Thief

FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 in Thief?

A: This combination ranks 837th out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the upper third of all tested configurations.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H scores 27,507 on average, which is 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (27,535) and 0.3% below both the Intel Core i5-12600K and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (27,578 each). It sits 0.5% above the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G (27,382).

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile and how does it rank against the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 54,247 is 0.1% above the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209) and 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828).

Q: What memory configuration does this CPU support, and what is the cache layout?

A: The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth. It has 112 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 18 MB shared L3 cache.

Q: What is the GPU's memory size and bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4080 has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed.

Q: Does this CPU have integrated graphics, and what is its process node?

A: Yes, it includes Arc Xe-LPG 96EU integrated graphics. The CPU is built on Intel's 7 nm process node under the Meteor Lake architecture.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the AD103 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture at a 5 nm process node from TSMC. It contains 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.1M per mm². The GPU operates with a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, which are the clocks that directly influence Thief's frame rates.

The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Thief's 2014-era textures and geometry. The memory clock runs at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed. With 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, the GPU has substantial raw throughput. The pixel rate is 280.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 761.5 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute at 48.74 TFLOPS.

In Thief specifically, the GPU's role becomes clear when examining the measured FPS across settings. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 52 FPS, while at 4K Low it reaches 94 FPS — a spread of 42 FPS that demonstrates how much headroom the GPU has at lower settings. The RTX 4080's 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are not directly relevant to Thief, which launched before ray tracing became a standard feature, but the raw rasterization power from the shading units and TMUs carries the load.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position: 34,457 in Passmark G3D, 21,4739 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 26,3779 in Geekbench Vulkan. The DirectX 11 score of 314 is particularly relevant since Thief uses DirectX 11 as its primary rendering API. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms it is a high-end part, and its nearest rival — the RTX 4080 SUPER — is only 0.1% behind in average score, making the performance delta between these two essentially negligible.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear resolution scaling pattern for this combo in Thief. At 1080p High, the average is 135 FPS; at 1440p High it drops to 93 FPS; and at 4K High it falls to 54 FPS. This represents a 31% decrease from 1080p to 1440p, and a 60% decrease from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is consistent across all settings, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly the limiting factor as resolution rises.

Examining the Low preset tells a similar story: 164 FPS at 1080p, 145 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 12%, but from 1080p to 4K it is 43%. Medium settings show 149 FPS at 1080p, 122 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K — a 18% drop to 1440p and a 52% drop to 4K. Ultra settings yield 128 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K — a 31% drop to 1440p and a 59% drop to 4K.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is likely constraining performance more than the GPU, since even the Ultra preset achieves 128 FPS which is below what the RTX 4080 could theoretically produce at this resolution. As resolution increases to 1440p, the GPU load grows, and the frame rate drops accordingly. At 4K, the GPU is almost certainly the primary bottleneck, with even the Low preset falling to 94 FPS — a significant drop from the 164 FPS at 1080p Low.

The Medium preset at each resolution provides the only complete min/max data: at 1080p, the range is 126–171 FPS; at 1440p, it is 103–140 FPS; and at 4K, it is 61–82 FPS. These ranges show that frame pacing remains relatively consistent, with the spread between min and max staying around 20–45 FPS across resolutions. The narrowing of the max FPS at higher resolutions — from 171 down to 82 — further confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low preset averages 164 FPS, Medium averages 149 FPS with a min of 126 and max of 171, High averages 135 FPS, and Ultra averages 128 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 36 FPS, which represents a 22% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain high but show a clear step down. Low averages 145 FPS, Medium averages 122 FPS with a min of 103 and max of 140, High averages 93 FPS, and Ultra averages 88 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 57 FPS, a 39% reduction. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 5 FPS at this resolution, suggesting diminishing returns from the Ultra preset.

At 4K, the performance drops significantly. Low averages 94 FPS, Medium averages 71 FPS with a min of 61 and max of 82, High averages 54 FPS, and Ultra averages 52 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 42 FPS, a 45% reduction. The High and Ultra presets are nearly identical at 54 and 52 FPS respectively, indicating that the GPU is hitting a hard ceiling at this resolution regardless of the visual quality settings.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the min of 126 FPS and max of 171 FPS show a 45 FPS spread; at 1440p, the min of 103 and max of 140 show a 37 FPS spread; and at 4K, the min of 61 and max of 82 show a 21 FPS spread. This narrowing of the frame time distribution at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU's workload becomes more consistent as it becomes the bottleneck.

Comparing High and Ultra across resolutions, the differences are minimal: at 1080p, 135 vs 128 FPS (5% faster for High); at 1440p, 93 vs 88 FPS (6% faster); and at 4K, 54 vs 52 FPS (4% faster). This demonstrates that Ultra settings in Thief offer negligible performance gains over High while presumably providing similar visual quality improvements.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mobile processor with 14 cores and 18 threads, running at a 3.60 GHz base clock and 4.50 GHz boost clock. It has a 28 W TDP and is built on the Meteor Lake architecture using Intel's 7 nm process. The cache configuration includes 112 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 18 MB shared L3. Memory support is DDR5 on a dual-channel bus with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, and the CPU connects via PCIe Gen 5.

In Thief, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but it still matters at 1080p. The benchmark scores show a single-thread performance of 1,647.5 in Cinebench R23 and 3,399 in Passmark Single Thread, which are respectable for a mobile part. Multi-thread scores include 12,804.5 in Cinebench R23 and 21,100 in Passmark Multithread. The CPU sits in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27,507.

The nearest rivals provide context: the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 scores 27,535 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core i5-12600K scores 27,578 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X scores 27,578 (0.3% higher). The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G scores 27,382 (0.5% lower). These deltas are all within 1%, meaning the CPU's compute performance is essentially on par with these desktop parts, despite being a mobile chip with a 28 W TDP.

The 1080p results indicate that the CPU can keep pace with the RTX 4080 up to a point. The 164 FPS at Low and 149 FPS at Medium suggest that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at these frame rates. However, the fact that High and Ultra only reach 135 and 128 FPS respectively — rather than scaling proportionally with GPU load — hints that the CPU may be introducing a mild bottleneck at these settings. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor, and the CPU's performance becomes less relevant.

The CPU's integrated Arc Xe-LPG 96EU graphics are not used in this configuration, as the discrete RTX 4080 handles all rendering. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is sufficient for Thief's data requirements, and the 18 MB L3 cache helps with game asset streaming.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Medium preset at 149 FPS offers the best balance between visual quality and frame rate, especially given the available min/max data of 126–171 FPS. The High preset at 135 FPS is also viable, but the 14 FPS gain from Medium to High may not justify the visual upgrade for competitive play. Ultra at 128 FPS is acceptable but offers only a 7 FPS improvement over High, making it the least efficient choice.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 122 FPS is the strongest recommendation. It provides a smooth experience with a min of 103 FPS, which is above the 100 FPS threshold for most displays. The High preset at 93 FPS is playable but dips below 100 FPS, and Ultra at 88 FPS is within 5 FPS of High, making it a marginal choice. The Low preset at 145 FPS is unnecessary unless maximum frame rates are required for competitive play.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. The Low preset at 94 FPS is the only option that maintains a consistent 60+ FPS experience, though it does not reach the 100 FPS mark. The Medium preset at 71 FPS is playable but the min of 61 FPS means occasional dips below 60 FPS are possible. The High and Ultra presets at 54 and 52 FPS respectively are below the 60 FPS threshold and are not recommended for smooth gameplay. For a 60 Hz display, the Medium preset at 4K with a 71 FPS average is the best choice, as it provides better visuals than Low while staying above the refresh rate.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best performance-to-visual ratio. It is the only preset with complete min/max data, which allows for reliable frame time analysis. The data shows that Ultra provides negligible gains over High — only 5-7% faster at any resolution — so players should choose High over Ultra if they want the highest quality without the performance penalty.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 837th out of 2,851 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the 71st percentile of all tested configs. This is a strong result, especially considering that the CPU is a mobile part with a 28 W TDP paired with a desktop-class GPU. The ranking suggests that the combination is well-balanced for Thief, with the GPU providing most of the performance headroom.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 27,507 places it just below the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (27,535), Intel Core i5-12600K (27,578), and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (27,578), while sitting above the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G (27,382). These deltas are all within 0.5%, meaning the CPU is effectively on par with these desktop parts in synthetic benchmarks. The GPU's average score of 54,247 is 0.1% above the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209) and 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828), though it trails the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698) by 2.6% and the AMD Radeon 8060S (55,757) by 2.7%.

The rank of 837 out of 2,851 is particularly notable because Thief is a 2014 title that does not heavily utilize modern GPU features like ray tracing or DLSS. The fact that this combo still ranks in the top 30% indicates that the raw rasterization performance of the RTX 4080 is sufficient to overcome the game's age and the CPU's mobile nature. The 1080p results, where the combo achieves 128 FPS at Ultra, demonstrate that the configuration is capable of high-refresh-rate gameplay in this title, while the 4K results at 52 FPS Ultra show that it can handle 4K with some compromises.

The gap between the combo's rank and the individual component percentiles — 79th for the CPU and 86th for the GPU — suggests that Thief is slightly more demanding on the GPU than the CPU, which aligns with the resolution scaling data showing the GPU becoming the bottleneck at 4K. Overall, this combo represents a strong pairing for Thief, with the RTX 4080 providing the bulk of the performance while the Core Ultra 5 125H keeps up without becoming a significant bottleneck at lower resolutions.