Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers a formidable Hitman 2 experience, but the data reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck as resolution and settings change. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination produces an average of 344.9 FPS, demonstrating extraordinary headroom. However, this figure drops to 143.2 FPS at 1080p Ultra, a reduction that highlights how much the game's visual fidelity demands from the hardware. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is equally telling: at High settings, the average falls from 195.4 FPS to 128.5 FPS, a 34% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at the same preset shows a further drop to 69.8 FPS, indicating that the RTX 5090's immense compute resources are increasingly engaged as pixel count rises. The largest single step occurs between 1440p Ultra (90.3 FPS) and 4K Ultra (46.7 FPS), a 48% reduction that suggests 4K Ultra is the first configuration where the GPU begins to feel genuinely challenged by Hitman 2's engine.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression across resolutions paints a clear picture of where the limiting component lies. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 344.9 FPS, which is more than double the 4K Low result of 119.2 FPS. This massive gap at the lowest settings suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is heavily involved in maintaining frame rates, while the GPU has ample spare capacity. The pattern persists across all settings: 1080p Medium (262.9 FPS) versus 1440p Medium (169.8 FPS) shows a 35% drop, while 1440p Medium versus 4K Medium (86.7 FPS) shows an additional 49% decline. This consistent halving of performance at each resolution step indicates that the RTX 5090's rendering workload scales almost linearly with pixel count, a hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. The data shows that at 4K, even the Low preset (119.2 FPS) cannot maintain the triple-digit frame rates seen at lower resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at 2160p. Conversely, the relatively small delta between 1080p High (195.4 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (143.2 FPS) — a 27% penalty — suggests that at 1080p, the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, and the frame rate is more sensitive to GPU settings than to resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific configuration holds the 15th position out of 1,795 tested combinations in Hitman 2. This top-1% placement is remarkable given the game's release in November 2018, long before either component was available. The Ryzen 7 7700X, released in September 2022, and the RTX 5090, launched in January 2025, represent a pairing that the game's engine was not originally designed to exploit. The combo's high rank is primarily driven by the GPU's raw performance, as evidenced by its 94th percentile standing among all tested GPUs and an average benchmark score of 84,306. This score places it just 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D (84,241) and 0.2% ahead of the RTX 5050 Mobile (84,171), though these comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks rather than Hitman 2-specific results. The CPU's contribution to this rank is more modest, with the 7700X sitting in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, averaging 34,313 points. Notably, the CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13500 (34,175, 0.4% slower) and the Intel Core i7-12800HX (34,136, 0.5% slower), while the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34,584) and AMD EPYC 4244P (34,599) are 0.8% faster. These small deltas suggest that the 7700X's performance is well-balanced for gaming, though not class-leading.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 7700X features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. These specifications are directly relevant to Hitman 2's engine, which is known to scale with multi-threaded performance. The CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 8,859 and max-thread score of 8,852 demonstrate strong parallelism, while the single-thread score of 1,090 is equally important for the game's primary simulation thread. In Cinebench R23, the CPU achieves 30,325 multi-core and 4,281 single-core, indicating that its single-core performance is particularly robust for older game engines that rely heavily on one thread. The 7700X's 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) further contribute to its ability to feed the RTX 5090 without becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 344.9 FPS result implies that the CPU is capable of processing frame data at a rate that far exceeds typical display refresh rates, and even the 1080p High result of 195.4 FPS leaves headroom for the GPU to work without being starved. The data suggests that at 1440p and above, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as the CPU's performance is sufficient to sustain the frame rates observed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a comprehensive view of the combo's capabilities across twelve distinct configurations. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 344.9 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p yields 262.9 FPS, while High produces 195.4 FPS and Ultra drops to 143.2 FPS. This progression shows that each settings tier imposes a roughly 25-30% performance penalty, with Ultra being the most demanding. At 1440p, the results are 221.4 FPS (Low), 169.8 FPS (Medium), 128.5 FPS (High), and 90.3 FPS (Ultra). The 1440p Low result is particularly notable, as it exceeds the 1080p Ultra result by 54.6%, demonstrating that resolution has a greater impact than settings at this level. At 4K, the frame rates are 119.2 FPS (Low), 86.7 FPS (Medium), 69.8 FPS (High), and 46.7 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, which may be a concern for users with high-refresh-rate displays. The gap between 4K Low and 4K Ultra is 72.5 FPS, a 61% reduction that underscores the extreme GPU load at this resolution. Interestingly, the 4K High result of 69.8 FPS is nearly identical to the 1440p Ultra result of 90.3 FPS, suggesting that users seeking a balance between visual quality and performance might prefer 1440p Ultra over 4K High.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for achieving 144 FPS or higher?

A: At 1080p, all settings except Ultra (143.2 FPS) exceed 144 FPS, with Low (344.9 FPS), Medium (262.9 FPS), and High (195.4 FPS) all clearing this threshold. At 1440p, only Low (221.4 FPS) and Medium (169.8 FPS) achieve 144 FPS or higher.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra setting perform?

A: The 4K Ultra preset delivers an average of 46.7 FPS, which is the lowest result in the dataset. This is 33% slower than 4K High (69.8 FPS) and represents the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data shows that at 1080p Low (344.9 FPS) and Medium (262.9 FPS), the GPU has enough headroom to render frames quickly, suggesting the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads can keep up. The large gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p (201.7 FPS) indicates that GPU settings are the primary variable at this resolution.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High delivers 128.5 FPS while Ultra produces 90.3 FPS, a difference of 38.2 FPS. This represents a 30% performance drop for the Ultra preset.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 15th out of 1,795 tested combinations in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 1% of all tested systems.

Q: Can the system maintain 60 FPS at 4K on any settings?

A: Yes, the 4K Low (119.2 FPS), Medium (86.7 FPS), and High (69.8 FPS) presets all exceed 60 FPS. Only 4K Ultra (46.7 FPS) falls short of this threshold.

Settings Recommendations

For users prioritizing high refresh rates at 1080p, the High preset (195.4 FPS) offers an excellent balance, delivering nearly 200 FPS while maintaining visual fidelity above Medium. The Ultra preset at 1080p (143.2 FPS) is still highly playable but sacrifices 26.7% of the performance seen at High. At 1440p, the Medium preset (169.8 FPS) is the recommended choice for competitive play, as it exceeds 144 FPS while providing a noticeable upgrade over Low (221.4 FPS). For those who prefer visual quality over frame rate at 1440p, the High preset (128.5 FPS) is a strong option, though Ultra (90.3 FPS) is best reserved for users with 90 Hz displays or lower. At 4K, the High preset (69.8 FPS) is the optimal setting for a smooth experience, providing 49% more performance than Ultra (46.7 FPS) while maintaining substantially better image quality than Medium (86.7 FPS). The Medium preset at 4K (86.7 FPS) is the best choice for users with 85 Hz monitors who want to maximize visual fidelity without dropping below refresh rate. The Ultra preset at 4K is only recommended for users who prioritize absolute image quality over frame rate and can tolerate sub-60 FPS gameplay. Across all resolutions, the data suggests that High settings provide the most consistent frame rates relative to their visual impact, making it the default recommendation for this combo in Hitman 2.