Thief

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti pairing delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Thief, a 2014 stealth classic. The measured data shows this combo handles the game with significant headroom across all tested resolutions, from 1080p to 4K, making it a strong candidate for high-refresh-rate monitors and maxed-out settings. The following analysis breaks down the specific performance metrics, component roles, and scaling characteristics observed in the benchmark data.

FAQ

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

A: The combo achieves an average of 164 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is the lowest result at 1080p but still well above the 144 Hz threshold, indicating that the game is not a bottleneck for the CPU or GPU at this resolution.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra compared to 4K Low?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 120 on Low settings to 66 on Ultra. This represents a significant 45% performance reduction when moving from the lowest to the highest preset, highlighting how demanding the Ultra preset is on the GPU at 4K.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for Medium settings?

A: The only settings preset with a recorded minimum FPS is Medium. At 1080p, the minimum is 166 FPS, at 1440p it is 132 FPS, and at 4K it is 78 FPS. These minimums show that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate remains highly playable.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Thief?*

A: The combo ranks 185th out of 2,851 total tested combos. This places it in the top 6.5% of all configurations, indicating a very strong overall performance level for this specific game.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the CPU and its closest rival?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36,938. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, has an average score of 36,945, showing a deltaPct of 0. This means the two processors are statistically tied in overall synthetic performance.

Q: Does the GPU support DirectX 12 Ultimate?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), along with OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. This ensures full compatibility with modern graphics APIs, though Thief itself is an older title.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data provides clear guidance on the optimal settings preset for different priorities. For players with high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p monitors, the Ultra preset is the clear choice. At 1920x1080, Ultra yields an average of 164 FPS, and at 2560x1440 it produces 113 FPS. Both are well above 60 FPS and provide a fluid experience, making the visual quality upgrade over High settings worthwhile. The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs only 5 FPS on average (118 to 113), a negligible trade-off for the improved fidelity.

At 4K resolution, the decision becomes more nuanced. The Ultra preset averages 66 FPS, which is playable but does not guarantee a locked 60 FPS in all scenes. The High preset at 4K averages 70 FPS, offering a small performance buffer over Ultra while still delivering most of the visual enhancements. For players who prioritize a higher frame rate over maximum fidelity, the Medium preset at 4K provides a substantial boost to 91 FPS with a recorded minimum of 78 FPS, ensuring a very stable experience. This makes Medium the most balanced choice for 4K displays, as it maintains a significant performance margin while retaining decent visual quality.

The Low preset at 4K, averaging 120 FPS, is only recommended for competitive play or for users with extremely high refresh rate displays. Given that the game is a single-player stealth title, the visual compromises of Low are generally not worth the extra frames. The data suggests that the "sweet spot" for this combo is either Ultra at 1440p or Medium at 4K, depending on whether resolution or maximum settings are prioritized.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the primary driver of frame rates in Thief, especially at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This ample memory allocation is more than sufficient for Thief, a game from 2014, and prevents any VRAM-related bottlenecks even at 4K with Ultra settings.

The GPU's clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2610 MHz. The data shows a clear correlation between resolution and average FPS, which is indicative of a GPU-bound workload. As resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the average FPS at Ultra settings drops from 164 to 66, a 60% reduction. This scaling pattern is classic for a GPU-limited scenario, where the graphics card's rendering throughput becomes the limiting factor.

The RTX 4070 Ti's compute capabilities, with 7,680 shading units and a FP32 performance of 40.09 TFLOPS, are more than adequate for this title. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 31,624 and its 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirm its high-end status. The combination of high memory bandwidth and raw compute power ensures that Thief runs without any noticeable stuttering or texture pop-in, with the only performance variations coming from the chosen settings preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals an interesting pattern across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance, with the Low preset hitting an average of 216 FPS, Medium at 196 FPS, High at 172 FPS, and Ultra at 164 FPS. The differences between presets are relatively small, suggesting that the CPU or game engine is providing a slight bottleneck at this resolution, as the GPU is not being fully utilized.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 191 (Low), 155 (Medium), 118 (High), and 113 (Ultra). The gap between Low and Medium is 36 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 5 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum FPS of 132 and a maximum of 179, indicating a wide variance in frame times, likely due to complex scenes.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The average FPS drops to 120 (Low), 91 (Medium), 70 (High), and 66 (Ultra). The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 105, showing a tighter frame time distribution than at 1440p. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a consistent and significant performance penalty, with the Ultra preset delivering just over half the frame rate of the Low preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 185 out of 2,851 tested configurations places it in the top 6.5% of all systems tested in Thief. This is a strong result, reflecting the high-end nature of both the RTX 4070 Ti GPU and the Core Ultra 5 225 CPU. The GPU's 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggest a well-balanced pairing, where neither component is severely holding back the other.

The data implies that this combo is capable of delivering a premium experience in Thief, with the only compromise being the need to lower settings to Medium for a guaranteed 60+ FPS experience at 4K. The rank of 185 means that while a small number of combos with even more powerful components (like an RTX 5090) will outperform it, the vast majority of systems will produce lower frame rates. For a game with the visual fidelity of Thief, this level of performance is excellent.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 plays a supporting role in Thief, as the game is not heavily threaded. The CPU has 10 cores and 10 threads with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 25,891, and its single-core score is 3,655, indicating strong per-thread performance.

In Thief, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p with lower settings. The difference in average FPS between Low (216) and Ultra (164) at 1080p is 52 FPS, which is a larger gap than at higher resolutions. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU can feed frames to the GPU quickly enough to expose the differences in rendering load. However, the CPU is not a bottleneck even at 1080p Low, as the 216 FPS average is exceptionally high.

The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth are more than adequate for Thief's data requirements. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 4,412 and multi-thread score of 30,459 confirm its capability. The data indicates that the CPU is never the limiting factor in this combo, as even the most demanding CPU scenario (1080p Low) results in frame rates that far exceed typical display refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling analysis reveals a clear GPU-bound trend. When moving from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS at Ultra settings drops from 164 to 113, a 31% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops from 113 to 66, a further 42% reduction. This accelerating decline in performance as resolution increases is the hallmark of a GPU-limited system.

The scaling is more pronounced at higher settings. For example, at Low settings, the FPS drops from 216 (1080p) to 191 (1440p) to 120 (4K). The drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is 37%, while at Ultra settings it is 42%. This indicates that the Ultra preset is more heavily reliant on GPU shader and texture throughput, which becomes the bottleneck at higher pixel counts.

The data implies that the Core Ultra 5 225 has sufficient headroom to support the RTX 4070 Ti at all resolutions. The consistent frame rates at 1080p across different settings (from 164 to 216 FPS) suggest that the CPU is not the limiting factor. Instead, the GPU's rendering performance is what determines the final frame rate, particularly at 4K where the pixel count quadruples from 1080p. For users with a 4K display, the Medium preset is the recommended compromise to maintain a stable frame rate above 90 FPS, while those with 1440p displays can enjoy the Ultra preset without any concerns.