Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with AMD Ryzen 5 5600X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a strong showing in Hitman 2, ranking 59th out of 1,795 tested CPU/GPU combinations. This places the combo in the top percentile of systems, with the RTX 4090 sitting at the 91st percentile among all GPUs and the Ryzen 5 5600X at the 78th percentile among all CPUs. The data measured across three resolutions and four quality settings reveals a system capable of high frame rates even at demanding presets, though the relationship between resolution scaling and component utilization tells a nuanced story about where the bottlenecks lie.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 297.8 FPS, which drops to 214.6 FPS at 1440p and 113.2 FPS at 4K. This represents a 28% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a further 47% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scale of these drops indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU is the limiting factor, as the RTX 4090 has ample headroom to render frames far faster than the Ryzen 5 5600X can feed it.

Moving to High settings, the pattern shifts somewhat. At 1080p High, the system produces 191.5 FPS, dropping to 120 FPS at 1440p (a 37% reduction) and 64.9 FPS at 4K (a 46% reduction from 1440p). The larger percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p at High settings compared to Low settings suggests that the increased GPU workload is starting to engage the graphics card more substantially, though the RTX 4090 still has considerable performance in reserve.

At Ultra settings, the scaling becomes more linear: 140.4 FPS at 1080p, 90.2 FPS at 1440p (a 36% drop), and 46.5 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop from 1440p). The consistent ~35-50% reductions across settings tiers indicate that the RTX 4090's massive shading capability — 16,384 shading units running at a boost clock of 2520 MHz — is being progressively taxed as pixel count rises. The 4K Ultra result of 46.5 FPS is the only measured figure below 60 FPS, suggesting that at maximum settings and resolution, the combination is GPU-bound in a way that limits playability for smooth 60 Hz displays.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (codename Vermeer) built on TSMC's 7 nm process. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 917 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,622. These metrics are critical for Hitman 2, which relies heavily on single-threaded game logic and draw call processing.

The CPU's benchmark results show a marked improvement in multi-threaded workloads: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 18,578 while the 3DMark max-threads score reaches 5,588. The 12 threads enable the processor to handle background tasks and engine simulation without starving the render thread, but the data suggests that Hitman 2's performance ceiling at lower resolutions is set by the CPU's per-core throughput rather than its aggregate capability.

Comparing the 5600X to its nearest rivals, the average benchmark score of 20,680 places it just 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT (20,740) and Intel Core i7-10700 (20,746), and 0.5% behind the Intel Core i5-12490F (20,794). The only rival ahead is the Intel Xeon 6325P at 20,538, which the 5600X beats by 0.7%. These narrow margins — all within 0.7% — indicate that the 5600X is well-positioned among contemporary mid-range processors, but its 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s mean it cannot fully feed the RTX 4090 at high frame rates.

At 1080p Low, the 297.8 FPS result is likely bottlenecked by the CPU's single-thread performance, as the RTX 4090 could theoretically render far more frames given its 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,793 and 4-thread score of 3,363 highlight that the processor's strength lies in moderate thread counts, which aligns with Hitman 2's engine characteristics.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Hitman 2?

A: At 1440p High, the system delivers 120 FPS, which is a strong balance of visual quality and performance. For maximum fidelity, 4K High produces 64.9 FPS, staying above 60 FPS, while 4K Ultra drops to 46.5 FPS, which may be below the target for smooth gameplay on high-refresh displays.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600X compare to its nearest CPU rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The 5600X has an average benchmark score of 20,680, which is 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT (20,740) and Intel Core i7-10700 (20,746), 0.5% behind the Intel Core i5-12490F (20,794), and 0.7% ahead of the Intel Xeon 6325P (20,538). All differences are within 0.7%, indicating near-identical aggregate performance.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 1080p in Hitman 2?

A: No. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 297.8 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra it reaches 140.4 FPS. Given the GPU's 91st percentile ranking and massive compute resources, the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution, as the 5600X cannot generate frame data fast enough to fully utilize the RTX 4090.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At 1440p High, the average FPS is 120, dropping to 64.9 FPS at 4K High. This is a 46% reduction, indicating that the increased pixel count heavily engages the GPU while the CPU has more headroom relative to the lower resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's benchmark performance compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 66,473, which is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733), 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66,127), 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67,097), and 1.3% behind the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67,320). The differences are minimal, though these rivals are not direct gaming counterparts.

Q: Can the system maintain 60 FPS at 4K in Hitman 2?

A: At 4K High, the average FPS is 64.9, which is above 60. At 4K Medium, it rises to 85.8 FPS, and at 4K Low it reaches 113.2 FPS. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 46.5 FPS, falling below the 60 FPS threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings yield 297.8 FPS, Medium settings deliver 252.8 FPS, High settings achieve 191.5 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 140.4 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 157.4 FPS, showing that quality presets have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected reduction. Low settings deliver 214.6 FPS, Medium settings achieve 162 FPS, High settings produce 120 FPS, and Ultra settings result in 90.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 124.4 FPS, a slightly narrower range than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more engaged.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly across the board. Low settings average 113.2 FPS, Medium settings average 85.8 FPS, High settings average 64.9 FPS, and Ultra settings average 46.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 66.7 FPS, the smallest range of the three resolutions, confirming that the RTX 4090's workload is the dominant factor at 4K.

The data shows that the system is capable of exceeding 100 FPS at 1080p even on Ultra settings, and at 1440p it maintains above 90 FPS on Ultra. The only configuration that falls below 60 FPS is 4K Ultra, where the combination of the GPU's rendering load and the CPU's per-thread throughput creates a performance ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is an Ada Lovelace architecture GPU (chip AD102) built on TSMC's 5 nm process, with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. Its memory subsystem consists of 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective).

The RTX 4090's compute resources are substantial: 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, 176 ROPs, 128 RT cores, and 512 tensor cores. This translates to 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s. In Hitman 2, these specifications explain why the GPU is rarely the limiting factor until 4K Ultra settings are applied.

The GPU's benchmark results reinforce its position: a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 317,684, and a Vulkan score of 270,615. The Passmark G3D score of 38,194 places it at the 91st percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals show minimal score differences — the NVIDIA Tesla T4 is 0.4% ahead, the Tesla P40 is 0.5% behind, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is 0.9% ahead, and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 is 1.3% ahead — though these are professional workstation cards rather than gaming-focused products.

In the context of Hitman 2, the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM is far more than the game requires, even at 4K with Ultra settings. The GPU's 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and asset loading do not become bottlenecks. The measured frame rates show that the GPU scales predictably with resolution: at 4K High, it produces 64.9 FPS, which is 34% of the 191.5 FPS seen at 1080p High. This scaling factor aligns with the pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K (approximately 4x), though the actual drop is less severe due to the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions.

The RTX 4090's role becomes most apparent at 4K Ultra, where the 46.5 FPS result indicates that the GPU's shading units and ROPs are being fully utilized. The 176 ROPs and 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient for this workload, but the combination of high-resolution rendering and Ultra-quality effects pushes the GPU to its limits. At lower resolutions, the GPU's performance headroom is so large that the CPU becomes the primary constraint, particularly at 1080p where even Ultra settings produce over 140 FPS.