Thief

# Thief — Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 delivers a mixed bag of results in Thief, a 2014 stealth title whose performance profile is heavily influenced by both CPU and GPU characteristics depending on the resolution and settings selected. The measured frames per second (FPS) data reveals a system that can handle the game at high frame rates in most configurations, but struggles to maintain smooth performance at the most demanding settings. The benchmark results indicate a clear pattern: resolution scaling imposes a significant load on the graphics card, while the CPU's 14 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock prove more than adequate for this title's engine.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 197 FPS at 1920x1080 to 135 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 62 FPS, and then further to 79 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 60% decrease from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, demonstrating that even at the lowest graphical preset, the RTX 5060's rendering pipeline is heavily taxed by the 4K resolution's pixel throughput requirements.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher settings. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 149 at 1080p to 102 at 1440p, and then to 60 at 4K — a 60% reduction from 1080p to 4K, mirroring the Low setting trend. High settings show a similar trajectory: 114 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings exhibit the steepest absolute decline, starting at 108 FPS at 1080p, falling to 74 FPS at 1440p, and bottoming out at 44 FPS at 4K.

The fact that the 1440p to 4K transition consistently produces larger FPS drops than the 1080p to 1440p transition suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and fill rate become increasingly constrained as resolution rises. The RTX 5060's 128-bit memory bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while adequate for 1080p and 1440p, appear to bottleneck at 4K, particularly when combined with higher-quality textures and effects. The data shows that 4K gameplay is only viable at Low settings (79 FPS), while Medium dips to 60 FPS and both High and Ultra fall below 50 FPS, indicating the GPU is the dominant constraint at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060's specifications directly explain its performance characteristics in Thief. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock of 2497 MHz and base clock of 2280 MHz provide the computational throughput, with 3840 shading units and 120 texture mapping units processing the game's geometry and textures. The 48 render output units (ROPs) and pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s determine how quickly the GPU can fill the framebuffer, which is critical at higher resolutions.

In Thief, the GPU's VRAM capacity plays a notable role. The 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at all settings, as evidenced by the playable frame rates (108-197 FPS at 1080p, 74-135 FPS at 1440p). However, at 4K resolution, the combination of higher resolution textures and increased pixel count likely approaches the VRAM limit, contributing to the significant FPS drops observed. The Medium setting at 4K shows a min FPS of 51 and max of 69, with an average of 60, indicating some frame time variance that could be associated with memory pressure.

The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 20891 places it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (1.2% higher average score) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (0.8% higher). This positioning suggests the RTX 5060 is a mid-range performer, which aligns with the observed Thief results: strong at 1080p, adequate at 1440p, and marginal at 4K. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3628 further confirms the GPU's mid-range standing, while the Geekbench Vulkan score of 113321 and OpenCL score of 112787 indicate solid compute capabilities that benefit the game's physics and lighting calculations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate experience. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 108 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 114 FPS offers a marginal improvement over Ultra, while Medium provides 149 FPS for users prioritizing higher refresh rates. Given that Ultra and High are within 6 FPS of each other at 1080p, the Ultra preset is the best choice for maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 74 FPS, which remains playable but approaches the edge of what many consider smooth. The High preset at 78 FPS offers nearly identical performance, while Medium at 102 FPS provides a more comfortable margin. For a 1440p display with a 60 Hz refresh rate, Ultra is the recommended choice, as the 74 FPS average comfortably exceeds the display's capability. However, for 144 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors, Medium at 102 FPS would be the better selection to fully utilize the display's potential.

At 3840x2160, the data tells a different story. Ultra averages 44 FPS and High averages 46 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium at 60 FPS is the minimum setting that achieves playable frame rates, while Low at 79 FPS provides the smoothest experience. For 4K gaming, Medium settings are recommended as the best balance between visual fidelity and performance, though users with variable refresh rate displays may find the 46 FPS of High acceptable. The Low preset at 79 FPS is the only 4K configuration that approaches the performance levels seen at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average FPS across settings ranges from 108 to 197. The Low preset achieves 197 FPS, Medium reaches 149 FPS with a minimum of 127 and maximum of 172, High hits 114 FPS, and Ultra delivers 108 FPS. The 89 FPS spread between Low and Ultra illustrates the significant impact of graphical settings on performance at this resolution, with the GPU remaining the primary constraint even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 74 to 135. Low delivers 135 FPS, Medium averages 102 FPS with a range of 87 to 118, High produces 78 FPS, and Ultra drops to 74 FPS. The 61 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is smaller than at 1080p, indicating that resolution scaling begins to dominate over settings-based performance variation.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 44 to 79. Low achieves 79 FPS, Medium averages 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 69, High produces 46 FPS, and Ultra falls to 44 FPS. The 35 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU's raw pixel processing capability is the limiting factor at this resolution, regardless of the selected preset.

The Medium settings at each resolution provide the most complete data with min and max FPS values, allowing for frame time analysis. At 1080p, the 45 FPS range between minimum (127) and maximum (172) indicates some frame pacing variance, likely due to CPU-driven scene complexity. At 1440p, the range narrows to 31 FPS (87 to 118), while at 4K it further narrows to 18 FPS (51 to 69), suggesting that GPU-bound scenarios produce more consistent frame times than CPU-bound ones.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combination achieves in Thief?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 197, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is followed by 149 FPS at Medium settings and 114 FPS at High settings for the same resolution.

Q: Can this system run Thief at 4K resolution smoothly?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset achieves an average of 60 FPS, which is the minimum for smooth gameplay. The Low preset delivers 79 FPS for a more comfortable margin, while High and Ultra fall below 50 FPS (46 and 44 respectively), which may result in noticeable stuttering.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 26331, placing it 0.3% below the AMD Radeon 860M and 0.3% below the NVIDIA GeForce MX550. It is 1.2% above the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT and 0.8% below the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark percentile ranking?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 ranks in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48995. It is 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, while being 0.6% above the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.8% above the Intel Core i5-14600K.

Q: What are the GPU's clock speeds and memory specifications?

A: The RTX 5060 has a base clock of 2280 MHz and a boost clock of 2497 MHz. It features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) and a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s.

Q: Does the system perform better at High or Ultra settings?

A: At all resolutions, High settings outperform Ultra by a small margin. At 1080p, High averages 114 FPS versus 108 FPS for Ultra. At 1440p, High averages 78 FPS versus 74 FPS for Ultra. At 4K, High averages 46 FPS versus 44 FPS for Ultra. The difference is 6 FPS at 1080p, 4 FPS at 1440p, and 2 FPS at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245's specifications indicate it is more than capable of handling Thief's CPU demands. With 14 cores and 14 threads, the processor leverages its Arrow Lake architecture on the 3 nm TSMC process node. The base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide substantial single-thread performance, which is critical for game engines that rely heavily on a primary rendering thread. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core ensure that frequently accessed game data remains close to the processing units.

The CPU's benchmark results support its capability in gaming workloads. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32924 and single-core score of 4648 demonstrate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 4394 and multithread score of 38706 further confirm the processor's balanced capabilities. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs (average benchmark score of 48995) places it above the vast majority of processors, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.5% higher) and Intel Core i5-14600K (0.8% lower).

In Thief, the CPU's role becomes evident when examining the FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, where the GPU is less constrained, the difference between Low (197 FPS) and Ultra (108 FPS) is 89 FPS, suggesting that both CPU and GPU contribute to performance. However, at 4K, the difference narrows to 35 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck. The CPU's 14 threads are likely sufficient for Thief's engine, which was released in 2014 and is not designed to utilize more than a handful of threads effectively. The high boost clock of 5.10 GHz ensures that the primary game thread executes with minimal latency, preventing CPU-induced frame drops in most scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks 1117 out of 2851 tested combinations in Thief, placing it in the top 39% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the mid-range positioning of both components — the CPU at the 90th percentile and the GPU at the 72nd percentile of their respective categories. The combination's ranking is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows strong performance at 1080p and 1440p, but falls short of top-tier results at 4K.

The rank of 1117 out of 2851 indicates that while this system is capable of delivering smooth gameplay in Thief at most settings, there are 1116 combinations that achieve higher average FPS. This is expected given the GPU's mid-range standing — the RTX 5060's nearest rivals (AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary) have similar synthetic benchmark scores, suggesting that combinations with higher-end GPUs would rank substantially better. Conversely, the CPU's high percentile ranking (90th) means that systems with weaker processors but similar GPUs would likely underperform this combination in CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions.

The data shows that this combination is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Thief, with the CPU providing ample headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the combination's ranking relative to others would depend primarily on the GPU's performance, as the CPU's contribution diminishes at higher resolutions. The overall ranking of 1117 out of 2851 positions this system as a solid mid-range option for Thief, capable of high frame rates at mainstream resolutions but not competitive with high-end configurations at 4K.