Hitman 2

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 54th out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places the configuration in the top 3% of all tested pairings, a strong result for a combination that pairs a mid-range 2022 CPU with a flagship 2025 GPU. The ranking reflects the game's ability to leverage both the CPU's six Zen 3 cores and the GPU's massive compute resources, though the data suggests the CPU becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

The Ryzen 5 5500 itself holds a 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs in the broader benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 20875. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores 20897, a delta of just -0.1%, indicating the two processors are effectively performance peers in general workloads. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE also sits at 20900 (-0.1%), while the AMD EPYC 7J13 trails slightly at 20845 (+0.1% delta from the 5500's perspective). The Intel Core i5-12600T leads this group at 20917, a -0.2% delta. These sub-1% differences mean the CPU's position in the combo ranking is not driven by any single rival's dominance, but rather by the consistent throughput of the Zen 3 architecture.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5090 commands a 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84306. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, scores 84241 (a 0.1% delta), while the RTX 5050 Mobile scores 84171 (0.2%). The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 trails at 83209 (1.3% delta), and the NVIDIA CMP 40HX actually leads at 85637 (-1.6% delta from the 5090). The GPU's raw compute advantage is substantial, but in Hitman 2, the measured FPS data reveals that this advantage is not always fully utilized.

The combo's 54th rank out of 1795 configurations indicates that while the RTX 5090 is among the fastest GPUs available, the Ryzen 5 5500's Zen 3 architecture with 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory limits overall performance in this stealth title. The game's engine appears to scale well with both CPU and GPU resources, but the gap between the 5500's general benchmark standing (79th percentile) and the 5090's (94th percentile) suggests the CPU is the weaker link in this pairing.

FAQ

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 scores 20875 on average, sitting just 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-12500 (20897) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20900). It is 0.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7J13 (20845) and 0.2% behind the Intel Core i5-12600T (20917). All four rivals fall within a 0.3% performance band, making them effectively indistinguishable in general workloads.

Q: What is the RTX 5090's standing relative to other GPUs in the database?

A: The RTX 5090 ranks in the 94th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 84306. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, is just 0.1% behind at 84241, while the RTX 5050 Mobile scores 84171 (0.2% behind). The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 is 1.3% behind at 83209, and the NVIDIA CMP 40HX leads by 1.6% at 85637.

Q: Does the combo perform better at 1080p or 4K in Hitman 2?

A: The data shows higher average FPS at 1920x1080 across all settings, with the Low preset reaching 272.3 FPS compared to 122 FPS at 3840x2160. However, the relative scaling from High to Ultra is similar at both resolutions: 199.2 to 142.7 FPS at 1080p versus 67.3 to 48.3 FPS at 4K, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions while the CPU becomes more relevant at 1080p.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 223.7 FPS, while Ultra drops to 90.4 FPS. This represents a 59.6% reduction in frame rate from Low to Ultra, with Medium (168.8 FPS) and High (123.7 FPS) falling between these extremes. The scaling suggests the game's Ultra preset introduces computationally expensive effects that heavily tax the GPU.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance?

A: The CPU scores 836 in 3dmark_single_thread and 5386 in 3dmark_16_threads, showing strong multi-thread scaling. In Cinebench R23, it achieves 2319 single-core and 16429 multi-core, while PassMark shows 3058 single-thread and 19330 multithread. This scaling indicates the 6-core, 12-thread design handles parallel workloads effectively.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the Ryzen 5 5500 provide, and does it matter for Hitman 2?

A: The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 with a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. While this is sufficient for most games, the RTX 5090's 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth and 32 GB GDDR7 VRAM dwarf it, and the FPS data at 1080p suggests CPU-side memory bandwidth may become a bottleneck in CPU-heavy scenes.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that shifts the bottleneck between CPU and GPU. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 272.3 FPS, which drops to 122 FPS at 3840x2160 — a 55.2% reduction. This substantial drop indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is being exercised heavily at 4K, likely due to the RTX 5090's raw pixel throughput requirements.

At the High preset, the scaling is more moderate: 199.2 FPS at 1080p falls to 67.3 FPS at 4K, a 66.2% reduction. The Ultra preset shows the steepest relative drop, from 142.7 FPS at 1080p to 48.3 FPS at 4K, a 66.1% reduction. These consistent percentages across presets suggest the game's rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution, with the GPU dominating performance at all settings.

The 1440p results highlight the transition zone. At Low settings, 2560x1440 yields 223.7 FPS, which is 82.1% of the 1080p result and 183.4% of the 4K result. This indicates that at 1440p, the GPU is still the primary constraint, but the CPU's limitations begin to appear at lower settings. The Medium preset at 1440p (168.8 FPS) is closer to the 1080p High result (199.2 FPS) than to the 4K Medium result (86.5 FPS), confirming that 1440p is a balanced resolution for this combo.

The limiting component analysis points to the CPU at 1080p, where the RTX 5090's immense shading power (104.8 TFLOPS FP32) and texture rate (1,636.8 GTexel/s) outpace the Ryzen 5 5500's ability to feed it draw calls. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, as evidenced by the 48.3 FPS Ultra result despite the 5090's 32 GB VRAM and 512-bit memory bus. The 1440p results represent the sweet spot where both components contribute meaningfully to performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 272.3 FPS, while Medium reaches 245.8 FPS. High drops to 199.2 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 142.7 FPS. These numbers show that the CPU can sustain over 200 FPS in this stealth title when the GPU is not heavily taxed, but the drop from Low to Ultra (47.6% reduction) suggests the GPU still plays a significant role even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down predictably. Low averages 223.7 FPS, Medium 168.8 FPS, High 123.7 FPS, and Ultra 90.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 59.6%, slightly larger than at 1080p, indicating the GPU's workload increases proportionally with pixel count. The 1440p High result (123.7 FPS) is notable because it remains above 120 FPS, suggesting the combo handles this resolution well for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 5090's strengths and the CPU's limitations become more apparent. Low averages 122 FPS, Medium 86.5 FPS, High 67.3 FPS, and Ultra 48.3 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration below 60 FPS in the dataset, indicating that even the flagship GPU struggles with the game's most demanding settings at this resolution. The 4K Low result (122 FPS) demonstrates that the 5090's raw power can still deliver high frame rates at 4K when settings are reduced.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset offers the most balanced performance for this combo. At 1080p it provides 245.8 FPS, at 1440p 168.8 FPS, and at 4K 86.5 FPS — all above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset, while visually demanding, only exceeds 60 FPS at 1080p (142.7 FPS) and 1440p (90.4 FPS), falling short at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings substantial resources to this pairing, including 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 2017 MHz boosts to 2407 MHz, and the chip contains 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s position it as one of the most powerful consumer GPUs in the database, ranking in the 94th percentile.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role varies by resolution and settings. At 4K Ultra, the 48.3 FPS result suggests the game is heavily GPU-bound, with the 5090's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s being taxed by the high resolution and demanding effects. The 4K Low result (122 FPS) shows the GPU can handle 4K when the game's visual load is reduced, but the 5090's 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU requirement indicate this is a power-hungry solution.

The VRAM capacity of 32 GB is more than sufficient for Hitman 2, which was released in 2018 and does not exhibit the high VRAM usage of modern titles. The memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, however, appears to be a factor at 4K, where the game's texture streaming and lighting calculations benefit from the high bandwidth. The 5090's 680 tensor cores and 170 RT cores are not directly leveraged by this game's stealth-focused engine, but they contribute to the GPU's overall compute capability.

The GPU's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84306, reflects its dominance in synthetic tests. Yet in Hitman 2, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU's 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 16 MB L3 cache become the limiting factors at 1080p, where the 5090 is underutilized. This is evident in the 272.3 FPS Low result at 1080p, which, while impressive, does not scale proportionally with the GPU's raw compute advantage over lower-tier graphics cards. The data indicates that for this specific game, the RTX 5090's performance is best realized at 4K, where its memory bandwidth and pixel throughput are fully engaged.