Thief

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus compare to its nearest rival in overall CPU performance?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores an average of 84,003 across benchmarks, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83,807) and 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83,090). It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%, which scores 85,072.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile relative to all other GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti sits in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49,957. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, scores 50,001—just 0.1% higher—while the Intel Arc A550M trails by 0.4%.

Q: What settings yield the highest average FPS at 1920x1080?

A: Low settings produce the highest average at 237 FPS. Medium settings deliver 214 FPS, High settings hit 177 FPS, and Ultra drops to 169 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 182 FPS and a maximum of 246 FPS.

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

A: In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 51,731 in multi-core and 7,303 in single-core. The multi-core result is roughly seven times higher, reflecting the 24-core/24-thread design. In Cinebench R20, the gap is similar: 21,727 multi-core versus 3,067 single-core.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the CPU support, and what type of memory?

A: The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. It also supports ECC memory, which is notable for workstation-class reliability.

Q: How does the combo rank in Thief among all tested combinations?

A: This CPU-GPU pairing ranks 105th out of 2,851 tested combos for Thief, placing it in the top 4% of all configurations. The data is measured, not estimated.

Settings Recommendations

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest measured average at 237 FPS, but Medium is arguably the sweet spot. Medium hits 214 FPS average with a minimum of 182 FPS and a maximum of 246 FPS, meaning it stays well above the 144 Hz refresh-rate threshold for most displays. High settings drop to 177 FPS, still smooth, while Ultra falls to 169 FPS—still playable but with diminishing returns given the visual cost.

Moving to 2560x1440, Medium again offers the best balance: 159 FPS average with a 136 FPS minimum and 183 FPS maximum. High settings provide 121 FPS, which is still excellent for 1440p gaming. Ultra at 116 FPS remains above 60 FPS, so it is viable for those prioritizing fidelity. Low hits 209 FPS, but that setting likely sacrifices too much visual quality for a stealth game where atmosphere matters.

At 3840x2160, Medium is the recommended preset. It delivers 94 FPS average with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS—comfortably above 60 FPS for 4K gaming. High settings average 71 FPS, which is playable but with less headroom. Ultra averages 68 FPS, and Low sits at 124 FPS. For a 4K display, Medium provides the best combination of smoothness and visual quality, as the data shows it maintains a healthy frame buffer above the 60 FPS baseline.

The pattern across all resolutions is consistent: Medium offers the most balanced experience, avoiding the visual downgrade of Low while retaining more performance headroom than High or Ultra. For 1080p and 1440p users with high-refresh monitors, Medium comfortably exceeds 144 FPS at 1080p and approaches it at 1440p. For 4K users, Medium keeps frame rates well above 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a die size of 378 mm² containing 45,600 million transistors. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory runs across a 256-bit bus, delivering 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2452 MHz, and memory operates at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

These specifications translate directly into Thief's measured performance. At 3840x2160, the GPU maintains 71 FPS on High, 94 FPS on Medium, and 124 FPS on Low settings. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for this 2014 title, even at 4K resolution, where the data shows no memory-related bottlenecks. The 896.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures texture streaming remains fluid across all tested settings.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 86th among all GPUs indicates strong overall capability. Its average benchmark score of 49,957 places it in close competition with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50,001, just 0.1% higher) and the Intel Arc A550M (49,737, 0.4% lower). The RTX 5070 Ti also outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT by 3.1% in average score.

In Thief specifically, the GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings reduces average FPS from 177 to 121—a 31.6% drop. From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at High, the drop is from 121 to 71 FPS—a 41.3% reduction. This scaling suggests the GPU remains the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU's role diminishes.

The RTX 5070 Ti's compute capabilities, including 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 686.6 GTexel/s texture rate, provide ample headroom for Thief's DirectX-based rendering. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, covering all modern API requirements.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ranks 105th out of 2,851 tested combos for Thief, placing it in the top 3.7% of all configurations tested. This rank reflects the synergy between a top-tier CPU and a high-end GPU, though the ranking suggests that other combinations achieve slightly better frame rates in this particular title.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs (average score 84,003) and the GPU's 86th percentile ranking (average score 49,957) combine to produce a system that excels in Thief, but the game's age and optimization may favor certain hardware pairings over others. The 105th rank out of 2,851 indicates that while this combo is well above average, there are 104 configurations that deliver better Thief performance.

Given Thief's 2014 release date, the game likely benefits more from high single-thread performance than from massive multi-core parallelism. The CPU's single-core Cinebench R23 score of 7,303 is strong, but the game may not fully utilize the 24 cores available. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking suggests it handles the game's rendering demands effectively, though higher-ranked GPUs may provide marginal advantages.

The rank of 105 out of 2,851 puts this combo in the 96.3rd percentile of tested configurations. For a stealth game where frame pacing matters for smooth gameplay, this ranking indicates the system will deliver a consistently smooth experience across all tested resolutions and settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus features 24 cores and 24 threads (no hyperthreading), with base and boost clocks of 3.70 GHz and 5.80 GHz respectively. It uses the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture on Intel's 3 nm process node, with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache.

In Thief, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1920x1080, frame rates reach 237 FPS on Low settings, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU at very high rates. The single-thread performance, measured at 7,303 in Cinebench R23 and 736 in Cinebench R15, is crucial for a game from 2014 that likely relies on fewer threads.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, while massive (51,731 in Cinebench R23), may be overkill for Thief. The game was released before the era of 24-core desktop CPUs and likely scales to only a handful of threads. However, the high boost clock of 5.80 GHz ensures that the few threads Thief does use run at maximum speed.

The CPU's memory subsystem—dual-channel DDR5 at 115.2 GB/s—provides ample bandwidth for game data. The 36 MB L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing memory latency. The CPU supports PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes, ensuring the GPU has full bandwidth available.

In the overall benchmark landscape, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83,807 vs. 84,003) and 1.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83,090). It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3% (85,072). The PassMark multi-thread score of 60,860 and single-thread score of 4,823 further characterize its capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 237 FPS average
• Medium: 214 FPS average (182 min, 246 max)
• High: 177 FPS average
• Ultra: 169 FPS average

The Medium preset at 1080p shows the tightest performance envelope, with a 64 FPS spread between minimum and maximum. Low settings reach the highest average, but the jump from Low to Medium costs only 23 FPS on average while likely providing substantially better visuals.

2560x1440:

• Low: 209 FPS average
• Medium: 159 FPS average (136 min, 183 max)
• High: 121 FPS average
• Ultra: 116 FPS average

At 1440p, the Medium preset maintains a 136 FPS minimum, ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. The drop from Medium to High is 38 FPS on average, while High to Ultra is only 5 FPS. This suggests High offers the best visual-per-FPS value at this resolution.

3840x2160:

• Low: 124 FPS average
• Medium: 94 FPS average (80 min, 108 max)
• High: 71 FPS average
• Ultra: 68 FPS average

At 4K, the Medium preset's 80 FPS minimum ensures no drops below 60 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is minimal (3 FPS), making Ultra a viable option for 4K users seeking maximum fidelity. Low settings still deliver 124 FPS, which is remarkable for 4K resolution.

Across all resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern: Low settings provide the highest frame rates, Medium offers the best balance, and the difference between High and Ultra narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, High to Ultra costs 8 FPS; at 1440p, it costs 5 FPS; at 4K, it costs only 3 FPS. This diminishing gap suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor regardless of settings, making Ultra a reasonable choice for 4K users.