Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a severely GPU-bound experience in Hitman 2, with playable frame rates only achievable at 1080p on lower settings. The combination ranks 1755 out of 1795 tested combos for this title, placing it in the bottom 2% of configurations, which is consistent with the GTX 1650’s modest 43rd percentile ranking among all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, sits in the 83rd percentile, a massive disparity that dictates the performance ceiling in every scenario.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, confirming that the GTX 1650 is the dominant constraint. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 39.2 FPS, but moving to 1440p High drops the average to 27.2 FPS, a reduction of roughly 31%. Pushing further to 4K High yields just 11 FPS, which is a 72% collapse from the 1080p figure. This pattern of aggressive scaling with pixel count is the classic signature of a fill-rate and memory-bandwidth-limited GPU.

The scaling behavior becomes even more telling when examining the Low settings preset. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 66.3 FPS, which drops to 46.1 FPS at 1440p Low and then to 21.4 FPS at 4K Low. The 4K Low result is actually slightly higher than the 4K Medium result of 21.2 FPS, indicating that even at the lowest quality settings, the GPU cannot overcome the raw pixel throughput demands of 4K. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is negligible—0.2 FPS—suggesting that the GPU is completely saturated at that resolution, and settings adjustments have almost no impact.

The data indicates that the transition from 1080p to 1440p is the breaking point for this configuration. While 1080p Medium (50.1 FPS) and Low (66.3 FPS) are playable, 1440p Medium (35 FPS) and High (27.2 FPS) fall below the 40 FPS threshold that many consider minimum for action games. The Ultra preset is effectively unplayable at any resolution, with scores of 28.4 FPS at 1080p, 16.2 FPS at 1440p, and 8.7 FPS at 4K. The resolution scaling analysis strongly suggests that users should stay at 1080p and prioritize Low or Medium settings for any semblance of smooth gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is a Turing-architecture part built on a 12 nm process, featuring 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Its memory configuration consists of 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and the card is rated for 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. These specifications are modest by modern standards, and the benchmark data reflects that.

The GTX 1650's percentile rank of 43rd among all GPUs places it below the median, and its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (deltaPct -0.4), AMD Radeon 550X (deltaPct -0.4), NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (deltaPct 0.5), and AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (deltaPct -0.5). These deltas are all within 0.5% of the GTX 1650's average benchmark score of 8713, indicating that this card is clustered with entry-level and older professional parts. Notably, the GTX 1650 is 0.4% slower than the RTX 3050 A Mobile and the Radeon 550X, and 0.5% faster than the Quadro P2200.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity is a significant limitation for Hitman 2, a game that features dense, detailed environments with many NPCs and interactive objects. At 1080p Ultra, the game likely exceeds the 4 GB frame buffer, causing the GPU to spill into system memory, which explains the precipitous drop to 28.4 FPS from the High preset's 39.2 FPS. The memory clock of 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective) combined with the narrow 128-bit bus results in 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is insufficient for 4K texture streaming, as evidenced by the 4K results all being below 22 FPS regardless of settings.

The GPU's compute characteristics also matter. With a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s, the card can only process a finite number of pixels per second. At 4K, the pixel count is over 8.3 million per frame, and at 8.7 FPS on Ultra, the card is delivering roughly 72 million pixels per second, which aligns with its peak fill-rate limits. The FP32 throughput of 2.984 TFLOPS is also a bottleneck for the complex lighting and shadow calculations in Hitman 2's engine, particularly on the Ultra preset which enables additional post-processing effects.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration, providing 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU's integrated Radeon Graphics are present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU setup.

Benchmark results for the Ryzen 5 7600 are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22992 and a single-core score of 3246. Its average benchmark score is 26617, placing it at the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (deltaPct 0.2), Intel Core i9-12900HK (deltaPct -0.2), AMD EPYC 8024P (deltaPct 0.2), and Intel Core i9-11900K (deltaPct 0.3). The Ryzen 7 5800X3D scores 0.2% higher, while the Core i9-12900HK scores 0.2% lower, indicating the 7600 is effectively tied with these high-end parts.

In the context of Hitman 2, the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor. The game's engine is known for being moderately threaded, and the 7600's 12 threads are more than sufficient. The 3DMark results show scaling from 999 points in single-thread to 6503 points in max-threads, indicating good multi-threading efficiency. The PassMark multi-thread score of 27058 and single-thread score of 3910 further confirm that the CPU can handle the game's simulation and AI logic without breaking a sweat.

The evidence for CPU headroom is visible in the FPS data. At 1080p Low, the system hits 66.3 FPS, which is still far from the CPU's potential maximum frame rate. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to plateau at a similar level regardless of GPU settings, but instead, we see a clear progression from 66.3 FPS at Low to 28.4 FPS at Ultra at the same resolution. This indicates that the GPU is the primary limiter, and the Ryzen 5 7600 has ample headroom to drive a faster graphics card if one were installed. The CPU's DDR5 memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s also ensures that texture and geometry data can be fed to the GPU without starvation, although the GPU's own 128.1 GB/s bandwidth is the actual constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the configuration's capabilities across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 66.3 FPS, Medium produces 50.1 FPS, High produces 39.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 28.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 37.9 FPS, showing that settings have a substantial impact at this resolution. The Low preset is the only one that approaches a 60 FPS target, while Medium and High are playable but not smooth, and Ultra is borderline.

At 2560x1440, the performance degrades significantly. Low settings average 46.1 FPS, Medium drops to 35 FPS, High falls to 27.2 FPS, and Ultra plummets to 16.2 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 29.9 FPS, but more importantly, even the Low preset fails to maintain 50 FPS. This resolution is generally not recommended for this combo, as only Low settings approach playability, and the visual quality trade-off is substantial.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings average 21.4 FPS, Medium averages 21.2 FPS, High averages 11 FPS, and Ultra averages 8.7 FPS. The near-identical results for Low and Medium (difference of 0.2 FPS) indicate that the GPU is completely saturated by the pixel count, and settings changes have minimal impact. The gap between Medium and High is a 10.2 FPS drop, suggesting that High enables effects that are particularly punishing on the 4 GB frame buffer. Ultra is effectively a slideshow at 8.7 FPS.

The data reveals an interesting anomaly: the 4K Low result (21.4 FPS) is actually slightly higher than the 4K Medium result (21.2 FPS), which is expected, but the 4K High result (11 FPS) is less than half of Medium. This suggests that the High preset triggers a specific rendering feature—possibly higher-resolution shadows or ambient occlusion—that the GTX 1650's 2.984 TFLOPS of compute cannot handle. The Ultra preset at 8.7 FPS is only 2.3 FPS lower than High, indicating that the additional Ultra features are less impactful than the jump from Medium to High.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings yields 66.3 FPS, which is the only configuration that exceeds 60 FPS. For a balance of quality and performance, 1080p Medium at 50.1 FPS is the highest settings that remain above 50 FPS. Any resolution above 1080p results in average frame rates below 47 FPS even on Low.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this configuration?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 7600 has an average benchmark score of 26617 (83rd percentile), while the GTX 1650 scores 8713 (43rd percentile). The FPS data shows a 37.9 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p, which is a GPU-driven change. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 999 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22992 indicate it has substantial headroom.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The GTX 1650 has an average benchmark score of 8713. It is 0.4% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (8746) and the AMD Radeon 550X (8749). It is 0.5% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8671) and 0.5% slower than the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (8761). All rivals are within a 0.9% range, indicating they are functionally equivalent in performance.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: No. The highest 4K result is 21.4 FPS on Low settings, and the Ultra preset produces only 8.7 FPS. Even the best 4K scenario is below the 30 FPS threshold for playability, and the 4 GB VRAM is insufficient for the game's high-resolution textures. The 4K results are 55-69% lower than the equivalent 1080p results.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Ryzen 5 7600 and its closest CPU rival?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 scores 26617 on average, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (26574) and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i9-12900HK (26672). The deltas are negligible, meaning the CPUs are statistically tied in synthetic benchmarks. For Hitman 2 specifically, the CPU is not the limiter, so this difference has no practical impact on FPS.

Q: Does the Ultra quality preset offer any usable performance at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 28.4 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS minimum for most players. This is a 10.8 FPS drop from High settings (39.2 FPS) and a 21.7 FPS drop from Medium (50.1 FPS). The Ultra preset is only recommended for screenshots or static scenes, not for active gameplay.