Thief

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combination delivers a distinctly GPU-bound experience in Thief, with frame rates scaling predictably with resolution and settings. The data shows a pairing that is powerful enough for high-refresh 1080p play but increasingly taxed as pixel count rises, ultimately falling below the 60 FPS threshold at 4K Ultra. This combo ranks in the 60th percentile of all tested configurations, indicating a solid, mid-to-upper-tier performance profile for this 2014 stealth title.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, clearly identifying the Radeon RX 6750 XT as the limiting component. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 113 FPS at 1920x1080 to 78 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 31%, before dropping further to 46 FPS at 3840x2160 — a 59% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that has ample headroom at lower resolutions but runs out of pixel-pushing capability as the workload quadruples.

The Low settings row amplifies this trend. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 196 FPS, which drops to 134 FPS at 1440p and 79 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 60%, nearly identical to the 59% drop seen at High settings, suggesting that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck regardless of the graphics preset. The CPU, with its 14 cores and 14 threads, is not holding back the frame rate even at the highest settings, as evidenced by the fact that the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 88 FPS, whereas the gap between 1080p and 4K at the same setting is over 100 FPS.

Looking at the Medium preset, which is the only one with full min/max data, the scaling is equally revealing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 148 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 102 FPS (a 31% reduction), and at 4K Medium it falls to 60 FPS (a 59% reduction from 1080p). The min FPS at 1440p Medium is 87, and at 4K Medium it is 51, showing that even the frame time consistency degrades proportionally with resolution.

The verdict is clear: this system is optimized for 1080p and 1440p gaming. The 4K results, while playable at Low and Medium settings, show that the RX 6750 XT's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at the highest pixel densities. The scaling curve from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing, with a 41% average drop across all settings, confirming that the GPU's compute throughput, not the CPU's processing power, dictates the performance ceiling in Thief.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, the Medium preset at 1440p is the sweet spot for this combination. The data shows 102 FPS average with a minimum of 87 FPS, which provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while still delivering a substantial upgrade over Low settings. At 1080p, High settings are the recommended choice, yielding 113 FPS average — a 24% reduction from Medium's 148 FPS but with significantly better visual quality, and still well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors.

Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p, where the combo manages 108 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, the average drops to 74 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. At 4K Ultra, the system falls to 43 FPS, which is below the playability threshold for a stealth game requiring precise timing and quick reactions. The 4K High setting at 46 FPS is similarly marginal, and the 4K Medium at 60 FPS is the only 4K preset that achieves a consistent 60 FPS experience, with a minimum of 51 FPS indicating occasional dips.

For players prioritizing smoothness over fidelity, Low settings at 1440p offer 134 FPS, which is an excellent choice for high-refresh-rate displays. However, the jump from Low to Medium at 1440p costs only 32 FPS (from 134 to 102), making Medium a far better value in terms of visual quality per frame. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Medium is 48 FPS (196 vs 148), and the difference between Medium and High is 35 FPS (148 vs 113), so High settings provide the best compromise for most users.

The data suggests avoiding Ultra at resolutions above 1080p. The 1440p Ultra score of 74 FPS is only 5 FPS higher than the 1080p High score of 113 FPS, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed at this resolution. For a consistent experience, Medium at 1440p or High at 1080p are the recommended presets, with the 4K resolution reserved for Medium settings if the user insists on 4K output.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combination ranks 1138 out of 2851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 60th percentile of all configurations. This is a respectable position, indicating that the pairing outperforms the majority of systems in the database while still trailing the top-tier setups. The rank suggests that while this combo is not a high-end enthusiast configuration, it delivers solid performance that will satisfy most gamers.

The CPU's individual benchmark performance supports this ranking. The Core Ultra 5 245 achieves an average benchmark score of 48995, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, scores 49196, a negligible 0.4% difference, while the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49228, just 0.5% higher. This places the CPU in elite company, with the Intel Core i5-14600K trailing by only 0.8% in the comparison set.

On the GPU side, the RX 6750 XT's average benchmark score of 26011 puts it in the 71st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 M395X (25891, 0.5% lower), the AMD FirePro W7100 (25856, 0.6% lower), and the AMD FirePro D700 (25842, 0.7% lower). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile scores 25740, which is 1.1% below the RX 6750 XT. This indicates that the GPU is a solid mid-range performer, well-matched to the CPU's capabilities.

The combo's rank of 1138 out of 2851 is consistent with a pairing where the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU's 90th percentile performance is significantly higher than the GPU's 71st percentile, meaning that the system's overall performance in Thief is constrained by the graphics card. This is not a criticism — it is a typical configuration for a gaming rig — but it does mean that the combo rank would improve if the GPU were upgraded to a higher-tier card.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce 196 FPS average, Medium produces 148 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS, High produces 113 FPS, and Ultra produces 108 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 88 FPS, indicating that the GPU has substantial headroom at this resolution. Even at Ultra, the frame rate is well above the 60 FPS threshold, making 1080p the most flexible resolution for this system.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows clear signs of GPU limitation. Low settings yield 134 FPS, Medium averages 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS, High averages 78 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 60 FPS, a smaller absolute difference than at 1080p, confirming that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor. The Medium preset's minimum of 87 FPS is still comfortable, but the High and Ultra presets leave less margin for frame time spikes.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings average 79 FPS, Medium averages 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, High averages 46 FPS, and Ultra averages 43 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one that achieves a 60 FPS average, and even that has a minimum below 60. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 36 FPS, a much smaller range than at lower resolutions, indicating that the GPU is saturated and cannot differentiate between presets as effectively.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all three resolutions, allowing for a detailed analysis of frame time consistency. At 1080p, the min is 126 and max is 171, a range of 45 FPS. At 1440p, the min is 87 and max is 117, a range of 30 FPS. At 4K, the min is 51 and max is 69, a range of 18 FPS. This tightening range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is working at full capacity, reducing the variance between frames as the workload approaches the hardware's limit.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is the primary determinant of performance in Thief, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the higher pixel count demands more memory throughput.

The GPU's clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 2150 MHz, a game clock of 2495 MHz, and a boost clock of 2600 MHz. These high clocks, combined with 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, allow the card to achieve a pixel rate of 166.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 416.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 13.31 TFLOPS provides the raw compute power needed for Thief's rendering effects.

The memory clock runs at 2250 MHz, translating to 18 Gbps effective, which explains the 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. This is adequate for the game's texture-heavy environments at lower resolutions but shows strain at 4K, where the 12 GB frame buffer is more likely to be fully utilized. The GPU's RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on a 7 nm process with 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die, delivers efficient performance for its 250 W TDP.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its mid-range positioning. The PassMark G3D score of 20700 places it in the 71st percentile of all GPUs, with a PassMark GPU Compute score of 9550. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2548 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 16360 provide additional evidence of its compute capabilities. The nearest rival comparisons show the RX 6750 XT within 1.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, indicating that it trades blows with higher-end mobile parts.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 plays a supporting role in Thief, providing ample processing power that ensures the GPU is never starved of data. The CPU features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. This configuration, built on the Arrow Lake architecture using a 3 nm process, delivers strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance that is more than sufficient for a 2014 game.

The CPU's benchmark results are impressive. In Cinebench R23, it scores 32924 in multi-core and 4648 in single-core, while in Cinebench R20 it scores 13828 and 1952 respectively. The PassMark multi-thread score of 38706 and single-thread score of 4394 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 192 KB L1 cache per core provide fast access to frequently used data, reducing latency in game logic and physics calculations.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, provided by dual-channel DDR5 support, is more than adequate for feeding the GPU's 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes ensures that the GPU can communicate with the CPU without bandwidth constraints. The CPU's 65 W TDP is notably lower than the GPU's 250 W TDP, confirming that the GPU is the dominant power consumer and likely the performance bottleneck.

In the context of Thief, the CPU's role is to maintain frame pacing and handle game logic. The data shows that the CPU is not limiting performance: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 196 FPS, which is a high enough frame rate that any CPU bottleneck would manifest as inconsistent frame times. The absence of such inconsistency, combined with the fact that the frame rate scales almost entirely with resolution and settings, indicates that the Core Ultra 5 245 is more than capable of keeping up with the RX 6750 XT. The CPU's nearest rivals, all scoring within 0.8% of its average benchmark, confirm that it is a top-tier processor that will not hold back modern or older game titles.