Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 pairing delivers a solid, if not spectacular, experience in Hitman 2. With the CPU sitting in the 89th percentile among all tested processors and the GPU in the 61st percentile, this combo lands at rank 1266 out of 3001 tested combinations—roughly the 58th percentile of system pairings. The data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p, frame rates are high enough for smooth stealth play, but 4K Ultra pushes this hardware to its limit, dropping to 28 FPS average.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo in Hitman 2?

A: The data shows 1440p as the sweet spot. At 1440p High, the combo averages 70 FPS, which is playable and visually rich. At 1080p High, it hits 110 FPS, but 1440p offers a better balance of image quality and performance. 4K is only viable at Low settings, where it averages 66 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7500X3D compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500X3D has an average benchmark score of 44573, placing it 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (44466) and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342). It trails the Intel Core i5-14600 by 0.7%, which scores 44889. These are near-identical results, meaning CPU choice among these four makes little practical difference.

Q: Is the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM enough for Hitman 2 at 4K?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient to run the game, but not at high settings. At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 28 FPS, while 4K High averages 38 FPS. Dropping to 4K Medium yields 50 FPS, and 4K Low reaches 66 FPS. The VRAM size does not appear to be a hard bottleneck; the GPU's compute limits are more evident.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the measured average is 146 FPS, with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 stack up against its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 17208. It sits 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083), 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037), and 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17019). It trails the NVIDIA Tesla K40c by 1.5%, which scores 17468. These deltas are within a couple of percent, so performance is closely matched.

Q: Should I use the Ultra preset or the High preset?

A: The data shows a significant gap. At 1080p, Ultra averages 81 FPS while High averages 110 FPS—a 29 FPS difference. At 1440p, Ultra averages 52 FPS versus High's 70 FPS. At 4K, Ultra drops to 28 FPS, making it nearly unplayable, while High stays at 38 FPS. For smoother gameplay, High is the better choice across all resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture, using the GA104 chip fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It packs 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines. The GPU also includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, though Hitman 2's measured results do not isolate ray tracing performance. The card runs at a base clock of 1500 MHz and boosts to 1725 MHz. Memory is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is listed at 1750 MHz, with 14 Gbps effective data rate.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role shifts dramatically with resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 194 FPS, which suggests the CPU is feeding frames faster than the GPU can render at higher settings. As resolution climbs, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. At 4K Low, the average drops to 66 FPS; at 4K High, it falls to 38 FPS; and at 4K Ultra, it bottoms out at 28 FPS. This pattern indicates that the RTX 3070's 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 317.4 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient for lower settings but struggle with the full visual load at 4K.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is worth noting. Hitman 2's levels are detailed but not excessively large, and the measured FPS does not show a sudden collapse that would indicate VRAM swapping. The card's pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s are more relevant to the 4K performance drop. The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is adequate for the data set, as evidenced by the linear scaling from 1080p to 1440p and then to 4K.

The RTX 3070's benchmark scores provide context. Its Passmark G3D score is 22214, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 112821. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 3162. These numbers place it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, is only 0.7% slower on average, so users should not expect a dramatic difference between these cards. The GPU's compute performance, as measured by Passmark GPU Compute at 11195, aligns with its gaming results—capable but not top-tier.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how this combo scales from 1080p to 4K. Starting at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average is 194 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low, the average drops to 124 FPS—a 36% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 66 FPS, another 47% drop from 1440p. This scaling is roughly proportional to the pixel count increase: 1080p has about 2.1 million pixels, 1440p has about 3.7 million, and 4K has about 8.3 million. The frame rate decreases accordingly, indicating a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions.

Under Medium settings, the pattern holds. At 1080p, the average is 146 FPS with a minimum of 124 and maximum of 168. At 1440p, it drops to 93 FPS (minimum 79, maximum 107). At 4K, it falls to 50 FPS (minimum 42, maximum 57). The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is about 36%, and from 1440p to 4K it is about 46%. This consistent scaling suggests that neither the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads nor its 96 MB of shared L3 cache is causing a bottleneck at these settings.

High settings show a similar trend. At 1080p, the average is 110 FPS. At 1440p, it is 70 FPS (a 36% drop). At 4K, it is 38 FPS (a 46% drop from 1440p). Ultra settings compress the range: 81 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 28 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 36%, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 46%. The near-constant percentage reductions across settings indicate that the limiting component is the GPU's rendering throughput, not the CPU's ability to issue draw calls or process game logic.

The implication for users is straightforward: if you want to play at 4K, you must accept Low or Medium settings to stay above 50 FPS. If you prioritize visual fidelity, 1440p High at 70 FPS is the most balanced option. At 1080p, even Ultra settings deliver 81 FPS, which is smooth for most displays. The scaling pattern also suggests that the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM is not the primary constraint; the compute units and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings yield an average of 194 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 146 FPS, with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS. High settings average 110 FPS. Ultra settings average 81 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is a 48 FPS reduction, while from Medium to High it is 36 FPS, and from High to Ultra it is 29 FPS. This shows diminishing returns in frame rate as settings climb, but even Ultra remains above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 124 FPS, Medium at 93 FPS (minimum 79, maximum 107), High at 70 FPS, and Ultra at 52 FPS. The delta from Low to Medium is 31 FPS, from Medium to High is 23 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 18 FPS. Ultra dips below the 60 FPS threshold, making it less ideal for fast-paced action, though Hitman 2's stealth gameplay can tolerate lower frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 66 FPS, Medium at 50 FPS (minimum 42, maximum 57), High at 38 FPS, and Ultra at 28 FPS. The delta from Low to Medium is 16 FPS, from Medium to High is 12 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 10 FPS. Only Low settings clear 60 FPS at 4K. Medium is playable at 50 FPS, but High and Ultra are below 40 FPS, which will feel sluggish in crowded scenes.

The minimum and maximum values provided only for Medium settings give a sense of frame time variance. At 1080p, the range is 124 to 168 FPS, a 44 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range is 79 to 107 FPS, a 28 FPS spread. At 4K, the range is 42 to 57 FPS, a 15 FPS spread. The tighter range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is consistently saturated, reducing the impact of scene complexity on frame pacing. At lower resolutions, the CPU has more headroom, leading to larger fluctuations.

These numbers indicate that the combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 1080p, you can max out settings and still get 81 FPS. At 1440p, High settings at 70 FPS is a good target. At 4K, you are limited to Low or Medium settings for acceptable performance. The data does not include ray tracing or DLSS results, so those features are not assessed here.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination ranks 1266 out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all pairings, above the median but well behind top-end systems. The CPU's percentile ranking of 89 among all processors is strong, while the GPU's percentile of 61 is more modest. This asymmetry means the system is limited by the GPU in most scenarios, especially at higher resolutions.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 7500X3D scores 44573 on average. The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H scores 44466 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core i9-13950HX scores 44342 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 scores 44309 (0.6% lower). The Intel Core i5-14600 scores 44889, which is 0.7% higher. These differences are within 1%, so swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would not materially change Hitman 2's frame rates. The 96 MB of shared L3 cache on the Ryzen 5 7500X3D may help in CPU-bound scenes, but the measured FPS at 1080p Low (194 FPS) suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at typical settings.

For the GPU, the RTX 3070's average score of 17208 is closely matched by its rivals. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT scores 17083 (0.7% lower), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17037 (1% lower), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M scores 17019 (1.1% lower). The NVIDIA Tesla K40c scores 17468 (1.5% higher). Again, these deltas are small. In practice, the RTX 3070's performance at 4K High (38 FPS) and 4K Ultra (28 FPS) would be similar with any of these cards, given the sub-2% benchmark differences.

The combo's rank of 1266 out of 3001 means that about 58% of tested combinations are faster. This is not a top-tier pairing, but it is far from the bottom. The data indicates that for Hitman 2, the GPU is the primary limiter. Upgrading to a faster GPU would yield larger gains than upgrading the CPU. Conversely, if you already own this combo, you can maximize performance by adjusting settings rather than replacing hardware.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the best experience depends on your display resolution. At 1080p, the Ultra preset averages 81 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target. If you have a 144 Hz monitor, High settings at 110 FPS will provide a smoother experience with only a modest visual trade-off. Medium settings at 146 FPS are even better for competitive play, though Hitman 2's stealth mechanics do not require extreme frame rates. For most users, High at 1080p is the recommended balance.

At 1440p, High settings deliver 70 FPS, which is the sweet spot. Ultra drops to 52 FPS, which is below 60 and may introduce noticeable stutter in crowded areas. Medium settings at 93 FPS are an option if you prefer higher frame rates, but the visual quality reduction from High to Medium is significant. The data shows a 23 FPS gap between Medium and High, so if your monitor supports 60 Hz, High is the clear choice. If you have a 144 Hz display, Medium will use more of its potential.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. Low settings average 66 FPS, which is playable but visually sparse. Medium averages 50 FPS, which is acceptable for a stealth game where you control the pace. High averages 38 FPS and Ultra averages 28 FPS—both are below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The recommendation is to use Low or Medium at 4K. If you prefer higher settings, you should drop to 1440p where High achieves 70 FPS.

The Medium preset's measured minimum and maximum values provide insight into frame consistency. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 42 FPS and the maximum is 57 FPS, meaning the average of 50 FPS is stable within a narrow band. At 1440p Medium, the range is 79 to 107 FPS, and at 1080p Medium, it is 124 to 168 FPS. These ranges indicate that Medium settings produce predictable performance, with no severe drops. For a game like Hitman 2, where you often wait and observe, frame consistency matters more than peak FPS.

In summary, the data suggests the following: at 1080p, use High for a balance of quality and speed, or Ultra if you have a 60 Hz monitor. At 1440p, use High for 70 FPS, or Medium if you want to push past 90 FPS. At 4K, use Low for 66 FPS or Medium for 50 FPS, accepting the visual compromises. Avoid Ultra at 1440p and 4K, as the frame rate drops below 60 FPS and 40 FPS respectively. This combo is best used as a 1440p gaming system, with 1080p as a high-refresh-rate fallback.