Thief

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER lands at rank 1997 out of 2851 tested combos for Thief. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the field—roughly the 30th percentile of all combinations evaluated. This is not a top-tier pairing for this title, but it is far from the bottom. The ranking reflects a substantial CPU with a mid-range GPU that was already end-of-life when this data was collected. Benchmarks for the CPU show it sitting at the 96th percentile versus all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 62nd percentile versus all GPUs. That gap tells the story: the processor is far more capable than the graphics card, and in Thief, the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings and resolutions.

The combo rank is heavily influenced by the GPU’s performance ceiling. The RTX 2060 SUPER’s average benchmark score is 18093, which is just 0.4% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, 0.5% below the AMD Radeon Pro 5700, 1.5% below the AMD Radeon RX 460, and 1.6% below the Intel Arc A770M. These are tight margins—the GPU is essentially trading blows with a cluster of similarly-performing cards. Meanwhile, the CPU’s average benchmark score of 84003 puts it 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX, 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9135, and 1.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7F72. The CPU is a powerhouse, but the GPU holds the combo back in a game like Thief where frame rates scale strongly with graphics load.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the TU106 chip, using the Turing architecture on a 12 nm process from TSMC. It packs 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. The GPU’s base clock is 1470 MHz, with a boost clock of 1650 MHz. It has 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. There are also 34 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores, though Thief—released in early 2014—does not use ray tracing, so those features are irrelevant for this game. The pixel rate is 105.6 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 224.4 GTexel/s. Floating point performance is 7.181 TFLOPS for FP32 and 14.36 TFLOPS for FP16 at a 2:1 ratio.

In Thief, the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is not a bottleneck at any tested setting. The game’s demands are modest by modern standards, and the measured FPS data shows no signs of memory capacity issues even at 4K Ultra. The GPU’s role is purely about raw throughput. At 1080p Low, the card pushes 155 FPS average, which shows it can handle the game’s lighter loads with ease. At 1080p Ultra, that drops to 86 FPS average—still playable, but a 44.5% reduction from Low to Ultra. The pattern continues at higher resolutions, with the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth becoming more stressed as pixel count increases. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the card starts to struggle, especially at Ultra settings where the average FPS dips to 35.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its mid-range position. In PassMark G3D, it scores 16462, and in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 2011. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 76957, and Vulkan is 77402. These numbers are consistent with a card that was competitive at launch in 2019 but is now outclassed by newer hardware. The nearest rivals show just how tight the competition is—the RTX 3060 Mobile is 0.4% faster, the Radeon Pro 5700 is 0.5% faster, the Radeon RX 460 is 1.5% faster, and the Arc A770M is 1.6% faster. These deltas are small enough that in-game performance differences would be negligible in most titles, but in Thief, the RTX 2060 SUPER’s strengths and weaknesses are clearly visible in the resolution scaling data.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Thief shows a clear and consistent drop as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 155 at 1080p, to 107 at 1440p, to 63 at 4K. That is a 31% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 41% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, the averages are 118 at 1080p, 81 at 1440p, and 48 at 4K—a 31% drop and then a 41% drop, following the same pattern. High settings show 90 at 1080p, 62 at 1440p, and 36 at 4K, which is a 31% drop and then a 42% drop. Ultra settings show 86 at 1080p, 59 at 1440p, and 35 at 4K, with a 31% drop and then a 41% drop. The consistency of these percentages across all settings is striking. It indicates that the scaling is dominated by the GPU’s pixel throughput, not by any particular setting or CPU limitation.

The fact that the FPS drops by roughly one-third from 1080p to 1440p, and then by another two-fifths from 1440p to 4K, points squarely at the GPU as the limiting component. The RTX 2060 SUPER’s 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth are simply not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K, especially at higher quality presets. At 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, and the card is able to reach 155 FPS at Low settings. But as the resolution climbs, the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth become the bottleneck. The CPU, with its 24 cores and 24 threads running at a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, is hardly breaking a sweat at any resolution. The data shows that this is a GPU-bound scenario across the board, with the CPU having plenty of headroom.

The minimum FPS data, where available, reinforces this. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 100 FPS and the maximum is 136. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 69 and the maximum is 93. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 40 and the maximum is 55. The spread between minimum and maximum grows as resolution increases, which is typical of a GPU that is being pushed harder. The 4K Medium range of 40–55 FPS shows that the card can still deliver playable frame rates, but with less consistency. At 4K Ultra, the average is 35 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS minimum seen at 4K Medium—meaning Ultra settings at 4K are not recommended for smooth gameplay with this GPU.

# FAQ

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank for Thief?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1997 out of 2851 tested combos for Thief.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score is 84003, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX, 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9135, and 1.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7F72.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 18093, which is 0.4% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, 0.5% below the AMD Radeon Pro 5700, 1.5% below the AMD Radeon RX 460, and 1.6% below the Intel Arc A770M.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this setup?

A: At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 155, and at 1080p High, it is 90. For a balance of quality and performance, 1440p Medium delivers an average of 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in Thief?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU sits at the 96th percentile versus all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 62nd percentile. The FPS drops consistently by about 31% from 1080p to 1440p and another 41% from 1440p to 4K, indicating GPU-bound scaling.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K in Thief?

A: At 4K Low, the average FPS is 63, which is playable. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 48 with a minimum of 40, and at 4K Ultra, it drops to 35, which is below the 40 FPS minimum seen at Medium.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 2060 SUPER delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 155 FPS, with no minimum or maximum recorded. Medium settings average 118 FPS, with a minimum of 100 and maximum of 136. High settings average 90 FPS, and Ultra settings average 86 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 69 FPS, which is the largest gap across all resolutions. This shows that at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to handle even the most demanding settings, though Ultra does cost a significant portion of the frame rate compared to Low. The 86 FPS at Ultra is still smooth for most players, and the 90 FPS at High is nearly identical, suggesting that the difference between High and Ultra is minimal in this title.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop noticeably. Low settings average 107 FPS, Medium averages 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93, High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 59 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 48 FPS, smaller than at 1080p but still substantial. The Medium setting’s minimum of 69 FPS indicates that even in heavier scenes, the frame rate stays above 60, which is a good baseline for smooth gameplay. High and Ultra are close together—62 versus 59 FPS—which again suggests that Ultra is not offering much over High at this resolution. The 1440p results are a solid middle ground, with Medium being the sweet spot for maintaining high frame rates while keeping visual quality reasonable.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly stretched. Low settings average 63 FPS, Medium averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 40 and maximum of 55, High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 15 FPS, and from Medium to High is another 12 FPS, but High to Ultra is only 1 FPS—essentially no difference. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so constrained that the extra visual fidelity from Ultra over High is not worth the negligible frame rate cost, but also that neither setting is truly playable for fast-paced action. The 63 FPS at Low is the only 4K setting that clears the 60 FPS threshold, and even that comes with the lowest visual quality. The Medium setting’s minimum of 40 FPS shows that there are moments where the frame rate can dip noticeably, which could be problematic in stealth sequences where timing matters.

The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the GPU scales almost perfectly with pixel count, and the CPU’s role is minimal. The 1080p results are strong, 1440p results are acceptable, and 4K results are only viable at Low settings. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings—100 at 1080p, 69 at 1440p, and 40 at 4K—provide a clear picture of how the GPU degrades under load. There is no data for minimum FPS at Low, High, or Ultra settings, but the averages alone are enough to characterize the performance envelope.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process from TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, with a memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. It uses the Intel Socket 1851 and supports PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU. The integrated graphics are Arc Xe-LPG with 64 execution units, though these are not used when a discrete GPU is installed.

In Thief, the CPU’s role is to ensure the GPU is fed with enough data to maintain frame rates. The benchmark results show that the CPU is more than capable of this. In Cinebench R23, it scores 51731 in multicore and 7303 in single-core. In PassMark, the multithread score is 60860, and the single-thread score is 4823. The data compression score is 698346, and the encryption score is 52563. These numbers place the CPU at the 96th percentile versus all CPUs, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of processors on the market. The nearest rivals confirm its position: it is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX, 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9135, and 1.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7F72.

The fact that the CPU has 24 cores and 24 threads is relevant for Thief, which was released in 2014 and is not known for heavy multithreading. The game likely uses only a few cores, meaning the CPU’s single-thread performance is what matters most. The single-core score of 7303 in Cinebench R23 and 4823 in PassMark single-thread are both strong, indicating that the CPU can handle the game’s primary thread with ease. The boost clock of 5.80 GHz is among the highest available, which further helps in latency-sensitive scenarios. However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is never the bottleneck—the frame rates are consistently limited by the GPU at higher resolutions and settings.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s is another factor. Thief is not a memory-intensive game, and the dual-channel DDR5 setup provides ample bandwidth for the GPU to access data through the PCIe link. The L3 cache of 36 MB is generous and helps reduce memory latency, which can be beneficial in games that rely on frequent data access. The process node of 3 nm and transistor count of 17,800 million on a 243 mm² die indicate a modern, efficient design, though efficiency is not a primary concern for this benchmark analysis. The CPU’s TDP of 125 W is moderate for a high-end desktop processor, and it requires a capable cooling solution, but the data does not include any thermal or power measurements for this specific test.

In summary, the CPU’s role in this combo is to provide a high-performance foundation that never limits the GPU. The benchmark results show it is a top-tier processor, but in Thief, the GPU’s mid-range capabilities cap the overall performance. The combo rank of 1997 out of 2851 reflects this imbalance. If a stronger GPU were paired with this CPU, the frame rates at 1440p and 4K would likely improve significantly, but with the RTX 2060 SUPER, the results are what they are. For someone using this combo, the takeaway is that the CPU has headroom for future GPU upgrades, but as tested, the GPU is the component to watch when adjusting settings or resolution.