Hitman 2

Hitman 2 paired with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel Arc B370 presents a compelling case study in system balance, where the data reveals a stark contrast between the CPU's robust processing capabilities and the GPU's relatively limited output. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings tell a clear story of a system primarily constrained by its graphics component, making the choice of in-game preset the single most impactful decision a user can make.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combination in Hitman 2 points decisively toward the Low preset as the only consistently playable configuration, and even then, only at 1080p. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 73 FPS, which is the highest recorded average across the entire test matrix. This is the sole configuration that breaks the 60 FPS threshold, providing a smooth and responsive experience suitable for a stealth game where precise timing and quick reactions are essential. The data shows a clear drop-off at the next tier: Medium settings at 1080p yields an average of 54 FPS, which, while playable, begins to introduce noticeable dips in fluidity.

The situation becomes more restrictive at higher resolutions. At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces an average of 46 FPS, a playable but not ideal frame rate that demands some compromise on visual fidelity. Similarly, at 3840x2160, Low settings yield just 25 FPS, which falls below the standard for comfortable gameplay. The Ultra preset, while visually impressive, is effectively untenable across all tested resolutions. The data shows Ultra averages of 30 FPS at 1080p, 19 FPS at 1440p, and a mere 10 FPS at 4K, rendering it unplayable for any practical purpose. The High preset offers a middle ground, but the data indicates it is still too demanding for the GPU; at 1080p it averages 41 FPS, which is a significant step down from the Low preset's performance.

Therefore, the optimal experience is found at 1080p with Low settings. This configuration prioritizes a stable frame rate, which is paramount for the game's mechanics, over visual enhancements. The data suggests that attempting to raise the preset to Medium at this resolution incurs a 26% performance penalty (from 73 to 54 FPS), a trade-off that is unlikely to be worth the graphical improvements given the GPU's constraints. For users willing to accept lower frame rates, Medium at 1080p might be a secondary option, but the benchmark evidence strongly favors Low for a consistent experience.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested hardware combinations for Hitman 2, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel Arc B370 ranks at 2768 out of 3001 combos. This places it in the bottom 8% of all systems tested, a statistic that underscores the significant performance limitations imposed by the Intel Arc B370. The GPU's performance percentile of 5, meaning it outperforms only 5% of all GPUs in the database, is the primary driver of this low overall ranking.

This low ranking is not a reflection of the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 5 3600, with its 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 2 architecture, holds a percentile rank of 71 among all CPUs, indicating it is a competent mid-range processor. The disparity between the CPU's strong relative standing and the GPU's weak one creates a significant imbalance, making the graphics card the definitive bottleneck in this system. The combo's ranking is directly correlated with the GPU's performance, as the CPU has ample headroom to handle the game's processing demands. The data suggests that this system is not well-suited for Hitman 2 at higher quality settings, as the GPU's performance ceiling is simply too low to leverage the CPU's potential.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the decisive factor in this system's performance, and its specifications illuminate why it struggles with Hitman 2. It features a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, but its memory configuration is the most telling detail: it uses System Shared memory, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent". This is a fundamental architectural choice that severely limits its performance in a game like Hitman 2, which relies on substantial texture and geometry data. The GPU's memory subsystem is not a dedicated high-bandwidth pool but rather shares the system's main memory, creating a significant bottleneck.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities are also limited. It has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 20 raster output units (ROPs). These figures are relatively low for a modern graphics card, and they directly translate to the measured performance. The pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s, which are indicative of its modest fill-rate capabilities. In practice, this means the GPU is quickly overwhelmed when rendering Hitman 2's detailed environments at higher resolutions and settings. The move from Low to Medium settings at 1080p drops the average FPS from 73 to 54, demonstrating how quickly the GPU's limited TMUs and ROPs become saturated. The data shows that the GPU's performance is a major limiting factor, and its system-shared memory architecture makes it particularly ill-suited for scenarios that demand high memory bandwidth, such as 4K gaming.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of running Hitman 2 at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only under a specific condition. The data shows that at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, the system achieves an average of 73 FPS. At any other resolution or preset combination, the average FPS falls below 60, making 1080p Low the only configuration that meets this performance goal.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this hardware?

A: According to the measured FPS, 1920x1080 (1080p) is the only resolution that provides a consistently playable experience. At 2560x1440, the average FPS on the Low preset drops to 46, and at 3840x2160, it falls to 25, indicating that higher resolutions are not viable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform compared to Low at 1080p?

A: The performance cost is substantial. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 73 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages only 30 FPS. This represents a 59% reduction in frame rate, making the Ultra preset impractical for this system.

Q: What does the "System Shared" memory on the Intel Arc B370 mean for performance?

A: The GPU does not have dedicated video memory; it uses the system's main memory. The bandwidth is described as "System Dependent," which means it can be a bottleneck. This architecture is a key reason why the GPU struggles with higher resolutions, as it cannot access memory as quickly as a dedicated graphics card with its own high-speed VRAM.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this system?

A: The benchmark data strongly indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 3600's benchmark scores are relatively strong (its average score is 17035, and it has a 71st percentile rank among CPUs), while the Intel Arc B370's performance is very low (5th percentile among GPUs). The FPS drops are consistent with a GPU that is saturated, while the CPU likely has idle capacity.

Q: Based on the data, what is the most demanding setting for this GPU?

A: The data shows a clear scaling trend. At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 73 on Low to 54 on Medium, then to 41 on High, and finally to 30 on Ultra. This consistent decline at every preset step indicates that the GPU's compute and fill-rate resources are the limiting factor, with each increase in quality having a direct and significant impact on performance.

Resolution Scaling

The performance degradation across resolutions is steep and reveals the GPU's severe limitations. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the Low preset reduces the average FPS from 73 to 46, a 37% drop. The subsequent move to 3840x2160 further reduces the average to 25 FPS, another 46% decline from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern is indicative of a system that is heavily GPU-bound, as the workload increases with the number of pixels, and the Intel Arc B370's limited pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are unable to cope.

At the Medium preset, the trend is similar. The average FPS drops from 54 at 1080p to 35 at 1440p, and then to 19 at 4K. The fact that these relative drops are consistent across different presets suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth is a critical constraint. As the resolution increases, the demand for texture data and frame buffer memory grows exponentially, and the system-shared memory of the Arc B370 becomes a severe bottleneck. The data implies that the GPU is not just compute-limited but also memory-limited. The difference between 1080p and 4K on the Low preset is a 66% reduction in average frame rate (from 73 to 25), which is a massive penalty that points to a component that is fundamentally not designed for high-resolution rendering. The limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU's performance is unlikely to change significantly with resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15045 and a Geekbench multicore score of 7372, indicate a solid level of processing power. Its percentile rank of 71 among all CPUs suggests it is more than capable of handling the computational demands of Hitman 2, which is a game not known for being excessively CPU-intensive.

However, in this specific system, the CPU's role is largely that of an underutilized partner. The measured FPS data shows that the system's performance is consistently low, even at 1080p with Low settings where the CPU should be less burdened. For instance, the 3DMark 16-thread score for the CPU is 4605, which is a respectable result, but the GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is only 1184. This massive disparity in synthetic benchmarks is mirrored in the game's performance. The CPU is not the limiting factor; it is waiting on the GPU to render each frame. The L3 cache of 32 MB and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide a solid foundation for gaming, but these advantages are negated by the GPU's inability to produce frames at a rate that would challenge the CPU. The data indicates that the CPU has significant headroom and that its performance is not a contributing factor to the low frame rates observed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for Hitman 2 reveals a consistent pattern of performance that is heavily dependent on resolution and settings.

At 1920x1080:

• Low settings yield an average of 73 FPS.
• Medium settings yield an average of 54 FPS, with a minimum of 46 and a maximum of 63.
• High settings yield an average of 41 FPS.
• Ultra settings yield an average of 30 FPS.

At 2560x1440:

• Low settings yield an average of 46 FPS.
• Medium settings yield an average of 35 FPS, with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40.
• High settings yield an average of 26 FPS.
• Ultra settings yield an average of 19 FPS.

At 3840x2160:

• Low settings yield an average of 25 FPS.
• Medium settings yield an average of 19 FPS, with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 21.
• High settings yield an average of 14 FPS.
• Ultra settings yield an average of 10 FPS.

This data shows a clear hierarchy. The 1080p Low configuration is the only one that provides a frame rate above 60 FPS. Every other configuration falls below this threshold, with 4K Ultra being the absolute worst at 10 FPS. The frame time consistency, as indicated by the min and max values for the Medium preset, also worsens with resolution; at 1080p the variance is 17 FPS (46 to 63), while at 4K it is only 5 FPS (16 to 21), suggesting that at higher resolutions, the system is consistently near its performance ceiling. The data is unambiguous: this combination is best suited for 1080p gaming at the lowest settings, and any attempt to increase visual quality or resolution will result in a subpar experience.