Thief Benchmarked

Treading quietly. The underrepresented stealth-adventure genre gets a fresh wind with the new Thief game. This article will not cover whether the series-reboot attains to the quality of its predecessor. Instead, we will investigate how much performance the title demands of a variety of hardware components. Will owners of weaker notebooks be able to enjoy this game?

Florian Glaser, ✓ Tanja Hinum (translated by Ariana Brodsky), Published 03/09/2014 🇩🇪

Gaming

For the original German article, see here.

Graphics

Like many new releases, Thief is based on a highly modified version of the Unreal Engine 3. Although the developers implemented a ton of new, hot features (parallax occlusion mapping, tessellation, etc.), in some ways the graphics are lacking. While the lighting, shadows and many of the surface structures meet today's standards, other elements (faces, for example) seem a little outdated. Despite several weaknesses, however, overall the graphics quality falls somewhere between solid and good. Most stealth fans will be satisfied here.

In terms of atmosphere, there is little to critique. With the exception of a few dreary passages, the game world fits together coherently. The aura is sometimes reminiscent of the 2012 release of Dishonored. Thanks to the protagonist's visible arms and legs, the player gets a thrilling sense of being "in" the game.

We would like to give special recognition to Nixxes, who took care of the PC version of this game. The Dutch company has already drawn attention to themselves in the past for how well they port software across platforms (ex. Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution and Deus Ex: Human Revolution). They are not known necessarily for their graphics conversion itself, but more for their commitment to promoting ease of use and implementing a wide range of settings options (much better than a console port).

The user-friendly graphics menu, which is accessible even outside of the game, reveals a variety of options. Firstly, there is a "Display" tab with settings for resolution, picture mode, frame rate, vertical sychronization and the optional 3D mode. But there are even more options under the "Graphics" tab. Along with the FXAA anti-aliasing mode, Thief also supports the high-class SSAA. The five presets ("Very Low" to "Very High") prove to be very practical and allow the user to change the overall graphics quality quickly and easily. We used these presets in our tests.

We also applaud the developers for the integrated benchmark as well. The sequence, which lasts about a minute, shows a city street lined with dozens of passers-by and sparkling with effects. Graphically, this sequence is quite demanding (see video). As far as we can tell from the time we spent in the game itself, inside the campaign the game generally runs more smoothly. Bearing that in mind, our benchmark result of about 25 fps suggests that the title runs at a reasonably playable speed. It is a shame, however, that the numbers do not quite remain constant. As we repeated the test, the results tended to vary by a few fps (especially the minimum fps).

In contrast to other titles like Total War: Rome II, the visuals can only be scaled back to a limited extent. Pro: Even at low settings, Thief does not look ugly. Con: Because there are no giant improvements in performance when the graphics quality is reduced, weaker systems will quickly reach their limits. Independent of all this, the engine is well-developed. In our benchmark test, we only ran into one serious problem (an incorrect start with the Radeon R9 280X). When we ran the title on Intel GPUs, some textures were wrong, loaded too late or did not load at all, but it is possible that the problem had to do with the driver and not the game itself.

Results

From the perspective of a notebook user, the title's hardware demands are not exactly low. While mid-class GPUs, like the GeForce GT 740M, can still run the game fluidly on the "Very Low" preset (~30 fps), the popular HD Graphics 4000 and 4600 Intel chips only manage about 20 fps in the integrated benchmark. At that frame rate, the game is just barely playable, but it will not be much fun.

For 1366 x 768 pixels and the "Normal" preset, you will need at least an upper middle class graphics card. The GeForce GT 750M is the first card to run the game at these settings with over 25 fps. If you want to play Thief at high settings, you will need nothing less than a bona fide high-end GPU. Even at a moderate resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, the game will only run smoothly on a GeForce GTX 660M or higher. Only owners of expensive gaming notebooks will be able to enjoy the game's graphics in their full splendor. Only top models, like the GeForce GTX 770M or the Radeon HD 8970M, do well at 1920 x 1080 pixels and the "Very High" preset.

Because Thief is part of the Gaming Evolved program, it is not surprising that AMD graphics cards tend to achieve better results than their Nvidia counterparts. Need an example? The Radeon R9 280X desktop model comes in substantially ahead of the GeForce GTX 660 Ti in the "Ultra" setting, even though the Nvidia GPU almost never runs more slowly than the AMD card in other games.

Additionally, strong GPUs prove that Thief can be limited by the processor. If you only look at the "Very Low" preset, there is hardly a difference between many of the high-end models (with identical CPUs). In the next few weeks, a patch should be released to give Thief support for AMD's Mantle technology. Future results will only be comparable to a limited extent.

Note: As we unfortunately only noticed after we finished our benchmark tests, the game runs faster by a few percentage points when "Exclusive Fullscreen" is activated.

Thief
1920x1080 Very High Preset AA:FXAA & High SS AF:8x 1366x768 High Preset AA:FXAA & Low SS AF:4x 1366x768 Normal Preset AA:FX 1024x768 Very Low Preset
Radeon R9 280X, 3770K Desktop-PC	53.4 (0^min) fps ∼38% 65.6 (0^min) fps ∼31% 67.4 (0^min) fps ∼30% 69.4 (0^min) fps ∼31%
GeForce GTX 680, 2600K, Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB MZ7PD256HAFV-0Z000 Desktop GTX 680, Intel Core i7-2600K	49.3 (22.4^min) fps ∼35% 69.3 (35^min) fps ∼32% 71.8 (48^min) fps ∼32% 75.5 (49^min) fps ∼34%
GeForce GTX 660 Ti, 3770K Desktop-PC	40.9 (0^min) fps ∼29% 64.8 (0^min) fps ∼30% 66.7 (0^min) fps ∼29% 72.5 (0^min) fps ∼33%
GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	40.2 (0^min) fps ∼28% 56.5 (0^min) fps ∼26% 56.7 (0^min) fps ∼25% 58.7 (0^min) fps ∼26%
Radeon HD 8970M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	35.9 (0^min) fps ∼25% 49.9 (0^min) fps ∼23% 50.9 (0^min) fps ∼22% 55.1 (0^min) fps ∼25%
Radeon HD 7970M, 3610QM Schenker XMG P502	33.5 (0^min) fps ∼24% 44.6 (0^min) fps ∼21% 45.3 (0^min) fps ∼20% 49.5 (0^min) fps ∼22%
GeForce GTX 680M, 3610QM Schenker XMG P502	31.3 (0^min) fps ∼22% 51 (0^min) fps ∼24% 54 (0^min) fps ∼24% 56.3 (0^min) fps ∼25%
GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	26.6 (0^min) fps ∼19% 46.8 (0^min) fps ∼22% 51.3 (0^min) fps ∼23% 57.1 (0^min) fps ∼26%
GeForce GTX 675MX, 3610QM Schenker XMG P502	23.4 (0^min) fps ∼16% 41 (0^min) fps ∼19% 46.6 (0^min) fps ∼20% 55 (0^min) fps ∼25%
GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	19.1 (0^min) fps ∼13% 37 (0^min) fps ∼17% 43.1 (0^min) fps ∼19% 58.2 (0^min) fps ∼26%
GeForce GTX 670MX, 3610QM Schenker XMG P502	18.5 (0^min) fps ∼13% 34.4 (0^min) fps ∼16% 39.7 (0^min) fps ∼17% 54.6 (0^min) fps ∼25%
GeForce GTX 660M, 3610QM Schenker XMG P502	13 (0^min) fps ∼9% 26.4 (0^min) fps ∼12% 30.7 (0^min) fps ∼13% 46 (0^min) fps ∼21%
GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ Schenker M503	10.5 (0^min) fps ∼7% 21.5 (0^min) fps ∼10% 25.7 (0^min) fps ∼11% 40 (0^min) fps ∼18%
Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ, Intel SSD 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B3 SCHENKER S413	7.4 (1^min) fps ∼5% 16 (0.9^min) fps ∼7% 20.4 (8.4^min) fps ∼9% 30.7 (21^min) fps ∼14%
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M HP Envy 15-j011sg	6.6 (0^min) fps ∼5% 13.9 (0^min) fps ∼6% 17.5 (0^min) fps ∼8% 29 (0^min) fps ∼13%
HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W503	4.8 (0^min) fps ∼3% 9.9 (0^min) fps ∼5% 12.2 (0^min) fps ∼5% 21.3 (0^min) fps ∼10%
HD Graphics 4000, 3610QM Schenker XMG P502	4.3 (0^min) fps ∼3% 8.8 (0^min) fps ∼4% 10.9 (0^min) fps ∼5% 19 (0^min) fps ∼9%

Test Systems

Three of our test systems are courtesy of Schenker Technologies (mysn.de):

W503 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 765M, GTX 770M, GTX 780M, Radeon HD 8970M & HD Graphics 4600)
M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M & HD Graphics 4600)
XMG P502 (Core i7-3610QM, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 660M, GTX 670MX, GTX 675MX, GTX 680M, Radeon HD 7970M & HD Graphics 4000)

The 64-bit edition of Windows 7 is installed on each of these notebooks. We thank Micron for the 480 GB Crucial M500.

Another test device is courtesy of Nvidia:

HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M & HD Graphics 4600)

Intel provided us with the following notebook:

Schenker S413 (Intel Core i7-4750HQ, 8 GB RAM, Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 GT3)

GPU drivers used: Nvidia 334.89, AMD 14.2 Beta 1.3, Intel 10.18.10.3412

Benchmark results from changing notebooks (possibly with other drivers) to follow.

From left to right: Schenker M503, XMG P502 & W503

Overview

Read all 2 comments / answer

Loading Comments

Comment on this article

Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 615 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2009

I discovered my interest in computers in my childhood, growing up with MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 in the early 1990s. I was especially fascinated with computer games, even from an early age. From Monkey Island through Lands of Lore to Doom, I tried every game I could get my hands on. I have been working for Notebookcheck since 2009 with my focus mostly being on high-performance gaming laptops.

Please share our article, every link counts!

> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Archive of our own reviews > Thief Benchmarked

Florian Glaser, 2014-03- 9 (Update: 2021-05-18)

Legend
5	Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
	May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
	May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
?	Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
	Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.