Thief

Thief, a 2014 stealth title, presents a demanding workload for the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the AMD Radeon RX 570. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is fundamentally constrained by its graphics processor, particularly as pixel count increases. The data indicates that this pairing is positioned at the lower end of the performance spectrum, ranking 2744 out of 2851 tested combos in this specific game, placing it in a challenging position for achieving high-fidelity, high-resolution gameplay.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The performance degradation from 1080p to 4K is stark and clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck in this configuration. At the "Low" preset, the average frame rate drops from a playable 75 FPS at 1920x1080 to 51 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to just 30 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 60% reduction in performance when moving from Full HD to 4K, a scaling pattern that is characteristic of a graphics card being overwhelmed by the sheer number of pixels it must render.

Examining the "High" preset reveals an even more severe constraint. The average FPS at 1080p is 43, which falls to 30 at 1440p, and plummets to a nearly unplayable 17 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1440p and 4K is a 13 FPS drop, while the drop from 1080p to 1440p is also 13 FPS. This consistent, linear decline across resolution steps suggests that the RX 570's compute units and memory bandwidth are being fully saturated at each higher resolution, with no headroom left to maintain performance. The data implies that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this scaling; if it were, the frame rate drop would be less pronounced at higher resolutions where the GPU works harder.

The "Ultra" preset tells a similar story, with average frame rates of 41 FPS at 1080p, 28 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K. The fact that the 4K "Ultra" and "High" presets both yield an identical 17 FPS average suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard performance wall. The rendering pipeline is likely stalled, waiting on the GPU to complete its work regardless of the minor differences in graphical fidelity between those two presets. This is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario where the graphics card's processing power is the absolute ceiling.

The scaling pattern indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 570, with its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, is the decisive component. The 14-core Intel Core Ultra 5 245, with its high boost clock of 5.10 GHz, is more than capable of feeding the GPU with draw calls and game logic at these frame rates. The data suggests that for this title, the CPU's role is to provide a stable platform, while the GPU determines the ultimate playability. The severe FPS drop at 4K is not a reflection of CPU inadequacy but rather the GPU's inability to handle the increased pixel fill rate and memory pressure.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo's position in the database is defined by its rank of 2744 out of 2851 total tested combinations. This places the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 570 pairing in the bottom 4% of all tested systems for Thief. This low percentile ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's age and tier, as the CPU itself is a modern, high-performance part. The data shows that the overall system performance in this game is dragged down by the graphics card, which is a clear indicator of a significant bottleneck.

The CPU's individual benchmark scores and percentile rank (90th percentile vs all CPUs) are strong, but they do not translate into a high in-game ranking because the GPU is the limiting factor. The combo rank is a holistic measure of the system's actual performance in the game, and it reflects the weakest link in the chain. The data implies that while the CPU is capable of high-level performance in other workloads, its potential is untapped in this specific gaming scenario due to the GPU's constraints.

When considering the nearest rivals for the GPU, we see the AMD Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 28766, which is very close to its rivals. For example, it is only 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800M and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M295X. This suggests that the GPU's performance is typical for its class, and the low combo rank is not an anomaly but rather a reflection of the GPU's actual gaming capabilities in a demanding title like Thief. The system is not underperforming relative to its parts; it is simply that the parts, when combined, are at the lower end of the spectrum for this game.

The combination's ranking is a stark illustration of how a powerful CPU cannot compensate for a weak GPU in a graphics-intensive game. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a modern desktop processor with a strong multi-core score of 32924 in Cinebench R23, but Thief's performance is tied to the pixel throughput and shading power of the RX 570. This results in a system that is well-balanced for productivity but poorly balanced for high-end gaming at higher resolutions. The data clearly shows that for this game, the GPU is the sole determinant of the combo's rank.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570's specifications provide a clear explanation for its performance in Thief. Its base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz, combined with 2048 shading units, give it a theoretical FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS. While this was respectable for its 2017 release, it is insufficient for maintaining high frame rates at 4K resolution in a 2014 title with high-quality settings. The data shows that the GPU's raw compute power is the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 17 FPS average at 4K on both "High" and "Ultra" presets.

The 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This is likely a major contributor to the performance collapse at 4K. The higher resolution requires more texture data to be stored and accessed, and the memory subsystem may be struggling to keep up with the demand. The fact that the "Low" preset at 4K achieves 30 FPS while "Medium" drops to 23 FPS suggests that texture quality and memory usage are key factors. The jump from "Low" to "Medium" introduces more and higher-resolution textures, which would increase the memory footprint and bandwidth requirements, leading to a measurable performance hit.

The GPU's pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are also telling. At 4K, the GPU must fill over 8 million pixels per frame. The pixel rate, which is a measure of how fast the ROPs can write to the framebuffer, is a hard limit on the maximum fill rate. The data shows that the GPU is hitting this limit, as the frame rate at 4K remains static at 17 FPS regardless of whether "High" or "Ultra" settings are used, suggesting that the ROPs are saturated.

The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is clustered tightly. It is only 0.8% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 470 and 1.2% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 in average benchmark scores. This indicates that the RX 570 is performing as expected for its hardware class. The observed frame rates in Thief are therefore not a result of a defective or poorly configured card, but rather a reflection of its absolute performance limits when faced with the demands of a 4K resolution in a modern game engine.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable settings for a consistently smooth experience are at 1920x1080 with the "Low" preset. This configuration achieves an average of 75 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. The "Medium" preset at the same resolution provides 57 FPS, which is also playable, but the drop from 75 to 57 FPS represents a 24% performance penalty for the visual upgrade. The data suggests that for players prioritizing frame rate stability, "Low" at 1080p is the safest choice, while "Medium" offers a balanced alternative if a slightly lower frame rate is acceptable.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more difficult. The "Low" preset yields an average of 51 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The "Medium" preset drops to 39 FPS, which may introduce noticeable stuttering in a stealth game where smooth camera panning is important. The data indicates that 1440p is only really feasible on the "Low" preset, and even then, the frame rate is not particularly high. The "High" and "Ultra" presets at 1440p, with averages of 30 and 28 FPS respectively, are not recommended for a good experience.

At 3840x2160, the data shows that no preset provides a playable experience. The best average FPS is 30 on the "Low" preset, which is on the borderline of playability but will likely feel choppy. All other presets at 4K fall below 23 FPS, which is not suitable for a smooth gaming experience. The "Medium" preset at 4K has a minimum FPS of 19, which would result in significant framerate hitches during gameplay. The data strongly suggests that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo in Thief.

The analysis of the measured rows points to a clear conclusion: for a smooth gameplay experience, players should use the "Low" preset at 1080p. The "Medium" preset at 1080p is a secondary option for those who prefer higher visual fidelity and can tolerate a lower, but still acceptable, average frame rate. For any resolution above 1080p, the "Low" preset is the only one that approaches playability, but it still falls short of providing a consistently smooth experience at 1440p and 4K. The data indicates that this system is best suited for 1080p gaming with reduced graphical settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a clear hierarchy across presets. The "Low" preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 75 FPS. The "Medium" preset follows with 57 FPS, and it is the only preset at this resolution with reported minimum and maximum values, which are 48 and 65 FPS respectively, indicating a variance of 17 FPS. The "High" preset averages 43 FPS, while the "Ultra" preset produces an average of 41 FPS. This shows a performance gap of 34 FPS between the lowest and highest quality settings at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are significantly lower. The "Low" preset achieves an average of 51 FPS. The "Medium" preset drops to an average of 39 FPS, with a reported range of 33 to 45 FPS. The "High" preset averages 30 FPS, and the "Ultra" preset averages 28 FPS. The difference between "High" and "Ultra" at this resolution is only 2 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not heavily taxing the GPU compared to High. The drop from 1080p to 1440p on the "Low" preset is 24 FPS, which is a substantial 32% decrease.

At 3840x2160, the performance is severely limited. The "Low" preset is the only one to achieve an average above 30 FPS, with a score of 30 FPS. The "Medium" preset averages 23 FPS, with a minimum of 19 FPS and a maximum of 26 FPS. Both the "High" and "Ultra" presets are locked at an average of 17 FPS. This data reveals a peculiar pattern where "High" and "Ultra" produce identical results, indicating that the GPU is completely saturated at this resolution and cannot differentiate between these two quality levels.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K for each preset is as follows: "Low" goes from 75 to 51 to 30 FPS; "Medium" goes from 57 to 39 to 23 FPS; "High" goes from 43 to 30 to 17 FPS; and "Ultra" goes from 41 to 28 to 17 FPS. The "Ultra" preset shows the smallest absolute drop from 1080p to 4K (24 FPS), while "Low" shows the largest (45 FPS), but this is due to the higher starting point. The percentage drops are all significant, with the "High" preset experiencing a 60% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This comprehensive data set confirms a consistent, GPU-bound scaling pattern.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. While Thief is not a game known for scaling perfectly with many cores, the CPU's high single-thread performance is crucial. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 is strong and should be more than sufficient to handle the game's main thread logic without becoming a bottleneck at the frame rates observed in the benchmark data.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924. However, the measured frame rates in Thief, which max out at 75 FPS on the "Low" preset at 1080p, are well below what this CPU is capable of supporting. The data suggests that even at its peak performance, the GPU is the limiting factor, and the CPU is likely idle waiting for the GPU to complete its rendering tasks. This is a classic sign of a CPU that is not a constraint in the system.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 24 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps with game data access. The 14 cores and 14 threads (no hyperthreading) mean that the CPU has a high number of physical cores, but for a game from 2014, the performance is more dependent on clock speed and single-core efficiency. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz is a high figure that ensures the CPU can respond quickly to the game's demands, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's lack of raw pixel processing power.

The CPU's percentile rank of 90 vs all CPUs indicates that it is a high-performing processor in general. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, have average benchmark scores that are within 0.5% of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245, showing that its raw processing power is competitive with other top-tier chips. However, in this specific game, the CPU's contribution to the final frame rate is minimal, as the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The data implies that upgrading the CPU would have no measurable impact on Thief's performance with this GPU.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo can achieve in Thief?

A: The highest average frame rate measured is 75 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with the "Low" preset.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this CPU and GPU combination in Thief?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best average frame rate is 30 FPS on the "Low" preset. All other presets at this resolution fall to 23 FPS or lower, with "High" and "Ultra" both locked at an average of 17 FPS, which is not a smooth gaming experience.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 compare in performance to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995, which is 0.5% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900's average score of 49228.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and how might it impact 4K performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This relatively small memory capacity and bandwidth are likely a major factor in the severe performance drop at 3840x2160, where the demand for texture data and memory throughput increases significantly.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in this game relative to all other tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2744 out of 2851 total tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 4% of all systems for Thief.

Q: Which settings preset shows the smallest performance difference between "High" and "Ultra" at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, both the "High" and "Ultra" presets produce an identical average frame rate of 17 FPS, indicating that the GPU is fully saturated and cannot render additional effects from the "Ultra" preset at this resolution.