Hitman 2

Settings Recommendations

For Hitman 2 with the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, the High preset delivers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, High produces 172 FPS average, which is 46 FPS above the Medium preset's 227 FPS? No—High is actually below Medium in raw frame rate, but the data indicates that High offers a more consistent performance envelope when considering the entire resolution range. At 1440p, High averages 110 FPS, and at 4K it holds 58 FPS. This combination means High is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS at 1440p and remains playable at 4K without dropping into the 40s.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding and should be avoided for competitive play. It delivers 126 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p, and only 43 FPS at 4K. The gap between High and Ultra is substantial: at 4K, Ultra is 15 FPS slower than High (58 vs 43), representing a 26% performance penalty. At 1080p, the penalty is 46 FPS (172 vs 126), a 27% reduction. This suggests that Ultra settings impose a heavy cost that yields diminishing visual returns in a stealth game where framerate consistency matters for smooth camera pans.

Medium is the best choice for high-refresh monitors. At 1080p, Medium hits 227 FPS average with a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 261 FPS. This is the only preset at 1080p that maintains a floor above 190 FPS, making it ideal for 240Hz displays. At 1440p, Medium still provides 145 FPS average with a 123 FPS minimum, which comfortably exceeds 120Hz refresh rates. The trade-off is that Medium at 4K drops to 77 FPS average with a 66 FPS minimum, which is still smooth but not as fluid as High's 58 FPS? Actually, Medium at 4K is faster than High at 4K (77 vs 58), so the data shows Medium is consistently faster than High across all resolutions.

Low preset is unnecessary for this hardware combination except for extreme framerate chasing. At 1080p, Low produces 302 FPS average, which is 75 FPS above Medium. At 1440p, Low hits 193 FPS, and at 4K it reaches 103 FPS. The Low preset's 4K performance (103 FPS) exceeds what High achieves at 1440p (110 FPS)? No, 103 is below 110, but the point is that Low at 4K is faster than Medium at 4K (103 vs 77) and High at 4K (103 vs 58). For players who prioritize frame rate over fidelity, Low at 4K offers a superior experience to High at 1440p in terms of raw FPS, though the resolution difference is significant.

The data strongly suggests that High at 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo. It produces 110 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and it leverages the RTX 4080's capabilities without pushing the CPU into a bottleneck. At 4K, High's 58 FPS is borderline; players with G-SYNC displays will find it acceptable, but those seeking a locked 60 FPS should drop to Medium (77 FPS) or Low (103 FPS).

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for Hitman 2's textures and geometry at all tested resolutions. The GPU's 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs deliver the raw compute necessary to drive the frame rates observed. With a boost clock of 2505 MHz and a base clock of 2205 MHz, the RTX 4080 scales predictably across settings.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 86 versus all GPUs places it in the upper tier, and its average benchmark score of 54247 is nearly identical to the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209), a 0.1% delta. The nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828, -1.1%) and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698, -2.6%), indicating the RTX 4080 sits slightly below those alternatives in aggregate benchmarks but still delivers class-leading real-world performance in Hitman 2.

The memory configuration is particularly relevant at 4K Ultra. The game's Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages only 43 FPS, suggesting that even 16 GB of VRAM is not the limiting factor—rather, the computational load of Ultra settings at 4K overwhelms the GPU's shader throughput. The transition from High to Ultra at 4K (58 to 43 FPS) represents a 15 FPS drop, while the transition from Low to Medium (103 to 77 FPS) is a 26 FPS drop. This non-linear scaling indicates that Ultra settings introduce effects that disproportionately tax the GPU's resources.

The RTX 4080's Ada Lovelace architecture with 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores does not appear to provide a measurable advantage in this game, as Hitman 2's rasterization workload dominates. The GPU's FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are the key metrics driving the observed frame rates. The pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s becomes relevant at 4K, where the GPU must fill over 8.3 million pixels per frame.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 provides a 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz and a base clock of 3.80 GHz, which is more than sufficient for Hitman 2's stealth gameplay. The CPU's Zen 4 architecture (Raphael) on a 5 nm TSMC process gives it a 32 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core, reducing memory latency in scenes with many NPCs and interactive objects. The 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR5 support ensures the CPU can feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 78 versus all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 26324 places it in a competitive position. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (26274, 0.2% delta), the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (26402, -0.3%), and the Intel Core i9-11900KF (26212, 0.4%). These deltas are negligible, meaning the Ryzen 5 7600 performs equivalently to these alternatives in synthetic tests, but its real-world gaming performance in Hitman 2 is driven by its strong single-thread capabilities.

The single-thread performance is critical for Hitman 2's game logic. The CPU scores 999 in 3DMark single-thread, 298 in Cinebench R15 single-core, and 1852 in Cinebench R23 single-core. These scores indicate that the Ryzen 5 7600 can handle the game's AI and physics calculations without creating frame hitches. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1938 further confirms that the CPU excels in lightly-threaded workloads, which is typical for this game's engine.

At 1080p Low, the CPU becomes the primary limiting factor. The RTX 4080 produces 302 FPS at this setting, and while the CPU can maintain this pace, the fact that the 3DMark max-thread score is only 6503 (versus 6499 for 16-thread) suggests the CPU is near its performance ceiling. The game's frame rate at 1080p Low (302 FPS) is likely constrained by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls, not by the GPU's rendering capacity. This is evidenced by the fact that the same GPU produces 193 FPS at 1440p Low and 103 FPS at 4K Low—the scaling is not linear, indicating that the CPU has more headroom at higher resolutions.

The CPU's 65W TDP and 6 cores are sufficient for this game, but the data shows that the Ryzen 5 7600 does not bottleneck the RTX 4080 at 4K. At 4K High, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the CPU could likely push higher frame rates if the GPU were faster. The measured FPS at 4K High (58) is exactly half of the 1080p High (172), which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where pixel count quadruples and frame rate halves.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1440p High provides the best balance with 110 FPS average, while 4K High is playable at 58 FPS. For maximum smoothness, 1080p Medium delivers 227 FPS average with a 193 FPS minimum.

Q: Does the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM matter for Hitman 2?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is more than enough for this game. The performance drops at 4K Ultra (43 FPS) are caused by GPU computational limits, not VRAM capacity, as even the 4K Low preset (103 FPS) uses the same memory pool.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7600 compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 has an average benchmark score of 26324, which is 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (26274), 0.3% below the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (26402), and 0.4% above the Intel Core i9-11900KF (26212). These differences are negligible.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth the performance cost?

A: No. At 4K, Ultra averages 43 FPS compared to High's 58 FPS, a 15 FPS penalty. At 1080p, Ultra averages 126 FPS versus High's 172 FPS, a 46 FPS penalty. The visual improvements likely do not justify the frame rate reduction for a stealth game.

Q: What causes the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K?

A: At 1080p High, the GPU renders 2.07 million pixels per frame, while at 4K High it renders 8.29 million pixels—a 4x increase. The frame rate drops from 172 to 58 FPS, which is approximately a 3x reduction, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Only with Medium or Low settings. Medium averages 77 FPS with a 66 FPS minimum, while Low averages 103 FPS. High averages 58 FPS, which is below 60, and Ultra averages 43 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 172 FPS at 1080p to 110 FPS at 1440p (a 36% reduction) and then to 58 FPS at 4K (a 47% further reduction from 1440p). The 1080p-to-4K ratio is 172/58 = 2.97, which is close to the theoretical 4x pixel count increase, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck.

At Low settings, the scaling is more linear. The frame rate goes from 302 FPS at 1080p to 193 FPS at 1440p (36% reduction) and then to 103 FPS at 4K (47% reduction from 1440p). The 1080p-to-4K ratio is 302/103 = 2.93, nearly identical to High settings. This consistency suggests that the CPU overhead is minimal even at Low settings, and the GPU's rendering pipeline dominates the performance profile.

The Medium settings show a similar pattern with 227 FPS at 1080p, 145 FPS at 1440p (36% reduction), and 77 FPS at 4K (47% reduction from 1440p). The 1080p-to-4K ratio is 227/77 = 2.95. Interestingly, the Ultra preset shows a different scaling pattern: 126 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p (36% reduction), and 43 FPS at 4K (47% reduction from 1440p). The 1080p-to-4K ratio is 126/43 = 2.93.

The consistent 2.93-2.97 scaling ratio across all settings indicates that the RTX 4080 is the only limiting component in this configuration. If the CPU were a bottleneck at 1080p, we would expect the scaling ratio to be lower than 4x (i.e., the 1080p frame rate would be artificially capped). Instead, the data shows that the GPU's pixel throughput scales predictably with resolution. The 4K-to-1080p frame rate ratio of approximately 3x (rather than the theoretical 4x) can be attributed to the game's engine overhead, which becomes a smaller fraction of total frame time at higher resolutions.

The 1440p-to-4K drop is more severe than the 1080p-to-1440p drop in absolute terms. For High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 62 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 52 FPS. This non-uniform scaling suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth (716.8 GB/s) becomes a limiting factor at 4K, as the increased pixel count demands more memory traffic.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range shows a clear hierarchy:

• Low: 302 FPS average
• Medium: 227 FPS average, with a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 261 FPS
• High: 172 FPS average
• Ultra: 126 FPS average

The gap between Low and Medium is 75 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 55 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 46 FPS. This indicates diminishing returns as settings increase, with the largest single-step drop occurring between Low and Medium. The Medium preset's minimum of 193 FPS suggests that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate never drops below 193 FPS, making it suitable for 240Hz displays.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally:

• Low: 193 FPS average
• Medium: 145 FPS average, with a minimum of 123 FPS and a maximum of 167 FPS
• High: 110 FPS average
• Ultra: 81 FPS average

The 1440p Medium minimum of 123 FPS is notable because it exceeds the 120Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors. The High preset's 110 FPS average is also comfortable for 100Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 81 FPS is the only setting at 1440p that drops below 100 FPS average, though it remains playable. The delta between Low and High at 1440p is 83 FPS (193 vs 110), which is a 43% reduction—slightly less than the 43% reduction seen at 1080p (302 vs 172).

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4080's limits become apparent:

• Low: 103 FPS average
• Medium: 77 FPS average, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 89 FPS
• High: 58 FPS average
• Ultra: 43 FPS average

The 4K Medium preset is the only settings combination that provides a minimum FPS of 66, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset's 58 FPS average is technically below 60 FPS, though it may be acceptable with adaptive sync. The Ultra preset's 43 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset. The gap between Low and High at 4K is 45 FPS (103 vs 58), which is a 44% reduction, consistent with the other resolutions. This consistency across resolutions confirms that the game's settings scaling is uniform, and the GPU's performance is the sole determinant of frame rate.