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 9 FPS, from Medium to High is 6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 1 FPS.

The data indicates that the FPS penalty for increasing settings from High to Ultra is minimal at every resolution, with only a 1 to 2 FPS difference. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds visual features that are not heavily taxing on this GPU, or that the GPU is already saturated at High settings and cannot meaningfully differentiate between the two higher presets. The largest setting-based drops occur between Low and Medium, and between Medium and High, where the render load increases more substantially.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a basis for selecting the best preset for this combo. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 86 FPS, which is the only setting that approaches a smooth 60 FPS and exceeds it by a wide margin. Medium at 1080p delivers 66 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a better visual experience than Low. High at 1080p drops to 50 FPS, and Ultra drops to 48 FPS. Given that the game is a stealth title where smooth traversal and quick reactions matter, the Medium preset at 1080p appears to be the optimal balance, as it maintains an average above 60 FPS while improving visual quality over Low.

At 1440p, the Low preset delivers 59 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS mark. Medium at 1440p drops to 45 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. High and Ultra at 1440p produce 34 FPS and 33 FPS respectively, which are noticeably less fluid. The recorded data shows that 1440p Low is the only viable option for a playable experience at this resolution, as it stays close to 60 FPS, while all other settings fall below 50 FPS. The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 38 FPS, which indicates frame time spikes that could affect gameplay smoothness.

At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS. Low delivers 35 FPS, Medium delivers 26 FPS, High delivers 20 FPS, and Ultra delivers 19 FPS. These averages are all below the 30 FPS threshold for acceptable playability, except for Low, which barely exceeds it. The data shows that 4K is not a practical resolution for this combo in Thief, as even the lowest settings cannot maintain a stable frame rate. The best experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset at 1080p, which provides the highest visual fidelity while staying above 60 FPS on average, or the Low preset at 1440p for users who prioritize resolution over quality.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K reveal the nature of the bottleneck in this configuration. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 86 at 1080p to 59 at 1440p, a drop of 27 FPS, and then to 35 at 4K, a further drop of 24 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p represents a 31% reduction in frame rate, while the scaling from 1440p to 4K represents a 41% reduction. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 51 FPS, which is a 59% reduction.

At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 66 at 1080p to 45 at 1440p, a drop of 21 FPS, and then to 26 at 4K, a further drop of 19 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 32% reduction, and from 1440p to 4K is a 42% reduction. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings is 40 FPS, a 61% reduction. At High settings, the average falls from 50 at 1080p to 34 at 1440p, a 32% reduction, and then to 20 at 4K, a 41% reduction. The total drop is 30 FPS, a 60% reduction. At Ultra settings, the average falls from 48 at 1080p to 33 at 1440p, a 31% reduction, and then to 19 at 4K, a 42% reduction. The total drop is 29 FPS, a 60% reduction.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings indicates that the scaling behavior is resolution-bound rather than setting-bound. The GPU's system shared memory and system dependent bandwidth mean that as the resolution increases, the demand on memory bandwidth grows proportionally, and the GPU cannot keep up. The CPU's high single-thread performance, as shown by its 2160 Cinebench R23 single-core score and 4472 Passmark single-thread score, is not the limiting factor here. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat as resolution increased, but the data shows a steep decline. This confirms that the Intel Arc B390, with its integrated design and shared memory, is the component that caps performance in Thief, particularly at higher resolutions where the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth requirements exceed what the GPU can deliver.