Thief

Thief, a 2014 stealth classic, remains a demanding title even for modern hardware. This analysis examines the performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 across a range of resolutions and settings. The measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU's capabilities become more apparent at 1080p. The combination of a mobile-class processor with a flagship desktop GPU creates a unique performance profile that is well worth dissecting.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a clear and expected trend: performance degrades as resolution increases, but the rate of that degradation is not uniform across all settings. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 135 FPS at 1920x1080 to 101 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 60 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 41% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 56%, indicating that the GPU is being pushed significantly harder at the higher pixel counts.

The pattern is similar at Low settings, where the average FPS falls from 164 at 1080p to 145 at 1440p and then to 103 at 4K. The percentage drops are 12% and 29% respectively, showing that even at the lowest settings, the resolution scaling is steep. This suggests that the RTX 4090's rendering pipeline, while incredibly powerful, is still the primary bottleneck when pushing 4K resolution, even with less complex visual effects.

At Medium settings, we see the most complete dataset, including minimum and maximum frame rates. The average FPS drops from 149 at 1080p to 131 at 1440p, and then to 78 at 4K. The minimum FPS at 1080p is 126, while at 1440p it is 112, and at 4K it drops to 67. This indicates that even the frame pacing suffers as resolution increases, with the gap between average and minimum FPS widening at 4K. The maximum FPS figures of 171 at 1080p and 90 at 4K further illustrate the massive performance envelope that resolution scaling creates.

The data suggests a classic GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 4090 is a desktop-class card, and its performance is being throttled by the demands of higher resolutions. The CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, appears to be sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p, as the frame rates are very high across all settings. However, at 4K, the GPU's raw pixel-pushing capability becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's role diminishes. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing, with frame rates nearly halving in some cases, which is a strong indicator that the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing cores are saturated.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear picture of how different presets impact performance. For players targeting a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the High preset is the only viable option, delivering an average of 60 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 57 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and may result in noticeable stutter on standard 60Hz displays. The Medium preset, at 78 FPS, offers a significant performance buffer over High and is the recommended choice for 4K gaming if you want to avoid any risk of frame drops, as it sits comfortably above the 60 FPS target.

At 1440p, the situation is much more flexible. The Ultra preset delivers an average of 97 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. The High preset, at 101 FPS, is nearly identical in performance. The Medium preset, at 131 FPS, and Low preset, at 145 FPS, offer even higher frame rates for competitive play or for users with 144Hz or faster displays. For the best visual experience at 1440p, the Ultra preset is clearly the way to go, as it provides a high frame rate without sacrificing visual fidelity.

At 1080p, the CPU and GPU combo is powerful enough to push all presets to very high frame rates. The Ultra preset averages 132 FPS, while High is at 135 FPS. The Medium preset jumps to 149 FPS, and Low reaches 164 FPS. Given that the difference between Ultra and High is only 3 FPS, the Ultra preset is the obvious choice for 1080p gaming, as it provides the best image quality with no meaningful performance penalty. Even the most demanding preset is well above the 120 FPS mark, making this combination ideal for high-refresh-rate 1080p displays.

The data indicates that the best experience is a balance between visual quality and frame rate. At 4K, Medium is the sweet spot, offering 78 FPS, which is significantly better than the 60 FPS High preset. At 1440p and 1080p, the Ultra preset provides the best experience, with frame rates that are more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. The min FPS data at Medium settings also shows that frame pacing is consistent, with the 4K minimum of 67 FPS never dropping below the average of 78 FPS by a large margin.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mobile processor with 14 cores and 18 threads, based on the Meteor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. Its benchmark scores are respectable for a mobile chip, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12804.5 and a single-core score of 1647.5. In PassMark, it achieves a multi-thread score of 21100 and a single-thread score of 3399. This level of performance places it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, according to the data.

In the context of Thief, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The high frame rates at 1080p, particularly the 164 FPS average at Low settings, suggest that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution. The 14-core, 18-thread configuration provides ample parallel processing power for the game's engine. The boost clock of 4.50 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, which are often critical in game logic, are handled quickly.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, Intel Core i5-12600K, and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, with delta percentages of -0.1%, -0.3%, and -0.3% respectively. This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 125H performs nearly identically to these desktop-class processors in synthetic benchmarks. This is impressive for a mobile chip, and it explains why the system is not CPU-limited in Thief, even at 1080p. The data suggests that the CPU is powerful enough to keep up with the RTX 4090 in this specific title, as the frame rates scale smoothly with resolution, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 729th out of 2851 tested combos for Thief. This places it in the top 25.6% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing. The high rank is primarily driven by the GPU's immense power, as the RTX 4090 is one of the fastest consumer graphics cards available. The CPU, while not a top-tier desktop part, is more than capable of supporting the GPU in this game.

The rank of 729 suggests that while this combo is very fast, there are many other systems that score higher. These would likely feature more powerful desktop CPUs, such as the Core i9 or Ryzen 9 series, which can provide even higher frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios. However, the data shows that for Thief, the GPU is the dominant factor, and the Core Ultra 5 125H does not hold the system back in a significant way. The performance is consistent with what one would expect from a high-end GPU paired with a mid-to-high-end mobile CPU.

This ranking reflects the RTX 4090's brute force. The GPU's average benchmark score is 60347, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are the Intel Arc Pro A60 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, with delta percentages of 0% and 0.3%, respectively. This indicates that the RTX 4090 is a top-tier performer, and its dominance in the frame rate data is the primary reason this combo ranks so highly.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a behemoth of a graphics card, featuring the AD102 chip on a 5 nm process from TSMC. It has 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation units. The card is equipped with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its boost clock is 2520 MHz, and its FP32 performance is rated at 82.58 TFLOPS. This hardware is the driving force behind the high frame rates observed in the data.

The GPU's role in Thief is clearly the primary determinant of performance. The frame rates drop significantly as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. At 4K, the card is pushed to its limits, with the Ultra preset averaging only 57 FPS. The High preset achieves 60 FPS, and the Medium preset reaches 78 FPS. These figures show that even the most powerful consumer GPU available struggles to maintain very high frame rates at 4K with maximum settings in this title.

The RTX 4090's performance is also reflected in its benchmark scores. It achieves a PassMark G3D score of 38194 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631. These synthetic results confirm its position at the top of the GPU hierarchy. The card's memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is crucial for high-resolution textures and effects, which are common in Thief's detailed environments. The data clearly shows that the GPU is the star of this combo, and its capabilities are the reason why the system can achieve playable frame rates at 4K, even if they are not exceptionally high.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination achieves an average of 132 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, it can. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average frame rate is exactly 60 FPS. The Medium preset provides a more comfortable 78 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 57 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H has an average benchmark score of 27507, which is -0.1% compared to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, -0.3% compared to the Intel Core i5-12600K, and -0.3% compared to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The minimum frame rate at 2560x1440 with Medium settings is 112 FPS, with an average of 131 FPS and a maximum of 151 FPS.

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

A: The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 729th out of 2851 tested combos for Thief.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 features a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, supported by 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus.