Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The pairing of AMD's 8-core Ryzen 7 5800X with NVIDIA's flagship RTX 5090 creates a system that overwhelms Hitman 2's engine at lower resolutions, where frame rates skyrocket past 300 FPS, but settles into a more balanced territory at 4K where the GPU's raw throughput becomes the primary constraint. Benchmark data reveals a combo that ranks in the 96.7th percentile among all tested configurations, placing it firmly in elite territory for this stealth title, yet the scaling patterns expose interesting bottlenecks that vary dramatically across resolution and settings combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but reveals a clear progression of where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the system delivers 305 FPS at 1920x1080, drops to 219 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 28% reduction), and falls further to 117 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 47% drop from 1440p). This pattern indicates that at 1080p Low, the CPU is heavily limiting performance, as the RTX 5090 is capable of far more than 305 FPS in this scenario, but the Ryzen 7 5800X's single-thread performance becomes the ceiling.

Moving to High settings, the scaling becomes more moderate: 194 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p (36% lower), and 66 FPS at 4K (47% lower from 1440p). The 4K High result of 66 FPS is notably below the 1440p High figure, and the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is consistent at around 47% regardless of settings, suggesting that resolution scaling is primarily GPU-bound once the settings increase beyond Low.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling penalty. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 143 FPS, which drops to 91 FPS at 1440p (36% reduction) and then plummets to 49 FPS at 4K (46% reduction from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result of 49 FPS is the only measured configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that even this flagship GPU cannot sustain high refresh rates at maximum settings and maximum resolution in Hitman 2.

The data suggests that at 1080p and 1440p Low, the Ryzen 7 5800X's 8 cores and 16 threads create a performance ceiling, as the RTX 5090's massive shading unit count (21,760) and 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth are underutilized. However, as resolution increases to 4K, the GPU's raw compute becomes the limiting factor, with the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance struggling to maintain playable frame rates at Ultra settings. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is nearly identical across all settings presets, confirming that the pixel throughput requirement is the dominant variable at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 3,711 tested combinations, this pairing achieves rank 123, placing it in the top 3.3% of all systems evaluated in Hitman 2. This exceptional ranking is driven primarily by the RTX 5090's dominance in raw GPU benchmarks, where it sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 79,842.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avg score 79,605, delta +0.3%), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (avg score 79,396, delta +0.6%), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (avg score 78,940, delta +1.1%), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (avg score 80,959, delta -1.4%). These comparators are all professional or mobile-class products, underscoring the RTX 5090's positioning as an outlier in consumer desktop performance.

The Ryzen 7 5800X, by contrast, ranks in the 81st percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 29,123. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H (avg score 29,093, delta +0.1%), the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 (avg score 29,245, delta -0.4%), the Intel Core i5-13500HX (avg score 29,270, delta -0.5%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (avg score 28,940, delta +0.6%). These are all newer or different-class processors, and the 5800X holds its own within a tight 1% band, demonstrating that its Zen 3 architecture remains competitive despite being a 2020 release.

The combination's top-tier ranking in Hitman 2 specifically suggests that the game responds favorably to the RTX 5090's Blackwell 2.0 architecture, with its 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores potentially accelerating certain rendering paths, even in a 2018 title. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the system achieves playable frame rates at 4K High (66 FPS) and excellent performance at 1440p Ultra (91 FPS), placing it well above the median for all tested combos in this game.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Hitman 2's detailed environments at high resolutions. The 4K Medium result shows a minimum FPS of 74 and maximum of 101, with an average of 87, indicating that the memory subsystem can handle the game's texture streaming without significant hitches. The 1750 MHz memory clock (28 Gbps effective) works in concert with the 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost clocks to deliver consistent frame delivery.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the RTX 5090 is barely taxed, delivering 305 FPS while likely idling at lower clocks due to the CPU bottleneck. The 305 FPS figure represents the practical ceiling imposed by the Ryzen 7 5800X's single-thread performance, as the GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is far beyond what this game requires at that resolution.

The jump from Low to Medium at 4K shows the GPU's scaling characteristics: 117 FPS at Low drops to 87 FPS at Medium, a 26% performance penalty for higher visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 4K also provides the only complete FPS data (min 74, max 101), showing a 27 FPS spread between minimum and average, which suggests some scene-to-scene variance in GPU load. At Ultra 4K, the 49 FPS average indicates that the RTX 5090 is fully saturated, with the 176 ROPs and 680 TMUs working at maximum capacity to render the game's highest quality assets.

The GPU's 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate are directly relevant to Hitman 2's rendering pipeline, which relies heavily on texture detail and post-processing effects. The 4K Ultra result of 49 FPS, while below 60, demonstrates that the RTX 5090 is pushing the limits of what current GPU architecture can achieve in this game at maximum settings, and the 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its position at the top of the performance hierarchy.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce 305 FPS average, Medium achieves 257 FPS with a minimum of 218 and maximum of 295, High reaches 194 FPS, and Ultra still manages 143 FPS. The 162 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p demonstrates that even at maximum settings, the system has substantial headroom for high refresh rate displays, with Ultra still exceeding 140 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected scaling. Low settings yield 219 FPS, Medium averages 164 FPS with a minimum of 140 and maximum of 189, High produces 124 FPS, and Ultra drops to 91 FPS. The 1440p Medium result is particularly noteworthy, as the 140 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay even in crowded scenes, while the 91 FPS Ultra average remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for most gaming monitors.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance becomes more stratified. Low settings achieve 117 FPS, Medium averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 and maximum of 101, High produces 66 FPS, and Ultra drops to 49 FPS. The 4K results show a clear hierarchy: Low and Medium are playable at high refresh rates, High is suitable for 60 Hz displays, and Ultra falls below the 60 FPS mark, requiring either resolution scaling or settings adjustments for a consistent experience.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset provides the most complete dataset with minimum and maximum FPS values, allowing for the most accurate assessment of frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the 218-295 FPS range shows a 77 FPS spread, while at 1440p Medium the 140-189 FPS range tightens to 49 FPS, and at 4K Medium the 74-101 FPS range narrows further to 27 FPS. This pattern indicates that higher resolutions reduce frame variance relative to the average, providing more consistent frame pacing at the cost of absolute performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the 257 FPS average with a 218 FPS minimum provides a flawless experience on any display, while the 1440p Medium result of 164 FPS average with 140 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay on high refresh rate monitors. Even at 4K Medium, the 87 FPS average with 74 FPS minimum maintains playability above 60 FPS, making this the only preset that achieves acceptable performance at 4K without compromising visual fidelity.

High settings are viable at 1080p and 1440p, with 194 FPS and 124 FPS averages respectively, but the 4K High result of 66 FPS, while above 60, leaves minimal headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p displays, where the 143 FPS average still provides a high refresh rate experience, or for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate at 1440p, where 91 FPS remains competitive.

For players with 4K displays, Medium is the clear choice, as the 87 FPS average and 74 FPS minimum provide a smooth experience while maintaining reasonable visual quality. The jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 21 FPS (from 87 to 66), which is a 24% performance penalty for what is likely a modest visual improvement. Conversely, the drop from Medium to Low at 4K gains 30 FPS (from 87 to 117), but sacrifices significant visual quality for diminishing returns in frame rate.

The data suggests that the system's sweet spot is 1440p Ultra, where the 91 FPS average delivers near-high-refresh-rate performance with maximum visual fidelity. This configuration leverages the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth effectively while avoiding the CPU bottleneck that limits 1080p performance. At 4K, Medium is the recommended preset, as it maintains 60+ FPS while preserving enough graphical detail to appreciate the game's environments.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 5800X's contribution to Hitman 2 performance is most evident at lower resolutions, where the CPU becomes the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the 305 FPS average represents the practical ceiling of this processor's single-thread performance in this game, despite the RTX 5090's ability to render far more frames. The CPU's 3.80 GHz base clock and 4.70 GHz boost clock, combined with 8 cores and 16 threads on the Zen 3 (Vermeer) architecture, provide strong single-threaded performance that is essential for Hitman 2's game logic and AI systems.

The CPU's benchmark scores corroborate this analysis: the 3DMark single-thread score of 943 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,574.5 indicate robust per-core performance, while the multi-threaded scores (Cinebench R23 multicore 15,476 and Geekbench multicore 11,036) show that the 8-core configuration handles background tasks without impacting game performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 3,445 and multi-thread score of 27,732 further confirm the CPU's balanced capabilities.

At 1080p High, the FPS drops to 194 from 305 at Low, a 36% reduction that is primarily attributed to increased GPU load, but the CPU still maintains sufficient headroom to feed the RTX 5090. The 1080p Ultra result of 143 FPS shows that even at maximum settings, the CPU can sustain frame rates well above typical display refresh rates. However, the fact that 1080p Low (305 FPS) is nearly 2.1x faster than 1080p Ultra (143 FPS) indicates that the CPU's performance ceiling is reached at roughly 305 FPS in this game, with GPU workload becoming the differentiator at higher settings.

The 5800X's 32 MB L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth provide adequate data throughput for Hitman 2's level streaming and physics calculations. The CPU's 81st percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 29,123, places it in the upper tier of desktop CPUs, though its nearest rivals include newer mobile and workstation processors that trade blows within a 1% margin. For this game specifically, the CPU's role diminishes as resolution increases, with the GPU becoming the dominant factor at 1440p and 4K, where CPU-bound frame rates exceed what the GPU can deliver.