Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination delivers a smooth Hitman 2 experience at most settings, but the data reveals a clear sweet spot. At 1080p, the Medium preset produces 147.3 FPS, which is 36.6 frames higher than the High preset’s 110.7 FPS and nearly double the Ultra preset’s 79.4 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs 36.6 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 31.3 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the top end. At 1440p, the Medium preset remains the best balance, delivering 94.2 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS and only 31 FPS behind the Low preset’s 125.2 FPS. The High preset at 1440p drops to 71.5 FPS, still playable but closer to the threshold where frame pacing becomes noticeable. At 4K, no preset achieves 60 FPS; the Low preset tops out at 68.2 FPS, but Medium falls to 47.9 FPS and High to 41 FPS. For the best experience across resolutions, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, offering roughly double the frame rate of Ultra at 1080p and maintaining playability up to 1440p.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows that the Medium preset is the optimal configuration for this hardware combination in Hitman 2. At 1080p, Medium delivers 147.3 FPS, which is 67.9 FPS higher than Ultra’s 79.4 FPS and 36.6 FPS higher than High’s 110.7 FPS. This performance gap indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a significant rendering load that is not justified by the modest visual improvements it typically provides. The Medium preset at 1440p still achieves 94.2 FPS, which is 42.8 FPS higher than the High preset’s 71.5 FPS at the same resolution. For users prioritizing frame rate consistency, the Low preset at 1080p provides 193.1 FPS, but this comes with substantial visual downgrades that are unnecessary given the headroom available at Medium. At 4K, the situation changes; Medium drops to 47.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, so users at that resolution should consider the Low preset’s 68.2 FPS or accept a lower frame rate. The data suggests that Medium offers the best compromise between visual fidelity and performance, particularly at 1080p and 1440p, where it maintains frame rates well above 90 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070’s memory configuration is a critical factor in Hitman 2’s performance across settings. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The benchmark results show a clear pattern: at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 31, while at 4K Low it rises to 68.2. This 37.2 FPS swing indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and capacity are being stressed at higher settings and resolutions. The RTX 3070’s boost clock of 1725 MHz and base clock of 1500 MHz, combined with its 5888 shading units, allow it to handle the game’s rendering demands, but the 8 GB VRAM appears to be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate falls to nearly half of the 1080p Low result. The GPU’s pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for the game’s environments, but the data shows that resolution scaling has a more pronounced effect on performance than settings changes alone. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 113.7 FPS, while at 4K, the same settings gap is only 37.2 FPS, suggesting that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz, provide sufficient processing power for Hitman 2’s simulation and AI workloads. The CPU’s Zen 3 architecture, built on a 7 nm process, delivers strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 836 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319. In Hitman 2, the game’s stealth mechanics and NPC interactions rely on consistent CPU performance, and the data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combination achieves 193.1 FPS, which is 124.1 FPS higher than the 4K Low result of 68.2 FPS. This large gap indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU has ample headroom to drive high frame rates at 1080p. The CPU’s 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth support the game’s data streaming requirements, but the benchmark results show that the CPU’s performance is not the main constraint in this configuration. The Ryzen 5 5500’s percentile ranking of 79 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20875, places it in a competitive position, but its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-12500 with a delta of -0.1%, show that it is closely matched in overall CPU performance.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 823 out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the 54th percentile of all configurations. This mid-pack ranking reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU, where neither component is a standout performer but the combination delivers consistent results. The RTX 3070’s percentile ranking of 72 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28238, shows that it performs above average, but its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT with a delta of 0.9% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti with a delta of 1%. The Ryzen 5 5500’s percentile ranking of 79 is higher, but its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-12500 with a delta of -0.1%, show that the CPU is not significantly ahead of its competition. The combo’s rank of 823 suggests that there are 972 tested combinations that perform better, likely featuring higher-tier CPUs or GPUs. However, the data shows that this combo is well-matched for Hitman 2, as the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at 1080p and 1440p, while the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K. The rank indicates that users seeking higher performance would need to upgrade either component, but the current pairing provides a balanced experience for the game’s requirements.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component in this configuration. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 110.7, which drops to 71.5 at 1440p High (a 35.4% decrease) and further to 41 at 4K High (a 42.7% decrease from 1440p). This consistent drop across resolutions indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU’s performance does not scale with resolution. The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 193.1 FPS at 1080p, 125.2 FPS at 1440p (a 35.1% decrease), and 68.2 FPS at 4K (a 45.5% decrease from 1440p). The Medium preset follows the same trend, with 147.3 FPS at 1080p, 94.2 FPS at 1440p (a 36.1% decrease), and 47.9 FPS at 4K (a 49.1% decrease from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows the steepest drop, from 79.4 FPS at 1080p to 51.4 FPS at 1440p (a 35.3% decrease) and 31 FPS at 4K (a 39.7% decrease from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage decreases across all settings strongly suggests that the GPU’s rendering capabilities, particularly its 8 GB VRAM and memory bandwidth, are the limiting factors as resolution increases. The CPU’s role diminishes at higher resolutions, as the frame rate becomes increasingly dependent on the GPU’s ability to process the larger frame buffers. The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates, while 4K gaming requires significant settings reductions to achieve playable performance.