Hitman 2

Hitman 2 is a stealth game that scales across a wide range of hardware, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 produces a predictable curve: the CPU dominates at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor as pixel count rises. The measured FPS data shows a 227 FPS average at 1920x1080 Low settings, which indicates a system that is never starved for compute at standard monitor resolutions. This pairing ranks 1078 out of 3711 tested combos, placing it in the top third of all configurations in the database, though the exact percentile position depends heavily on the resolution and settings profile chosen.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings presets, revealing a system that transitions from CPU-bound to GPU-bound behavior as resolution increases. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 128 FPS at 1920x1080 to 82 FPS at 2560x1440, then down to 44 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 46% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is even more pronounced at Low settings, where the 1080p average of 227 FPS drops to 145 FPS at 1440p (a 36% decline) and then to 77 FPS at 4K (a 47% decline from 1440p). This scaling behavior suggests that at 1080p, the Ryzen 7 7700’s 8 cores and 16 threads are feeding the RTX 3080 enough data to reach very high frame rates, but the GPU’s rendering workload becomes the bottleneck as resolution climbs.

At Ultra settings, the 4K average of 32 FPS is the lowest recorded figure in the entire dataset, and it sits just below the 33 FPS threshold that many players would consider playable. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 45 FPS (77 vs 32), which is a 58% performance difference. At 1440p, the same Low-to-Ultra gap is 84 FPS (145 vs 61), and at 1080p it widens to 132 FPS (227 vs 95). This widening delta at lower resolutions indicates that the CPU has more headroom to push higher frame rates when the GPU is not saturated, but the RTX 3080’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth become increasingly stressed as resolution and settings increase. The Medium preset at 4K produces 58 FPS average with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 67, showing that the system can maintain playable frame rates if the user is willing to compromise on visual quality.

The 4K Ultra result of 32 FPS is particularly telling because it is the only data point that falls below the 30 FPS baseline, and it suggests that this configuration is not ideal for 4K gaming at maximum settings. The RTX 3080’s 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores do not directly translate to rasterization performance in this game, and the 96 ROPs appear to be the limiting factor at high pixel counts. Comparatively, the 1440p Medium average of 109 FPS (with min 92 and max 125) represents a strong sweet spot: it maintains a high refresh rate while keeping the GPU utilization high enough to avoid CPU bottlenecks. The 1080p Medium result of 170 FPS (min 144, max 195) shows that the system can easily drive high-refresh monitors at mainstream resolutions, but the scaling curve confirms that the GPU becomes the dominant constraint beyond 1080p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is a Zen 4 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, base clock of 3.80 GHz, and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth with DDR5 support position it as a high-end desktop part, and the benchmark data reflects strong single-thread performance: the 3dmark single-thread score is 1049, while the 2-thread score is 2043, indicating near-linear scaling. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 18760 and single-core score of 1930 further establish this CPU’s capability in both lightly-threaded and fully-threaded workloads. The PassMark single-thread score of 4063 and multithread score of 34470 place it in the 87th percentile among all CPUs, which is a strong showing for a desktop processor.

In Hitman 2, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the 227 FPS average suggests that the Ryzen 7 7700 is not the limiting factor. The game is a stealth title that typically relies on AI pathfinding and physics calculations, but the 8-core/16-thread configuration provides ample headroom for these tasks. The 3dmark 16-thread score of 8484 and max-thread score of 8479 show that the CPU maintains consistent performance across all threads, which is useful for a game that may spawn multiple AI agents. The 65 W TDP is relatively low for a desktop CPU with this level of performance, indicating efficient power delivery, though the actual power draw is not measured in this dataset.

The nearest rivals to the Ryzen 7 7700 in average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (score 40048, delta 0.1%), Intel Core 5 221E (score 40144, delta -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 270 (score 40246, delta -0.4%), and Intel Core i9-13905H (score 40313, delta -0.6%). All four rivals are within 0.6% of the 7700’s average score of 40081, which means that in CPU-bound scenarios like 1080p Low, the choice between these processors would produce nearly identical frame rates. However, the 7700’s boost clock of 5.30 GHz gives it a slight edge in single-threaded workloads, which is reflected in its 3dmark single-thread score of 1049. The PassMark physics score of 1978 and integer math score of 110295 indicate strong computational throughput that benefits game logic, though the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is rarely the bottleneck above 1080p.

The 1080p High average of 128 FPS compared to the 1080p Low average of 227 FPS shows a 99 FPS gap, which is more than the GPU can account for alone. This suggests that at 1080p Low, the RTX 3080 is underutilized, and the CPU’s 16 threads are capable of generating far more frames than the GPU can render in certain scenarios. The 8 cores of the Ryzen 7 7700 are sufficient for Hitman 2’s threading model, and the 5.30 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded game logic does not become a limiting factor. The CPU’s 87th percentile ranking among all CPUs means that it outperforms the majority of processors in the database, and its performance in this game is consistent with that standing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is an Ampere architecture GPU with 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory operates on a 320-bit bus with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth, and the boost clock is 1710 MHz. The FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s are substantial, but the 164.2 GPixel/s pixel rate becomes the critical specification at high resolutions. The GPU’s 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores provide ray tracing and AI acceleration, but Hitman 2’s rasterized rendering does not heavily utilize these features. The PassMark G3D score of 25086 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 152423 place the RTX 3080 in the 68th percentile among all GPUs, which is respectable but not top-tier.

The GPU’s role in this pairing is most evident at 4K, where the 44 FPS High average and 32 FPS Ultra average demonstrate that the 10 GB VRAM and 320-bit memory bus are sufficient for the game’s textures but the pixel fill rate becomes a constraint. The Medium preset at 4K yields 58 FPS average with a 49 FPS minimum, indicating that the GPU can maintain playable frame rates when settings are moderated. At 1440p, the RTX 3080 shows strong performance: 145 FPS at Low, 109 FPS at Medium, 82 FPS at High, and 61 FPS at Ultra. These results are consistent with a GPU that is designed for high-refresh 1440p gaming, and the 109 FPS Medium average (min 92, max 125) suggests that most players would find this configuration smooth.

The nearest rivals to the RTX 3080 in average benchmark score are the NVIDIA P106-100 (score 23249, delta -0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (score 23250, delta -0.3%), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (score 23273, delta -0.4%), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (score 23276, delta -0.4%). All four rivals are within 0.4% of the RTX 3080’s average score of 23172, which is a statistically insignificant difference. However, the measured FPS data shows that the RTX 3080’s real-world performance in Hitman 2 is far more competitive than its synthetic benchmark score suggests, particularly at 1440p where it achieves 82 FPS at High settings. The GPU’s 10 GB VRAM is adequate for the game’s highest texture settings at all tested resolutions, and the 760.3 GB/s bandwidth prevents memory bandwidth bottlenecks.

The 4K Low average of 77 FPS versus the 4K Ultra average of 32 FPS shows a 45 FPS gap, which is proportionally smaller than the gap at 1080p (132 FPS). This indicates that the GPU’s shading units and ROPs are the primary limiters at 4K, while at 1080p the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU becomes more important. The RTX 3080’s 320 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest that it is a power-hungry card, but the dataset does not include power consumption measurements for this game. The GPU’s 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs is lower than the CPU’s 87th percentile, which means that in this pairing, the GPU is more likely to be the performance ceiling in GPU-intensive scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Hitman 2?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 227 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 170 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 145 FPS at 2560x1440 Low.

Q: Is this configuration capable of 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Low settings, the average FPS is 77, and at Medium it is 58. However, at High settings the average drops to 44 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 32 FPS, which may be below playable thresholds for some users.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700 has an average benchmark score of 40081, which is within 0.6% of its four nearest rivals: AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (40048, +0.1%), Intel Core 5 221E (40144, -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 270 (40246, -0.4%), and Intel Core i9-13905H (40313, -0.6%).

Q: What is the lowest FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest average FPS is 32 at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 49 at 4K Medium settings, and the lowest minimum at 1440p is 92 FPS at Medium settings.

Q: Does the GPU outperform its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 23172, which is lower than all four nearest rivals: NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, -0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, -0.3%), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, -0.4%), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, -0.4%). However, the deltas are all within 0.4%, making them statistically equivalent.

Q: What is the best resolution/settings combination for this pairing?

A: The data suggests 2560x1440 Medium is a strong choice, with an average FPS of 109, minimum of 92, and maximum of 125. This provides a high frame rate while maintaining visual quality. At 1920x1080, Medium settings produce 170 FPS average, which is ideal for high-refresh monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination ranks 1078 out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 29% of all configurations. This rank reflects a balanced pairing where neither component is severely mismatched with the other, though the CPU’s 87th percentile standing is notably higher than the GPU’s 68th percentile. The rank suggests that there are 1077 combos that perform better in this game, and 2633 that perform worse, which indicates that this is a mid-to-upper-tier configuration for Hitman 2.

The ranking is likely influenced by the GPU’s performance at higher resolutions, where the RTX 3080’s 10 GB VRAM and 320-bit memory bus are adequate but not exceptional. Combos that rank higher likely feature more powerful GPUs with larger memory buses or higher pixel rates, while combos that rank lower may have weaker CPUs or GPUs. The 1078 rank is consistent with the measured FPS data: the combo achieves 128 FPS at 1080p High, which is strong, but only 44 FPS at 4K High, which is below what top-tier combos would achieve.

The fact that the CPU outperforms the GPU in percentile terms (87 vs 68) suggests that the combo’s ranking is dragged down by the GPU in GPU-heavy scenarios. However, the CPU’s strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1930) ensures that the combo remains competitive at 1080p and 1440p, where CPU bottlenecks are more common. The rank of 1078 out of 3711 is a solid result for a system that is not using the absolute fastest components available, and it indicates that this pairing is well-suited for 1440p gaming at medium-to-high settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 227 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure for this pairing. Medium settings yield 170 FPS average with a minimum of 144 and maximum of 195. High settings drop to 128 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 95 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 132 FPS, reflecting the GPU’s ability to handle the game at this resolution without being severely constrained.

At 2560x1440, the performance decreases noticeably but remains strong. Low settings produce 145 FPS average, Medium yields 109 FPS (min 92, max 125), High drops to 82 FPS, and Ultra produces 61 FPS. The 1440p Medium result is particularly noteworthy because it maintains a 109 FPS average while the minimum stays above 90 FPS, making it a smooth experience. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 84 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates at demanding settings. Low settings produce 77 FPS average, Medium yields 58 FPS (min 49, max 67), High drops to 44 FPS, and Ultra produces 32 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only data point below 40 FPS in the entire dataset, and it suggests that this resolution is only viable at Low or Medium settings for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 58 FPS average and 49 FPS minimum, represents the best playable option at this resolution. The data shows a clear pattern: 1080p is CPU-bound, 1440p is balanced, and 4K is GPU-bound, with the RTX 3080’s pixel rate becoming the primary constraint.