Thief

# FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D in Thief?

A: This combination ranks 16th out of 2,851 tested combos in Thief, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations measured for this game. This indicates exceptional performance headroom, though the data shows this rank is more dependent on GPU capability than CPU throughput.

Q: Which resolution delivers the highest average FPS for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 225 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 2560x1440 Low, the average drops to 198 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low it falls further to 158 FPS, demonstrating a clear resolution scaling pattern that suggests GPU-bound behavior at higher pixel counts.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). The deltaPct values show the 5090 D sits in a tight competitive band with these mobile-class GPUs despite its desktop positioning.

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

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo achieves a maximum FPS of 206, with an average of 179 FPS and a minimum of 153 FPS. This 53 FPS spread between minimum and maximum indicates some frame-time variance, though the average remains well above playable thresholds.

Q: How do CPU benchmark scores compare between the Ultra 5 245 and its closest rival?

A: The Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48,995, which is 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196) and 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228). It outperforms the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-14600K by 0.8%, showing it sits in a very competitive mid-range CPU segment.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D show a clear performance lead over its rivals in DirectX benchmarks?

A: The benchmark data is mixed. The GPU scores 371 in Passmark DirectX 11, 219 in DirectX 12, and 434 in DirectX 9. These numbers are not directly comparable to the nearest rivals' average scores, but the 92nd percentile ranking versus all GPUs indicates strong overall standing, while the specific API results suggest variable performance depending on the rendering path.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on preset selection across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 181 FPS average, which is only 3 FPS lower than High (184 FPS) and 22 FPS lower than Medium (203 FPS). Given that Ultra and High produce nearly identical frame rates at 1080p, the Ultra preset is the logical choice for maximum visual quality without meaningful performance sacrifice. The gap between Low (225 FPS) and Ultra (181 FPS) represents a 44 FPS delta, but the absolute numbers at Ultra remain exceptionally high.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Ultra produces 148 FPS average, High delivers 156 FPS, and Medium reaches 179 FPS. The 31 FPS difference between Ultra and Medium is more pronounced than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU begins to feel the pixel-count pressure at higher settings. Still, 148 FPS at Ultra is far beyond what most displays can refresh, making Ultra the recommended preset for 1440p gaming. The Low preset at 198 FPS offers diminishing returns for most players, as the visual downgrade is substantial relative to the 50 FPS gain over Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the data tells a more nuanced story. Ultra drops to 87 FPS average, while High achieves 92 FPS, Medium reaches 120 FPS, and Low hits 158 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 5 FPS but typically provides marginal visual improvements in most titles. However, the Medium preset at 120 FPS represents a sweet spot for 4K: it delivers 33 FPS more than High while presumably retaining acceptable visual fidelity. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 102, which stays comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. For players prioritizing frame rate above all else, Low at 158 FPS is viable, but Medium offers the best balance of visual quality and performance at 4K.

# How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 16 out of 2,851 tested combinations places this system in the 99.4th percentile of all configurations measured in Thief. This is an elite standing, but the data reveals interesting nuances when examining the components individually. The GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 92, while the CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 90. Both components are strong, yet the combo rank is disproportionately high relative to either component's individual percentile, suggesting that Thief's engine responds particularly well to this specific pairing.

The nearest rival data for the GPU shows the RTX 5090 D outperforming the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT by 1.1% but trailing the RX 6850M XT by 1.6% in average benchmark scores. These are relatively small deltas, indicating that the 5090 D is not dramatically ahead of its immediate competitors in raw compute terms. Yet the combo rank of 16 suggests that real-world gaming performance in Thief may exceed what synthetic benchmarks predict. Similarly, the CPU's nearest rivals show deltas of -0.4% to 0.8%, placing the Ultra 5 245 in a tightly clustered performance band around the 49,000 average score mark.

This combination's high rank likely stems from the GPU's massive memory bandwidth (1.79 TB/s) and the CPU's strong single-thread performance (4,648 in Cinebench R23 single-core), which Thief's stealth mechanics and AI systems may leverage effectively. The 14-core configuration with a 5.10 GHz boost clock provides substantial headroom for the game's computational demands, while the 32 GB of VRAM ensures that texture streaming at high resolutions never becomes a bottleneck.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a complete progression across all four presets. Low settings produce 225 FPS average, Medium delivers 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 and maximum of 234, High achieves 184 FPS, and Ultra reaches 181 FPS. The 44 FPS spread between Low and Ultra indicates that Thief's 1080p performance is largely GPU-limited at the highest settings, but the CPU still has enough headroom to push frame rates well beyond typical display refresh rates even at Ultra.

The 2560x1440 results show a tighter grouping with more moderate deltas. Low settings hit 198 FPS, Medium averages 179 FPS with a range of 153 to 206, High produces 156 FPS, and Ultra delivers 148 FPS. The 50 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is slightly larger than at 1080p, suggesting that the increased pixel count begins to tax the GPU more noticeably. The minimum FPS at Medium (153) remains high, indicating consistent frame delivery without major stutters.

At 3840x2160, the resolution scaling becomes more dramatic. Low settings achieve 158 FPS, Medium averages 120 FPS with a minimum of 102 and maximum of 138, High drops to 92 FPS, and Ultra falls to 87 FPS. The 71 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is the largest across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this pixel count. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (102) is still well above playable thresholds, but the drop from 1080p Low (225 FPS) to 4K Ultra (87 FPS) represents a 61% reduction in average frame rate.

# GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is exceptional for handling Thief's high-resolution textures and complex lighting at 4K. The measured FPS data shows that at 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the limiting factor: dropping from 92 FPS at High to 87 FPS at Ultra (a 5.4% reduction) while the 1080p Ultra setting maintains 181 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU's compute capabilities (104.8 TFLOPS FP32) are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K pixel workload pushes the rendering pipeline harder.

The GPU's clock behavior, with a base of 2017 MHz and boost of 2407 MHz, contributes to its benchmark standing of 92nd percentile versus all GPUs. The Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 310,674 demonstrate strong compute performance that translates into the measured frame rates. However, the nearest rival data shows the 5090 D is only 1.1% ahead of the RX 6650M XT and 2.4% behind the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB in average benchmark scores, which suggests that synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture the gaming-specific advantages of the 5090 D's architecture.

The 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU indicate this is a power-hungry card, but the measured FPS data shows it delivers the expected performance at 4K. The 92 FPS average at 4K High is particularly noteworthy given that Thief launched in 2014 and may not fully utilize modern GPU features like ray tracing cores (170 RT cores) or tensor cores (680). The DirectX 12 benchmark score of 219 is notably lower than the DirectX 11 score of 371, which could suggest that Thief's engine, designed for an earlier era, performs better on legacy API paths.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 brings 14 cores and 14 threads to the pairing, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz. This configuration, built on the Arrow Lake architecture with a 3 nm process, delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,924 and single-core score of 4,648. The 90th percentile standing versus all CPUs indicates strong overall performance, but the nearest rival data shows it is within 1% of several competitors, suggesting that CPU differentiation is minimal in this performance band.

In Thief, the CPU's role appears most critical at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 225 FPS, which is 67 FPS higher than at 4K Low (158 FPS). This 42% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings suggests that the GPU becomes progressively more constrained at higher pixel counts, while the CPU maintains consistent performance. The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (102.4 GB/s bandwidth) provide sufficient data throughput for the game's AI and physics systems.

The Passmark multi-thread score of 38,706 and single-thread score of 4,394 indicate balanced performance that suits Thief's mixed workload of stealth AI, environmental interaction, and real-time rendering. The CPU's 65 W TDP is modest compared to the GPU's 575 W, but the benchmark data shows this doesn't limit gaming performance. At 4K Ultra, the combo still achieves 87 FPS, which is remarkably high for a 2014 title, suggesting the CPU is not a bottleneck even at maximum settings.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound behavior as resolution increases. At Low settings, the progression is 225 FPS (1080p) → 198 FPS (1440p) → 158 FPS (4K), representing a 30% drop from 1080p to 1440p and an additional 20% drop from 1440p to 4K. This total 67 FPS reduction (30%) from 1080p to 4K at Low settings indicates that even minimal graphical workloads become increasingly GPU-limited at higher pixel counts.

At Medium settings, the pattern is 203 FPS (1080p) → 179 FPS (1440p) → 120 FPS (4K). The 1440p to 4K jump shows a 33% reduction, which is steeper than the Low settings' 20% drop, suggesting that the Medium preset's additional effects place more strain on the GPU's shading units and texture units. The High settings show 184 FPS (1080p) → 156 FPS (1440p) → 92 FPS (4K), with the 4K figure representing a 41% drop from 1440p and a 50% drop from 1080p.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic scaling: 181 FPS (1080p) → 148 FPS (1440p) → 87 FPS (4K). The 52% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings is the largest across all presets, confirming that Thief's highest quality settings demand significant GPU resources at 4K. The fact that 1080p Ultra (181 FPS) and 4K High (92 FPS) produce similar frame rates suggests that the resolution leap doubles the rendering workload at comparable quality levels. The data indicates the CPU maintains consistent performance across all resolutions, as the FPS drops correlate directly with pixel count increases rather than showing any CPU-related plateau.