Thief

The AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H produces a limited performance envelope in Thief, with the data showing a clear ceiling at 1080p. Across all tested settings, the combination achieves its highest average frame rate of 77 FPS at 1080p Low, but this figure drops precipitously as resolution and graphical fidelity increase. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is positioned near the bottom of the database, ranking 2692 out of 2851 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 6% of all systems measured for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics solution. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 77 FPS, but moving to 2560x1440 Low drops this to 53 FPS, a reduction of 24 FPS or roughly 31%. The jump to 3840x2160 Low yields only 31 FPS, representing a 46 FPS drop from the 1080p baseline—a decline of approximately 60%. This scaling pattern indicates that the rendering pipeline becomes the dominant bottleneck as pixel count increases.

For Medium settings, the same trend holds with slightly lower absolute numbers. The 1080p Medium average of 58 FPS falls to 40 FPS at 1440p and further to 23 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a minimum of 20 FPS and a maximum of 27 FPS, showing that even the variance is compressed at higher resolutions. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Medium is 18 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K Medium is 17 FPS, suggesting a roughly linear degradation with resolution increase.

High settings follow the same pattern: 44 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset delivers the lowest overall results, with 42 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and just 17 FPS at 4K. The consistency of these drops—roughly 30-40% when moving from 1080p to 1440p and another 40-50% from 1440p to 4K—points to the GPU's shading and memory bandwidth limitations rather than CPU constraints, as the frame rate scales almost entirely with pixel throughput.

The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where playable frame rates are achievable across all settings. At 1440p, only the Low preset exceeds 50 FPS, while Medium and High hover in the 30-40 FPS range. At 4K, every preset falls below 32 FPS, making the experience marginal at best. The scaling behavior suggests that the integrated GPU's 32 ROPs and system-shared memory are the primary limiting factors, as the frame rate drops align with the geometric increase in pixel count rather than any CPU-related plateau.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H features 16 cores and 22 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Meteor Lake processor, built on a 7 nm process, carries a 24 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551 and a single-core score of 1759, placing it at the 84th percentile against all CPUs.

For Thief, a game released in 2014, the CPU's capabilities far exceed what the measured frame rates suggest is necessary. The fact that frame rates scale so dramatically with resolution—from 77 FPS at 1080p Low to 31 FPS at 4K Low—indicates that the processor is not the bottleneck in this configuration. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect similar frame rates across resolutions, as the CPU workload remains roughly constant while GPU load increases with pixel count. Instead, the consistent decline with resolution confirms that the integrated GPU is the binding constraint.

The CPU's Passmark multi-thread score of 25933 and single-thread score of 3509 further reinforce this interpretation. In a stealth title like Thief, which relies on AI, physics, and game logic, the 16-core processor with a 5.00 GHz boost clock provides ample headroom. The nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H at 0.3% higher average score, and the AMD EPYC 4244P at 0.4% lower—show that the 165H sits in a competitive mid-range position, but none of that matters when the GPU cannot keep up with even modest resolution demands.

The 24 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s provide sufficient data throughput for game assets, but the system-shared memory architecture means the GPU draws from the same pool. This shared bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions, where the GPU requires more memory traffic. The CPU's role in this combo is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates, and the benchmark data shows it does so without introducing frame rate variability that would manifest as inconsistent minimums.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best playable experience. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 77 FPS, which is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS, offering a substantial visual upgrade over Low while maintaining smooth gameplay.

For users prioritizing visual quality, the High preset at 1080p achieves 44 FPS, which remains playable for a stealth game where reaction times are less critical than in competitive shooters. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 42 FPS, offering only a marginal improvement over High while costing additional performance. Given that the difference between High and Ultra is just 2 FPS at 1080p, choosing High over Ultra provides nearly identical visuals with slightly more headroom.

At 1440p, the Low preset yields 53 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced gameplay, but the Medium preset at 40 FPS (with a 34 FPS minimum) is borderline. The data suggests that 1440p is only viable at Low settings for consistent frame rates above 50 FPS. At 4K, no preset achieves even 32 FPS, making this resolution unsuitable for anything beyond static screenshots or very undemanding scenes.

The best experience per the measured rows is the 1080p Medium preset, which balances the 58 FPS average with a 49 FPS minimum, ensuring that the game rarely dips into stutter territory. For users who need maximum smoothness, 1080p Low at 77 FPS is the safest choice, while those who accept lower frame rates can use 1080p High at 44 FPS. The 1080p Ultra preset at 42 FPS offers no meaningful advantage over High and should be avoided.

How This Combo Ranks

In Thief, this combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and AMD Radeon 890M ranks 2692 out of 2851 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5.6% of all systems measured. This rank reflects the integrated GPU's limitations rather than CPU performance, as the processor's 84th percentile standing in synthetic benchmarks demonstrates its capability. The combo's rank is consistent with the measured frame rates, which fall below 30 FPS at 4K across all settings and only exceed 60 FPS at 1080p Low.

Comparing to other tested combos, the GPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (0.1% higher score), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (0.7% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (0.9% higher). These rivals produce similar overall graphics performance, which translates to comparable in-game results for Thief. The GTX 850M sits 1% higher in average score, indicating that this integrated solution is competitive with older discrete mobile GPUs.

The combo's low rank is driven by the fact that most tested systems include discrete graphics cards with dedicated VRAM and higher power envelopes. The 890M's 15 W TDP and system-shared memory architecture place it at a fundamental disadvantage compared to even entry-level discrete GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, is not the differentiator in this ranking—the same processor paired with a stronger GPU would likely rank much higher, while the same GPU paired with a weaker CPU would show similar frame rates in this resolution-bound title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2900 MHz. The GPU's 16 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support provide modern API compatibility, but its performance in Thief is constrained by its memory configuration, which relies on system-shared memory with bandwidth described as "System Dependent."

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores paint a mixed picture. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 590 is modest, while its Passmark G3D score of 8076 places it at the 45th percentile against all GPUs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 40808 and OpenCL score of 37254 indicate reasonable compute capability, but the Passmark DirectX scores (73 for DX11, 37 for DX12, and 33 for DX10) are low, reflecting the integrated nature and shared memory overhead.

In Thief, the GPU's role is decisive. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K—dropping from 77 FPS to 31 FPS at Low settings—is a textbook example of GPU-bound performance. The 32 ROPs are responsible for pixel fill rate, and the 92.80 GPixel/s pixel rate is insufficient for 4K workloads. The 5.939 TFLOPS FP32 compute provides adequate shading throughput for 1080p, but the system-shared memory bandwidth creates a bottleneck as resolution increases, since the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory access.

The GPU's boost clock of 2900 MHz is relatively high for an integrated part, but the 15 W TDP limits sustained performance. The texture rate of 185.6 GTexel/s is adequate for the game's textures at 1080p, but the memory subsystem cannot keep up at higher resolutions. The 890M's predecessor, Navi II IGP, and its position at the 45th percentile among all GPUs, confirm that this is a mid-to-low-tier graphics solution that excels in light workloads but struggles with demanding titles at high resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a full picture of performance.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 77 FPS average, representing the peak performance of this system. Medium settings produce 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution. High settings achieve 44 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 42 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is minimal, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects have diminishing returns on this hardware.

At 2560x1440, Low settings drop to 53 FPS, a 24 FPS reduction from 1080p Low. Medium settings at 1440p average 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. High settings produce 30 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 29 FPS. The 1440p results show that only Low settings maintain a frame rate above 50 FPS, while all other presets fall into the 29-40 FPS range, which may cause noticeable stuttering in fast-moving scenes.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly low. Low settings average 31 FPS, Medium settings average 23 FPS (with a 20 FPS minimum and 27 FPS maximum), High settings average 18 FPS, and Ultra settings average 17 FPS. None of these 4K results approach playable territory, and the data indicates that this combo should not be used for 4K gaming in Thief.

The full 12-row dataset shows a consistent pattern: each step up in resolution costs roughly 30-40% performance, and each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30% performance. The 1080p Medium result of 58 FPS is the sweet spot, offering the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, while 1080p Low at 77 FPS is the only configuration that fully utilizes the display's refresh rate potential.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 77, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Thief?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best result is 31 FPS on Low settings, with Medium at 23 FPS, High at 18 FPS, and Ultra at 17 FPS. All 4K presets fall well below playable frame rates.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 34083, which is 0.3% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H, 0.4% higher than the AMD EPYC 4244P, 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, and 0.5% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, High settings average 44 FPS while Ultra settings average 42 FPS, a difference of only 2 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset offers minimal visual improvement for the performance cost on this hardware.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon 890M rank among GPUs?

A: The GPU sits at the 45th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 9210. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Vega 8, scores 0.1% higher, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 scores 0.7% higher.

Q: What settings preset provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality?

A: The 1080p Medium preset, averaging 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS, offers the best balance. It provides 21 FPS more than High settings while maintaining a minimum frame rate above 45 FPS, which is suitable for steady gameplay.