Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Intel Arc B370 pairing in Hitman 2 produces a deeply lopsided experience, one where the CPU’s formidable multi-threaded muscle is completely overshadowed by a GPU that ranks near the bottom of the database. The measured frame rates confirm this: at 1080p High, the combo averages 41 FPS, which is playable but far from smooth, and at 4K Ultra, it collapses to 10 FPS. This is not a balanced system; it is a case study in how a processor with 8 cores and a 5.40 GHz boost clock cannot rescue a graphics solution that performs in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. The data positions this combo at rank 2768 out of 3001 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 8% of all pairings. For a stealth game that rewards precision and patience, the inconsistency in frame delivery will be the primary obstacle.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 7700X is a Zen 4 part built on a 5 nm process, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock is 4.50 GHz, and it can boost up to 5.40 GHz, which are strong figures for a desktop processor. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. This configuration is well-suited for modern games, and the CPU’s benchmark scores reflect its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 19088 in multi-core and 1987 in single-core, while Geekbench shows 12451 multi-core and 2289 single-core. These numbers place the 7700X in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35909. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (0.3% higher), Intel Core 7 250H (0.5% higher), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (0.5% higher), and Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (0.7% higher)—all within a single percentage point, indicating the 7700X is right at the top of its performance class.

However, in Hitman 2, the CPU’s role is largely theoretical because the GPU becomes the bottleneck at every resolution. The measured FPS at 1080p Low is 73, which is the highest score this combo achieves. At 1080p High, it drops to 41 FPS, a 44% reduction. This steep drop from Low to High settings is a classic sign that the GPU is struggling with increased shading and texture work, not that the CPU is starved for data. The 7700X’s 16 threads and high boost clock are more than sufficient for Hitman 2’s AI and world simulation, but the Arc B370 simply cannot keep up with the rendering demands. The CPU’s 3DMark scores, such as 8859 for 16 threads and 8852 for max threads, show that it can feed a much faster GPU without breaking a sweat. The PassMark multi-thread score of 35686 and single-thread score of 4190 reinforce this: the processor is not the limiting factor.

The data suggests that if you were to pair this CPU with a stronger GPU, the FPS would scale dramatically, as the 7700X has headroom to spare. In this specific combo, the CPU sits idle waiting for the GPU to finish each frame. The 105 W TDP and Socket AM5 platform are standard for a high-end desktop part, and the DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU has quick access to data. But none of that matters when the GPU’s pixel rate is only 48.00 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s—figures that are entry-level at best. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1090 is decent, but Hitman 2 is not particularly CPU-bound at these settings, as evidenced by the fact that lowering resolution from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic FPS drop rather than a plateau.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is a mobile-oriented integrated GPU based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel’s 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, which sounds competitive on paper, but its memory is system-shared with bandwidth that is system-dependent. The GPU has 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs, along with 10 ray tracing cores. Its FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS, and its FP16 is 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1). The TDP is just 25 W, which is incredibly low for a gaming GPU, and it is an IGP with no power connectors. The GPU’s only benchmark score is 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all ancient or low-end parts: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (-0.2%), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (-0.5%), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (-0.7%), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1.4%). This is not a flattering comparison; the Arc B370 is competing with hardware from over a decade ago.

In Hitman 2, the GPU’s limitations are stark. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 73 FPS, which is the only playable result in the entire dataset. At 1080p Medium, it drops to 54 FPS, still smooth but showing the GPU’s strain. At 1080p High, it falls to 41 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it bottoms out at 30 FPS. The trend is consistent: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-25% performance. This is a GPU that is barely capable of 1080p gaming at medium settings for a 2018 game. The situation worsens at higher resolutions. At 1440p Low, the average is 46 FPS, but at 1440p High, it drops to 26 FPS, and at 1440p Ultra, it is just 19 FPS. At 4K, the results are catastrophic: 25 FPS at Low, 19 FPS at Medium, 14 FPS at High, and 10 FPS at Ultra. These numbers indicate that the Arc B370 is not designed for 4K gaming, and even 1440p is a stretch.

The GPU’s 25 W TDP and system-shared memory mean it is drawing from the same pool as the CPU, which can cause contention. The 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is roughly equivalent to a low-end discrete GPU from a few years ago, but the shared memory bandwidth and lack of dedicated VRAM severely handicap it. The pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are the real bottlenecks. For Hitman 2, which features large crowds and detailed environments, the GPU must fill a lot of pixels and sample many textures, and the Arc B370 simply lacks the throughput. The ray tracing cores are present, but at this performance level, enabling ray tracing would be futile; the data shows no ray tracing results, and the standard rasterization performance is already too low.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is a textbook demonstration of GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 73 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, it drops to 46 FPS, a 37% reduction. At 4K Low, it falls to 25 FPS, a further 46% drop from 1440p. This pattern shows that every increase in pixel count has a near-linear impact on performance, which is the hallmark of a GPU that is completely saturated. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat across resolutions, but that is not the case here.

The same scaling appears at High settings: 41 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 14 FPS at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentages—roughly 37% for the 1080p to 1440p step and 46% for the 1440p to 4K step—indicates that the GPU is the sole limiter. The pixel count from 1080p (2.07 million) to 1440p (3.69 million) is a 78% increase, but the FPS drops by only 37%, suggesting some efficiency in scaling. However, from 1440p to 4K (8.29 million), the pixel count jumps by 125%, and the FPS drops by 46%, which is less than linear. This could be due to memory bandwidth or other system bottlenecks, but the overall trend is clear: the GPU cannot handle 4K.

The Medium settings row provides min and max FPS values, which offer insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 54 FPS, with a min of 46 and max of 63. The spread of 17 FPS suggests some inconsistency, but it is within a tolerable range. At 1440p Medium, the average is 35 FPS, with a min of 30 and max of 40, a spread of 10 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 19 FPS, with a min of 16 and max of 21, a spread of 5 FPS. As resolution increases, the frame time variance shrinks, which is typical of a GPU that is hitting a hard performance ceiling. The lack of min/max data for other settings prevents a full analysis, but the Medium data points to a system that is stable but slow.

What does this mean for the limiting component? The data unequivocally points to the GPU. The CPU’s benchmark scores are in the 85th percentile, while the GPU is in the 5th percentile. This is a mismatch of enormous proportions. If you were to lower the resolution to 720p, the CPU might finally become a factor, but the dataset does not include that measurement. At 1080p, the GPU is already at its limit, and the CPU is barely breaking a sweat. The 7700X’s single-thread performance (1987 in Cinebench R23) is more than enough for Hitman 2’s AI and physics, and its multi-thread performance (19088) is overkill for a game that uses a handful of cores. The bottleneck is so severe that even reducing settings from High to Low at 4K only improves FPS from 14 to 25, still unplayable.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of playing Hitman 2 at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it averages 73 FPS. At Medium, it drops to 54 FPS, which is still playable, but High drops to 41 FPS and Ultra to 30 FPS. The data shows that 1080p Low or Medium is the practical limit for playable frame rates.

Q: Why is the 4K performance so poor?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. At 4K High, the combo averages 14 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it drops to 10 FPS. The Arc B370 has a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s, which is insufficient for the 8.29 million pixels at 4K. The CPU’s power cannot compensate for this limitation.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700X has an average benchmark score of 35909, which is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals: the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (0.3% higher), Intel Core 7 250H (0.5% higher), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (0.5% higher), and Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (0.7% higher). This places the 7700X at the top of its class, but that does not help in this GPU-limited scenario.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1080p is the only viable resolution. At 1080p Low, it averages 73 FPS, and at 1080p Medium, it averages 54 FPS. At 1440p, the best result is 46 FPS at Low, which is marginal, and 4K is not playable at any setting.

Q: Does the GPU have any strengths?

A: The Arc B370 has a low 25 W TDP and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Its FP16 performance is 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1), but its FP32 is only 6.144 TFLOPS. However, its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 places it in the 5th percentile, so these features do not translate to gaming performance.

Q: How does this combo rank overall?

A: It ranks 2768 out of 3001 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 8%. This is consistent with the GPU’s low percentile ranking and the CPU’s high percentile ranking, confirming that the GPU drags the entire system down.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2768 out of 3001 tested combinations is a damning statistic. To put it in perspective, this places the pairing in the 92nd percentile of worst-performing combos, meaning only about 233 combinations are worse. The rank is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s performance, as the CPU is in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. The combination of a top-tier CPU and a bottom-tier GPU creates a system that is fundamentally unbalanced. In the database, this rank suggests that most other CPU+GPU pairings, even those with much weaker processors, would outperform this combo in Hitman 2 because the GPU is so far behind.

The GPU’s nearest rivals—ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, ATI Radeon HD 5770, AMD Radeon HD 7650M, and AMD FirePro M2000—are all legacy parts that would struggle with modern games. The fact that the Arc B370 is within 1.4% of these parts confirms its low standing. The CPU’s rivals, on the other hand, are all within 0.7% of the 7700X, showing that the processor is at the current-generation. This rank is not a reflection of the CPU’s quality; it is a reflection of the GPU’s inability to render Hitman 2 at acceptable frame rates.

What does this rank mean for a potential buyer? It means that if you already own a Ryzen 7 7700X, you should not pair it with an Intel Arc B370. The data shows that the GPU will bottleneck the CPU at every resolution and settings level. Conversely, if you are considering the Arc B370, you should pair it with a much weaker CPU, as the GPU will be the limiting factor anyway. The combo rank of 2768 is a warning sign: this is not a gaming system. It might be fine for productivity tasks where the CPU does most of the work, but for Hitman 2, it is a poor choice. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 is the only GPU benchmark available, and it is abysmal. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 35909 does not help when the GPU cannot keep up.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured FPS data, the only reasonable settings for Hitman 2 are at 1080p with Low or Medium presets. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 73 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. This is the best experience this hardware can provide, as it stays well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 54 FPS, which is still playable, but the min FPS of 46 suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable in a stealth game where timing matters. The max of 63 FPS shows that the system can hit higher frames, but the variance is there. For a game like Hitman 2, where you might need to react quickly to guards or cameras, the extra headroom of Low settings is safer.

At 1080p High, the average is 41 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS ideal and will feel sluggish. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 30 FPS, which is borderline unplayable for a game that requires precision. The data shows a clear pattern: each settings tier costs about 13-19 FPS at 1080p. The jump from Low to Medium costs 19 FPS, from Medium to High costs 13 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 11 FPS. The diminishing returns are not worth it, as the visual difference between Low and Medium is less important than maintaining a stable frame rate.

At 1440p, the best option is Low, which averages 46 FPS. This is playable but not ideal, and the drop from 1080p Low (73 FPS) to 1440p Low (46 FPS) is 27 FPS, a 37% reduction. If you have a 1440p monitor, you would need to accept lower frame rates. At 4K, there is no viable setting. Even Low averages only 25 FPS, which is too low for a stealth game that rewards smooth movement. The Medium row at 4K shows a min of 16 FPS and max of 21 FPS, which is a slideshow.

The recommendation is clear: run the game at 1080p with Low settings for the best experience. If you prefer slightly better visuals, Medium at 1080p is acceptable, but be prepared for frame dips. Do not attempt 1440p or 4K with this combo, as the GPU cannot handle it. The CPU has plenty of headroom, but the GPU is the limiting factor, so lowering settings is the only way to achieve playable frame rates. The data does not show any benefit to using Ultra settings, as the frame rate drops below 30 FPS even at 1080p. For a game from 2018, this is a disappointing result, but it is the reality of pairing a high-end CPU with an entry-level integrated GPU. Stick to 1080p Low, and you will have a functional, if not spectacular, experience.