Thief

# Thief with Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + AMD Radeon RX 570

This pairing of a 20-core Intel Core Ultra 7 265 desktop processor with an AMD Radeon RX 570 graphics card, released in 2025 and 2017 respectively, represents a stark generational mismatch in a 2014 stealth title. The benchmark data reveals a system where the GPU consistently becomes the primary constraint across all tested resolutions, with the CPU's substantial headroom never being fully utilized in Thief's rendering pipeline.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep and predictable decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the shape of that curve tells a clear story about which component is governing performance. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 75 FPS at 1080p to 51 FPS at 1440p, then falls further to 30 FPS at 4K. That represents a 32% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 41% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The consistent, near-linear degradation with each pixel-count increase is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario.

The High settings row reinforces this interpretation. Here, the averages are 43 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 30%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 43%. Similarly, Medium settings produce 57 FPS, 39 FPS, and 23 FPS across the same resolution ladder, with drops of 32% and 41% respectively. Ultra settings follow the pattern: 41 FPS, 28 FPS, and 17 FPS, representing a 32% then 39% decline.

What is striking is that every settings tier exhibits nearly identical proportional scaling behavior. If the CPU were a meaningful bottleneck at lower resolutions, we would expect the 1080p-to-1440p penalty to be smaller than the 1440p-to-4K penalty, because at 1080p the CPU would have more room to flex its muscles. Instead, the percentages are tightly clustered across all four quality presets, indicating that the RX 570's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors even at 1080p.

The 4K results are particularly telling. At both High and Ultra settings, the average FPS collapses to exactly 17. This floor is not a coincidence; it suggests the GPU has hit a hard computational ceiling where additional quality settings no longer matter because the pixel throughput requirement alone saturates the Polaris 20 chip. The Medium preset at 4K manages 23 FPS with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 26, which is marginally better but still firmly in unplayable territory. The Low preset at 4K achieves 30 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration that approaches a playable threshold, and even then only barely.

The data implies that Thief's engine, despite its 2014 vintage, scales resolution costs in a way that heavily taxes the RX 570's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The 256-bit bus and 4 GB of GDDR5 are simply not sufficient for 4K workloads in this title, regardless of how much CPU headroom the Core Ultra 7 265 provides.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 75 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the entire dataset that exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming in Thief?

A: At 3840x2160, the maximum average FPS is 30, which occurs only with Low settings. Medium settings yield 23 FPS, while High and Ultra both drop to 17 FPS. None of these 4K results reach a smooth 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmark scores?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 28766, placing it 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28874) and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28580). It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 470 (28996) by 0.8% and leads the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (28421) by 1.2%.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64640. This places it slightly behind the AMD EPYC 4464P (64823, -0.3%) and AMD EPYC 9124 (65104, -0.7%), while being 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (64438) and 0.7% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7343 (64202).

Q: Does increasing settings from Low to Ultra have a consistent FPS impact across resolutions?

A: The penalty for moving from Low to Ultra is substantial at every resolution. At 1080p, the average drops from 75 to 41 FPS (a 45% reduction). At 1440p, it drops from 51 to 28 FPS (45% reduction). At 4K, it drops from 30 to 17 FPS (43% reduction). The consistency of this ~45% penalty suggests a uniform GPU workload scaling.

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

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28766. Its nearest rivals are all within a 1.2% margin, indicating it sits in a tightly contested performance tier.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 2744 out of 2851 tested combos in Thief. This places it in the bottom 4% of all tested pairings, which is a remarkably poor showing for a system featuring a CPU that sits in the 93rd percentile of all processors. The disconnect between the CPU's general compute strength and this in-game ranking is stark.

The ranking of 2744 out of 2851 means that roughly 96% of all tested hardware combinations deliver better performance in Thief. This is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's 74th percentile standing among all graphics cards. The RX 570, while not a weak card in absolute terms, is simply outclassed by the vast majority of GPUs that would typically be paired with a high-end 2025 desktop processor like the Core Ultra 7 265.

This ranking also highlights a practical reality of benchmark databases: a combo's position is determined by the weakest link. The CPU's 20 cores and 5.30 GHz boost clock are irrelevant to Thief's performance if the GPU cannot keep up with the rendering demands. The data suggests that users seeking better Thief performance would benefit far more from a GPU upgrade than from any CPU change, as the Core Ultra 7 265 is far above the threshold needed for this game.

The delta between the combo rank and the CPU's individual percentile (93rd) versus the GPU's percentile (74th) reinforces that the RX 570 is the binding constraint. In a game as old as Thief, the CPU's general benchmark dominance offers no escape from the GPU's pixel-pushing limits.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset provides a detailed picture of this combo's capabilities across three resolutions and four quality presets.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 75 FPS, which is the only result above 60 FPS in the entire dataset. Medium settings average 57 FPS, with a minimum of 48 and maximum of 65, indicating some frame-time variability but generally playable performance. High settings average 43 FPS, which dips below the smooth-playability threshold. Ultra settings average 41 FPS, only 2 FPS lower than High, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional features are not heavily taxing the GPU at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers drop noticeably. Low settings average 51 FPS, which is a 32% reduction from the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 45. High settings average 30 FPS, and Ultra settings average 28 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 2 FPS, mirroring the 1080p pattern.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes marginal. Low settings average 30 FPS, which is technically playable but far from smooth. Medium settings average 23 FPS, with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 26. High and Ultra both average 17 FPS, with no minimum or maximum data provided, indicating that the game is likely hitting a hard performance wall. The fact that High and Ultra produce identical averages at 4K is a strong indicator that the GPU is completely saturated and additional settings have no measurable cost because the pixel workload dominates.

Across all settings, the 1080p-to-1440p penalty averages around 32%, and the 1440p-to-4K penalty averages around 41%. This compounding effect means that 4K performance is roughly one-third of 1080p performance at every quality setting. The Medium preset consistently provides a middle ground, with the only recorded minimum and maximum values in the dataset, suggesting it offers the most predictable frame delivery.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570, built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, is the clear limiting factor in this Thief configuration. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest by modern standards and appears insufficient for 4K rendering in this title. The GPU's 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute at 5.095 TFLOPS.

The base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz are relatively low, and the 150 W TDP with a single 6-pin power connector reflects the card's 14 nm process node from GlobalFoundries. The memory runs at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective), which is typical for GDDR5 of this era. These specifications place the RX 570 in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28766.

In Thief specifically, the GPU's role is decisive. The benchmark results show that even at 1080p Low, the card can only manage 75 FPS, which is not a particularly high ceiling. The fact that the Ultra preset at 1080p achieves 41 FPS versus 75 FPS at Low indicates that the GPU is sensitive to the quality settings' workload increases. The 4K results, where High and Ultra both hit 17 FPS, demonstrate that the card's memory bandwidth and compute resources are exhausted by the pixel count alone, making quality settings irrelevant at that resolution.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (-0.4%), AMD Radeon RX 470 (-0.8%), AMD Radeon R9 M295X (+0.7%), and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (+1.2%). These tight margins show that the RX 570 is not an outlier in its performance tier, but rather sits in a crowded field of similarly capable cards. In Thief, however, this tier is simply not sufficient for high-resolution or high-quality gaming.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and the user's frame rate priorities.

At 1920x1080, Medium settings at 57 FPS average with a 48 FPS minimum and 65 FPS maximum offer the best balance of visual quality and playability. This is the only settings tier that provides a minimum FPS above 45, ensuring reasonably consistent frame delivery. High settings at 43 FPS are playable but may feel less smooth, while Ultra at 41 FPS offers only marginal visual gains over High for a 2 FPS cost. Low at 75 FPS is the smoothest option but sacrifices significant visual fidelity for that performance.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. Low settings at 51 FPS are the only preset that stays above 50 FPS, making it the recommended choice for users who prioritize smoothness. Medium at 39 FPS is borderline, with a 33 FPS minimum that may cause noticeable stuttering. High at 30 FPS and Ultra at 28 FPS are both below the 30 FPS threshold for comfortable play, so they are not recommended for action-oriented stealth gameplay where responsiveness matters.

At 3840x2160, none of the settings are truly playable. Low at 30 FPS is the only option that reaches a console-level baseline, but even this is marginal. Medium at 23 FPS, High at 17 FPS, and Ultra at 17 FPS are all too low for a game that requires precise timing and stealth mechanics. Users with 4K displays should strongly consider lowering the resolution or upgrading the GPU.

The Medium preset across all resolutions consistently offers the most stable frame delivery, as evidenced by it being the only settings tier with recorded minimum and maximum values. This suggests that Medium is the most thoroughly optimized preset in Thief's engine for this hardware, likely because it balances GPU load without triggering the most expensive rendering features.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It features a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes.

In general benchmarks, this CPU is exceptionally strong. It scores 42216 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5960 in single-core, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 49682 and a single-thread score of 4689. Its 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64640, places it among the top processors available. The nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 4464P (-0.3%), Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (+0.3%), AMD EPYC 7343 (+0.7%), and AMD EPYC 9124 (-0.7%), all within a narrow performance band.

Despite this computational firepower, the CPU's role in Thief is almost entirely passive. The game, released in 2014, is unlikely to leverage 20 cores effectively, and the measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU limitation. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between Low and Ultra settings at lower resolutions, because the CPU would cap the frame rate regardless of GPU load. Instead, the FPS scales consistently with both resolution and settings, indicating that the GPU is always the limiting factor.

The CPU's 20 threads and 5.30 GHz boost clock are far more than Thief requires, even in its most demanding CPU-intensive scenes. The 30 MB of L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth provide ample headroom for game logic and asset streaming, but these resources go largely underutilized. The data suggests that a significantly less powerful CPU would deliver nearly identical Thief performance when paired with this RX 570, as the GPU's 74th percentile standing is the true arbiter of frame rates.

The Core Ultra 7 265's integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 32EU is present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU configuration. The CPU's launch MSRP is $394, which reflects its high-end desktop positioning, but this cost does not translate into Thief-specific performance advantages given the GPU constraint. In this combo, the CPU is a capable but underutilized component, waiting for a more powerful GPU to unlock its potential in modern titles.