Thief

# Thief: Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 sits at rank 43 out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 1.5% of all recorded configurations. The pairing delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested settings and resolutions, with the RTX 5090 providing the overwhelming majority of the rendering headroom while the Core Ultra 5 235 keeps pace without becoming a bottleneck at any measured point.

How This Combo Ranks

The rank of 43 out of 2,851 combos is notable for several reasons. Thief is a 2014 title with modest CPU requirements, so the ranking reflects the GPU’s dominance in this pairing. The RTX 5090’s average benchmark score of 79,842 places it in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, while the Core Ultra 5 235 achieves a 89th percentile ranking among CPUs with an average score of 46,062. When combined, these two components produce results that are near the top of the database, though not quite at the absolute peak.

What is interesting about this rank is that the CPU is not a flagship part. The Core Ultra 5 235 sits close in average benchmark score to several rivals: it is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46,030), 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46,098), 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4364P (45,970), and 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7303 (45,960). These differences are within noise, meaning the CPU’s compute performance is essentially equivalent to those parts. Yet the combo still ranks 43rd, suggesting that in Thief, the GPU is the primary determinant of ranking position.

The measured FPS data reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Ultra, the combo reaches 178 FPS; at 1440p Ultra, 139 FPS; and at 4K Ultra, 82 FPS. These are high numbers for a game from 2014, and the scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 5090 is being utilized effectively. The fact that the combo ranks 43rd rather than higher likely reflects that some combinations with even more powerful CPUs (or CPUs with higher single-thread performance) achieve slightly better results in CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions, though the difference in practice is minimal.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 82 FPS. This is the lowest average among all measured configurations, but it remains comfortably above 60 FPS, indicating smooth gameplay at maximum quality on a 4K display.

Q: What is the best-performing settings preset at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers the highest average FPS at 221. However, the Medium preset provides 200 FPS average with a minimum of 170 FPS and maximum of 230 FPS, while the High preset achieves 181 FPS. The Ultra preset reaches 178 FPS, which is nearly identical to High.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests minimal CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 221 FPS, while at 4K Low it drops to 148 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a 33% reduction in FPS, which is consistent with a GPU-limited scenario rather than a CPU bottleneck.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090’s average benchmark score of 79,842 is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605), 0.6% higher than the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396), 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940), and 1.4% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80,959). These are extremely close scores, though the RTX 5090’s real-world Thief performance is likely much stronger than those older parts.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 195 FPS average, while Ultra yields 139 FPS. The Medium preset sits between at 177 FPS with a minimum of 150 FPS. The gap from Low to Ultra is 56 FPS, representing a 29% performance cost for maxing out settings.

Q: Is this combo suitable for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming in Thief?

A: The measured data shows 86 FPS at 4K High and 82 FPS at 4K Ultra. This is above 60 FPS but below the 144 Hz threshold. For 120 Hz displays, the High preset at 86 FPS would not fully saturate the refresh rate, but Medium at 113 FPS would get closer.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It is built on TSMC’s 3 nm process with an Arrow Lake architecture, has 24 MB of shared L3 cache, and supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU’s TDP is 65 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1851. It was released on 2025-01-06 with a launch MSRP of $257.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 235 achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14,769 and single-core score of 2,085. The Passmark multithread score is 37,816, while the single-thread score is 4,516. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 89 indicates it outperforms the majority of all CPUs in the database.

For Thief, the CPU’s role is to feed the RTX 5090 with enough draw calls and game logic updates. The game was released on 2014-02-24, which means it was designed for CPUs from that era. The Core Ultra 5 235’s high single-thread performance is particularly relevant, as older games often rely heavily on one or two threads. The Cinebench R15 single-core score of 210 and R20 single-core score of 875 suggest strong per-thread performance that should handle Thief’s CPU demands without issue.

The fact that the combo achieves 221 FPS at 1080p Low suggests that the CPU is not limiting even at very high frame rates. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS numbers regardless of resolution or settings, but the measured data shows clear scaling with both. The 14-thread configuration also provides headroom for background tasks and modern multi-threaded workloads, though Thief itself likely uses only a fraction of the available threads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), for a total of 12 data points.

1080p: At the Low preset, the combo achieves 221 FPS average. Medium produces 200 FPS average with a minimum of 170 FPS and maximum of 230 FPS. High yields 181 FPS average, while Ultra produces 178 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 43 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (21 FPS).

1440p: Low produces 195 FPS average. Medium achieves 177 FPS with a minimum of 150 FPS and maximum of 203 FPS. High delivers 146 FPS, and Ultra yields 139 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 56 FPS, with the largest drop between Medium and High (31 FPS).

4K: Low achieves 148 FPS average. Medium produces 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS and maximum of 130 FPS. High yields 86 FPS, and Ultra delivers 82 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 66 FPS, with the largest drop between Low and Medium (35 FPS).

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 170 FPS and maximum of 230 FPS indicate a 60 FPS range. At 1440p Medium, the range is 150 to 203 FPS, a 53 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range narrows to 96 to 130 FPS, a 34 FPS spread. This tightening range at higher resolutions suggests that frame time variance decreases as the GPU becomes more fully utilized.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K provides insight into which component is limiting performance. At Low settings, FPS drops from 221 at 1080p to 195 at 1440p (an 11.8% decrease) and then to 148 at 4K (a 24.1% decrease from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 73 FPS, or 33%.

At Medium settings, the progression is 200 to 177 to 113 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 11.5%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 36.2%. The total drop is 87 FPS, or 43.5%.

At High settings, FPS goes from 181 at 1080p to 146 at 1440p (19.3% decrease) to 86 at 4K (41.1% decrease from 1440p). The total drop is 95 FPS, or 52.5%.

At Ultra settings, the progression is 178 to 139 to 82 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 21.9%, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 41%. The total drop is 96 FPS, or 53.9%.

These patterns indicate that the RTX 5090 becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, particularly at higher settings presets. The relatively small drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (11.8%) suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU might be constraining performance slightly, since the GPU has ample headroom. However, the large drops when moving to 4K, especially at High and Ultra settings (over 40% from 1440p to 4K), clearly show GPU-bound behavior. The RTX 5090’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provides ample memory bandwidth for 4K textures, so the scaling is driven by raw shading and rasterization throughput rather than memory limitations.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience at each resolution, the measured data suggests specific presets based on what the player prioritizes.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset at 178 FPS is nearly identical to High at 181 FPS, making Ultra the obvious choice since the performance cost is only 3 FPS. Medium at 200 FPS offers a 22 FPS improvement over Ultra, but the visual quality difference between Medium and Ultra in a stealth game like Thief, where shadows and lighting are critical for gameplay, likely justifies the small performance sacrifice. The Low preset at 221 FPS provides the highest frame rates, but the visual compromises would be too significant for a game that relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow detail.

At 1440p, Ultra at 139 FPS is still well above 120 Hz refresh rates, making it the recommended preset for most players. High at 146 FPS offers a modest 7 FPS improvement, but the quality reduction from Ultra to High may be noticeable. Medium at 177 FPS is a good option for players with 165 Hz or 180 Hz displays who want to get closer to their refresh rate ceiling, though the minimum of 150 FPS ensures that even Medium stays above 144 Hz.

At 4K, the situation is more nuanced. Ultra at 82 FPS and High at 86 FPS are both above 60 FPS but below 90 FPS. Medium at 113 FPS is the best option for players with 120 Hz displays, as it provides a comfortable margin above 100 FPS. The minimum of 96 FPS at Medium ensures that even the worst frame times stay above 90 FPS. Low at 148 FPS is the only preset that would saturate a 144 Hz display at 4K, but the visual trade-offs are severe. For most 4K players, Medium offers the best balance, providing 113 FPS average while maintaining the minimum above 95 FPS.

The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot across all resolutions, as it is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, indicating more consistent frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the 170 FPS minimum is still very high; at 1440p Medium, the 150 FPS minimum is excellent; and at 4K Medium, the 96 FPS minimum is acceptable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a massive GPU by any measure. It uses the GB202 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process with 92,200 million transistors and a die size of 750 mm². The GPU has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. The base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. Memory consists of 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The TDP is 575 W, and the card uses a 1x 16-pin power connector with a suggested PSU of 950 W. It was released on 2025-01-29 with a launch MSRP of 1,999 USD.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5090 achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 334,370, and a Vulkan score of 376,728. The Passmark G3D score is 39,650, with a GPU compute score of 26,756. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 92 places it among the top GPUs in the database.

For Thief, the RTX 5090’s enormous compute resources are somewhat overkill given the game’s age, but the measured FPS numbers show that it still scales with resolution and settings. At 4K Ultra, the GPU produces 82 FPS, which is a demanding workload for a 2014 game. The 32 GB VRAM is far more than Thief requires, but it eliminates any possibility of VRAM-related stuttering or texture pop-in, even at 4K with maximum settings.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all older or different-class parts: the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% lower score), Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (0.6% lower), Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% lower), and Radeon Pro Vega 64X (1.4% higher). These deltas are tiny in synthetic tests, but the RTX 5090’s modern architecture and driver support likely translate to a much larger real-world advantage in a game like Thief. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s provide massive fill-rate headroom, which directly benefits the shadow-heavy scenes typical of stealth games.

The RTX 5090’s role in this combo is to provide overwhelming rendering power, which allows the Core Ultra 5 235 to operate well within its limits. The measured data shows that even at 1080p Low, where CPU load is lowest, the combo still achieves 221 FPS, indicating that neither component is being pushed to its absolute limit. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the FPS drops to 82, but this is still a highly playable frame rate for a visually demanding configuration. The GPU's Blackwell 2.0 architecture and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensure that data transfer from the CPU is not a bottleneck, and the 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth provides more than enough throughput for Thief’s texture and geometry data.