Thief

Thief, a 2014 stealth title, exhibits unusual performance scaling characteristics when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The measured frame rates suggest that the game’s engine, rather than modern hardware limits, dictates the experience. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 224 FPS, but this drops to 141 FPS at Ultra, a 37% reduction. The pattern holds across resolutions, yet the most revealing data point is the relatively modest performance hit when moving from 1440p to 4K at the same settings, indicating the GPU has ample headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 shows a consistent and predictable drop in frame rates across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 224 to 175, a 21.9% decrease. High settings see a similar relative decline, moving from 148 FPS to 101 FPS, which is a 31.8% reduction. Medium settings drop from 194 to 133 FPS (31.4%), while Ultra settings decrease from 141 to 97 FPS (31.2%). These figures indicate that the GPU is the primary scaling factor in this resolution range, with the rendering load increasing proportionally to the pixel count.

However, the scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 (4K) tells a different story. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 175 to 103, a 41.1% decline, which is steeper than the 1080p to 1440p transition. High settings at 4K produce 60 FPS, down from 101 FPS at 1440p, a 40.6% reduction. Medium settings fall from 133 to 78 FPS (41.4%), and Ultra settings drop from 97 to 57 FPS (41.2%). This near-uniform ~41% decline across all settings when moving to 4K suggests a hard performance ceiling is being approached, likely due to the game’s engine limitations or driver overhead at higher resolutions rather than a straightforward GPU compute bottleneck.

The data reveals that the RTX 4090 is not fully utilized at 1080p and 1440p. The frame rates at these resolutions are exceptionally high, implying that the CPU or game engine is the limiting factor. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX, despite its mobile design, provides enough processing power to push well beyond 140 FPS at 1080p Ultra, but the game’s single-threaded nature likely caps performance before the GPU can be fully stressed. At 4K, the GPU finally becomes the bottleneck, as evidenced by the consistent performance drop across all quality presets, which is a classic sign of pixel-bound rendering.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 3,720 tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 515 in Thief. This places the combo in the top 13.8% of all tested systems, which is a strong result for a game that is now over a decade old. The high rank is primarily attributable to the RTX 4090’s raw fill rate and the CPU’s strong single-core performance, which is critical for this game’s engine.

The CPU’s benchmark scores provide context for this ranking. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX scores 5,737 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 40,642 in multi-core, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-13790F, which is 0.1% faster in average score, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G, which is 0.2% slower. In gaming, however, the single-core score is more relevant, and the 5,737 result is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at most settings.

The GPU’s synthetic standing is less impressive, ranking in the 88th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 60,347. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (2.5% slower). This suggests that while the RTX 4090 is a top-tier consumer card, its synthetic scores are closely matched by professional workstation parts, which often have different driver optimizations. In Thief, however, the card’s 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth are more than sufficient, as evidenced by the 4K Medium average of 78 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX is a 20-core, 20-thread mobile processor based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture. It features a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with 30 MB of shared L3 cache. For a game like Thief, which was released in 2014 and relies on fewer threads, the high boost clock is more important than the core count. The single-core Cinebench R23 score of 5,737 indicates strong per-thread performance, which translates directly to the 224 FPS observed at 1080p Low.

The CPU’s multi-core performance, while not directly relevant to Thief’s frame rates, is still notable. The 40,642 multi-core score in Cinebench R23 places it in the 93rd percentile, and its Passmark multithread score of 47,985 confirms its capability in threaded workloads. However, the game’s engine appears to be the limiting factor at lower resolutions, as the FPS does not scale linearly with CPU clock speed. The difference between 1080p Low (224 FPS) and 1080p High (148 FPS) is a 34% drop, which is purely a GPU workload increase, not a CPU limitation.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and DDR5 support are adequate for the game’s data streaming needs. The L3 cache size of 30 MB is generous and helps reduce memory latency, which can be a factor in open-world sections. Overall, the data suggests that the Core Ultra 7 265HX is overqualified for Thief, providing far more headroom than the game can utilize, particularly at 1080p and 1440p where the frame rates are already exceptionally high.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 224, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Does the RTX 4090 bottleneck the CPU at 4K?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160, the frame rates across all settings are tightly grouped (57-103 FPS), indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The 41% drop from 1440p to 4K at every preset confirms this.

Q: How does the CPU’s single-core performance compare to its multi-core performance?

A: The CPU scores 5,737 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 40,642 in multi-core. The single-core score is relatively lower than the multi-core score, but it is still sufficient for Thief’s engine.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 515 out of 3,720 tested combinations, placing it in the top 13.8% of all systems tested in Thief.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra setting playable?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra preset produces an average of 57 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth, though it is the lowest measured average.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of visual quality and performance?

A: The 2560x1440 High preset averages 101 FPS, which is a 40% improvement over 4K High while still providing high visual fidelity. This appears to be the sweet spot for this combo.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is based on the AD102 chip with 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory operates on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The card’s base clock is 2,235 MHz with a boost clock of 2,520 MHz, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate. In Thief, these specifications translate to massive overkill, as the game’s 2014-era graphics engine cannot fully utilize the card’s capabilities at lower resolutions.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmarks show a Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 255,416. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 is respectable, but Thief uses an older DirectX 11 path, which is why the Passmark DirectX 11 score of 326 is more relevant for this title. The card’s 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance is more than 10 times what this game requires, explaining the high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.

At 4K, the RTX 4090’s memory bandwidth becomes a factor, but the game still achieves 78 FPS at Medium and 60 FPS at High. The 4K Ultra setting drops to 57 FPS, which is still playable. The 24 GB VRAM is vastly underutilized, as Thief’s textures are small by modern standards. The GPU’s pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s ensure that the card is never the bottleneck until 4K, where the fill rate demands finally approach the card’s limits.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the most balanced experience is achieved at 2560x1440 with High settings, which produces an average of 101 FPS. This resolution provides a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold. For players prioritizing maximum smoothness, 1920x1080 with High settings (148 FPS) or Low settings (224 FPS) are both viable, depending on whether visual fidelity or competitive frame rates are preferred.

At 4K, the Medium preset offers the best compromise, averaging 78 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. This is a 30% improvement over the High preset’s 60 FPS average, with only a slight reduction in visual quality. The Ultra preset at 4K (57 FPS) is borderline for 60 Hz displays, but the Medium preset provides a more comfortable margin. For those with high refresh rate 4K monitors, the Low preset at 103 FPS is the only option that exceeds 100 FPS, but it sacrifices most of the game’s visual effects.

At 1440p, the Medium preset (133 FPS) is a strong choice for high refresh rate displays, offering a 31% increase over High (101 FPS) while maintaining a minimum of 113 FPS. The Ultra preset at 97 FPS is also acceptable for 100 Hz monitors. At 1080p, the Medium preset (194 FPS) and High preset (148 FPS) are both excellent, with the Low preset (224 FPS) being the only option that fully saturates a 240 Hz display.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 224 FPS. The Medium preset averages 194 FPS, with a minimum of 165 FPS and a maximum of 223 FPS. High settings average 148 FPS, while Ultra settings average 141 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 83 FPS, indicating a 37% performance penalty for maximum visual quality.

At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 175 FPS on average. Medium settings drop to 133 FPS, with a minimum of 113 FPS and a maximum of 153 FPS. High settings average 101 FPS, and Ultra settings average 97 FPS. The performance gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 4 FPS at this resolution, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are largely GPU-bound.

At 3840x2160, Low settings average 103 FPS. Medium settings produce 78 FPS, with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. High settings drop to 60 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 57 FPS. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (67 FPS) is still above the 60 FPS target, but the Ultra preset’s 57 FPS average indicates that this is the only configuration that falls below the standard smoothness threshold. The data shows that the RTX 4090’s performance scales predictably with resolution, but the game’s engine introduces diminishing returns beyond 1440p.