Thief

Thief, the 2014 stealth classic, remains a demanding title for modern hardware when pushed to its limits. The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a wide spectrum of performance, with results that shift dramatically based on resolution and preset. The data indicates a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at 4K, but which reveals the CPU's considerable strength at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates to show exactly where this pairing excels and where its immense power becomes redundant.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the classic transition from a CPU-bound state to a GPU-bound one. At the High preset, the system delivers 184 FPS at 1920x1080, which then drops to 146 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally settles at 86 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 53% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, a steep decline that highlights the immense graphical workload placed on the RTX 5090 at the highest resolution. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 38 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 60 FPS, showing that the cost of each resolution step increases significantly as pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern is even more pronounced at the Low preset. Here, the system achieves 225 FPS at 1080p, 198 FPS at 1440p, and 148 FPS at 4K. The 77 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is substantial, but the absolute numbers remain high, indicating that even at 4K, the RTX 5090 is not fully saturated when visual effects are minimized. This suggests that at 1080p Low, the Core Ultra 5 245 is the limiting factor, as the GPU could likely render more frames if the CPU could feed it data faster. The transition point where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck appears to lie between 1440p and 4K, where the pixel throughput demands finally outpace the processor's frame generation capabilities.

At the Medium preset, the measured minimum and maximum frame rates provide additional insight into this scaling. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 FPS and a maximum of 234 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 179 FPS with a tighter range of 153 to 206 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 113 FPS, with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS. The variance between minimum and maximum frame rates shrinks as resolution increases, from 61 FPS at 1080p to 53 FPS at 1440p and 34 FPS at 4K. This tightening of the frame time distribution at higher resolutions is a classic sign of the GPU becoming the consistent bottleneck, smoothing out CPU-driven spikes and dips.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed powerhouse in this pairing, and its specifications explain why it can drive such high frame rates. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, the card offers a staggering 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. This immense bandwidth is critical for Thief's detailed environments and high-resolution textures, ensuring that data can be fed to the GPU cores without starvation. The card's 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs are tasked with the actual pixel and geometry processing, and their sheer number is why the GPU can maintain playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, where it averages 82 FPS.

The RTX 5090's clock speeds are also a factor, with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. This boost clock is the operational speed under load, and it allows the GPU to push through complex shader workloads. The card's architecture, Blackwell 2.0, is built on a 5 nm process from TSMC, which contributes to its efficiency and density, with 92,200 million transistors packed into a 750 mm² die. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,728 and a Passmark G3D score of 39,650, place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, confirming its top-tier status.

The data suggests that in this specific game, the RTX 5090's role is to provide an enormous ceiling for performance. At 1080p, the GPU is often underutilized, as evidenced by the relatively small frame rate gains between Low and High presets (225 vs 184 FPS). This indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution. However, at 4K, the GPU's role becomes paramount. The drop from 148 FPS at Low to 86 FPS at High and 82 FPS at Ultra shows that the GPU is being pushed to its limits by the increased pixel count and visual fidelity. The 32 GB of VRAM is unlikely to be a constraint in Thief, a game from 2014, but it future-proofs the system for more demanding titles.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. With a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, it provides strong single-thread performance, which is crucial for games like Thief that rely heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and physics. The processor's 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps to keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing latency. Its benchmark scores are solid, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,924 and a single-core score of 4,648, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's role becomes clear when examining the 1080p performance. At 1080p Low, the system produces 225 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it produces 181 FPS. This 44 FPS difference shows that even with a massive GPU like the RTX 5090, the CPU is setting a performance ceiling. The fact that the frame rate does not scale linearly with GPU load at this resolution points to the processor being the primary bottleneck. The Core Ultra 5 245's performance is comparable to the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, which has an average benchmark score of 49,196, a mere 0.4% difference from the Intel chip's 48,995 average score. This places the CPU in a competitive position for gaming workloads.

At higher resolutions, the CPU's role diminishes as the GPU takes over the primary workload. The data shows that the frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is even more pronounced. This indicates that the CPU can still feed the GPU at 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU's rendering time per frame becomes so long that the CPU has ample time to prepare the next frame. The processor's 5.10 GHz boost clock is well-suited for this task, ensuring that the main game thread is processed with minimal latency. The 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for Thief, which was designed for much older, lower-core-count processors.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across different presets and resolutions provides clear guidance for optimizing the gaming experience. The primary goal is to maintain a frame rate that is both smooth and visually pleasing, and the data shows that the Ultra preset offers the best balance at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 181 FPS, which is only 3 FPS less than the High preset and 22 FPS less than the Medium preset. Given that the visual fidelity improvement from High to Ultra is often subtle, the 181 FPS at Ultra is an excellent choice for users with high-refresh-rate monitors.

For 1440p, the Ultra preset again proves to be the best option, delivering 139 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and offers a significant visual upgrade over the Medium preset, which runs at 179 FPS. The High preset at 1440p, at 146 FPS, is a viable alternative, but the Ultra preset's 139 FPS is still high enough to warrant the increased graphical detail. The data suggests that at 1440p, the system has enough headroom to run the game at its highest settings without compromising playability.

The situation changes dramatically at 4K. Here, the Ultra preset drops to 82 FPS, which is still playable but begins to approach the lower limits of what is considered smooth for fast-paced action. The High preset at 4K delivers 86 FPS, a marginal improvement, while the Medium preset jumps to 113 FPS. For users prioritizing a consistently high frame rate at 4K, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It offers a substantial 31 FPS advantage over the Ultra preset, and the visual differences between Medium and High are often less noticeable in a game like Thief, which has a muted color palette and atmospheric lighting. The Low preset at 4K, at 148 FPS, is unnecessarily fast and sacrifices too much visual quality. Therefore, the Medium preset at 4K represents the sweet spot, balancing visual fidelity with a frame rate that comfortably exceeds 100 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 38th out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief. This places the pairing in the top 1.3% of all systems tested, proof of the raw power of both components. The rank is likely held back by the CPU, which, while powerful, is not the absolute fastest processor available for gaming. The RTX 5090 is the top-tier GPU from NVIDIA, and its performance is only limited by the processor's ability to feed it data. In a game like Thief, which is not heavily multithreaded, the Core Ultra 5 245's 14 cores are more than adequate, but the single-thread performance is what matters most.

The rank of 38 suggests that there are 37 other combinations that can achieve higher frame rates in this specific title. These are likely pairings with more powerful CPUs, such as those with higher clock speeds or better IPC, that can better keep pace with the RTX 5090's immense frame generation capacity at lower resolutions. At 4K, the CPU matters less, and this combo's rank would likely be higher if only 4K results were considered. The GPU's performance is in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and the CPU is in the 90th percentile, so this is a well-matched pair for high-resolution gaming.

The combo rank also indicates that the system is not misconfigured. A weaker CPU would drag the rank down significantly, as the RTX 5090 would be starved for data at 1080p and 1440p. Conversely, a weaker GPU would result in lower frame rates at all resolutions, especially 4K. This pairing sits at a sweet spot where the GPU is powerful enough to be the primary driver of performance at 4K, while the CPU is strong enough to avoid being a major bottleneck at lower resolutions. The result is a system that is capable of delivering an excellent experience across the board, even if it is not the absolute top performer in this specific benchmark.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average frame rates achieved at each resolution and settings preset. For the Medium preset, the minimum and maximum frame rates are also provided to illustrate performance variance.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS | Minimum FPS | Maximum FPS |

|:--------- |:------- |:---------- |:---------- |:---------- |

| 3840x2160 | High | 86 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 148 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 113 | 96 | 130 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 82 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 146 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 198 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 179 | 153 | 206 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 139 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 184 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 225 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 203 | 173 | 234 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 181 | - | - |

The data shows a clear hierarchy, with the Low preset always producing the highest frame rates and the Ultra preset the lowest. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 44 FPS, which narrows to 59 FPS at 1440p and 66 FPS at 4K. This widening gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes the primary constraint as pixel count increases. The Medium preset consistently sits between Low and High, offering a balanced option. The minimum and maximum values for the Medium preset show that frame times are relatively stable, with the largest variance occurring at 1080p, where the CPU is more likely to cause occasional dips.