Hitman 2

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across the three tested resolutions reveal a clear pattern of GPU scaling in Hitman 2. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 184.8 FPS, which climbs to 289.7 FPS at Low settings and settles at 134.1 FPS at Ultra. Moving to 1440p, the High preset drops to 117.1 FPS, a 36.6% reduction from the 1080p High result, while Ultra falls to 84.2 FPS. At 4K, the scaling becomes more pronounced: High settings yield 64.7 FPS, and Ultra drops sharply to 44.3 FPS.

The 4K-to-1080p ratio at High settings is 0.35, meaning the 4K frame rate is roughly one-third of the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the rendering load scales with pixel count. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, has ample headroom to feed the GPU at 1080p, evidenced by the 289.7 FPS Low result, but the GPU's compute throughput becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

The spread between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (289.7 FPS) and Ultra (134.1 FPS) is 155.6 FPS, a 2.16x multiplier. At 4K, the same comparison yields 108.2 FPS versus 44.3 FPS, a 2.44x multiplier. This widening gap suggests that the RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient at all settings, but the shading workload at Ultra 4K pushes the GPU's 10,752 shading units to their limit. The data shows a balanced scaling curve, with no anomalous drops that would indicate driver overhead or memory capacity issues; the performance degradation is smooth and predictable across the resolution ladder.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The average frame rate is 44.3 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly targeted for smooth gameplay. This result indicates that the RTX 5080, despite its high absolute performance, is heavily loaded by Hitman 2's Ultra preset at 3840x2160.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rate play?

A: At 1080p High, the combo delivers 184.8 FPS, and at 1440p High it reaches 117.1 FPS. Both exceed typical 144 Hz refresh rates, but the 1080p Medium result of 240.9 FPS is the only tested configuration that clears a 240 Hz ceiling.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600 has an average benchmark score of 21,765, which is 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21,635) and 0.9% ahead of the Intel Core i7-11700F (21,957). It trails the AMD EPYC 9554P (21,899) by 0.6% and the AMD EPYC 9534 (21,900) by 0.6%.

Q: Is the GPU's performance consistent with its benchmark standing?

A: The RTX 5080 sits at the 89th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 59,188. In the game data, it produces 117.1 FPS at 1440p High, which is a strong result for a title from 2018. The nearest rival, the Intel Arc A570M (58,239), trails by 1.6%, while the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326) leads by 1.9%.

Q: What does the 1080p Low result tell us about the CPU?

A: The 289.7 FPS figure at 1080p Low is the highest measured result in the entire dataset, suggesting that the Ryzen 5 5600's 6 cores and 12 threads are not a limiting factor even at very high frame rates. The CPU's single-thread score of 3,256 in PassMark and 2,584 in Cinebench R23 support this interpretation.

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

A: The combination ranks 96th out of 1,795 tested combos for Hitman 2, placing it in the top 5.3% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong pairing of a 79th-percentile CPU with an 89th-percentile GPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz are modest by modern standards, but the architecture's efficiency compensates. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for Hitman 2's stealth gameplay, which features large, detailed environments with many NPCs and physics interactions.

Benchmark results show the CPU's balanced profile: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18,309 and single-core score of 2,584. The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Hitman 2, which is known to rely on a few primary threads for game logic and scene management. The PassMark single-thread score of 3,256 and 3DMark single-thread score of 882 indicate that the CPU can maintain high instruction throughput per core, which is essential for maintaining minimum frame rates in crowded scenes.

The data supports the conclusion that the Ryzen 5 5600 is not the bottleneck in this configuration. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 289.7 FPS, which is well beyond typical display refresh rates. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 134.1 FPS result suggests the CPU can feed the GPU without stalling, as the frame rate drops by only 8.7% from High to Ultra at this resolution. The CPU's 79th percentile ranking among all processors, while not elite, places it comfortably ahead of the vast majority of systems that would pair with this GPU class.

The 3DMark multi-threaded tests show a scaling pattern from 1,737 at 2 threads to 5,659 at max threads, indicating good thread utilization. PassMark multi-thread score of 21,541 and data encryption score of 15,531 further confirm the CPU's capability in mixed workloads. However, the nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark data are primarily server and workstation parts (EPYC 9554P, EPYC 9534, Xeon D-1746TER), which have higher core counts but similar average scores due to lower single-thread performance. This suggests the Ryzen 5 5600 offers competitive multi-threaded performance for a desktop part, while its single-thread lead is more relevant for gaming workloads like Hitman 2.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 96th out of 1,795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 5.4% of all configurations. This is a strong result that reflects the GPU's high absolute performance rather than the CPU's modest standing. The RTX 5080's 89th percentile ranking among all GPUs is the primary driver of this composite rank, while the CPU's 79th percentile ranking contributes positively but less decisively.

Examining the performance tiers within the combo's results, the 4K High frame rate of 64.7 FPS is the most demanding common scenario, and this result sits well above the 30 FPS minimum typically considered playable. The 1440p High result of 117.1 FPS is particularly strong for a game of Hitman 2's era, suggesting that this combo can handle the game at high refresh rates with room to spare. The 1080p results, ranging from 134.1 FPS at Ultra to 289.7 FPS at Low, demonstrate that the combo is overkill for 1080p gaming in this title, with even the most demanding preset exceeding 130 FPS.

The rank of 96 out of 1,795 is notable because it places this combo in the same performance bracket as systems with significantly more expensive CPUs. The data indicates that Hitman 2 is GPU-bound at most settings, meaning that the RTX 5080's 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 293.1 GPixel/s pixel rate are the determining factors. The CPU's 3DMark max-thread score of 5,659 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18,309 are sufficient to avoid holding back the GPU, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from 1080p to 1440p (a 1.58x frame rate reduction at High settings, closely matching the 2.25x pixel count increase).

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Hitman 2's textures and geometry at 4K Ultra. The GPU's clock speeds are set at a 2,295 MHz base and 2,617 MHz boost, with memory running at 1,875 MHz (30 Gbps effective), enabling a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s.

The measured frame rates show how the GPU scales with settings. At 4K, the progression from Low (108.2 FPS) to Medium (84.3 FPS) to High (64.7 FPS) to Ultra (44.3 FPS) demonstrates a linear relationship between rendering complexity and performance. The Ultra preset at 4K nearly halves the Low preset's frame rate, reflecting the additional shading and post-processing work that the 10,752 shading units must complete. The 112 ROPs and 336 TMUs are well-balanced for this workload, as evidenced by the absence of any sudden frame rate collapses.

The RTX 5080's benchmark standing is strong but not dominant: it sits at the 89th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 59,188. The nearest rivals in the benchmark data are mid-range Intel parts (Arc A570M, Arc Pro A60, Arc A580) and an AMD workstation GPU (Radeon Pro W5500X), with deltas ranging from -1.9% to +2.6%. This suggests that the RTX 5080 competes in a performance band above typical consumer GPUs, but the gap to the top tier is substantial. In Hitman 2 specifically, the 4K Ultra result of 44.3 FPS indicates that even this high-end GPU struggles with maximum settings at 4K, a signal of the game's demanding shader work.

The GPU's 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores are present but largely idle in Hitman 2, which does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS. This means the measured frame rates represent pure rasterization performance. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for this game; even at 4K Ultra, memory bandwidth and capacity are unlikely to be constraints, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from High to Ultra (a 31.5% frame rate drop for a significant settings increase). The GPU's dual-slot design and 360 W TDP are consistent with its performance class, and the PCIe 5.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for data transfer from the CPU's Gen 4 lanes.