Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 combination delivers a distinctly GPU-limited experience in Hitman 2, with performance scaling that clearly favors lower resolutions and specific settings presets. Measured data shows this pairing ranks 1837th out of 3001 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database, but the actual frame rates tell a more nuanced story about where this system excels and where it struggles.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and consistent across all settings presets, revealing that the RTX 5050 is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 152 FPS at 1920x1080 to 97 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 55 FPS, and then further down to 52 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 65.8% performance loss from 1080p to 4K, which is substantial and indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated as pixel count increases.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 114 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K. The scaling here is slightly less severe in absolute terms but still significant. High settings follow with 86 FPS at 1080p, 55 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, while Ultra settings drop to 64 FPS, 41 FPS, and 22 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset at 4K produces only 22 FPS, which is barely playable and clearly outside the range of smooth gameplay.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p, where CPU load typically becomes more relevant, the system still achieves high frame rates, with Low settings hitting 152 FPS. This indicates that the Ryzen 5 5500 has sufficient headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but as resolution increases, the GPU's rendering workload grows faster than the CPU can compensate, pushing the system into a GPU-bound state.

The scaling ratios are telling. From 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drops by roughly 36-38% across all presets, while from 1440p to 4K, the drop is about 46-47%. This non-linear degradation points to the GPU's 8 GB memory and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth becoming increasingly strained at 4K, where texture and buffer demands exceed what the card can efficiently handle.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB207 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, with memory running at 2500 MHz effective 20 Gbps. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 320.0 GB/s.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role is clearly dominant. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (22 FPS) versus 1080p Low (152 FPS) shows a 6.9x performance difference, which cannot be explained by CPU limitations alone. The GPU's pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s and texture rate of 205.8 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but become insufficient for smooth 4K operation with high-quality settings.

The memory configuration is particularly relevant. With only 8 GB of VRAM, the card may be hitting capacity limits at 4K with higher presets, causing performance to plummet. The fact that 4K Medium produces 39 FPS while 4K Low produces 52 FPS suggests that texture quality and memory allocation play a significant role; the jump from Low to Medium adds enough memory pressure to reduce performance by 25%. This is consistent with the card's 128-bit memory bus, which limits how quickly data can be fed to the GPU cores.

The RTX 5050's benchmark scores corroborate its mid-range positioning. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 17326 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2502, with a percentile ranking of 66 among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, which scores slightly higher at 21153, and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, which scores lower at 20713. The delta percentages are minimal, ranging from -1.6% to 1.6%, indicating the RTX 5050 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 86 FPS average, which is smooth for a stealth game, but Medium offers 114 FPS with only a modest visual trade-off. Low settings push to 152 FPS, which is beneficial for competitive play but unnecessary for a single-player stealth experience. The sweet spot at 1080p is Medium, balancing the 114 FPS average with a minimum of 97 FPS, ensuring consistent frame delivery without dipping below 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts to Low settings, which produce 97 FPS average. High settings at 1440p yield 55 FPS, which is borderline, while Medium gives 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS. For players prioritizing smoothness, Medium at 1440p is viable, but Low provides more headroom. The Ultra preset at 1440p (41 FPS) is not recommended due to the substantial performance cost relative to the visual uplift.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles across all presets. Low settings produce 52 FPS, which is playable but not ideal, while Medium drops to 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS, and High falls to 29 FPS. Ultra at 4K is effectively unplayable at 22 FPS. The data indicates that 4K gaming with this combo requires Low settings at minimum, and even then, the experience is not consistently smooth. For 4K, the best experience per the measured rows is Low settings, sacrificing visual fidelity for acceptable frame rates.

The Medium preset consistently provides the best balance across resolutions, with frame rates that are 33-50% higher than High settings while maintaining playability at 1080p and 1440p. The minimum FPS values for Medium at each resolution (97 FPS at 1080p, 62 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K) show that the frame pacing is stable enough to avoid severe stuttering, making it the recommended preset for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1837th out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the 61st percentile of the database. This ranking reflects a system that is capable of solid 1080p and 1440p performance but falls behind more balanced or higher-end configurations, particularly at 4K.

The ranking position is consistent with the individual component performance. The CPU ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19593, while the GPU ranks in the 66th percentile with an average score of 21035. The combo ranking slightly lags the component percentiles, suggesting that Hitman 2's engine favors configurations with stronger GPU performance relative to the CPU, or that the RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM limits its effectiveness in this particular title.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing is positioned below the median but not at the bottom. The 1837th rank out of 3001 means there are 1164 combos that perform worse, indicating that this system is a functional mid-range option. However, the gap to higher-ranked combos is significant, as the 4K performance clearly demonstrates. The combo's strength lies in 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it delivers frame rates that are competitive with more expensive configurations.

The ranking also highlights the balance between CPU and GPU. The Ryzen 5 5500's multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429 and a Passmark multithread score of 19330, is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5050 at most settings. The GPU's relative weakness at higher resolutions drags the combo ranking down, but the system remains viable for its intended use case.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Cezanne, and manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of L3 cache, with support for DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU but not negligible. The game is not heavily multi-threaded, and the Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread performance, indicated by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3058, is adequate for the game's logic and AI calculations. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration provides enough parallelism to handle background tasks and game threads without becoming a bottleneck at 1080p.

The CPU's benchmark scores show it performs in line with its nearest rivals. The Ryzen AI 5 430 scores 19617 on average, which is 0.1% higher, while the Intel Core i5-12500 scores 19668, 0.4% higher. The Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19499, 0.5% lower, and the Intel Core i5-11600KF scores 19723, 0.7% higher. These minimal deltas indicate that the Ryzen 5 5500 is competitively positioned within its performance class.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo at higher resolutions. At 4K, the frame rates are determined almost entirely by the GPU, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops across all presets. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 152 FPS, which indicates the CPU can deliver frames at a rate well above what most displays can show. The CPU's 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and dual-channel DDR4 support are sufficient for the game's data requirements.

The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache is modest by modern standards, but Hitman 2 does not appear to be cache-sensitive based on the performance data. The processor's 7 nm process node and 65 W TDP ensure it runs efficiently, which is beneficial for sustained gaming sessions where thermal throttling could otherwise impact performance.

FAQ

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

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution, with average frame rates ranging from 64 FPS at Ultra settings to 152 FPS at Low settings. At 2560x1440, frame rates drop to 41-97 FPS depending on settings, while 3840x2160 only achieves 22-52 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 perform at 4K in this game?

A: The RTX 5050 struggles at 3840x2160, with average frame rates of 22 FPS at Ultra, 29 FPS at High, 39 FPS at Medium, and 52 FPS at Low settings. Only Low settings approach playability, and even then, the experience is not consistently smooth.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a bottleneck for the RTX 5050?

A: The data indicates the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 152 FPS, showing the CPU can feed the GPU effectively. The performance drop at higher resolutions is attributable to the GPU's limitations, particularly its 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best experience at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset offers the best balance with 73 FPS average and a minimum of 62 FPS. Low settings provide higher frame rates at 97 FPS, but Medium delivers better visual quality while maintaining smooth performance.

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

A: This combination ranks 1837th out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. The ranking reflects strong 1080p performance but weaker 4K capability.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the difference is 88 FPS, with Low settings achieving 152 FPS and Ultra settings achieving 64 FPS. This represents a 57.9% performance reduction from Low to Ultra, highlighting the significant cost of maximum quality settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data for this combo in Hitman 2 is as follows:

At 1920x1080:

• Low settings: 152 FPS average
• Medium settings: 114 FPS average, with a minimum of 97 FPS and maximum of 131 FPS
• High settings: 86 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 64 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low settings: 97 FPS average
• Medium settings: 73 FPS average, with a minimum of 62 FPS and maximum of 84 FPS
• High settings: 55 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 41 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low settings: 52 FPS average
• Medium settings: 39 FPS average, with a minimum of 33 FPS and maximum of 45 FPS
• High settings: 29 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 22 FPS average

The data shows a clear progression: each step up in resolution reduces performance by roughly 36-47%, while each step up in settings reduces performance by 20-35% depending on resolution. The Medium preset is the only one with complete minimum and maximum data, showing that frame times are reasonably consistent with a spread of 34 FPS at 1080p, 22 FPS at 1440p, and 12 FPS at 4K. This consistency suggests the game engine is stable with this hardware, but the absolute frame rates at 4K are too low for an enjoyable experience.