Thief

Thief is a 2014 stealth game whose rendering demands scale predictably, and the data measured here for the Intel Core i7-14700KF combined with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 shows a setup that rarely breaks a sweat, even at 4K. Every frame rate in this analysis comes from the measured FPS table, and the figures across resolution and presets map out a system that is CPU-heavy at low resolutions and GPU-heavy at 4K, with a combo ranking in the top percentile of all tested configurations for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS values reveal the sharpest drops when moving from 2560×1440 to 3840×2160, regardless of preset. At 1920×1080 with the High preset, the average is 180 FPS; at 2560×1440 High, it falls to 143 FPS—a decrease of about 20%. But the real cliff is between 1440p and 4K: 2560×1440 High yields 143 FPS, while 3840×2160 High drops to 84 FPS, a reduction of roughly 41%. This pattern holds across all presets. With Low, the sequence is 219 FPS at 1080p, 193 at 1440p, and 145 at 4K—each step loses a significant chunk, but the 1440p-to-4K drop alone takes away 48 FPS (24.9%). Medium goes from 198 to 175 to 110, with the 1440p→4K step losing 65 FPS, or 37.1%. Ultra yields 177 at 1080p, 136 at 1440p, and 80 at 4K—a drop of 56 FPS between the latter two, a 41.2% fall. The pattern is unambiguous: the 3840×2160 resolution is where the GPU becomes the overwhelming limiting factor. The scaling is far from linear; 1080p to 1440p reductions hover around 11–23%, but 1440p to 4K pushes 25–41%. That kind of acceleration tells a clear story about which component is under load, and it matches the known behaviour of such a large 4K pixel count. Game’s art style and the era of its release don’t change that math; it pushes more pixels per frame at 4K, and the RTX 4090’s raw compute is the only thing keeping it above 80 FPS on Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost of 5.60 GHz. It scores 44167 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6235 in single-core, and it sits at the 94th percentile of all CPUs in the benchmark suite. In Thief, however, the measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 219 FPS—likely a CPU-bound ceiling. At 1080p, the game’s visual load is low, so the GPU is not the bottleneck. The CPU’s performance is reflected in the low-preset results: dropping to Low at 1080p only raises the average from 177 (Ultra) to 219 FPS, a gain of 42 FPS. At 1440p, the same Low-to-Ultra delta is 57 FPS (193 vs 136), and at 4K it’s 65 FPS (145 vs 80). So the CPU’s ability to push frame rates is most visible where the GPU has headroom. The 20-core Raptor Lake chip is overkill for a 2014 title, but its single‑core score (6235 in R23) helps keep the simulation and draw call workloads from bottlenecking. Both the L3 cache (33 MB shared) and the 10nm process help reduce latency, but the real evidence is that even at 1080p Ultra, the system averages 177 FPS—meaning the CPU is never the limiting factor below 4K. A lower-end CPU would likely cap out lower, but the i7‑14700KF never shows a frame rate floor in this game. The 28 threads are unused, but the majority of the game’s logic appears single‑threaded, so the 5.60 GHz boost clock is what matters—and that’s exactly what the data gives: no sub-60 FPS anywhere in the 1080p measurements. The single‑core score, at 6235, supports the idea that the chip’s architecture is well‑suited to this title.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 is the heavy artillery here, with 24 GB GDDR6X memory and a 384‑bit bus delivering 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. Its measurements put it at the 88th percentile of all GPUs, and its raw compute—82.58 TFLOPS FP32—leaves no doubt about its capacity. However, the Thief data shows the GPU’s real limit starting at 3840×2160. At 4K Ultra, the average is 80 FPS; at Medium, 110; at Low, 145. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 42 FPS (219 vs 177), but at 4K that gap opens to 65 FPS (145 vs 80). That a stronger indication that the GPU is only truly pressed when each frame costs many more raytracing? Actually Thief has no ray tracing, but 4K pixel fill is immense. The 4090′s pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are put to work. The 24 GB VRAM is far above what Thief needs, but it ensures no memory swapped out at 4K. The GPU has 16384 shading units and 128 RT cores (though RT not used), but the biggest factor is the memory bandwidth—at 1.01 TB/s. The measured frame rates suggest that the 4K Ultra preset still returns 80 FPS, which is fully playable on a 60 Hz display and even accepts a 120 Hz display at a cap. The 4.6 DirectX and Vulkan 1.4 support are fine for the game’s engine. So the GPU role is to shift the burden: at 1080p the CPU still has headroom, but as resolution climbs, the GPU becomes the bottleneck. In short, this is a system that can deliver high framerates in the hardest rays, but by design the GPU is the most critical component at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS the i7‑14700KF + RTX 4090 combo offers in Thief at 1920×1080 with the Low preset?

A: The measured average FPS is 219 FPS at 1920×1080, Low settings.

Q: How does the average FPS change from 2560×1440 to 3840×2160 at Medium settings?

A: At 2560×1440 Medium the average is 175 FPS, while at 3840×2160 Medium it’s 110 FPS—a drop of 65 FPS.

Q: Which preset produces the best playable frame rate at 4K if a target of 60 FPS is desired?

A: All presets at 3840×2160 exceed 80 FPS; Ultra averages 80 FPS, High 84 FPS, Medium 110 FPS, and Low 145 FPS. So even Ultra far exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Does Thief utilise all 28 threads of the i7‑14700KF?

A: The measured frame rates are high, but the game released in 2014 and is not coded for heavy parallelism. The data shows that 1080p Low hits 219 FPS, indicating the single‑core boost (5.60 GHz) is sufficient. The multi‑core score (R23 44167) suggests potential, but the title likely relies more on the boosted clock.

Q: What is the rank of this CPU+GPU combination among all tested combos for Thief?

A: The combo is ranked 74 out of 3720, placing it in the top 2% of configurations.

Q: What does the RTX 4090’s memory bandwidth (1.01 TB/s) contribute to 4K output?

A: That bandwidth ensures the GPU can feed its 24 GB frame buffer at 4K without stalls; the measured 4K frame rates (from 80 FPS on Ultra to 145 on Low) indicate no memory bottleneck at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Judging from the measured rows alone, this GPU and CPU handle every preset without dropping below 80 FPS, so a player can choose a setting that prioritises visual quality, frame rate, or a balance. At 1920×1080, the highest average is on Low (219 FPS) and the lowest is on Ultra (177 FPS)—a range that is more than enough for a 144 Hz or even 240 Hz display. At 1440p, Ultra gives 136 FPS and Low 193, so any preset comfortably beats 120 Hz. The real choice is at 4K. If the goal is maximum fidelity, Ultra at 4K delivers 80 FPS on average, which is solidly smooth on a 60–75 Hz monitor. To push a 144 Hz 4K panel, Medium at 4K gives 110 FPS, while High drops to 84 FPS. Low at 4K produces 145 FPS, but that sacrifices visual depth. A balanced ask would be Medium at 4K, as it yields 110 FPS with a middle‑ground of effects though still far from the Low settings. At 1440p, the Medium preset at 175 FPS is the clear choice for striking a balance between high frame rate and decent image quality, though Ultra at 1440p is also playable at 136 FPS. To answer directly: if the monitor is 60 Hz, use Ultra at 4K. For 120–165 Hz displays, rely on 1080p Ultra (177 FPS) or 1440p High (143 FPS); for 4K 120 Hz, you need the Medium 110 FPS, but with a 144 Hz screen the only answer that hits the refresh——at 1080p Low (219) or 1440p Low (193). The data does not show all stable min FPS values, but the parts that matter—the averages—consistently keep the system within operational refresh ranges.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The averaged frame rates are broken down as follows:

1920×1080

• Low: 219 FPS – no min/max provided
• Medium: 198 FPS (min 169, max 228)
• High: 180 FPS – no min/max provided
• Ultra: 177 FPS – no min/max provided

2560×1440

• Low: 193 FPS – no min/max
• Medium: 175 FPS (min 149, max 201)
• High: 143 FPS – no min/max
• Ultra: 136 FPS – no min/max

3840×2160

• Low: 145 FPS – no min/max
• Medium: 110 FPS (min 94, max 127)
• High: 84 FPS – no min/max
• Ultra: 80 FPS – no min/max

Only the Medium presets have reported minimum and maximum values. Those partial data points (min/max) show variance that increases with resolution: at 1080p Medium the frame range is 169–228 (59 play), at 1440p Medium it’s 149–201 (52 spread), and at 4K Medium it’s 94–127 (33 spread). That narrowing range with more aggressive resolution is consistent with the GPU becoming the more constant limit, whereas low‑res runs let the CPU/GPU jump around more irregularly. The exact lows/highs for the other presets remain unknown, so a complete profile is not available, but the average numbers are stable and reliable.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i7‑14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is ranked 74th out of 3720 tested combinations for Thief in the measured database. That puts it comfortably in the top 2% of all CPU+GPU pairings, meaning there are only 73 configurations that produce higher average frame rates or better performance for this title. Considering the CPU is at the 94th percentile of all CPUs and the GPU is at the 88th percentile, the rank is a direct outcome of both components being in the upper echelon. However, the rank is specific to this game—Thief—and does not reflect other titles. The data indicates that a high budget CPU plus the fastest NVIDIA flagship yields a near‑top experience, but the actual margin over the next rank remains a measure of the measured frame average. The rank also validates that the RTX 4090, though at the 88th percentile (not the absolute 100th), is sufficient to flow that the CPU engine doesn’t bottleneck it in this title. The combination proves to be precisely the type of high-tier pairing that leaves almost nothing on the table; only 74 other combos do better. That would place it in the upper echelon of all tested combos, so for a 2014 game the result is essentially unrestricted trophy hunting with the maximum visual fidelity.