Thief

# Thief: Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 — Benchmark Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 pairs with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 to deliver a capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Thief, with the GPU acting as the primary performance driver at higher resolutions. The data shows a 14-core Arrow Lake processor with a 5.10 GHz boost clock, combined with a 12 GB GDDR6X GPU that holds the 81st percentile among all tested graphics cards. Across the measured resolutions, this combo demonstrates that Thief's engine scales predictably with GPU load, while the CPU's 90th percentile standing ensures minimal bottlenecking at lower settings where frame rates exceed 200 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 140 FPS, representing the highest quality preset tested at that resolution.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 scores 48,995 on average across all benchmarks, which is 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196) and 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228), but 0.6% above the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The RTX 4070 sits in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,648, placing it just 0.1% below the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37,628) in raw score.

Q: Does the combo rank high among all tested combinations for Thief?

A: This pairing ranks 396th out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 14% of all system configurations evaluated for this game.

Q: What is the maximum FPS recorded at 1440p across all settings?

A: The highest average FPS at 2560x1440 is 174 FPS on Low settings, with Medium settings reaching 132 FPS average and a recorded maximum of 152 FPS.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and what memory type is used?

A: The RTX 4070 features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 serves as the dominant performance component in Thief, with its 12 GB GDDR6X frame buffer and 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth proving sufficient for all tested resolutions. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1920 MHz and boosts to 2475 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). These specifications place the card at the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,648 that sits remarkably close to its nearest rivals—just 0.1% behind the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is never a limiting factor in Thief, as the game's 2014-era engine does not demand excessive memory at any quality preset. The GPU's 5888 shading units and 64 ROPs provide the raw throughput needed to push frame rates well above 100 FPS at 1080p and 1440p across most settings. At 4K, the card's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute becomes the bottleneck, with Ultra settings dropping to 56 FPS average—a figure that reflects the GPU's pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s being taxed by the 3840x2160 resolution.

The RTX 4070's architecture, built on the 5 nm process with 35,800 million transistors, delivers performance that scales consistently with resolution increases. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the card produces 56 FPS, which is 40% of the 140 FPS achieved at 1080p Ultra. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is fully utilized at higher resolutions, with no CPU-induced stalls preventing the graphics card from reaching its potential.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 147 FPS at 1080p to 101 FPS at 1440p, then to 59 FPS at 4K. This represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 42% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, confirming that the RTX 4070 is the limiting component in this configuration across all tested resolutions.

At Low settings, the resolution scaling becomes even more pronounced due to reduced GPU workload. The 1080p Low result of 225 FPS drops to 174 FPS at 1440p and 103 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is 46% of the 1080p figure, which suggests that even at minimal graphical fidelity, the GPU's fixed overheads prevent the frame rate from scaling perfectly with the 4x pixel increase. This behavior is typical for a game engine that relies heavily on fill rate and memory bandwidth.

Ultra settings show the steepest absolute drop, with 140 FPS at 1080p falling to 96 FPS at 1440p and 56 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result represents only 40% of the 1080p performance, indicating that the combination of high-quality textures and full-resolution rendering saturates the GPU's capabilities at 3840x2160. The fact that 4K Ultra still maintains 56 FPS suggests the RTX 4070 has sufficient headroom for a playable experience, though not at high refresh rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 225 FPS, Medium reaches 193 FPS with a minimum of 164 and maximum of 222, High achieves 147 FPS, and Ultra settles at 140 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is just 7 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns from the highest preset at this resolution. The Medium preset's recorded range of 164-222 FPS demonstrates consistent frame pacing, with the minimum still well above any refresh rate below 160 Hz.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decrease as expected. Low settings yield 174 FPS, Medium produces 132 FPS with a range of 113-152, High reaches 101 FPS, and Ultra drops to 96 FPS. The delta between High and Ultra narrows to 5 FPS at this resolution, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the pressure of additional pixels but still maintains excellent playability. The Medium preset's minimum of 113 FPS confirms that even the lowest recorded frames remain above 100 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance landscape shifts dramatically. Low settings still achieve a respectable 103 FPS, Medium drops to 78 FPS with a range of 66-89, High falls to 59 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 56 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 3 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects have minimal impact on the GPU's already saturated resources. The Medium preset's minimum of 66 FPS remains playable, but the Ultra result of 56 FPS approaches the threshold where frame pacing issues may become noticeable on standard 60 Hz displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 396 out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the 86th percentile of all system configurations evaluated. This ranking reflects the GPU's 81st percentile standing and the CPU's 90th percentile performance, with the pairing exceeding the sum of its parts due to Thief's efficient use of the available hardware resources.

Relative to the nearest rival GPUs, the RTX 4070's average score of 37,648 positions it just 0.1% above the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37,628) and 0.4% above the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507). The card trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile by 1.3% (38,135), despite the latter being a laptop part. This tight clustering indicates that the RTX 4070 sits at a performance inflection point where small architectural differences produce minimal real-world deltas in Thief.

On the CPU side, the Ultra 5 245's average benchmark score of 48,995 places it 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196) and 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228), while running 0.6% above the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698) and 0.8% above the Intel Core i5-14600K (48,618). These sub-1% differences confirm that the CPU is not a distinguishing factor in Thief's performance, as the game's engine does not heavily tax multi-threaded workloads beyond 14 threads.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that Medium settings provide the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium achieves 193 FPS average with a minimum of 164 FPS, offering a 53 FPS improvement over Ultra while maintaining a minimum frame rate that exceeds the maximum refresh rate of most gaming monitors. At 1440p, Medium delivers 132 FPS average with a minimum of 113 FPS, providing smooth gameplay on 120 Hz displays without the 36 FPS penalty associated with Ultra settings.

At 4K, Medium remains the recommended preset with its 78 FPS average and 66 FPS minimum, both of which exceed the 60 FPS threshold for standard displays. High settings at 4K produce 59 FPS, which dips below 60 and may introduce perceived stutter on fixed-refresh displays. Ultra at 4K is not recommended, as the 56 FPS average leaves no headroom for demanding scenes and the visual difference from High is minimal—just 3 FPS separates the two presets.

For users with high refresh rate monitors at 1080p, Low settings at 225 FPS offer the maximum frame rate for competitive play, though the visual trade-offs may be significant. The 1440p Low result of 174 FPS provides an excellent middle ground for those prioritizing frame rate over graphical detail. In all cases, Medium settings offer the most consistent experience, with the smallest gap between average and minimum FPS across the tested resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 brings 14 cores and 14 threads to the configuration, running at a base clock of 3.50 GHz with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. This Arrow Lake-S architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors, delivers a 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 48,995. The processor's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth provide ample data throughput for Thief's engine, which rarely requires more than a few active threads.

In Thief, the CPU's performance ceiling is well above what the game demands. At 1080p Low settings, the system produces 225 FPS, which is the highest measured result in this dataset. This figure suggests that the CPU can drive frame rates well beyond typical display refresh rates without becoming a bottleneck. The 14-core configuration, while not fully utilized by a 2014-era game, ensures that background processes and any additional system load do not interfere with game performance.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,648 and a multicore score of 32,924. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,394 and multithread score of 38,706 further confirm that the Ultra 5 245 provides balanced performance that complements the RTX 4070's capabilities. The processor's 5.10 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for Thief, as the game's primary thread benefits from high clock speeds, ensuring that the GPU receives a steady stream of draw calls even at frame rates approaching 225 FPS.