Udo on 12/1/2025 at 15:23
Before you think "why is this an issue with this old game?", please read further. Because it seems newer FMs seem to profit from beefy hardware.
So...I recently built a new PC for me, with AMD Ryzen 5700X, 32GB RAM, M.2 SSDs, Geforce GTX 1080 TI. I also got a new monitor with 4K.
However most of my stuff is still on my older rig(i7 6700K, 16GB RAM, Geforce 1060 6GB, all SSDs). I downgraded the CPU to a humble Dual-Core as this should be enough for office tasks and older games(and produce less heat), but installed the 6700K again after I noticed some newer FMs lagging. However the CPU doesn´t seem to matter(or not much), as there wasn´t a change in fps.
I fired up "Nest of Vipers" on my old PC and in the outside area I got around 45-50fps.
On my new PC it was smooth and fluent and didn´t go below 60.
I also installed "Haunt" and noticed some occasional lagging inside(otherwise it was ok).
Changing resolution on the old one didn´t matter for fps. Even with 1920x1080 it still was stuck to 50fps outside.
So...from your experience, what is the bottleneck for new and big FMs? RAM? VRAM? CPU? Storage shouldn´t be an issue, as I only use SSDs in my PCs.
voodoo47 on 12/1/2025 at 18:07
Dark is definitely a cpu deal, if you want to run it in high resolutions. my zombie computer (assorted parts, oldest ones more than 12 years old, each time something dies I just resurrect it with some other random part I have in stock) where I do all the Dark goes to 100% cpu usage almost instantly when I run SS2 with all the hires mods on in the 1920x1200 res, the computer had maybe 5 different gpus in the past and they made next to no difference. mem usage about 3GB, probably the 32bit limit kicking in.
FenPhoenix on 12/1/2025 at 20:31
Despite the core count difference, those two chips are architecturally very similar, and in terms of single-core performance they may not be miles different. But take that with a grain of salt, I can't be sure. But certainly that 5700X will have much faster single-core performance than either of those two chips.
And yes, Thief is single-core, so you really just want high clocks and good IPC. More cores will do you no good for this game unless you want to be recording or doing heavy stuff in the background or whatnot.
mikjames on 13/1/2025 at 16:11
Yeah core counts mean nothing to the game, and also modern cpu architecture means nothing to the game.
So while you may see massive benefits using newer cpus in modern games, Thief is only going to see 1 cpu core and it's clock speed. Maybe L3 cache makes a small difference but not nearly as much as modern games.
So not only is the game cpu limited, there isn't much on a modern cpu that can actually improve the situation.
Clock up to 5ghz+ if you haven't already. The lossless scaling tool has a framegen feature that might help smooth things out, bringing the 45fps up to 60 or more.
If you're using an nvidia gpu and a 60hz monitor rather than freesync, you can force triple buffering in the nvidia control panel, should smooth things out below 60 fps.
Udo on 13/1/2025 at 22:09
Alright, then the upgrade was it worth for sure, unironically :cheeky:
Usually I don´t play that much modern games, but some applications benefit from the faster hardware.
My 6700K even got the de-lid upgrade some years ago, the guy who tested it gave me a sheet that it can run up to 4,5Ghz or so, but I don´t overclock my hardware as I prefer longevity.
So I think I move the bigger FMs to my new PC.
downwinder on 13/1/2025 at 22:40
i got a mid range comp and everything from t1/g/2 runs amazing from fan missions to om's ofcourse
i would expect that t3 thieves rising campaign would be intensive and maybe some darkmod missions?
mikjames on 15/1/2025 at 01:03
Quote Posted by downwinder
i got a mid range comp and everything from t1/g/2 runs amazing from fan missions to om's ofcourse
i would expect that t3 thieves rising campaign would be intensive and maybe some darkmod missions?
There's nothing about your midrange computer that is anymore special than any other, it's going to struggle with the same things all high end rigs do when running older games. The technology used to push old games was significantly different from modern tech, not just slower.
Shaders were barely a thing, cpu clock speed was everything, and gpus contributed a lot less to performance than they do now. Sure if we had cpus/gpus that could clock up to absurd speeds efficiently we could solve the problem, but that isn't what modern hardware does because is was impossible to engineer faster and faster silicon. Parallel computing became the norm, more cores/more shader units, all of that happened after Thief 2 was released, and only significantly accelerated after the release of Thief 3.
Thief's Rising pushes the draw distance well beyond what any hardware can handle.
Dark mod is better equipped to handle large draws, but only marginally compared to a modern engine.
At least Dark Mod let's you adjust level of detail to optimize larger draw distances.
