Hitman 2

# Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rate data for Hitman 2 with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 shows a clear progression across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 227.9 FPS average, which drops to 171.2 FPS at Medium, 130.6 FPS at High, and 96.3 FPS at Ultra. The step from Low to Medium costs 56.7 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs 34.3 FPS — a substantial penalty for the final quality tier.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds with Low at 143.9 FPS, Medium at 108.2 FPS, High at 81.6 FPS, and Ultra at 63.5 FPS. The High preset at this resolution remains comfortably above 60 FPS, while Ultra dips to just 63.5 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the situation tightens considerably: Low produces 75.4 FPS, Medium 56.1 FPS, High 44.4 FPS, and Ultra only 30.3 FPS.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the High preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the optimal balance. It delivers 81.6 FPS average, which is 18.1 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold, while still offering the visual fidelity of the High tier. At 1920x1080, High at 130.6 FPS is similarly well-positioned, providing more than double the refresh rate capability of most displays. The Ultra preset is only advisable at 1920x1080 where it maintains 96.3 FPS — still smooth, but the 34.3 FPS drop from High suggests diminishing returns. At 3840x2160, even the Medium preset at 56.1 FPS falls short of 60 FPS, so users targeting 4K should consider Low at 75.4 FPS or accept sub-60 performance.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 brings 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The card's base clock runs at 1440 MHz with a boost clock of 1710 MHz, and memory operates at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective throughput. These specifications place the GPU in the 80th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 35787.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution scales. The measured frame rates drop by roughly half when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 at the same settings — for instance, High goes from 130.6 FPS to 44.4 FPS, a 66% reduction. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3080's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being heavily taxed at 4K, particularly at higher quality presets. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's demands, as no memory-related stuttering is evident in the data; the bottleneck is raw rendering throughput rather than capacity.

The gap between Low and Ultra at 3840x2160 is 45.1 FPS (75.4 vs 30.3), whereas at 1920x1080 the same gap is 131.6 FPS (227.9 vs 96.3). This compression at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, while at 1080p the CPU can keep pace with even the most demanding settings. The RTX 3080's 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 465.1 GTexel/s texture rate are the key specs driving these results, with the card's 96 ROPs handling pixel throughput at 164.2 GPixel/s.

# How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 577th out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 32% of all configurations. This mid-pack positioning is notable given the individual components' strong percentiles — the CPU sits at the 76th percentile and the GPU at the 80th percentile. The rank suggests that Hitman 2's performance characteristics do not fully reward this pairing, likely due to the game's engine scaling behavior.

Within the CPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 has an average benchmark score of 18129, sitting between the Intel Core i5-11400 at 18150 (-0.1% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS at 18101 (0.2% delta). The AMD Ryzen 5 1600 scores 18158 (-0.2%) and the AMD EPYC 9274F scores 18189 (-0.3%). These tight deltas indicate that the CPU is not a differentiator in this game; the combo's rank is therefore more dependent on GPU behavior.

The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar clustering: the AMD Radeon Pro Duo scores 35860 (-0.2% delta), the AMD Radeon 880M scores 35646 (0.4%), the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE scores 36101 (-0.9%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile scores 35435 (1%). With the RTX 3080's average benchmark score at 35787, the combo's 577th rank reflects a configuration that is solidly mid-tier rather than exceptional for this specific title.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates span from 227.9 FPS at Low to 96.3 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset delivers 171.2 FPS, and High produces 130.6 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 131.6 FPS drop, with each preset tier costing roughly 40-50 FPS. This resolution shows the widest range of performance, indicating that the CPU and GPU combination has headroom even at the highest settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages compress to 143.9 FPS at Low, 108.2 FPS at Medium, 81.6 FPS at High, and 63.5 FPS at Ultra. The delta between Low and Ultra shrinks to 80.4 FPS, and the step from High to Ultra is only 18.1 FPS — a smaller penalty than at 1080p. The Ultra preset at this resolution just clears 60 FPS, making it a viable option for 1440p displays with adaptive sync.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates fall to 75.4 FPS at Low, 56.1 FPS at Medium, 44.4 FPS at High, and 30.3 FPS at Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra gap narrows further to 45.1 FPS, and every preset above Low fails to reach 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 56.1 FPS is 3.9 FPS short of 60, while High trails by 15.6 FPS. These numbers demonstrate that 4K gaming with this combo requires either the Low preset or acceptance of sub-60 performance.

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 37% of the frame rate at each preset — Low drops by 84 FPS, Medium by 63 FPS, High by 49 FPS, and Ultra by 32.8 FPS. From 1440p to 4K, the additional cost is steeper proportionally: Low loses 68.5 FPS, Medium 52.1 FPS, High 37.2 FPS, and Ultra 33.2 FPS. This pattern confirms that 4K is disproportionately demanding on the GPU.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 60+ FPS at 2560x1440?

A: The High preset delivers 81.6 FPS average at 2560x1440, which is 21.6 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra also exceeds 60 FPS at 63.5 FPS, but with a narrower margin of 3.5 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K at playable frame rates?

A: At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves above 60 FPS at 75.4 FPS. Medium falls short at 56.1 FPS, High at 44.4 FPS, and Ultra at 30.3 FPS, so 4K gaming requires Low settings for smooth performance.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 35787. The AMD Radeon Pro Duo scores 35860 (-0.2% delta), the AMD Radeon 880M scores 35646 (0.4%), the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE scores 36101 (-0.9%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile scores 35435 (1%).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1920x1080?

A: At 1920x1080, Low produces 227.9 FPS while Ultra produces 96.3 FPS, a difference of 131.6 FPS. This is the largest preset gap across all three resolutions measured.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 3600's CPU benchmark score vary significantly from its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 scores 18129 on average. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 18150 (-0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 18101 (0.2%), the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 scores 18158 (-0.2%), and the AMD EPYC 9274F scores 18189 (-0.3%). All deltas are within 0.3%.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in Hitman 2?

A: This combo ranks 577th out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 32% of all configurations tested in the game.

# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture (codename Matisse), built on TSMC's 7 nm process with 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die. It runs at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boosts to 4.20 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is dual-channel DDR4 with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth over a 128-bit bus.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 3600 demonstrates balanced performance: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 15045 and singlecore 2124, while Cinebench R20 multicore scores 6318 and singlecore 892. The 3DMark results show scaling from 696 in single-thread to 4605 in 16-thread tests, with 4-thread at 2579 and 8-thread at 3844. Passmark scores include 17700 for multithread and 2562 for single-thread, with the CPU placing in the 76th percentile overall.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080, the frame rates reach 227.9 FPS at Low settings, which is high enough that the CPU may become a limiting factor even though the GPU is capable of more. The fact that the combo ranks 577th out of 1795 — lower than the individual component percentiles might suggest — indicates that Hitman 2 does not scale perfectly with this CPU's 6-core/12-thread configuration. The game's engine likely benefits from fewer, faster cores, and the Ryzen 5 3600's 4.20 GHz boost clock provides reasonable single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 singlecore score of 2124) but not exceptional.

The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 0.3% in average benchmark scores, confirming that the Ryzen 5 3600 is competitively positioned for this game's CPU demands. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps with data-intensive scenes, and the 7 nm process keeps power draw low at 65 W, but the measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, where the GPU is clearly constrained, the CPU's 12 threads provide sufficient headroom, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling across all presets.