Thief

Resolution Scaling

The recorded data for Thief shows a clear and expected pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo of Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers 158 FPS average. Moving to 1440p at the same High preset drops the average to 109 FPS, which is a 31% reduction. At 4K, the average falls further to 64 FPS, which is a 41% drop from the 1440p result and a 59% drop from the 1080p result.

The scaling pattern across all settings presets tells a consistent story. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p sees a drop from 219 FPS to 188 FPS, a 14% decline. From 1440p to 4K at Low, the average drops from 188 to 111 FPS, a 41% decline. Medium settings show 198 FPS at 1080p, 143 FPS at 1440p, and 84 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 28% and 41% respectively. Ultra settings follow the same trajectory: 151 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 61 FPS at 4K, with drops of 32% and 41%.

The fact that the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is nearly identical across all four settings presets (41% for Low, 41% for Medium, 41% for High, 41% for Ultra) indicates that the GPU is the dominant limiting factor at 4K. When the rendering resolution increases, the workload on the graphics card scales directly with pixel count, and the RX 7900 XT shows a very consistent response to that increased load regardless of the quality preset. This is a signature of a GPU-bound scenario at the highest resolution.

At 1080p, the situation is different. The gap between Low (219 FPS) and Ultra (151 FPS) is 68 FPS, a 31% spread. At 4K, the gap between Low (111 FPS) and Ultra (61 FPS) is 50 FPS, a 45% spread. The wider relative gap at 4K suggests that the visual quality settings have more impact on the GPU workload at higher resolutions, which reinforces the GPU-bound analysis. At 1080p, the CPU is likely providing enough headroom that the GPU can still push high frame rates even at Ultra, but the 4K data shows the GPU struggling to maintain high averages regardless of the preset.

The data also shows that the minimum FPS values are only recorded for Medium settings. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 71 FPS and the maximum is 96 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 121 FPS and the maximum is 164 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 169 FPS and the maximum is 228 FPS. The spread between minimum and maximum is consistent at around 25-30 FPS across all three resolutions, which indicates that frame time variance does not change dramatically with resolution for this particular preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings 20 cores and 28 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The processor uses the Raptor Lake architecture on a 10 nm process node, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. The L3 cache is 33 MB shared, and the L2 cache is 2 MB per core.

This CPU is a high-end desktop part, and its benchmark results confirm its position. In Cinebench R23, the multi-core score is 44167 and the single-core score is 6235. The Geekbench multi-core score is 21462 and the single-core score is 2578. The PassMark multithread score is 52425 and the single-thread score is 4480. The CPU sits in the 94th percentile against all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 70163.

The nearest rivals in the database show how close the competition is at this level. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996, which is 0.2% lower. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 69875, which is 0.4% lower. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69515, which is 0.9% lower. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K scores 70879, which is 1.0% higher. These deltas are all within one percent, which means the i7-14700KF is effectively in a dead heat with its closest competitors for general CPU performance.

In Thief specifically, the CPU role is best understood by looking at the 1080p results. At Low settings, the combo reaches 219 FPS average. This is the highest recorded average across all presets and resolutions, and it indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU with enough frames to saturate even a fast graphics card at low visual quality. The fact that 1080p Low reaches 219 FPS while 1080p Ultra reaches 151 FPS shows a 68 FPS gap, which is entirely attributable to the GPU workload increasing with quality settings.

The CPU's 28 threads are more than sufficient for a game released in 2014. Thief is a stealth title that does not typically scale with many cores, but the high single-thread performance of the i7-14700KF, evidenced by the 6235 Cinebench R23 single-core score, ensures that the game's main thread is never the bottleneck at 1080p. The data shows that at 1080p High, the combo delivers 158 FPS, which is well above any display refresh rate that would be paired with this class of hardware.

The processor's 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 mounting are practical considerations for builders, but the benchmark data does not show any thermal throttling effects on the FPS numbers. The scores in the database are recorded under controlled conditions, and the measured FPS values in Thief are consistent with what a fully functional i7-14700KF should deliver. The CPU's percentile rank of 94 means it outperforms the vast majority of processors in the database, and this headroom is visible in the 1080p results where the GPU is not yet the sole limiting factor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The GPU has 5376 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. It features 84 ray tracing cores and delivers 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The memory configuration is 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus, providing 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1387 MHz, the boost clock is 2394 MHz, and the game clock is 2025 MHz.

The GPU's benchmark results in the database show a mixed picture. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 5623, the Geekbench Vulkan score is 71068, and the PassMark G3D score is 29009. However, the percentile rank against all GPUs is only 55, and the average benchmark score is 13745. The nearest rivals are unusual in this context: the AMD Radeon 660M scores 13812 (0.5% higher), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile scores 13821 (0.5% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 570X scores 13871 (0.9% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT scores 13543 (1.5% lower). These rivals are not comparable in gaming performance to the RX 7900 XT, which suggests that the average benchmark score is being pulled down by the specific test suite used in the database.

In Thief, the GPU role is clearly dominant at 4K. The recorded data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 61, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold that many builders consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. At 4K High, the average is 64 FPS, and at 4K Medium it is 84 FPS. Only at 4K Low does the average reach 111 FPS. These numbers indicate that the RX 7900 XT is capable of handling 4K in this game, but only with reduced settings if the target is a high refresh rate.

The GPU's 20 GB of VRAM is a notable asset for 4K gaming. Thief, being a 2014 title, does not require anywhere near that amount of memory, so the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in any of the measured scenarios. The 800.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is also more than sufficient for this game's texture streaming demands. The data shows no signs of memory-related stuttering or frame drops, as the minimum FPS values at Medium settings are within a reasonable range of the averages.

The GPU's clock behavior is also relevant. The boost clock of 2394 MHz and game clock of 2025 MHz indicate that the card can sustain high frequencies under load. The measured FPS values in Thief are consistent with a GPU that is running at or near its rated clocks, and the 4K results in particular show that the RX 7900 XT is being pushed to its limits by the pixel count. The 459.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 804.4 GTexel/s texture rate provide the raw throughput that the game needs, but the 4K Ultra result of 61 FPS shows that the GPU is working hard.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear picture of how each settings preset performs at each resolution. The goal is to identify which preset delivers the best experience per the recorded rows, meaning the highest average FPS that remains stable and playable.

At 4K, the choices are limited. Ultra delivers 61 FPS average, which is technically playable but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes. High delivers 64 FPS, which is marginally better but still close to the 60 FPS threshold. Medium delivers 84 FPS, which provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS and is the best balance of visual quality and performance at this resolution. Low delivers 111 FPS, but the visual quality reduction is significant. The data suggests that Medium is the optimal choice at 4K, as it offers a 31% improvement over Ultra (84 vs 61 FPS) while maintaining a higher quality preset than Low.

At 1440p, the situation is more comfortable. Ultra delivers 103 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and suitable for high refresh rate displays. High delivers 109 FPS, and Medium delivers 143 FPS. Low reaches 188 FPS. The data indicates that Ultra is fully playable at 1440p, and the 103 FPS average provides enough headroom for most scenarios. For builders who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, Medium at 143 FPS is a strong option, but the measured data shows that Ultra at 1440p is not a compromise.

At 1080p, every preset exceeds 150 FPS. Ultra delivers 151 FPS, High delivers 158 FPS, Medium delivers 198 FPS, and Low reaches 219 FPS. The data shows that even at Ultra, the combo is delivering frame rates that exceed the refresh rate of most 1080p monitors. The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium is 169, which means the frame rate never drops below that level in the recorded data. This makes Ultra the recommended preset at 1080p, as the visual quality improvement comes at no practical cost to the player.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, which provides additional insight. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 71 FPS and the maximum is 96 FPS, giving a 25 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 121 FPS and the maximum is 164 FPS, a 43 FPS spread. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 169 FPS and the maximum is 228 FPS, a 59 FPS spread. The wider spread at lower resolutions indicates that the frame rate varies more when the GPU is not the bottleneck, which is consistent with CPU or memory-related frame pacing variations.

How This Combo Ranks

The database records this specific combination of Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT as rank 380 out of 3720 tested combos in Thief. This places the combo in the top 10.2% of all combinations in the database for this game. The rank is based on the measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings, and it reflects the overall capability of this pairing.

A rank of 380 out of 3720 means that 340 other combos deliver better performance in Thief. Given the age of the game, many of those higher-ranked combos likely feature newer or more powerful GPUs, as Thief is not particularly demanding by modern standards. The RX 7900 XT is a high-end GPU, but its percentile rank of 55 against all GPUs in the database suggests that there are many faster cards recorded. The CPU's percentile rank of 94 is much stronger, which indicates that the processor is not the limiting factor in this combo's ranking.

The gap between the CPU and GPU percentile ranks is instructive. The i7-14700KF outperforms 94% of all CPUs, while the RX 7900 XT outperforms only 55% of all GPUs. This asymmetry suggests that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for Thief, which is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis that showed the GPU becoming the dominant bottleneck at 4K. The combo's rank of 380 reflects this balance, as it is high but not near the top of the database.

The nearest rival data for the GPU shows why the rank is not higher. The RX 7900 XT's average benchmark score of 13745 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon 660M (13812), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (13821), and the AMD Radeon RX 570X (13871). These are not gaming GPUs that would be expected to compete with the RX 7900 XT in a modern title, but the database's benchmark suite weights them similarly. This anomaly in the GPU benchmark data explains why the GPU's percentile rank is lower than its actual gaming performance would suggest.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full set of measured data for Thief with this combo is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are recorded for all four settings presets. Low delivers 219 FPS, Medium delivers 198 FPS with a minimum of 169 and a maximum of 228, High delivers 158 FPS, and Ultra delivers 151 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the largest single step being from Medium to High, which drops from 198 to 158 FPS, a 20% reduction. The step from High to Ultra is smaller, from 158 to 151 FPS, a 4% reduction.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are also recorded for all four presets. Low delivers 188 FPS, Medium delivers 143 FPS with a minimum of 121 and a maximum of 164, High delivers 109 FPS, and Ultra delivers 103 FPS. The progression from Medium to High drops from 143 to 109 FPS, a 24% reduction. The step from High to Ultra drops from 109 to 103 FPS, a 6% reduction. This pattern is similar to 1080p, where the largest quality step is between Medium and High, and the smallest is between High and Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are recorded for all four presets. Low delivers 111 FPS, Medium delivers 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 and a maximum of 96, High delivers 64 FPS, and Ultra delivers 61 FPS. The progression from Medium to High drops from 84 to 64 FPS, a 24% reduction. The step from High to Ultra drops from 64 to 61 FPS, a 5% reduction. The pattern holds across all resolutions: the Medium to High step is the most costly, while the High to Ultra step is relatively cheap.

Comparing the same settings across resolutions provides the clearest view of scaling. Low settings: 219 FPS at 1080p, 188 FPS at 1440p, 111 FPS at 4K. Medium settings: 198 FPS at 1080p, 143 FPS at 1440p, 84 FPS at 4K. High settings: 158 FPS at 1080p, 109 FPS at 1440p, 64 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings: 151 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, 61 FPS at 4K.

The data shows that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is largest at High and Ultra settings, with drops of 31% and 32% respectively. The gap between 1440p and 4K is consistently 41% across all settings. This consistency indicates that the 4K workload is purely GPU-bound, while the 1080p to 1440p transition still involves some CPU contribution. The recorded minimum FPS values at Medium settings show that the frame rate floor is 71 FPS at 4K, 121 FPS at 1440p, and 169 FPS at 1080p, all of which are above the 60 FPS threshold for playability.