Thief

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination delivers a commanding performance profile in Thief, placing 17th out of 1,642 tested combos. This pairing of a 20-core Arrow Lake processor with an Ada Lovelace flagship GPU demonstrates exceptional headroom across all tested resolutions, with the data revealing a system that is rarely constrained by its components at mainstream settings.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in Thief?*

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 241.7 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Thief?*

A: It ranks 17th out of 1,642 total tested combos, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations.

Q: What is the performance difference between the CPU and its closest rival?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K scores 79,102 on average benchmark, which is 0.2% behind the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF and the Intel Core i9-14900KF, and 0.9% behind the Intel Core i9-14900K.

Q: What is the GPU's average benchmark score compared to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER scores 53,610 on average, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 179.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 71.5 FPS at 3840x2160.

Q: Does the CPU support ECC memory?

A: Yes, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K supports ECC memory, along with DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the AD103 chip using a 5 nm process from TSMC. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory operates across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. This memory configuration is substantial for a 2014 title like Thief, ensuring that texture streaming and high-resolution rendering are not limited by memory capacity or bandwidth.

The benchmark results show that the GPU scales predictably with settings. At 4K, the average frame rate moves from 71.5 FPS at Ultra to 101.4 FPS at Medium and 133.6 FPS at Low. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER has ample compute headroom—even at the demanding 4K resolution, dropping from Ultra to Low settings yields an 86.8% performance increase. The GPU's 10,240 shading units and 112 ROPs provide the raw throughput needed to maintain high frame rates in a game from this era, which is reflected in its 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The data shows that at 1080p, the GPU becomes less of a bottleneck. At Low settings, the combo reaches 241.7 FPS, which is likely near the practical ceiling for the game's engine. The RTX 4080 SUPER's performance here is so high that the CPU's role becomes more prominent, as the measured frame rates exceed typical refresh rates for most displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo occupies the 17th position out of 1,642 tested combinations, a placement that underscores the strength of both components. This rank is achieved through the combination of the CPU's 97th percentile standing among all processors and the GPU's 88th percentile among all graphics cards. The synergy between the two is notable; the CPU's high single-thread performance supports the GPU's frame output at lower resolutions.

In the context of the game's overall performance landscape, this combo sits at the upper echelon. The 1,642 combos tested include a wide range of hardware, and being in the top 20 indicates that this pairing is among the best available for Thief. The data suggests that the limiting factor at 4K Ultra is the GPU, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions. The rank of 17 is consistent with the performance levels seen in the measured FPS data, which show high averages even at the most demanding settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 241.7 FPS, which is followed by Medium at 216 FPS, High at 188.5 FPS, and Ultra at 179.8 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 61.9 FPS, indicating that the GPU handles the increased graphical load without a dramatic drop.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average frame rates remain high but decline noticeably. Low settings yield 213.6 FPS, Medium 165.4 FPS, High 130.9 FPS, and Ultra 119.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra expands to 94 FPS, showing that resolution scaling has a more pronounced effect on the GPU's workload.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still strong but shows the expected reduction. Ultra settings average 71.5 FPS, High 78.9 FPS, Medium 101.4 FPS, and Low 133.6 FPS. The step from Medium to High is relatively small at 22.5 FPS, while the jump from Ultra to Medium is 29.9 FPS. This pattern suggests that the game's Ultra preset introduces a significant rendering cost, likely related to shadow quality and post-processing effects. The lowest recorded average is 71.5 FPS at 4K Ultra, which remains well above playable thresholds.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 179.8 FPS at 1080p to 119.6 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 33.5%. Continuing to 4K, the frame rate falls to 71.5 FPS, a further 40.2% drop from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is different. The frame rate goes from 241.7 FPS at 1080p to 213.6 FPS at 1440p, a modest 11.6% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, it drops to 133.6 FPS, a 37.5% decrease. The smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings suggests that the CPU is capable of maintaining high frame rates when the GPU load is light, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the system is likely CPU-limited or engine-limited at Low settings, as the 241.7 FPS average is exceptionally high. The CPU's 20 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, provide the single-thread performance needed for this scenario. The combination of a strong CPU and a powerful GPU results in a system that scales well across resolutions, with the GPU taking over as the primary constraint at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with 30 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration delivers strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 50,009 and single-core score of 7,060.

In Thief, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,904 and the Cinebench R20 single-core score of 2,965 indicate that the processor can keep up with the GPU's output at 1080p. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 241.7 FPS, which is close to what the game's engine may cap at.

The CPU's performance relative to its rivals is tight. It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF and Intel Core i9-14900KF by 0.2% in average benchmark score, and the Intel Core i9-14900K by 0.9%. This proximity in scores suggests that the 265K is well-matched for gaming workloads, where small differences in CPU performance have minimal impact on frame rates when the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU's 97th percentile ranking among all processors confirms that it is a top-tier choice for gaming, and the benchmark results in Thief reflect this capability.