Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination delivers a highly capable Hitman 2 experience, but the data reveals a clear performance hierarchy dictated by settings and resolution. The sweet spot is Medium settings at 1440p, which balances the CPU's architectural limits with the GPU's immense headroom. This pairing ranks in the 88th percentile of tested combos, placing it firmly in the upper echelon of systems for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combination points decisively to Medium settings as the optimal choice for most users, particularly at higher resolutions. At 4K, the Medium preset yields an average of 77 FPS, which is a substantial 34 FPS improvement over High settings (58 FPS) and a full 34 FPS ahead of Ultra (43 FPS). The jump from Medium to High costs 19 FPS on average, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 15 FPS, making Ultra a diminishing return for the visual fidelity gained.

At 1440p, Medium settings again prove optimal, delivering 144 FPS average with a minimum of 123 FPS and a maximum of 166 FPS. This is 35 FPS faster than High (109 FPS) and 64 FPS faster than Ultra (80 FPS). The Low preset at 1440p reaches 192 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely too steep for the additional 48 FPS over Medium. For users with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, Medium provides the best combination of smoothness and visual quality.

At 1080p, the story shifts toward CPU limitation. Medium settings achieve 203 FPS, which is only 23 FPS less than Low (226 FPS) but 77 FPS more than High (171 FPS). The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 126 FPS, still eminently playable but representing a significant 77 FPS drop from Medium. Given that the RTX 4080 SUPER is clearly GPU-bound at 4K and CPU-bound at 1080p, Medium settings at 1080p offer the most balanced experience, with the 173 FPS minimum ensuring consistent frame delivery.

For the absolute best experience per the measured rows, Medium settings at 1440p is the recommendation. It provides a 144 FPS average that aligns with high-refresh-rate displays while maintaining a respectable 123 FPS minimum. The 4K Medium preset is the alternative for those prioritizing resolution, offering 77 FPS average with a 65 FPS minimum, which remains fluid for a stealth title.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 SUPER's specifications explain its dominance in this pairing. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the card offers 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This capacity is more than sufficient for Hitman 2's engine, which does not appear to stress VRAM even at 4K Ultra, as the FPS drops are more indicative of shader and fill-rate demands than memory exhaustion.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz. The 10240 shading units and 112 ROPs provide the raw compute necessary for the pixel-heavy workloads at 4K. The texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s are the key metrics for a game like Hitman 2, which relies heavily on detailed environments and lighting effects.

The RTX 4080 SUPER's benchmark scores reinforce its positioning. Its Passmark G3D score of 34245 places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the RTX 4080 (54247 avg score, -0.1% delta) and the Radeon Pro W5700X (54828 avg score, -1.1% delta). The data shows this GPU is performing at the expected level, with the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 indicating strong DirectX 12 performance that Hitman 2 can leverage.

The GPU's role becomes clear when examining the FPS scaling across settings. At 4K, the GPU is the primary limiter, as evidenced by the 60 FPS spread between Low (103 FPS) and Ultra (43 FPS). The card's raw power ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the combination maintains a playable 43 FPS average, but it is clearly working at its limit. The architecture's efficiency, with 52.22 TFLOPS FP32 performance, allows for this level of fidelity, but Hitman 2's engine appears to favor raw rasterization over the RT and tensor core capabilities.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable scaling pattern that highlights the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 203 at 1080p to 144 at 1440p, a 29% decrease, and then to 77 at 4K, a further 47% decrease. This steep drop-off from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the relatively modest drop from 1080p to 1440p suggests the CPU is constraining performance at 1080p.

The Ryzen 5 3600's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, are sufficient for Hitman 2's threading model, but the data shows the CPU's ceiling at 1080p. At Low settings, the 1080p average of 226 FPS and 1440p average of 192 FPS represent only an 15% drop, whereas the 4K Low average of 103 FPS represents a 46% drop from 1440p. This indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is the bottleneck at both 1080p and 1440p, but the GPU takes over as the limiter at 4K.

The High settings row shows a similar pattern: 1080p (171 FPS) to 1440p (109 FPS) is a 36% drop, while 1440p to 4K (58 FPS) is a 47% drop. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 126 FPS at 1080p, 80 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 43 FPS at 4K (46% drop). This consistent pattern across all settings confirms that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases, with the CPU's influence waning.

The limiting component analysis is clear: at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 3600 caps performance around 226 FPS on Low settings, preventing the RTX 4080 SUPER from fully expressing its capabilities. At 4K, the GPU's workload becomes the primary constraint, with the FPS dropping to levels that stress the GPU's 16 GB memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth. The 1440p resolution represents the balance point where neither component is severely bottlenecked, explaining why Medium settings there provide the most consistent experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 430th out of 3711 tested combos for Hitman 2. This places it in the 88.4th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 88% of all tested system configurations for this game. This ranking is notably strong given that the CPU, the Ryzen 5 3600, has a percentile rank of 71 among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 86th percentile among all GPUs.

The combo's ranking suggests that Hitman 2 benefits more from the GPU than the CPU, as the system's overall position exceeds both individual component percentiles. The RTX 4080 SUPER's nearest rival, the RTX 4080, has a virtually identical average benchmark score (54247 vs 54209), with a delta of only -0.1%. This indicates that the SUPER variant offers marginal raw performance gains, but the combo ranking reflects the full system's capability.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its role in this combo. The Intel Core i5-11400 has an average score of 17067, a delta of -0.2% from the Ryzen 5 3600's 17035. The AMD EPYC 7742 scores 16998, a 0.2% delta. These small deltas confirm that the Ryzen 5 3600 is performing at the expected level for its class, with no anomalous behavior affecting the combo's ranking.

The high combo rank (430 out of 3711) indicates that this pairing is well-matched for Hitman 2's requirements. The game's stealth mechanics and detailed environments do not require extreme CPU multithreading, allowing the GPU to dominate the performance profile. The data shows that the combo's ranking is driven primarily by the GPU's strong showing, with the CPU providing adequate support without becoming a significant bottleneck at the recommended Medium 1440p settings.

FAQ

Q: What settings provide the highest average FPS at 4K?

A: Low settings at 3840x2160 deliver the highest average FPS of 103. Medium settings achieve 77 FPS, High settings 58 FPS, and Ultra settings 43 FPS.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck for the RTX 4080 SUPER in this game?

A: At 1080p, the CPU appears to limit performance, as Low settings reach 226 FPS but Medium only 203 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the primary limiter, with the CPU's influence diminishing as resolution increases.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: 1440p with Medium settings provides the best balance, offering 144 FPS average with a 123 FPS minimum. This resolution avoids the CPU bottleneck seen at 1080p while maintaining higher frame rates than 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 4080?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, while the RTX 4080 scores 54247, a delta of -0.1%. The SUPER performs essentially identically in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM become a limiting factor at 4K Ultra?

A: The FPS data shows Ultra at 4K averages 43 FPS, but this is likely due to shader and fill-rate demands rather than VRAM capacity. The 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 736.3 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the game's needs.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 430th out of 3711 tested combos for Hitman 2, placing it in the top 12% of all systems tested for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings achieve 226 FPS, Medium settings achieve 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 FPS and maximum of 234 FPS, High settings achieve 171 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 126 FPS. The 1080p results show the highest absolute frame rates, with Low settings nearly doubling the Ultra preset's performance.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the data shows: Low settings reach 192 FPS, Medium settings deliver 144 FPS average with a 123 FPS minimum and 166 FPS maximum, High settings provide 109 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 80 FPS. The 1440p Medium preset offers the most consistent frame delivery, with the minimum FPS staying above 120.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the measured averages are: Low settings at 103 FPS, Medium settings at 77 FPS with a 65 FPS minimum and 88 FPS maximum, High settings at 58 FPS, and Ultra settings at 43 FPS. The 4K resolution shows the most significant performance penalty, with Ultra settings producing less than half the frame rate of Low settings.

The minimum FPS data is only available for Medium settings at each resolution: 173 FPS at 1080p, 123 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. These minimum values indicate that Medium settings provide the most stable frame delivery, with the 4K Medium preset maintaining a 65 FPS minimum that stays above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The maximum FPS values for Medium settings follow a similar pattern: 234 FPS at 1080p, 166 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. This data confirms that Medium settings offer the best experience across all resolutions, with the 1440p Medium preset providing the ideal balance of frame rate and visual quality for this hardware combination.