Thief

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 lands at rank 801 out of 3,720 tested combos in Thief. That places this configuration in the top 21.5% of all tested system pairings, a strong result for a mobile CPU paired with a flagship desktop GPU. The combination of a 16-core Meteor Lake processor and an Ada Lovelace flagship produces frame rates that are competitive with the vast majority of tested hardware, though the ranking suggests that other CPU-GPU pairings can extract more from this title.

The CPU itself sits at the 85th percentile among all processors tested, with an average benchmark score of 35,670. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing are the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 at 35,719 (0.1% faster), the Intel Core 7 250H at 35,728 (0.2% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 at 35,802 (0.4% faster). The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X trails at 35,909, which is 0.7% behind the Ultra 9 185H. These margins are negligible in real-world gaming, indicating the CPU is not a differentiator at this performance tier.

The GPU ranks at the 88th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 60,347. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326, essentially tied), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60,140, 0.3% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61,896, 2.5% ahead), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58,657, 2.9% behind). The RTX 4090's position here shows it is a top-tier card, but the deltaPct values reveal that several workstation and prosumer cards are within striking distance in synthetic workloads.

In Thief specifically, the measured FPS data indicates that this combo delivers playable performance across all tested settings and resolutions. The rank of 801 suggests that while many combinations outperform it, a substantial majority of the 3,720 tested combos fall behind this pairing. The data shows a system that is well-balanced for this title, with neither component creating a bottleneck severe enough to drag the ranking much lower.

# FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 180 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the most demanding configuration, 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo still delivers 57 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS threshold only at High settings for 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 60,347 on average, which puts it 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60,140) and 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58,657). However, the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% faster, and the Intel Arc Pro A60 is essentially tied at 60,326.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H a high-ranking processor?

A: Yes, it sits at the 85th percentile among all CPUs tested. Its average benchmark score of 35,670 places it within 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (35,909), which is its closest rival in the data.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the CPU support?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. The memory bus is dual-channel, and ECC memory is not supported.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The RTX 4090 comes with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1313 MHz, which translates to 21 Gbps effective.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p Ultra compared to 4K Ultra?

A: At 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 97. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average drops to 57 FPS. This represents a 41.2% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1440p to 4K at the same quality setting.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves 148 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at High, the frame rate drops to 101 FPS, a 31.8% reduction. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average is 60 FPS, which is 59.5% lower than the 1080p High result.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings tiers. At Low settings, the progression is 180 FPS at 1080p, 159 FPS at 1440p, and 103 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is 42.8% lower than the 1080p Low figure. At Medium settings, the numbers are 163 FPS at 1080p, 133 FPS at 1440p, and 78 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result is 52.1% lower than 1080p Medium. At Ultra settings, the progression is 141 FPS at 1080p, 97 FPS at 1440p, and 57 FPS at 4K, with the 4K Ultra result being 59.6% lower than 1080p Ultra.

The diminishing returns from 1440p to 4K are more pronounced than from 1080p to 1440p. For High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 47 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 41 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated at 4K, with the pixel count doubling from 1440p to 4K placing significant strain on the RTX 4090's 24 GB frame buffer and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth.

The limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads provide enough headroom that the GPU is likely the primary constraint, given the 180 FPS ceiling at Low settings. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as evidenced by the 57 FPS average at Ultra settings, which is only slightly above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth of the CPU becomes less relevant at higher resolutions where GPU memory bandwidth dominates.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 180 FPS, which is the highest recorded across all resolutions and settings. Medium settings average 163 FPS, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS. High settings average 148 FPS, while Ultra settings average 141 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 39 FPS, representing a 21.7% performance penalty for maxing out quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows a clear step down. Low settings average 159 FPS, Medium averages 133 FPS with a minimum of 113 FPS and a maximum of 153 FPS, High averages 101 FPS, and Ultra averages 97 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 62 FPS, a 39% penalty. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 4 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds visual features that are not particularly demanding on the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the combo still maintains playable frame rates across all settings. Low settings average 103 FPS, Medium averages 78 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS, High averages 60 FPS, and Ultra averages 57 FPS. The 4K Medium results show a minimum FPS of 67, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, at 4K High and Ultra, the average FPS drops to 60 and 57, respectively, meaning the minimum FPS is likely below 60 in demanding scenes.

The data shows that the combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it exceeds 100 FPS at nearly all settings. At 4K, the RTX 4090's raw performance is sufficient for 60 FPS only at Medium settings and below. The 24 GB of VRAM is ample for Thief, which was released in 2014 and does not require large frame buffers, but the GPU's compute throughput becomes the limiting factor at 4K Ultra.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this combo for Thief. With 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units, the GPU has the raw pixel and texture throughput to handle the game's stealth environments. The pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s, which are more than sufficient for a 2014 title.

The GPU's memory configuration is substantial: 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. For Thief, which uses moderate texture sizes for its era, the 24 GB capacity is far beyond what the game requires. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, or 21 Gbps effective, which provides the bandwidth needed to sustain high frame rates at 4K.

The RTX 4090's clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These high clocks, combined with the Ada Lovelace architecture's 5 nm process from TSMC, allow the GPU to maintain high utilization even at 4K resolutions. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is more than adequate for Thief's DirectX 11-era rendering.

The GPU's benchmark percentile of 88 places it among the top tier of tested graphics cards. Its average benchmark score of 60,347 is nearly identical to the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326), but the RTX 4090's gaming performance is superior due to its dedicated RT and tensor cores. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are not heavily utilized in Thief, which lacks ray tracing, but they contribute to the GPU's overall compute capability.

The data shows that the RTX 4090 is not the bottleneck at 1080p, where the combo achieves up to 180 FPS at Low settings. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU's limits become apparent with 57 FPS average. The GPU's 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are consistent with its high performance, and the suggested 850 W PSU provides adequate headroom for the system.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H serves as the processor in this combo, with 16 cores and 22 threads. Its base clock is 3.90 GHz, boosting up to 5.10 GHz. This Meteor Lake architecture chip is fabricated on Intel's 7 nm process and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus, delivering 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core provide ample capacity for game data.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ultra 9 185H scores 1,810.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 17,984.5 in multi-core. Its Geekbench scores are 1,794 single-core and 11,657 multi-core. These results place the CPU at the 85th percentile, with an average benchmark score of 35,670. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, scores 35,909, which is 0.7% higher, indicating that the Ultra 9 185H is competitive with desktop-class processors.

For Thief, the CPU's role is to feed the RTX 4090 with draw calls and game logic. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 180 FPS, which suggests that the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output. The 5.10 GHz boost clock on a single core is critical for games that are not heavily multithreaded, and Thief's 2014 engine benefits from high single-thread performance.

The CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads are more than sufficient for Thief, which was designed for quad-core processors of its era. The PassMark multi-thread score of 29,376 and the single-thread score of 3,697 indicate strong performance in both lightly and heavily threaded workloads. The CPU's 45 W TDP is modest for a mobile chip, but its performance rivals desktop parts, as shown by the 0.7% delta to the Ryzen 7 7700X.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo at any resolution. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent with GPU-bound behavior, where the RTX 4090's rendering workload increases with pixel count. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and PCIe Gen 5 support provide ample data transfer rates for the GPU, though the GPU itself uses PCIe 4.0 x16.