Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a fascinating performance profile in Hitman 2, a stealth title from 2018 that remains demanding at high resolutions. The measured FPS data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at 4K, yet at 1080p the CPU's capabilities become increasingly relevant, creating a scaling curve that tells a clear story about where each component's workload begins and endsvoice.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and consistent across all settings presets, indicating that the RTX 4080's rendering workload grows exponentially as pixel count increases. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 302 at 1920x1080 to 193 at 2560x1440 — a 36% reduction — and then further to 103 at 3840x2160, representing a 66% total drop from 1080p. This steep decline at Low settings is particularly telling: even when the GPU has minimal shading work to do, the sheer pixel throughput at 4K overwhelms the RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth.

At Medium settings, the same pattern emerges with slightly narrower margins: 227 FPS at 1080p, 145 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 77 FPS at 4K (66% drop from 1080p). The High preset shows 172 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 58 FPS at 4K (66% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets strongly suggests that resolution scaling is governed primarily by the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth, not by CPU or memory subsystem limitations.

Ultra settings amplify the resolution penalty further: 126 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 43 FPS at 4K (66% drop). The fact that the proportional drop remains nearly identical from Low to Ultra indicates that the RTX 4080's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is being utilized in a linear fashion as resolution increases — there is no evidence of a bottleneck shifting between components across the resolution range.

The 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS is worth highlighting. This is the only measured configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so substantially. The data implies that at 4K with maximum settings, the RTX 4080 is simply unable to maintain playable frame rates in Hitman 2, despite its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 and Passmark G3D score of 34457, both of which place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. The game's engine appears to scale poorly with the Ada Lovelace architecture at extreme resolutions, or the settings preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its 96 MB of shared L3 cache is the standout feature for gaming workloads, and the benchmark data suggests this cache configuration matters for Hitman 2's engine. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16817 and singlecore score of 1713 place it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33079.

At 1080p Low settings, the measured 302 FPS average represents a scenario where the CPU is likely the primary limiter. The transition from Low to Medium at 1080p shows a drop from 302 to 227 FPS (25% reduction), which is smaller than the resolution scaling drops, suggesting that the CPU can still feed frames at this rate. However, the jump from Medium to High at 1080p (227 to 172 FPS, a 24% drop) and High to Ultra (172 to 126 FPS, a 27% drop) indicates that GPU workload is becoming the dominant factor even at 1080p.

Comparing the 7800X3D to its nearest rivals reveals interesting positioning. The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Intel Core i7-13650HX both average 33089 in benchmark scores, essentially identical to the 7800X3D's 33079 (0% delta). The AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H scores 33201, which is only 0.4% higher. These near-identical scores suggest that for synthetic workloads, the 7800X3D is not exceptional, yet its 96 MB L3 cache is specifically designed for gaming scenarios where cache hits reduce memory latency.

The 3DMark thread scaling data shows the CPU's strength: a 2-thread score of 1887, 4-thread of 3684, 8-thread of 6539, and max-thread of 7967. The scaling from 2 to 4 threads (95% increase) and 4 to 8 threads (77% increase) demonstrates excellent multi-threading efficiency, but the jump from 8 to 16 threads (only 22% increase) indicates diminishing returns — Hitman 2 likely cannot utilize all 16 threads effectively, making the 8-core design with high single-thread performance the ideal configuration.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 4080 sufficient for 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: At Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 43, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Dropping to High settings yields 58 FPS, still marginal. Only at Low settings (103 FPS) does 4K become comfortably playable, indicating that the RTX 4080 can handle 4K but requires settings compromises.

Q: How does the 7800X3D compare to its closest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The 7800X3D's average benchmark score of 33079 is within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G (33089), Intel Core i7-13650HX (33089), and AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H (33201). This suggests that raw compute performance is similar, but the 7800X3D's 96 MB L3 cache may provide gaming-specific advantages not captured by these scores.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 1440p for this combo?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra settings deliver 81 FPS average, which is above 60 FPS and playable. High settings provide 110 FPS, and Medium offers 145 FPS. The data suggests High or Ultra are viable, with Ultra offering the best visual quality while maintaining acceptable frame rates.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM on the RTX 4080 become a limiting factor in Hitman 2?

A: The measured FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent across all settings presets (approximately 66% total drop), which indicates that memory bandwidth (716.8 GB/s) and fillrate are the constraints, not VRAM capacity. Hitman 2 from 2018 likely does not exceed 16 GB of VRAM usage even at 4K Ultra.

Q: Why does the 7800X3D's synthetic benchmark score not reflect its gaming performance?

A: The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 3759 and Geekbench singlecore score of 2426 are respectable but not top-tier. However, the 96 MB L3 cache is a gaming-specific feature that reduces memory latency in game workloads, which synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture. The data shows the CPU can sustain 302 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating strong gaming capability.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1080p with this combo?

A: The measured results range from 126 FPS at Ultra to 302 FPS at Low. Medium settings yield 227 FPS, and High produces 172 FPS. All 1080p configurations exceed 120 FPS, making this combo well-suited for high-refresh-rate monitors at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4080 and 7800X3D combination produces exceptional frame rates across all settings. Low settings achieve an average of 302 FPS, Medium reaches 227 FPS with a minimum of 193 and maximum of 261, High delivers 172 FPS, and Ultra maintains 126 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra (302 to 126 FPS) represents a 58% reduction, showing that the settings presets have a substantial impact on GPU workload even at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected resolution penalty. Low settings average 193 FPS, Medium averages 145 FPS with a range of 123 to 167, High averages 110 FPS, and Ultra averages 81 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by approximately 36% across all presets, maintaining the pattern observed in scaling analysis.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4080 begins to struggle at higher settings. Low settings still deliver a playable 103 FPS average, Medium drops to 77 FPS with a range of 66 to 89, High falls to 58 FPS, and Ultra plummets to 43 FPS. The 4K Medium result of 77 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS suggests that this preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance at this resolution, as the minimum frame rate stays above 60 FPS.

The Medium settings results are the only ones that include minimum and maximum FPS data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 193 to 261 FPS; at 1440p, it is 123 to 167 FPS; and at 4K, it is 66 to 89 FPS. These ranges indicate that frame time consistency scales with resolution, with the 4K result showing a narrower band relative to the average, suggesting more consistent GPU utilization at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, based on the AD103 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, features 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. Its boost clock of 2505 MHz and base clock of 2205 MHz drive a peak FP32 throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears to be the critical resource for Hitman 2 at high resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark results place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54209 (0.1% higher), while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (1.1% higher) and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (2.6% higher). These narrow margins suggest that the RTX 4080 is positioned competitively among high-end GPUs, though the Radeon cards show slightly higher average scores.

The Passmark G3D score of 34457 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 indicate strong raw performance, but the measured FPS in Hitman 2 reveals a different story. At 4K Ultra, the 43 FPS average is well below what these synthetic scores might predict, suggesting that Hitman 2's engine has specific rendering paths that do not scale with the RTX 4080's compute capabilities. The game's release date of 2018-11-12 means it was designed before Ada Lovelace architecture, and the data suggests that the GPU's advanced features like ray tracing cores (76) and tensor cores (304) are not utilized effectively by this title.

The memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s is the most likely bottleneck at 4K. The consistent 66% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings presets aligns with the quadratic increase in pixel count (1920x1080 = 2.07M pixels, 3840x2160 = 8.29M pixels, a 4x increase). The fact that the FPS does not drop by 75% (which would indicate perfect linear scaling with pixel count) but only by 66% suggests that some efficiency is gained from larger contiguous memory access patterns at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings preset depends heavily on target resolution and frame rate requirements. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver above 120 FPS, so the choice comes down to visual quality. Ultra at 126 FPS is clearly the best option for players with high-refresh-rate monitors, as it provides maximum visual fidelity while maintaining frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, Ultra at 81 FPS is the recommended choice for players with 60-75 Hz monitors, as it offers the best visual quality while staying comfortably above 60 FPS. For players with 144 Hz displays, High at 110 FPS provides a better balance, sacrificing some visual effects for a 36% frame rate increase. Medium at 145 FPS is the choice for competitive play, though the visual downgrade from Ultra is noticeable.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more nuanced. Ultra at 43 FPS is not playable for most users, and High at 58 FPS barely misses the 60 FPS target. Medium at 77 FPS is the only preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS while providing reasonable visual quality, and its minimum FPS of 66 ensures that frame drops remain above the playability threshold. Low at 103 FPS offers the smoothest 4K experience but significantly reduces visual fidelity.

The data suggests that Medium settings at 4K with this combo represents the sweet spot for 4K gaming, delivering 77 FPS average with a minimum of 66 FPS. This configuration leverages the RTX 4080's strengths while avoiding the performance collapse seen at High and Ultra settings. Players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate might consider High at 58 FPS, but the risk of drops below 60 FPS makes Medium the safer recommendation.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 255th out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 6.9% of all configurations. This ranking is notable given that the individual components are not at the absolute top of their respective categories — the CPU is in the 83rd percentile and the GPU is in the 86th percentile of all parts.

The ranking suggests that the combination of the 7800X3D's large L3 cache and the RTX 4080's high memory bandwidth creates a synergistic effect in Hitman 2. The CPU's 96 MB L3 cache likely reduces memory latency for game logic and AI processing, while the GPU's 716.8 GB/s bandwidth handles the game's texture streaming and fillrate demands. This synergy allows the combo to outperform many configurations with individually more powerful components that may not pair as effectively.

However, the rank of 255 out of 3711 also indicates that there are 254 combos that perform better in this game. Given that Hitman 2 is a 2018 title, it is likely that newer, more powerful GPUs or CPUs with higher synthetic scores can achieve higher frame rates, particularly at 4K where the RTX 4080 shows clear limitations at Ultra settings. The combo's strength is most evident at 1080p and 1440p, where it delivers frame rates that rival much more expensive configurations.

The data implies that for a game like Hitman 2, the RTX 4080 is the limiting factor at 4K, while the 7800X3D provides ample CPU headroom. If the goal is maximum 4K performance, a more powerful GPU would be necessary, but the 7800X3D ensures that CPU bottlenecks never become an issue at any resolution or settings preset. This combo represents a balanced pairing where the CPU's capabilities are fully utilized at lower resolutions, and the GPU's limitations only become apparent at the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration.