Thief

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a formidable performance profile in Thief, a 2014 stealth title that remains surprisingly demanding at high settings. The benchmark data shows a clear progression of frame rates across resolutions and presets, with the RTX 4090's enormous headroom ensuring that even the most taxing configurations remain highly playable. This analysis walks through the measured results, contextualizes them against the hardware's known capabilities, and offers guidance on optimal settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the RTX 4090 handles Thief's rendering load as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo averages 219 FPS, while at 2560x1440 Low it drops to 193 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low it settles at 145 FPS. This represents a 33.8% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the lowest preset. The scaling is not perfectly linear, but it clearly indicates that even at 4K, the GPU has substantial headroom in less demanding settings.

Moving to High settings, the pattern intensifies. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 179, dropping to 143 at 1440p, and then to 84 at 4K. The jump from 1440p to 4K at High is particularly steep, a 41.3% reduction, which suggests that the game becomes increasingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions and graphical complexity. At 4K High, the RTX 4090 still delivers 84 FPS, but the margin over 60 FPS shrinks considerably compared to lower resolutions.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 176 FPS, only slightly lower than High (179 FPS), indicating that Ultra settings do not significantly tax the GPU at 1080p. At 1440p Ultra, the average is 136 FPS, a 22.7% drop. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 80 FPS, exactly the same as 4K High. This convergence at 4K between High and Ultra suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at that resolution, as both presets produce identical frame rates.

The data shows that the RTX 4090 is the primary constraint at 4K, particularly with the Medium and Ultra presets, where average FPS hovers between 80 and 110. At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU's role becomes more pronounced, as the i7-14700K's 20 cores and 28 threads ensure that even the fastest GPU is not starved of data. Overall, the resolution scaling reveals a GPU that is supremely capable at lower resolutions but begins to encounter its limits at 4K with higher presets, though it never drops below 80 FPS even in the most demanding configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a 5 nm Ada Lovelace part with a chip size of 609 mm² and 76,300 million transistors. Its memory subsystem is particularly relevant for Thief: 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This is more than sufficient for Thief's 2014-era assets, and the data confirms that the game never significantly stresses the memory capacity. The GPU's clock speeds are 2235 MHz base and 2520 MHz boost, which are modest figures for a flagship, but the massive shader count of 16,384 allows it to achieve an FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS.

In Thief, the benchmarks show that the RTX 4090 dominates the workload. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 145, while at 1080p Low it reaches 219. The fact that even the lowest preset yields triple-digit FPS at all resolutions underscores that the GPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 198 FPS, with a minimum of 168 FPS and maximum of 228 FPS, indicating consistent performance. The minimum FPS figures, where available, show that the RTX 4090 maintains smooth frame delivery even during demanding scenes.

The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that pushes the GPU to its limits, with an average of 80 FPS. This is a 55.7% reduction from the 219 FPS at 1080p Low, but still an entirely playable experience for a stealth title. The RTX 4090's raw power, as measured by its PassMark G3D score of 38194 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9223, is in the top percentile of GPUs, and Thief's results reflect this capability. The GPU's 512 tensor cores and 128 ray tracing cores are not explicitly leveraged by Thief, which predates raytracing features, but they contribute to the overall architecture's efficiency.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s ensures that textures and geometry load without stutter, which is reflected in the solid minimum FPS numbers (e.g., 148 FPS at 1440p Medium). The RTX 4090's role is to provide raw rasterization power, and in Thief, it never drops below 80 FPS even in the most demanding scenario. This data indicates that the GPU is not a limiting factor for 60 FPS at any resolution; the choice of settings is more about target refresh rates and visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by the i7-14700K + RTX 4090 combo in Thief?

A: The highest average FPS is 219, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 198 FPS at 1080p Medium, and 193 at 1440p Low.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 handle 4K Ultra settings in Thief?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 80 FPS, which is identical to the 80 FPS at 4K High, indicating a GPU-bound scenario where the Ultra preset does not further reduce performance.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium?

A: The minimum FPS at 2560x1440 Medium is 148 FPS, with a maximum of 201 FPS and an average of 174 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck in Thief at 1080p?

A: No, the data shows that at 1080p, the average FPS is consistently above 176 FPS even at Ultra settings. This indicates that the GPU is not the limiting factor; instead, the CPU's single-thread performance and the game's engine determine the frame rate ceiling.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4090 at 1080p Low compared to 4K Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 219, while at 4K Low it is 145. This represents a 51% reduction in frame rate when scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations for Thief?

A: The combo ranks 79th out of 3720 tested configurations, placing it in the top 2.1% of all combos for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for the i7-14700K + RTX 4090 in Thief is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 219 FPS average
• Medium: 198 FPS average, 168 FPS min, 228 FPS max
• High: 179 FPS average
• Ultra: 176 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 193 FPS average
• Medium: 174 FPS average, 148 FPS min, 201 FPS max
• High: 143 FPS average
• Ultra: 136 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 145 FPS average
• Medium: 110 FPS average, 94 FPS min, 127 FPS max
• High: 84 FPS average
• Ultra: 80 FPS average

The data reveals a clear hierarchy: Low settings consistently produce the highest frame rates, while Ultra settings produce the lowest. The Medium preset, which has min/max data, shows the most stable frame delivery, as seen with a 228 FPS max at 1080p and a 127 FPS max at 4K. The High preset, curiously, yields the same 80 FPS as Ultra at 4K, suggesting the game's High preset may include some effects that are just as demanding as Ultra in certain scenes.

At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 43 FPS (219 vs 176), a 24.4% reduction. At 1440p, the difference is 57 FPS (193 vs 136), a 29.5% reduction. At 4K, the difference is 65 FPS (145 vs 80), a 81.3% reduction. This scaling shows that the GPU's workload becomes more pronounced as resolution increases, but even at 4K, the frame rates remain high.

How This Combo Ranks

According to the data, this combo ranks 79th out of 3720 tested configurations in Thief. This places it in the top 2.1% of all combos, a position that is consistent with the hardware's high-end specifications. The RTX 4090's percentile of 88 among all GPUs and the i7-14700K's percentile of 94 among all CPUs both indicate that this is a top-tier pairing, and the in-game rank reflects that.

The data shows that the combo's performance is not limited by either component, but rather by the game engine's own frame rate limits. The 79th place indicates that there are 78 other combos that achieve higher frame rates, but these likely involve even more powerful CPU configurations or specialized tuning. For a 2014 title, the i7-14700K + RTX 4090 combo is overkill, but it guarantees that Thief runs with maximum settings at high frame rates without any concern for performance.

The rank is particularly notable when considering the CPU's nearest rivals, which have average benchmark scores within 1% of the i7-14700K. The CPU's avgBenchmarkScore of 69355 is just 0.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 9115's 69288, and it is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X's 69515. This indicates that the CPU is not the differentiating factor in this ranking; instead, the GPU's performance is the key driver. The RTX 4090's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a deltaPct of 0, are far less capable, underscoreing the GPU's dominance.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured frame rates, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target refresh rate and resolution. For 1080p and 1440p, the Ultra preset is recommended for the best visual quality, as the FPS remains above 136 FPS at 1440p Ultra, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1080p Ultra, the 176 FPS average is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors.

For 4K, the High preset is the best choice, as it delivers 84 FPS average, which is closer to a smooth 60 FPS experience than the 80 FPS of Ultra. The 4K Medium preset, with an average of 110 FPS, offers 30% more performance than High, making it a good compromise for those who prefer high frame rates over maximum visual fidelity. The Low preset at 4K, at 145 FPS, is unnecessary unless the user is targeting a 144 Hz monitor.

In summary, the High preset at 1440p or the Medium preset at 4K offer the best balance of visual quality and performance, with the High preset at 4K being the most visually demanding option that still maintains acceptable frame rates. The Ultra preset is not recommended for 4K, as it only yields 80 FPS, but it is fine at 1080p and 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. In Thief, a 2014 title that is not heavily multi-threaded, the CPU's single-thread performance is crucial. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-thread score of 2160 and PassMark single-thread score of 4472 are strong, but the game's engine still relies on a few cores.

The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the FPS is consistently above 176 FPS at Ultra. The 219 FPS at 1080p Low indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU at very high frame rates. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's role diminishes. The i7-14700K's 20 cores, while not fully utilized by Thief, provide headroom for background tasks and future-proofing.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i7-14700K's avgBenchmarkScore of 69355 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X's 69515 (deltaPct -0.2) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX's 69875 (deltaPct -0.7). This indicates that in synthetic benchmarks, the CPU is on par with other top-tier processors. In Thief, the CPU's clock of 5.60 GHz boost ensures that the game's physics and AI calculations are handled without stalling, as evidenced by the high minimum FPS figures at 1080p and 1440p.

The CPU's 33 MB of L3 cache is ample for the game's memory access patterns, and the 10 nm process node (Intel's 10 nm, which is comparable to other modern nodes) ensures efficient power draw. The i7-14700K's 125 W TDP is reasonable for its performance, and its integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but unused in this benchmark. Overall, the CPU plays a supporting role in Thief, ensuring that the GPU is never starved for data, while the GPU's raw power delivers the high frame rates observed.