Thief

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the AMD Radeon 760M is a mainstream mobile combination that sits at the very bottom of the performance hierarchy for Thief. The benchmark data places this combo at rank 2840 out of 2851 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all systems measured. This is not a configuration built for high-refresh-rate stealth action; it is a setup that will require significant compromises to achieve playable frame rates. The data shows a system that is fundamentally constrained by its integrated graphics, with the CPU’s capabilities largely untapped in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame metric is unforgiving, placing this specific pairing at position 2840 out of 2851 total combinations. This percentile placement indicates that the system is outperforming fewer than 12 other configurations in the entire database, a staggeringly low position that puts it in the company of the weakest hardware tested. The ranking reflects the reality of pairing a mid-range mobile processor with an integrated GPU that is not designed for demanding 3D workloads. For context, the CPU itself holds a percentileVsAllCpus of 79, meaning it is better than 79% of all processors, yet the overall system performance is dragged down entirely by the graphics solution.

The gap between the CPU’s relative strength and the combo’s absolute weakness highlights a massive bottleneck. The data suggests that the Radeon 760M is the sole limiting factor, as the Core Ultra 5 125H possesses more than enough compute headroom for a game from 2014. The rank of 2840 is not a reflection of the processor’s capability but rather a direct consequence of the GPU’s inability to render frames at a competitive rate. When compared to other integrated graphics solutions, the Radeon 760M sits at the 35th percentile of all GPUs, which is low, but the specific pairing in this laptop chassis still manages to land in the bottom fraction of a percent for this game. The conclusion is clear: this is a combination for basic productivity and light gaming at best, not for Thief at any respectable quality setting.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 800 MHz and a boost clock of 2599 MHz, which is a significant range that allows for dynamic performance scaling under load. The GPU features 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units, along with 8 ray tracing cores. Its memory configuration is listed as "System Shared," meaning it relies on the host system’s DDR5 memory, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This shared memory architecture is a primary reason for its performance limitations, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth.

In Thief, the GPU’s role is the dominant factor in determining frame rates. The measured FPS data shows a clear ceiling across all resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 53 FPS, which is the only setting where the game feels reasonably smooth. At 1080p High, the average drops to 31 FPS, and at Ultra, it falls to 29 FPS. The pattern is consistent with an iGPU that is overwhelmed by the game’s geometry and texture loads. The GPU’s 16 ROPs are a severe limitation for fill-rate intensive scenes, and the 5.323 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is not sufficient to maintain high frame rates at higher resolutions. The boost clock of 2599 MHz is aggressive, but the physical limits of the 15 W TDP mean the GPU cannot sustain high clocks under sustained load without thermal throttling. The benchmark results show that the Radeon 760M is only capable of delivering a playable experience at the lowest settings and resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in Thief?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 53, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system run Thief at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but at 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 12 (High and Ultra) to 16 (Medium) and 21 (Low), all of which are well below playable thresholds.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H has an average benchmark score of 27507, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (27535) and 0.3% lower than the Intel Core i5-12600K and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (both 27578).

Q: What is the GPU’s performance percentile relative to all other GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon 760M sits at the 35th percentile, indicating it performs better than only 35% of all GPUs in the database.

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

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS recorded is 23, with an average of 28 and a maximum of 32.

Q: Is there any setting where the game hits 60 FPS?

A: No. The maximum average FPS across all measured configurations is 53 at 1080p Low, so 60 FPS is not achieved in any tested scenario.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system’s performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 53 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches a smooth experience. The Medium preset drops to 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 and a maximum of 46, showing some frame time inconsistency. High settings reduce the average to 31 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 29 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 24 FPS drop, a 45% reduction in performance, indicating that the GPU is extremely sensitive to graphical fidelity changes.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degrades further. The Low preset averages 36 FPS, a 17 FPS drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 28 FPS, with a minimum of 23 and a maximum of 32. High settings average 21 FPS, and Ultra settings average 20 FPS. At this resolution, the GPU is clearly struggling to maintain playable frame rates, as even the lowest settings fall below the 60 FPS target and dip into the 30-40 FPS range. The 1440p data shows a similar pattern to 1080p, but with an overall shift downward of roughly 10-15 FPS across all settings.

At 3840x2160, the system is effectively unusable for gaming. The Low preset averages 21 FPS, which is a slideshow. Medium settings average 16 FPS, with a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 19. Both High and Ultra presets average 12 FPS. The 4K resolution demands a fill rate and memory bandwidth that the Radeon 760M simply cannot provide. The data shows a steep cliff between 1440p and 4K, with the average FPS at 4K Low being roughly half of what is seen at 1440p Low. This breakdown confirms that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU’s performance is not the limiting factor at any resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a 14-core, 18-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, with a TDP of 28 W. The processor features a three-level cache hierarchy: 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a theoretical bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, which is shared with the integrated GPU. The CPU’s benchmark scores are respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12804.5 and a single-core score of 1647.5, placing it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs.

In Thief, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, as the game is primarily graphics-bound on this hardware. The processor’s 14 cores and 18 threads are more than sufficient for a 2014 title, which was designed for much older, lower-core-count CPUs. The single-core performance, evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 3399, is adequate for the game’s main thread. The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the frame rates are consistently low regardless of resolution, which would not be the case if the CPU were the bottleneck. The CPU’s high L3 cache and fast boost clock ensure that it can feed the GPU with data, but the GPU cannot translate that data into high FPS. The nearest rival comparison shows the CPU is virtually identical in performance to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, with a delta of -0.1%, so the CPU is not a weak link in this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo is achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which yields an average of 53 FPS. This is the only configuration that provides a frame rate close to the 60 FPS target, and it is the only setting where the game is consistently smooth. The Medium preset at 1080p, averaging 40 FPS, is a marginal improvement in visual quality but sacrifices 13 FPS, which may not be worth the trade-off for playability. The Low preset also offers the best frame time stability, as evidenced by the absence of a minimum FPS value in the data, suggesting it is less prone to severe drops.

For users willing to accept lower frame rates, the Medium preset at 1080p is the maximum viable setting, as High and Ultra averages of 31 and 29 FPS, respectively, are too low for a smooth experience. At 1440p, the Low preset (36 FPS) is the only playable option, but it is still below the 40 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for acceptable performance. At 4K, no preset is playable, with all settings averaging below 22 FPS. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: use 1080p Low for the best balance of visual clarity and performance. If a higher preset is desired, 1080p Medium is the absolute limit, but users should expect a noticeable drop in smoothness.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a significant dependency on resolution, further confirming the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 53 at 1080p to 36 at 1440p (a 32% decrease) and then to 21 at 4K (a 42% decrease from 1440p). This scaling is steeper than what would be expected if the CPU were the limiting factor, as a CPU-bound scenario would show similar FPS across resolutions. The data indicates that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are exhausted as the pixel count increases.

At High settings, the drop is even more pronounced: 31 FPS at 1080p, 21 FPS at 1440p, and 12 FPS at 4K. The transition from 1080p to 1440p represents a 32% reduction, and from 1440p to 4K a 43% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU is not only limited by pixel throughput but also by the increased texture and shading complexity at higher resolutions. The difference between Low and High at 4K is only 9 FPS (21 vs 12), whereas at 1080p, the difference is 22 FPS (53 vs 31). This compression of performance at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is hitting a hard architectural limit, where the additional workload from higher settings cannot be compensated for. The resolution scaling analysis shows that the Radeon 760M has a fixed performance ceiling, and lowering resolution is the only effective way to improve frame rates, with diminishing returns as the resolution increases.