Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing in Hitman 2 presents a study in generational imbalance. The RTX 4090 is an end-of-life flagship built on a 5 nm process with 76,300 million transistors, while the Ryzen 7 3700X is a 2019-era 7 nm part. The benchmark data reveals how this mix behaves across resolutions and settings, with the CPU often dictating the ceiling.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, but not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 235.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 202.2 FPS at 2560x1440, then plummets to 112.5 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 52% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low, indicating the GPU becomes the primary constraint as pixel count rises. However, the absolute numbers at 1080p Low are so high that the CPU is clearly holding the system back from even higher frame rates.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more dramatic in percentage terms. The system delivers 138.3 FPS at 1080p, drops to 87.5 FPS at 1440p (a 37% loss), and then falls to 50.5 FPS at 4K (another 42% loss). The 4K Ultra result of 50.5 FPS is the lowest in the entire dataset, showing that the RTX 4090’s raw power is being taxed heavily by Hitman 2’s maximum visual fidelity at that resolution. The pattern across all settings is consistent: 1080p to 1440p shows a moderate dip, while 1440p to 4K shows a much larger cliff, which is typical of a GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions.

The limiting component shifts clearly with resolution. At 1080p, the Ryzen 7 3700X’s 8 cores and 16 threads, boosting to 4.40 GHz, appear to bottleneck the RTX 4090, since even Low settings only reach 235.3 FPS. At 4K, the GPU’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth become the defining factor, as the FPS differences between settings widen significantly.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090’s specifications are formidable: 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, operating on a 384-bit bus. Its boost clock is 2520 MHz, and it has a 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth. These figures translate directly to the measured results. At 4K, the gap between Low (112.5 FPS) and Ultra (50.5 FPS) is 62 FPS, a massive spread that shows the GPU’s performance is highly sensitive to the game’s settings at this resolution.

The card’s 24 GB VRAM is not stressed by Hitman 2, a game from 2018, but the sheer compute power is what drives the high frame rates. The FP32 throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS is the key metric here. At 1440p, the RTX 4090 manages 202.2 FPS at Low settings, which is a 65% improvement over the 4K Low result. This indicates that the GPU is still scaling efficiently as resolution drops, but it is also being limited by the CPU at the lower resolution.

The memory clock of 1313 MHz, running at 21 Gbps effective, provides the bandwidth needed for high-resolution textures. The data shows that at 4K High, the system hits 62.7 FPS, which is playable but not the high-refresh experience the GPU is capable of at lower resolutions. The RTX 4090’s percentile rank of 91 among all GPUs is reflected in these numbers, but the pairing with the older CPU prevents it from showing its full potential at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 3700X is a Zen 2 (Matisse) part with 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for Hitman 2’s single-threaded and lightly-threaded workloads. The CPU’s benchmark scores are telling: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19087 and single-core score of 2694. These place it in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28631.

In Hitman 2, the CPU’s influence is most visible at 1080p. The difference between Low (235.3 FPS) and High (192.1 FPS) at 1080p is only 43 FPS, whereas at 4K, the same setting change yields a 62 FPS difference (112.5 vs 50.5). This compression at 1080p suggests the CPU is the limiting factor, preventing the GPU from pushing beyond the 235 FPS mark even at the lowest settings. The Ryzen 7 3700X’s 32 MB of L3 cache helps with game logic, but its 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is a potential bottleneck for a GPU that has over 1 TB/s of its own.

The nearest rivals for the CPU are the Intel Core i5-12600 (avg score 28654, deltaPct -0.1) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (avg score 28591, deltaPct 0.1). These are effectively tied in synthetic benchmarks, but the Ryzen 7 3700X’s extra cores do not translate to a significant advantage in Hitman 2, which is not heavily multithreaded. The CPU is adequate, but it is clearly the weaker link in this combo.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 109th out of 1795 tested combinations in Hitman 2. This puts it in the top 6% of all combos, which is impressive given the CPU’s age. The ranking reflects the RTX 4090’s dominance, but it also shows that the Ryzen 7 3700X is holding the system back from the top tiers. A combo with a newer, faster CPU would likely rank higher, but the data only shows this specific pairing.

The rank of 109 is notable because it is not higher. The RTX 4090 is the fastest consumer GPU in the database, with a percentile rank of 91, but the CPU’s 85th percentile rank drags the overall combo down. The deltaPct values for the CPU’s nearest rivals are all within 0.2%, meaning the Ryzen 7 3700X is statistically indistinguishable from the Intel Core i5-12600 and AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT in overall CPU performance. This means the combo’s rank is more dependent on the GPU than the CPU, but the CPU still prevents it from reaching the top 50.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 235.3 FPS at Low, 211 FPS at Medium, 192.1 FPS at High, and 138.3 FPS at Ultra. The scaling is non-linear: the jump from Low to Medium is a 24 FPS drop, while the jump from High to Ultra is a 54 FPS drop. This suggests that Ultra settings introduce a significant rendering cost, likely related to shadows and reflections.

At 2560x1440, the results are 202.2 FPS at Low, 159.4 FPS at Medium, 122.4 FPS at High, and 87.5 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 43 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 35 FPS. The 1440p High result of 122.4 FPS is a comfortable high-refresh experience, while Ultra at 87.5 FPS is still smooth for most displays.

At 3840x2160, the results are 112.5 FPS at Low, 85.4 FPS at Medium, 62.7 FPS at High, and 50.5 FPS at Ultra. The Low to Medium drop is 27 FPS, and the High to Ultra drop is 12 FPS. At 4K, the settings have less relative impact on FPS, confirming that the GPU is fully saturated. The 4K Ultra result of 50.5 FPS is the only one below 60 FPS in the entire dataset, making it the only scenario where the combo fails to hit a 60 FPS average.

The data shows that the sweet spot for this combo is 1440p, where it can maintain over 87 FPS at any setting. At 1080p, the CPU limits the maximum frame rate, and at 4K, the GPU’s performance is still strong but drops below 60 FPS at Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. It delivers 122.4 FPS at High and 87.5 FPS at Ultra, which are both smooth experiences. At 1920x1080, the CPU caps the frame rate around 235 FPS, and at 3840x2160, Ultra drops to 50.5 FPS.

Q: How much FPS do you lose going from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 192.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 122.4 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 62.7 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 129.4 FPS loss from 1080p to 4K, representing a 67% reduction.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 3700X a bottleneck for the RTX 4090?

A: The benchmark results indicate a CPU limitation at 1080p. At Low settings, the system only reaches 235.3 FPS, which is likely below the RTX 4090’s potential. The CPU’s single-core score of 2694 in Cinebench R23 is modest, and its nearest rivals are statistically tied in overall performance.

Q: What frame rate can you expect at 4K Ultra?

A: The measured average is 50.5 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the lowest result in the dataset and the only one below 60 FPS. To achieve higher frame rates at 4K, you would need to lower settings to High, which yields 62.7 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested systems?

A: It ranks 109th out of 1795 combinations, placing it in the top 6% of all tested systems. This is a strong result, but the ranking could be higher with a newer CPU that has better single-thread performance.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 202.2 FPS, while Ultra produces 87.5 FPS. The difference is 114.7 FPS, showing that Ultra settings have a substantial performance cost at this resolution.