We set about in this preview of performance in the new game Thief by comparing several video cards to see how these stack up. The first thing we noticed was how fast the game performed, even on low-end cards with all the in-game settings enabled. High-end cards like the R9 290/X, GTX 780/Ti are overkill for performance in this game. We experienced the highest playable settings the game has to offer at 2560x1600 at 80-100FPS average performance. We did also try enabling SSAA, and found the "Low" setting to be playable on all four video cards at 2560x1600.

What we found more astonishing was how well the mid-range, and low-end cards performed. Even with the game at the highest in-game settings, and at a whopping 2560x1600 every video card upwards of $150 were able to play this game smoothly at over 50FPS average. In the low-end, only video cards below $150 needed to be scaled down to 1080p to be playable with the highest in-game settings. Anyone who has a $119, or $149 video card is probably not going to have a 30" 2560x1600 display anyway, so it means 1080p is a perfect resolution for those cards, and these have no trouble playing Thief at max settings.
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We could make a joke here about the title of the game being "Thief" and the feeling that someone "stole" the graphics from this game. This game suffers from a problem we've experienced before, notably in another game, Dishonored. The difference between the two games though, Dishonored was actually fun to play.

The problem is that it is using a very old, by today's definitions, graphics engine with Unreal Engine 3. Sure, it is heavily modified, but the fact is, it is rooted in an old engine. This leads to the game number one performing extremely well, but also leaves the game not able to compete with modern games in terms of graphics. More importantly, to video card makers, it does not give you a reason to need to spend money on a new graphics card to upgrade. It does not push the graphics card or gaming industry forward.

Thief has subpar textures, subpar dynamic world environment, subpar physics, and a subpar graphical experience compared to modern games. Yes, it has contact hardening shadows, and those look nice, yes it has parallax occlusion mapping, and that looks nice, yes it has tessellation, and that looks nice, but all of these things we've seen before, and we've seen these used in greater detail and quantity in other games. These are "tacked on" features in Thief, rather than being built from an engine ground up with these things in mind. While Thief is just catching up with these graphical features, other games are far surpassing it graphically.

Thief looks and feels old for a 2014 game, and this is not a good selling point for new graphics cards. Now, maybe TrueAudio and Mantle can add something appealing to the game. However, we feel that even with those two additions, the game is still going to feel overall very stiff and ancient. Inserting new technologies also cannot improve the gameplay, which is certainly an important factor for any singleplayer game.