Hitman 2

Hitman 2, a stealth title built on the Glacier engine, presents an interesting scaling pattern when paired with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D. The measured data reveals that this combination is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU's strong single-threaded performance keeps frame rates exceptionally high at 1080p. The benchmark results show a clear progression of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the most significant drops occurring between 1440p and 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a dramatic shift in performance as resolution scales from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 297 FPS, which drops to 234 FPS at 1440p and further to 124 FPS at 4K. This represents a 58.2% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the RTX 5090 D's massive compute resources are being progressively more taxed by the increasing pixel count.

The scaling pattern shifts noticeably at higher settings. With High settings, the average frame rate goes from 207 FPS at 1080p to 132 FPS at 1440p, then down to 71 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is 65.7%, which is larger than the Low settings drop. This suggests that as settings increase, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, with the additional visual effects and draw distances placing more strain on the rendering pipeline.

Ultra settings exhibit the most extreme scaling behavior. At 1080p, the combo still manages 153 FPS, but this falls to 98 FPS at 1440p and just 52 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, showing a 66.0% reduction from the 1080p Ultra figure. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are not the bottleneck; rather, the sheer computational load of Ultra settings at 4K overwhelms even this flagship GPU.

The Medium settings row provides the only min/max FPS data across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the average is 267 FPS with a minimum of 227 and maximum of 308, showing a 26.7% variance between the lowest and highest frames. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 175 FPS with min/max of 149/201, a 27.4% variance. The 4K Medium result shows an average of 93 FPS with min/max of 79/107, which represents a 30.1% variance. This increasing frame time variance at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is working closer to its limits, causing more inconsistent frame pacing.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a rank of 42 out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 1.4% of all tested configurations, indicating exceptional overall performance for this title. The high ranking is particularly notable given that the CPU was released in 2020 and represents a mid-range desktop processor from that generation, while the GPU is a 2025 flagship.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 21771 places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H at 21749, a mere 0.1% difference. Interestingly, the CPU also sits very close to the Intel Core i7-11700, which scores 21891, just 0.5% higher. This closeness in synthetic benchmarks suggests that the Ryzen 5 5600X's six cores and twelve threads are competitive with higher-core-count parts in the aggregate, though its single-threaded scores (Cinebench R23 single-core of 1541, Geekbench single-core of 1989) are what likely drive Hitman 2's strong performance.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 77712 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78940, which is 1.6% higher. The RTX 5090 D sits just 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT in average score, despite being a much more powerful card in terms of raw specifications. This benchmark clustering suggests that the synthetic tests may not fully capture the RTX 5090 D's capabilities in real-world gaming scenarios, where its 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth prove more impactful.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, all four settings presets deliver playable frame rates, with Low at 297 FPS, Medium at 267 FPS, High at 207 FPS, and Ultra at 153 FPS. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, the Medium preset offers an excellent balance, providing 267 FPS while maintaining reasonable visual fidelity. The High preset at 207 FPS is also viable for 144Hz displays, but the jump from Medium to High costs 60 FPS (22.5% reduction) for what is likely a modest visual improvement.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more nuanced. The Low preset achieves 234 FPS, Medium hits 175 FPS, and High drops to 132 FPS. For 144Hz monitors, the High preset at 132 FPS is borderline, while Medium at 175 FPS provides comfortable headroom. The Ultra preset at 98 FPS is playable but may not fully utilize high-refresh displays. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p, offering 175 FPS with min/max of 149/201, which ensures consistent frame delivery above most refresh rate targets.

At 4K, the High preset produces 71 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on standard displays. The Medium preset at 93 FPS provides more comfortable headroom, with min/max of 79/107 ensuring that even the lowest frames remain above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 52 FPS dips below the 60 FPS target and should be avoided for serious gameplay. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, as it delivers 93 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS, providing a consistently smooth experience without the visual compromises of Low settings.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming at 60 FPS in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, but only with specific settings. The Medium preset at 4K delivers 93 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS, while the High preset achieves 71 FPS average. The Ultra preset falls below 60 FPS at 52 FPS average.

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

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904) and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 2.4%.

Q: What is the CPU's single-threaded performance relative to its multi-threaded performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600X scores 1541 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 11838 in multi-core, showing a 7.68x scaling factor. Its Geekbench scores are 1989 single-core and 9173 multi-core, a 4.61x factor. The PassMark single-thread score is 3364.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of VRAM make a difference in Hitman 2?

A: The data does not show VRAM capacity as a limiting factor at any resolution or settings level. The GPU maintains performance scaling consistent with compute load rather than memory capacity constraints, suggesting that 32 GB is more than sufficient for this title.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Hitman 2?

A: The combo achieves rank 42 out of 3001 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1.4% of all tested systems for this specific game.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at higher resolutions?

A: The Medium settings data shows increasing variance with resolution: 26.7% at 1080p, 27.4% at 1440p, and 30.1% at 4K, indicating less consistent frame pacing as the GPU becomes more stressed.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. Its clock speeds are 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory operates across a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for handling the large texture and geometry data in Hitman 2's detailed environments.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial, with 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. It also includes 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores, though Hitman 2's engine primarily relies on traditional rasterization. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s provide ample fill rate for the game's visual effects, including shadows, reflections, and particle systems.

In the measured FPS data, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 297 FPS, which is likely CPU-limited given the Ryzen 5 5600X's capabilities. However, at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 52 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the bottleneck. The 58.2% drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low, and the 66.0% drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra, demonstrate that the GPU's rendering workload scales superlinearly with pixel count and settings complexity.

The GPU's benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 44065 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 376915, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are mobile GPUs like the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and RX 6850M XT, which have significantly lower memory bandwidth and compute resources, yet score similarly in aggregate benchmarks. This discrepancy highlights the RTX 5090 D's specialization in high-resolution, high-settings gaming workloads where its full capabilities are utilized.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a Zen 3 architecture processor codenamed Vermeer, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It features 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz, drawing 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth, connected via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 32 MB L3 shared across all cores.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 297 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability for this title. The 3DMark single-thread score of 917 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1541 indicate strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for Hitman 2's game logic and AI processing. The PassMark single-thread score of 3364 further confirms this strength.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance, while not as dominant, is still respectable. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11838 and 3DMark max threads score of 5588 show that the six-core design handles concurrent workloads effectively. The PassMark multithread score of 21858 places the CPU in the 75th percentile, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H at 21749, just 0.1% higher. This indicates that the Ryzen 5 5600X is well-balanced for gaming workloads that rely more on single-thread performance than multi-thread scaling.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 21771 and its position in the 75th percentile suggest that it is not the limiting factor in this combo, even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The data shows that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases, with the CPU's performance remaining sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 D at all tested settings. This balance is reflected in the combo's rank of 42 out of 3001, which demonstrates that the pairing works well together despite the generational gap between the two components.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves 297 FPS average, while Medium produces 267 FPS with a minimum of 227 and maximum of 308. The High preset drops to 207 FPS, and Ultra manages 153 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 48.5% reduction in average FPS, indicating that the visual enhancements at higher presets come at a significant performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales downward proportionally. Low settings produce 234 FPS, Medium delivers 175 FPS with min/max of 149/201, High achieves 132 FPS, and Ultra drops to 98 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 58.1% at this resolution, slightly larger than at 1080p. The Medium preset's minimum of 149 FPS ensures that even the worst-case frame times remain above the 144Hz refresh rate threshold.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates show the most pronounced impact of resolution. The Low preset yields 124 FPS, Medium produces 93 FPS with min/max of 79/107, High drops to 71 FPS, and Ultra falls to 52 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 58.1%, matching the 1440p ratio. However, the absolute frame rates are much lower, with only the Low and Medium presets maintaining averages above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 52 FPS is below the standard 60 FPS target, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

The data reveals that the Medium preset offers the most consistent performance across all resolutions, with the only complete min/max FPS measurements in the dataset. At 1080p, the 227-308 FPS range shows a 26.7% variance; at 1440p, the 149-201 FPS range shows 27.4% variance; and at 4K, the 79-107 FPS range shows 30.1% variance. This increasing variance at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU's workload becomes less predictable as pixel count increases, potentially due to varying scene complexity and memory access patterns.