Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel Arc B390 combination produces a severely constrained gaming experience in Hitman 2, with the benchmark data indicating the GPU is the overwhelming bottleneck. The combo ranks 2662nd out of 3001 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 12% of all tested hardware pairings. This pairing struggles to maintain playable frame rates even at 1080p, with the data showing a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in Hitman 2?*

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 80 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that reaches or exceeds 60 FPS, with the next best result being 60 FPS at 1080p Medium settings.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2662nd out of 3001 total tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the bottom 11.3% of all configurations tested, indicating it is a below-average performer for this specific game.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At 1080p High settings, the combo achieves 46 FPS average. At 4K (3840x2160) High settings, performance drops dramatically to 16 FPS average — a 65.2% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination provides the smoothest gameplay?

A: The data shows that 1080p Low settings provides the highest frame rate at 80 FPS average. For a more balanced experience, 1080p Medium settings delivers 60 FPS average with a minimum of 51 FPS, which is the only Medium preset that maintains playable frame rates.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's average benchmark score of 1482 places it just 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463 score), 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M (1460), and 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM (1446). Its 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it performs worse than 91% of tested graphics cards.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded across all tested configurations?

A: The only configurations with recorded minimum frame rates are the Medium settings presets. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 17 FPS; at 1440p Medium, the minimum is 33 FPS; and at 1080p Medium, the minimum is 51 FPS. The Low, High, and Ultra presets did not record minimum frame rates in the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals a GPU that is completely overwhelmed by pixel throughput demands. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings reduces average frame rate from 46 FPS to 29 FPS, a 37% drop. The scaling continues aggressively from 1440p to 4K, where High settings deliver just 16 FPS — representing a 44.8% reduction from the 1440p result and a 65.2% reduction from 1080p.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, performance scales from 80 FPS at 1080p to 51 FPS at 1440p (36.3% drop) to 27 FPS at 4K (47.1% drop from 1440p). Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 60 FPS at 1080p, 39 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most punishing, starting at only 34 FPS at 1080p and falling to 21 FPS at 1440p and 11 FPS at 4K.

This scaling pattern strongly suggests the limiting component is the GPU rather than the CPU. The Ryzen 5 3600, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, should be capable of feeding frame data at these resolutions, but the Arc B390's pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are insufficient for the increasing pixel counts. The fact that even 1080p Ultra cannot maintain 35 FPS indicates the GPU is saturated even at the lowest resolution tested.

The data implies that players seeking higher resolutions would need to make significant compromises in settings. The 1440p Low preset at 51 FPS is the only 1440p configuration that approaches playability, while 4K performance is universally poor across all settings, with even Low preset struggling to reach 30 FPS.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. Its specifications reveal why it performs so poorly in this game: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and only 24 raster operation units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2500 MHz, yet these clocks cannot compensate for the limited hardware resources.

The most telling specification is the memory configuration. The Arc B390 uses System Shared memory, meaning its VRAM allocation depends on system RAM rather than dedicated graphics memory. The memory bus width is also System Shared, and bandwidth is listed as System Dependent. This architecture creates a significant performance penalty in memory-intensive scenarios, which Hitman 2 likely presents given its detailed environments and stealth mechanics.

The GPU's benchmark results confirm its limitations. Its only recorded benchmark, 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12, produces a score of 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. This means 91% of tested graphics cards outperform it. The closest rivals — the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710 — are all entry-level or legacy mobile/desktop parts, with the Arc B390 leading them by margins of 1.3% to 2.7%.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s initially seem modest but not catastrophic, yet the actual game performance tells a different story. The combination of shared memory and limited ROPs likely creates severe bandwidth constraints that manifest in the low frame rates observed across all settings and resolutions. The GPU's 80 W TDP and IGP slot width confirm its integration into the processor package rather than as a discrete solution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 80 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that exceeds 60 FPS. Medium settings achieve 60 FPS average with a minimum of 51 FPS and maximum of 69 FPS, representing a playable experience. High settings drop to 46 FPS average, while Ultra settings fall to 34 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 46 FPS, indicating a substantial performance impact from quality presets.

Moving to 2560x1440 shows a dramatic decline across all settings. Low settings produce 51 FPS average, which is the only 1440p configuration above 40 FPS. Medium settings achieve 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS and maximum of 44 FPS, while High settings drop to 29 FPS and Ultra falls to 21 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs between 29 FPS (Low) and 13 FPS (Ultra), with the absolute performance at 1440p being marginal at best.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes largely unplayable. Low settings achieve 27 FPS average, Medium settings produce 21 FPS with a minimum of 17 FPS and maximum of 24 FPS, High settings drop to 16 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 11 FPS. The 4K results show that even Low settings cannot maintain a consistent 30 FPS, and the Ultra preset's 11 FPS average is effectively a slideshow. The Medium preset's minimum of 17 FPS indicates significant frame time variance that would be noticeable during gameplay.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each settings tier at a given resolution provides roughly 30-40% better performance than the next tier up. At 1080p, Low to Medium is a 20 FPS improvement, Medium to High is a 14 FPS improvement, and High to Ultra is a 12 FPS improvement. This linear progression suggests the GPU is uniformly limited across all quality settings rather than being bottlenecked by specific features like shadows or textures.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's ranking of 2662nd out of 3001 tested combinations places it in the bottom 11.3% of all configurations for Hitman 2. This rank reflects the combined performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel Arc B390, and the data strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary factor dragging down the overall ranking.

The CPU component of this combo performs reasonably well in isolation. The Ryzen 5 3600 has a 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17035. Its nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-1260P (17007 score, 0.2% ahead), Intel Core i5-11400 (17067 score, 0.2% behind), AMD EPYC 7573X (17070 score, 0.2% behind), and AMD EPYC 7742 (16998 score, 0.2% ahead) — all perform within a narrow 0.4% band of the Ryzen 5 3600. This indicates the CPU is a mid-range performer with competitive processing power.

The GPU, conversely, ranks in the 9th percentile among all GPUs, making it one of the weakest graphics solutions tested. The combination of a mid-range CPU with a bottom-tier GPU creates a system where the CPU's capabilities are largely wasted, as the GPU cannot translate processing power into frame rate. The rank of 2662nd suggests that most other tested combos either pair similar CPUs with better GPUs or use more balanced hardware configurations.

This ranking has practical implications. The combo sits among the lowest-performing configurations for Hitman 2, and the data shows that upgrading either component would likely improve the ranking. However, given the GPU's extreme low performance, any meaningful improvement would require a GPU upgrade rather than a CPU change.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, and its 32 MB of shared L3 cache provides substantial memory for game data. The CPU's 3dmark scores — 4605 for 16 threads, 3844 for 8 threads, 2579 for 4 threads, and 696 for single thread — demonstrate reasonable multithreading scaling.

In Cinebench R23, the Ryzen 5 3600 achieves 15045 multicore and 2124 singlecore scores. Its Geekbench results show 7372 multicore and 1536 singlecore. These benchmark scores indicate the CPU is capable of handling modern game workloads, particularly in a title like Hitman 2 that likely benefits from multiple threads for AI and simulation tasks.

However, the CPU's performance in this specific combo appears largely irrelevant to the final frame rates. The game's performance at 1080p Low (80 FPS) versus 4K Low (27 FPS) shows a 66.3% reduction, which is far more consistent with GPU limitations than CPU bottlenecks. Even at the lowest settings and resolution, the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor, as the GPU's shared memory architecture creates severe bandwidth constraints.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 7 nm process node indicate an efficient processor, but efficiency cannot overcome the GPU's fundamental performance ceiling. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more capable GPU would yield significantly better results, as the Ryzen 5 3600 has the processing headroom to support higher frame rates than the Arc B390 can deliver.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal configuration for this combo is 1920x1080 with Medium settings. This preset delivers 60 FPS average with a minimum of 51 FPS and maximum of 69 FPS, providing a stable and playable experience. The 51 FPS minimum ensures that frame rate rarely drops below the playability threshold, while the 69 FPS maximum indicates the system can occasionally deliver smoother performance.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rate, 1080p Low settings at 80 FPS average is the best choice. This configuration sacrifices visual quality for performance but remains the only preset that exceeds 60 FPS consistently. The 34 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p suggests that Low settings provide more than double the frame rate of Ultra, making it a practical trade-off for competitive or fast-paced gameplay.

The 1080p High preset at 46 FPS is a middle ground that maintains decent visual quality but falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider ideal. The 1080p Ultra preset at 34 FPS is difficult to recommend, as the visual improvement over High is unlikely to justify the 12 FPS performance loss. Above 1080p, the data shows that 1440p Low at 51 FPS is the only viable option, while all 4K presets produce frame rates below 30 FPS and should be avoided.

The Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with the 51 FPS minimum providing a safety buffer against frame drops. Players who cannot tolerate any frame rate dips should choose Low settings at 1080p, while those who prioritize visual fidelity above 60 FPS might consider 1440p Low despite its 51 FPS average. The data clearly indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, with any resolution above that requiring significant compromises in settings quality.