Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a fundamentally GPU-bound experience in Hitman 2, where the 2018-era Zen CPU provides sufficient frame pacing at 1080p, but the combination's overall standing is defined by its position among a vast field of tested configurations. This combo ranks 545th out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the 70th percentile of all pairings. That rank is respectable, but it underscores that while the RTX 4070 is a modern, high-end card, the Ryzen 5 2600 anchors the system's ceiling in a way that becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the CPU's age shows.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 545 out of 1795 indicates a solidly above-average pairing, but not a top-tier one. The data suggests that a significant portion of the 1250 combinations ranked ahead of this one likely feature newer CPUs that can fully feed the RTX 4070. The Ryzen 5 2600's benchmark scores—a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11186 and a single-core score of 1579—place it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, which is respectable but not elite. Its nearest rival in CPU benchmarks is the Intel Core i5-11600KF, which scores 0.6% higher, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U, which scores 0.6% lower. This tight clustering means the CPU is not a weak link, but it is also not a differentiator. In game-specific results, the combo's rank is driven more by the GPU's raw power than by the CPU's contribution, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its benchmark pedigree is strong, with a Passmark G3D score of 26927 and a percentile rank of 81 against all GPUs. The card features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2475 MHz, and it operates on a 5 nm process from TSMC. The GPU's nearest rival in overall benchmarks is the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, which is 0.6% behind, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile, which is 2.2% ahead. This data indicates the RTX 4070 is a highly capable card, but in Hitman 2, its performance is clearly modulated by the resolution and settings. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully taxed, dropping to 35.9 FPS, while at 1080p Low, it achieves 196.4 FPS, showing that the card has massive headroom when the CPU can keep up. The GPU's 12 GB VRAM is not a bottleneck in this game, as the FPS drops are more attributable to compute load than memory capacity.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific combo, the measured data points to High settings as the optimal balance across all resolutions. At 1080p, High delivers 132.8 FPS, which is smooth and well above the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra drops to 97.1 FPS—a noticeable 27% penalty for marginal visual gains. At 1440p, High yields 86.8 FPS, which is excellent, whereas Ultra falls to 66.2 FPS, still playable but with less headroom. At 4K, High produces 48.5 FPS, which is borderline for fast-paced stealth action, but it is the only setting that keeps the game remotely fluid; Medium drops to 59.6 FPS at 4K, which is smoother but still below 60. Low settings are not recommended for a card of this caliber, as the visual degradation is severe and the FPS gains are not proportionate. The data shows that Medium at 1440p (114.7 FPS) is a strong alternative if High's shadows or textures are too demanding, but High is the sweet spot for image quality versus frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy of performance. At 1080p, the combo starts at 196.4 FPS on Low, drops to 177.1 FPS on Medium, 132.8 FPS on High, and bottoms out at 97.1 FPS on Ultra. This shows a 50% drop from Low to Ultra, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution; the GPU is doing the heavy lifting, and the RTX 4070 has plenty of headroom. At 1440p, the numbers are 151.8 FPS (Low), 114.7 FPS (Medium), 86.8 FPS (High), and 66.2 FPS (Ultra). The drop from Low to Ultra is 56%, which is slightly steeper, signaling that the GPU is starting to feel the load. At 4K, the performance collapses to 83.5 FPS (Low), 59.6 FPS (Medium), 48.5 FPS (High), and 35.9 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-40 FPS reading, and the gap between Low and Ultra is 57%, confirming that the GPU is the dominant constraint at this resolution. The data shows a consistent pattern: the RTX 4070 can brute-force 1080p and 1440p, but 4K requires settings sacrifices.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the limiting component. At High settings, the combo goes from 132.8 FPS at 1080p to 86.8 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop) and then to 48.5 FPS at 4K (a 63% drop from 1440p). This scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 4070's compute and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints. The CPU's role becomes clearer at 1080p Low, where the combo hits 196.4 FPS—this is close to the practical limit for a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost of 3.90 GHz. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the 1080p Low score would be similar to the 1440p Low score, but the data shows a 23% drop from 196.4 FPS to 151.8 FPS, which indicates the GPU is still scaling down. The conclusion is that the Ryzen 5 2600 is sufficient for this game, but the RTX 4070 is the component that dictates performance, especially at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo better for 1080p or 1440p gaming?

A: The data shows excellent performance at both. At 1080p High, it hits 132.8 FPS, and at 1440p High, it hits 86.8 FPS. Both are well above 60 FPS, so the choice depends on the monitor's native resolution.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, the average is 48.5 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. For a smoother experience, 4K Medium at 59.6 FPS is the recommended setting.

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

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 scores 11186 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, which is 0.6% lower than the Intel Core i5-11600KF and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U. Its performance is in the 77th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: Is the GPU's 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Hitman 2?

A: Yes. The measured FPS drops are consistent with compute load, not memory capacity. Even at 4K Ultra, the VRAM is not a limiting factor, as the FPS is 35.9, driven by the GPU's raw compute.

Q: What is the best setting for a balance of visuals and frame rate?

A: High settings are the clear winner. At 1440p, it provides 86.8 FPS, and at 1080p, 132.8 FPS. Ultra offers diminishing returns, with a 27% FPS penalty at 1080p.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: Not significantly. The 1080p Low result of 196.4 FPS shows the CPU can push high frame rates. The bottleneck appears to be the GPU, as FPS scales down consistently with resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Zen architecture, released in 2018. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. Its Cinebench R20 scores are 4698 (multi-core) and 663 (single-core), which place it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The data indicates that at 1080p Low, the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the FPS reaches 196.4, which is close to the practical limit for this processor's single-thread performance. However, at 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes further, as the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-10700F, scores 0.7% higher in average benchmarks, but this difference does not translate into a meaningful FPS advantage in this game, given that the combo's rank is 545 out of 1795. The Ryzen 5 2600's 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are adequate for Hitman 2's engine, but the processor's age is evident in the single-core score of 1579 in Cinebench R23, which is low compared to modern chips. Ultimately, the CPU provides a stable foundation, but the RTX 4070 is the star of this show, and the combo's overall rank reflects that dynamic.