Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, running on the AMD Socket AM4 platform. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, and it carries a 65 TDP. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates a solid balance between single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, scoring 836 in 3dmark single-thread and 5411 in 3dmark max threads. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 2319 for single-core and 16429 for multi-core, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs. This positions it as a capable mid-range part that should not bottleneck a high-end GPU in most scenarios, though Hitman 2’s engine can be demanding on the CPU at lower resolutions.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Ryzen 5 5500’s 6 cores and 12 threads are the primary driver of its performance in Hitman 2. The game’s engine is known to scale reasonably well with multiple threads, and the data confirms that the CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities are sufficient to feed a powerful GPU at higher resolutions. The processor’s boost clock of 4.20 GHz provides the single-thread speed needed for game logic and AI, which is reflected in its 3dmark single-thread score of 836 and Geekbench single-core score of 1730. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 5500 is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (deltaPct -0.1), Intel Core i5-12500 (deltaPct -0.4), and Intel Core i5-11600KF (deltaPct -0.7), while being 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i7-10700F. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming, meaning the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo.

Looking at the measured FPS data, the CPU’s influence becomes apparent when analyzing the scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 270 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s limit for frame generation in this title. When moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 233 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 124 FPS. This pattern indicates that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU is doing more work per frame relative to the GPU, but the Ryzen 5 5500 still manages to deliver very high frame rates. The CPU’s L3 cache of 16 MB and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are adequate for Hitman 2’s level streaming and entity management. The benchmark results show that the processor does not become a severe bottleneck until the GPU is pushed to its limits at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 52.

The 3dmark 8-thread score of 4593 and 16-thread score of 5386 suggest that the CPU’s performance scales well with additional threads, which is important for Hitman 2’s background simulation. However, the game is not heavily threaded enough to require the full 12 threads, as the difference between the 8-thread and max-thread scores is modest. In practice, the Ryzen 5 5500 provides a stable foundation for the RTX 5090 D, ensuring that the GPU is not starved of data at 1440p and 4K. The Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 6900 further confirms that the CPU can handle sustained loads without throttling, which is relevant for long gaming sessions.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Across all three resolutions, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience when considering average FPS and the available minimum FPS data. At 1080p, Medium delivers 243 FPS average with a minimum of 207 FPS, which is only slightly below the Low preset’s 270 FPS but provides significantly better visual quality. The High preset at 1080p yields 207 FPS average, still well above the refresh rate of most monitors. For 1440p, Medium produces 175 FPS average with a minimum of 149 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate gaming. The High preset at 1440p drops to 132 FPS, still very playable, but Medium offers a substantial FPS headroom. At 4K, the Medium preset delivers 93 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that maintains a playable frame rate on a standard 60 Hz display. The Low preset at 4K reaches 124 FPS, but the visual compromise may not be worth it for most users.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding 153 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay on a standard monitor. The data suggests that for the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the Medium preset is the sweet spot at all resolutions. The measured minimum FPS values for Medium are 207 FPS at 1080p, 149 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K, indicating good frame pacing without severe drops. If the user prioritizes frame rate over visuals, the Low preset provides the highest FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium is substantial in terms of graphical improvements. For 4K users, Medium is the recommended preset, as it is the highest setting that maintains an average FPS above 60. The High preset at 4K is borderline at 71 FPS average, but the lack of minimum FPS data makes it riskier than Medium.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals a clear shift in the bottleneck from CPU to GPU. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 270 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 233 FPS, a reduction of 13.7%. At 4K Low, the FPS falls to 124, a 46.8% drop from 1440p. This steep decline at 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as the pixel count increases. The RTX 5090 D has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and a 512-bit bus, but the sheer number of pixels at 4K demands more from the shader units and ROPs. The GPU’s passmark G3D score of 44065 and its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance are impressive, but Hitman 2’s rendering workload at 4K Ultra is substantial.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is more moderate across all settings. For Medium, the FPS drops from 243 to 175, a 28% reduction. For High, it drops from 207 to 132, a 36.2% reduction. For Ultra, it drops from 153 to 98, a 35.9% reduction. These percentage drops are relatively consistent, suggesting that the GPU is handling the increased resolution load without any unexpected bottlenecks. However, when moving from 1440p to 4K, the drops are more severe: Medium drops from 175 to 93 (46.8% reduction), High drops from 132 to 71 (46.2% reduction), and Ultra drops from 98 to 52 (46.9% reduction). This consistent ~47% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at 4K, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions.

The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop is smaller than the 1440p to 4K drop suggests that the CPU is still capable of keeping up at 1440p, but the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are stretched at 4K. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is massive, but the 4K resolution requires more texture fetches and pixel shading operations. The data shows that the Ryzen 5 5500 is not a significant bottleneck at any resolution, as the FPS drops are proportional to the pixel count increase. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would plateau or drop less steeply at higher resolutions. Instead, the consistent scaling pattern confirms that the RTX 5090 D is the component that dictates performance at 4K, while the CPU is more influential at 1080p where frame rates are extremely high.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 strong enough to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5090 D in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, the data indicates the CPU is not a limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 270 FPS, and the FPS drops are proportional to pixel count increases from 1080p to 4K. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads, paired with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, provide sufficient performance to keep the GPU fed at all tested settings.

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset is the recommended choice for 4K. It delivers an average FPS of 93 with a minimum of 79 FPS, which is the only preset above 60 FPS average besides Low. The High preset averages 71 FPS, while Ultra drops to 52 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. It is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, but 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, 2.1% behind the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB, and 2.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB.

Q: Does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance matter for Hitman 2?

A: The game benefits from multiple threads, but the difference between the CPU’s 3dmark 8-thread score of 4593 and its max-thread score of 5411 is modest. The Ryzen 5 5500’s 12 threads are sufficient, but the game does not scale perfectly with additional threads, so the single-thread performance is more critical for consistent frame times.

Q: Is the 1080p performance overkill for this game?

A: At 1080p, the combo delivers 270 FPS on Low, 243 FPS on Medium, and 207 FPS on High. These frame rates far exceed the refresh rates of typical 1080p monitors (144 Hz or 165 Hz), so users are more likely to be limited by their display rather than the hardware. The Ultra preset at 153 FPS also provides a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: What does the combo’s rank of 76 out of 3001 combos indicate?

A: The combo rank of 76 out of 3001 means this CPU-GPU pairing performs in the top 2.5% of all tested combos for Hitman 2. This is a very strong result, indicating that the Ryzen 5 5500 and RTX 5090 D work well together for this title, despite the CPU being a mid-range part.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this combo, featuring 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and it has 21760 shading units. The GPU’s massive memory capacity and bandwidth are overkill for Hitman 2, which is a 2018 title, but they ensure that texture streaming and high-resolution rendering are never constrained by VRAM. The GPU’s passmark G3D score of 44065 and its percentile rank of 92 reflect its high-end positioning. In synthetic tests, the RTX 5090 D scores 14326 in 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12, 310674 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 376915 in Geekbench Vulkan.

The GPU’s performance in Hitman 2 is clearly the bottleneck at 4K, as evidenced by the FPS scaling. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 52, which is below the playable threshold for many users. The GPU’s 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance is substantial, but the game’s rendering engine at 4K Ultra with all effects enabled requires more raw pixel throughput. The GPU’s ROP count of 176 and pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s are high, but the 4K resolution (3840x2160) has over 8.3 million pixels, and the Ultra preset adds significant shading and post-processing loads. The boost clock of 2407 MHz helps maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions, as seen in the 1080p results where the combo exceeds 200 FPS on High settings.

The GPU’s 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth is a key factor in its 4K performance. Hitman 2 features large, detailed environments with many textures, and at 4K, the GPU needs to fetch more data per frame. The 32 GB VRAM ensures that the game can load all textures into memory without swapping, but the bandwidth is still a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU’s performance scales predictably with settings: at 4K, the difference between Low (124 FPS) and Ultra (52 FPS) is 72 FPS, indicating that the extra graphical features at Ultra heavily tax the GPU. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p monitors, the RTX 5090 D provides more than enough headroom, but for 4K, the Medium preset is the practical ceiling for smooth gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 270 FPS, which is the maximum measured in this dataset. The Medium preset averages 243 FPS, with a minimum of 207 FPS and a maximum of 280 FPS, indicating excellent frame consistency. The High preset averages 207 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 153 FPS. These numbers show that at 1080p, the user has significant headroom to enable higher settings without sacrificing playability. The gap between Low and Ultra is 117 FPS, reflecting the GPU’s ability to handle the increased load at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a clear step down from 1080p. The Low preset averages 233 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth. The Medium preset averages 175 FPS, with a minimum of 149 FPS and a maximum of 201 FPS. This minimum FPS is above the 144 Hz refresh rate of many 1440p monitors, making Medium an ideal choice for competitive play. The High preset averages 132 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 98 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is noticeable but not severe, confirming that the GPU is still the primary driver of performance at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly stretched. The Low preset averages 124 FPS, which is still playable but a significant drop from the 233 FPS at 1440p. The Medium preset averages 93 FPS, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS. This is the recommended preset for 4K, as it maintains an average above 60 FPS. The High preset averages 71 FPS, which is borderline for a 60 Hz display. The Ultra preset averages 52 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and may result in noticeable stuttering. The data shows that the RTX 5090 D is not sufficient for 4K Ultra in Hitman 2, but it excels at 1080p and 1440p, and handles 4K Medium well. The minimum FPS values are only provided for the Medium preset at each resolution, showing that this setting offers the most stable frame pacing across the board.