Thief

# Thief — Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Thief, a 2014 stealth title that remains remarkably playable on modern hardware. Across all tested resolutions and settings, this combination never drops below 87 FPS average, with the 1080p Low preset reaching 216 FPS. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher settings, while the CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads prove more than sufficient for this game's engine demands.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The maximum average FPS across all tested configurations is 216 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The 1080p Medium preset follows closely at 196 FPS, while 1440p Low reaches 191 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems in Thief?

A: This CPU+GPU combination ranks 36th out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 1.3% of all configurations. This rank reflects the RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile standing among all GPUs and the Core Ultra 5 225's 85th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Ultra and Low settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 87 FPS while Low averages 158 FPS — a difference of 71 FPS. The Medium preset sits between at 120 FPS, and High achieves 92 FPS.

Q: Does the game become CPU-limited at any tested resolution?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 216 FPS, and scaling to 1440p only drops this to 191 FPS (-12%), while 4K Low still maintains 158 FPS. The Core Ultra 5 225's strong single-thread performance (4,412 in PassMark single-thread) supports this headroom.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the entire test suite?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 102 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. The 1440p Medium preset reports a 147 FPS minimum, and 1080p Medium shows a 166 FPS minimum — all well above typical 60 FPS display refresh rates.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 5090 D have, and does Thief need it?

A: The RTX 5090 D features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. Given that Thief is a 2014 title, this far exceeds any VRAM requirement the game could impose, and the memory capacity is irrelevant to the measured performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread desktop processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with 20 MB of shared L3 cache. In Thief, this CPU configuration proves more than adequate, as evidenced by the game's high frame rates across all settings.

The processor's single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Thief, a game from 2014 that relies heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and scene management. The Core Ultra 5 225 achieves a PassMark single-thread score of 4,412, which places it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655 further confirms strong per-core capability. These scores translate directly to the measured FPS results — even at 1080p Low where the CPU is most likely to bottleneck, the system still delivers 216 FPS average.

Multi-threaded performance is less critical for Thief but still robust. The CPU posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 30,459. The 10 physical cores without hyper-threading (10 threads total) provide ample parallel throughput for background tasks and any engine threads that do scale. The closest CPU rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores an average of 36,945 across all benchmark suites versus this chip's 36,938 — a 0% delta, indicating near-identical overall CPU performance. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D trails by 0.2%, and the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 by 0.4%.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (102.4 GB/s bandwidth) are sufficient for Thief's modest memory bandwidth requirements. The game's 2014 engine was designed for era-appropriate hardware, and the Core Ultra 5 225's modern architecture delivers far more computational headroom than the game can utilize. This is why the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is driven almost entirely by GPU load rather than CPU limits.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, and the benchmark data reflects its immense capability. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip on a 5 nm process, this GPU contains 92,200 million transistors across a 750 mm² die. It features 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation units, with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores.

Clock speeds are substantial: the base clock runs at 2017 MHz with a boost up to 2407 MHz. Memory consists of 32 GB of GDDR7 across a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's compute capabilities are equally impressive — 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s directly supports high-resolution rendering.

In Thief, the RTX 5090 D operates in a performance regime where the game's visual settings and resolution dictate the frame rate. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 44,065 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% higher average score), the RX 6850M XT (1.6% lower), and Tesla P100 variants (2.1% and 2.4% lower). These deltas are small, but the RTX 5090 D's measured performance in Thief shows it comfortably handles even 4K Ultra at 87 FPS average.

The GPU's memory subsystem is particularly noteworthy. With 32 GB of GDDR7 and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, there is zero risk of VRAM or bandwidth limitations in Thief. The game's textures and geometry from 2014 are trivial for this memory configuration. The bottleneck at 4K Ultra is purely the GPU's compute and shading throughput, as evidenced by the FPS dropping from 120 at Medium to 87 at Ultra — a 27.5% reduction that tracks with increased shading and pixel work.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), providing a complete picture of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 216 FPS, making this the fastest configuration tested. Medium averages 196 FPS with a minimum of 166 FPS and maximum of 225 FPS. High averages 177 FPS, and Ultra averages 174 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 42 FPS (19.4%), which is moderate and indicates some GPU load sensitivity even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, performance remains very high but shows more differentiation between settings. Low averages 191 FPS, Medium averages 173 FPS (minimum 147, maximum 198), High averages 156 FPS, and Ultra averages 148 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 43 FPS (22.5%), slightly larger than at 1080p, confirming that resolution scaling increases GPU workload proportionally.

At 3840x2160, the settings presets diverge significantly. Low averages 158 FPS, Medium averages 120 FPS (minimum 102, maximum 138), High averages 92 FPS, and Ultra averages 87 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 71 FPS (44.9%), which is substantially larger than at lower resolutions. This indicates that 4K rendering places significant stress on the GPU's shading and memory subsystems, even with a top-tier card like the RTX 5090 D.

The data shows no configuration drops below 87 FPS average, and the lowest minimum FPS recorded is 102 FPS at 4K Medium. These are excellent numbers for a 2014 title, and the system never approaches the 60 FPS threshold that would be considered minimal for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling analysis reveals how the system's bottleneck shifts as pixel count increases. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 216 FPS, which drops to 191 FPS at 1440p (-11.6%) and 158 FPS at 4K (-26.9% from 1080p, -17.3% from 1440p). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario — each resolution step increases pixel count by 2.25x (1080p to 1440p) and 4x (1080p to 4K), but frame rates do not drop proportionally because the GPU has substantial headroom.

For the High preset, the scaling is more pronounced: 177 FPS at 1080p drops to 156 FPS at 1440p (-11.9%) and then to 92 FPS at 4K (-48.0% from 1080p). The large drop at 4K High indicates that the GPU's shading resources are becoming saturated, as the additional pixel work at 4K combined with High-quality effects (likely including enhanced shadows and post-processing) taxes the 21,760 shading units significantly.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest scaling curve: 174 FPS at 1080p, 148 FPS at 1440p (-14.9%), and 87 FPS at 4K (-50.0% from 1080p). This demonstrates that Ultra settings at 4K nearly halve the frame rate compared to 1080p, which is expected given the 4x pixel count increase and the demanding visual features enabled by Ultra.

The limiting component at all resolutions is clearly the GPU. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (PassMark single-thread score of 4,412) ensures that even at 1080p Low with 216 FPS, the processor is not the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see plateauing FPS as resolution decreases. Instead, FPS continues to rise with lower resolution and settings, confirming the RTX 5090 D is the performance ceiling.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user's resolution and refresh rate priorities. For 1080p gaming, the Ultra preset at 174 FPS average is the best choice — it delivers the highest visual quality while still exceeding any 144Hz display's refresh rate. The gap between Ultra and Low (216 FPS) is not practically meaningful for most displays, and the visual fidelity gain from Ultra is substantial.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset at 148 FPS average is also recommended, as it remains well above 120Hz refresh rates. The Medium preset at 173 FPS offers a 16.9% frame rate increase over Ultra, but the visual quality reduction is significant. For users with 144Hz displays, Ultra is the clear choice. For those with 165Hz or higher refresh panels, dropping to Medium provides the extra frames needed to match the display's capability.

At 4K, the recommendation is more nuanced. The Ultra preset at 87 FPS average is playable on 60Hz displays and provides the best visual experience. However, for users with 120Hz or 144Hz 4K displays, the Medium preset at 120 FPS average (with a 102 FPS minimum) is the better choice — it achieves a 37.9% frame rate increase over Ultra while maintaining respectable visual quality. The High preset at 92 FPS offers a middle ground, but Medium's 120 FPS average is a more meaningful threshold for high-refresh 4K displays.

The Low preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it sacrifices too much visual quality for marginal frame rate gains. The data shows that the difference between Low and Medium at 1080p is only 20 FPS (9.3%), while the visual difference is substantial. The system has enough GPU headroom to run Medium or higher at every resolution with playable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

This Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 36th out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 1.3% of all configurations tested. This ranking reflects the exceptional performance of both components, though the GPU is the primary driver of this high placement.

The RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile standing among all GPUs is the dominant factor in this ranking. Its average benchmark score of 77,712 across all tests places it near the top of the GPU hierarchy, with only marginal differences from its nearest rivals — the RX 6650M XT (1.1% higher), RX 6850M XT (1.6% lower), and Tesla P100 variants (2.1% and 2.4% lower). In Thief specifically, the RTX 5090 D's performance at 4K Ultra (87 FPS) and 1080p Low (216 FPS) demonstrates that it is not leaving performance on the table in this title.

The Core Ultra 5 225's contribution is solid but secondary. Its 85th percentile standing among all CPUs and near-identical average benchmark score to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (0% delta) indicate that it is a capable mid-range processor. In Thief, its single-thread performance is more than sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 D, as evidenced by the absence of CPU bottlenecking even at 1080p Low with 216 FPS. The next closest CPU rivals — Ryzen 5 5500X3D (-0.2%), Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (-0.4%), and Core i9-12900T (-0.5%) — all perform within 0.5% of the Core Ultra 5 225 in overall benchmarks, confirming that any of these CPUs would yield nearly identical Thief results when paired with the same GPU.

The rank of 36 out of 2,851 is particularly impressive given that Thief is a 2014 title with significant CPU overhead from its era. The fact that this modern CPU+GPU combination achieves top 1.3% ranking indicates that the RTX 5090 D's raw throughput is the decisive factor, and the Core Ultra 5 225's architecture handles the game's legacy code efficiently. For users seeking a high-refresh-rate Thief experience at any resolution, this combo delivers — the only limitation being the game's own engine, which cannot scale beyond the 216 FPS ceiling observed at 1080p Low.