Thief

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and AMD Radeon RX 580 combo lands at rank 2617 out of 2851 tested combinations in Thief. That places it in the bottom 8% of all tested systems, a position that reflects the age and performance tier of the graphics card more than the capability of the processor. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a modern 10-core desktop part that sits at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, while the RX 580, a Polaris 20 part from 2017, sits at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs. In a game like Thief, which is a 2014 stealth title, this pairing produces playable frame rates at 1080p but struggles severely at higher resolutions. The data shows a system that is fundamentally GPU-limited, where the CPU has substantial headroom left unused. For a builder considering this pairing, the results indicate that the RX 580 is the bottleneck in every scenario, and the modern CPU does little to lift performance beyond what the GPU can deliver. The overall ranking is poor, but the experience is not uniformly bad—at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 83 FPS, which is smooth by any standard.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2617 out of 2851 tested combinations places it in the bottom tier of systems benchmarked in Thief. To put that in perspective, only 234 tested combos perform worse, which means this pairing is near the bottom but not the absolute floor. The ranking reflects the GPU's age and its position in the performance hierarchy. The RX 580's average benchmark score is 12928, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 12940 (0.1% faster), the GTX 1660 SUPER at 12986 (0.4% faster), and the AMD Radeon 740M at 12870 (0.5% slower). These are all comparable performers, and none of them are modern high-end parts. The GPU's 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs means it is squarely mid-pack, but in a 2014 game that is increasingly CPU-bound at lower resolutions, the GPU's limitations become the defining factor.

The CPU, by contrast, is a strong performer. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36938, placing it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F at 36945 (0% difference), the Ryzen 5 5500X3D at 37018 (0.2% faster), the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 at 37093 (0.4% faster), and the Intel Core i9-12900T at 37112 (0.5% faster). This puts the Ultra 5 225 in the same class as those parts, all of which are capable gaming CPUs. In Thief, however, the CPU's strength does not translate into high frame rates because the GPU cannot keep up. The combo rank is what it is because the GPU holds the system back, not the CPU. Benchmark results indicate that if the GPU were replaced with a stronger part, the CPU would easily support higher frame rates, but as tested, the system is firmly GPU-limited across all resolutions and settings.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo playable at 1080p in Thief?

A: Yes, at 1080p the combo delivers playable frame rates across all settings. The average FPS ranges from 46 at Ultra to 83 at Low, with Medium at 63 and High at 48. The Medium setting shows a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS, indicating stable performance. At 1080p Low, the 83 FPS average is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, performance drops noticeably. The average FPS ranges from 31 at Ultra to 57 at Low, with High at 33 and Medium at 43. The Medium setting shows a minimum of 37 FPS and a maximum of 50 FPS. The 57 FPS at Low is playable, but the higher settings fall below 60 FPS, which may be a concern for some users.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K in Thief?

A: No, 4K is not viable with this pairing. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 18 at Ultra to 33 at Low, with High at 19 and Medium at 25. The Medium setting shows a minimum of 22 FPS and a maximum of 29 FPS. These frame rates are below playable thresholds for most users, even at Low settings.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The RX 580 has a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs is far below the CPU's 85th percentile ranking. In all measured scenarios, the frame rates are consistent with a GPU-limited system, not a CPU-limited one.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 580's average benchmark score of 12928 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is 0.1% faster, the GTX 1660 SUPER is 0.4% faster, and the Radeon 740M is 0.5% slower. These differences are negligible, meaning the RX 580 is essentially on par with these parts in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the CPU's performance headroom relevant for this game?

A: The CPU's headroom is significant but unused in Thief. The Ultra 5 225 has a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25891 and a single-core score of 3655, placing it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs. In this game, the GPU limits frame rates so severely that the CPU's power does not affect the outcome. The data shows frame rates that are consistent with GPU limitations, not CPU limitations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p, the combo delivers average frame rates between 46 and 83 FPS depending on settings. Moving to 1440p, those numbers drop by roughly 30-35%: the Low setting falls from 83 to 57 FPS, High from 48 to 33 FPS, Medium from 63 to 43 FPS, and Ultra from 46 to 31 FPS. At 4K, the drop is even more severe, with Low falling to 33 FPS, High to 19 FPS, Medium to 25 FPS, and Ultra to 18 FPS. This pattern is characteristic of a GPU-limited system, where the rendering load increases with resolution and the GPU cannot maintain frame rates.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent reduction of about 30-35% across all settings, which is typical for a GPU that is already near its limits at 1080p. The drop from 1440p to 4K is larger in percentage terms: Low goes from 57 to 33 FPS (a 42% drop), High from 33 to 19 FPS (a 42% drop), Medium from 43 to 25 FPS (a 42% drop), and Ultra from 31 to 18 FPS (a 42% drop). This suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard performance wall at 4K, where the fill rate and memory bandwidth are insufficient to handle the pixel count. The RX 580's pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s are simply not enough for 4K in Thief.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain similar across resolutions, as the CPU workload does not scale with resolution. Instead, the frame rates drop consistently with resolution, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 10 threads running at a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz, has ample headroom at all resolutions. The data indicates that at 1080p, the system is GPU-limited, and at 4K, the GPU is simply overwhelmed. This is a classic case where upgrading the GPU would yield significant gains at every resolution, while upgrading the CPU would show almost no improvement in Thief.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its best results. The Low setting averages 83 FPS, which is smooth and well above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 63 FPS with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS, offering a stable experience. High averages 48 FPS, which is acceptable for a game from 2014 but below 60 FPS. Ultra averages 46 FPS, which is similar to High and shows that the GPU is the limiting factor even at 1080p, as the difference between High and Ultra is minimal. The data shows that at 1080p, the combo is playable at Low and Medium settings, with High and Ultra being borderline.

At 2560x1440, performance drops to playable levels only at Low settings. The Low setting averages 57 FPS, which is above 60 FPS only marginally and is playable. Medium averages 43 FPS with a minimum of 37 FPS and a maximum of 50 FPS, which is below the smooth threshold but still playable for some. High averages 33 FPS and Ultra averages 31 FPS, both of which are below 60 FPS and would be noticeable stutter in fast-paced scenes. The data indicates that 1440p is only viable at Low settings for this combo, and even then, the frame rate is not consistently smooth.

At 3840x2160, the combo fails to deliver playable frame rates at any setting. Low averages 33 FPS, which is borderline but below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 25 FPS with a minimum of 22 FPS and a maximum of 29 FPS, which is choppy. High averages 19 FPS and Ultra averages 18 FPS, both of which are effectively unplayable. The data confirms that 4K is not a realistic option for this pairing, regardless of settings. The frame rates are consistently below 60 FPS, and the minimum FPS values at Medium (22 FPS) indicate significant frame drops during gameplay.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the defining component of this combo's performance in Thief. The GPU's specifications are modest by modern standards: 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. The memory runs at 2000 MHz, or 8 Gbps effective, which is slow compared to modern GDDR6 parts. The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, which are the same core counts as the original Polaris 10 design. The compute performance is rated at 6.175 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16, which is a modest figure that reflects the GPU's 14 nm process node.

In Thief, the GPU's limitations are evident in the measured FPS. At 1080p, the GPU is already the bottleneck, as evidenced by the small difference between High (48 FPS) and Ultra (46 FPS). This suggests that the GPU is hitting its pixel fill rate or shading limits, rather than being constrained by memory bandwidth. At higher resolutions, the GPU's performance degrades rapidly, which is consistent with its texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s. These rates are insufficient for 1440p and 4K, where the GPU must process many more pixels and textures.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its performance. Its Passmark G3D score is 8813, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1005. These scores place it at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, which is mid-pack. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.6% of its average score, indicating that the RX 580 is not an outlier but rather a typical mid-range GPU from its era. The data shows that the GPU's performance in Thief is consistent with its synthetic benchmark scores, and the frame rates are entirely GPU-bound across all tested settings and resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a modern, high-performance CPU that is significantly underutilized in this combo. The CPU has 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. It is built on a 3 nm process node by TSMC, with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes. These are strong specifications for a desktop CPU, and its benchmark scores reflect that.

In Thief, the CPU's role is almost entirely passive. The game is from 2014, and its CPU requirements are modest by modern standards. The data shows that the CPU has no difficulty feeding the GPU, as frame rates are consistently GPU-bound. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25891 and single-core score of 3655 indicate that it is more than capable of handling the game's logic and physics. The Passmark multithread score of 30459 and single-thread score of 4412 further confirm that the CPU has ample headroom.

The CPU's ranking at the 85th percentile among all CPUs places it well above the GPU's 53rd percentile. This mismatch is the root cause of the combo's poor overall rank. The CPU is effectively wasted in this pairing, as the GPU cannot take advantage of its speed. Benchmark results indicate that if the RX 580 were replaced with a GPU that is 50% or more faster, the CPU would not be a limiting factor. The data shows that the CPU's performance is irrelevant to the frame rates in Thief with this GPU, and any improvement in FPS would require a GPU upgrade, not a CPU upgrade.