Hitman 2

Hitman 2 places the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combo in a specific performance bracket. The measured data shows a system that scales predictably with resolution, where the GPU becomes the primary constraint as pixel count rises. This pairing delivers smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p on most presets, but requires careful settings management for 4K, where the frame rates drop significantly.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 103 FPS at 1920x1080 to 66 FPS at 2560x1440, then further to 35 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 36% drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a 66% drop from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is consistent with a graphics card that has sufficient bandwidth for lower resolutions but struggles to maintain playable rates at 4K on higher presets.

At Low settings, the pattern becomes more pronounced. The system delivers 182 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 116 FPS at 1440p (a 36% reduction), and then to 62 FPS at 4K (a 66% reduction from 1080p). The fact that even Low settings at 4K barely breaks 60 FPS indicates that the RX 7700's pixel throughput is the limiting factor. The GPU's 96 ROPs and 236.1 GPixel/s pixel rate are adequate for 1440p but insufficient for the 8.3 million pixels of 4K.

Medium settings show a similar trend: 136 FPS at 1080p, 87 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a measured minimum of 39 FPS and maximum of 53 FPS, suggesting noticeable frame time variance. Ultra settings are the most demanding, with 76 FPS at 1080p, 49 FPS at 1440p, and just 26 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is effectively unplayable for a stealth game that benefits from smooth camera movement.

The resolution scaling data indicates that this combo is optimized for 1080p and 1440p gaming. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on the RX 7700, with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth, provides sufficient capacity for 1440p textures, but the raw compute power of 25.18 TFLOPS FP32 is not enough to drive 4K at high quality settings. Players targeting 4K should expect to use Low or Medium presets, or consider a more powerful GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings deliver 76 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This makes Ultra the recommended preset for 1080p, as it provides the best visual quality while maintaining playable frame rates. The 103 FPS at High settings also offers headroom for those who prefer higher refresh rates or want to enable additional post-processing.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts to High settings, which produce 66 FPS. This is playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes. Medium settings at 1440p yield 87 FPS, providing a more comfortable buffer for maintaining frame rate stability. The data suggests that High is the best balance for 1440p, as it offers a significant visual improvement over Medium while staying above 60 FPS. Ultra at 1440p drops to 49 FPS, which is below the smoothness threshold and should be avoided.

For 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. Low settings produce 62 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target but with no headroom. Medium settings at 4K deliver 46 FPS, which is playable for a methodical stealth game but may feel less responsive. High settings at 4K fall to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 26 FPS, both of which are too low for a comfortable experience. The recommendation for 4K is to use Low settings for a smooth experience, or Medium if you prioritize visual quality over frame rate stability.

The 65-watt TDP of the Ryzen 7 9700F and the 200-watt TDP of the RX 7700 suggest a system that can be adequately cooled, but the GPU's dual-slot design and 2x 8-pin power connectors indicate it requires proper case airflow. The data shows that the sweet spot for this combo is 1080p Ultra or 1440p High, where the CPU and GPU work in balance without one component bottlenecking the other.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, providing substantial single-thread performance that is relevant for Hitman 2's game logic and AI systems. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 4691 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating strong per-core performance.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and manage the simulation of NPCs and physics. The 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for this task, as the game is not heavily threaded. The L3 cache of 32 MB shared across all cores helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for the game's level streaming. The DDR5 memory support, with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, ensures the CPU has fast access to game assets.

The Ryzen 7 9700F's benchmark results show it is competitive with its nearest rivals. It scores 36,470 in PassMark multithread, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-14700KF. The average benchmark score of 69,996 places it just 0.7% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and 0.9% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700K. These small deltas indicate that the 9700F is well-matched against high-end desktop CPUs, and it will not bottleneck the RX 7700 in Hitman 2.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.50 GHz is particularly important for Hitman 2, which has moments of high single-thread demand, such as when many NPCs are on screen. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 182 FPS, which is likely close to the CPU's practical limit for this game. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the larger FPS drops when increasing resolution compared to when increasing settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Ryzen 7 9700F and RX 7700 ranks 1371 out of 3001 tested combinations in Hitman 2. This places it in the 46th percentile of all combos, meaning it outperforms roughly half of the systems tested. Given the GPU's PassMark percentile of 58 and the CPU's percentile of 94, this ranking reflects the GPU being the weaker link in the pairing.

The ranking suggests that while the CPU is a high-end part, the GPU holds the combo back in this game. The RX 7700's average benchmark score of 15,852 is 1.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 1% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9060, but 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500. This places the GPU in a mid-range tier that is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but not for high-refresh-rate 4K.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gameplay. The rank of 1371 out of 3001 indicates that there are many faster combinations, but also many slower ones. Players using this combo should expect performance that is competitive with mid-range systems, with the CPU providing headroom for future GPU upgrades without requiring a platform change.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is based on the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process. It features 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz. The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for 1440p textures and moderate 4K usage.

In Hitman 2, the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates at higher resolutions. The measured data shows that moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by about 36% at all settings, and moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by about 47% at all settings. This consistent scaling indicates that the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, rather than any CPU bottleneck.

The RX 7700's 40 ray tracing cores are present but not heavily utilized in Hitman 2, which relies on traditional rasterization. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support ensures compatibility with the game's rendering features, but the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 96 suggests modest DX12 performance. The FP32 throughput of 25.18 TFLOPS provides sufficient compute for the game's lighting and shadow calculations at 1080p and 1440p.

The GPU's 16 GB VRAM is a significant advantage for Hitman 2, as the game's detailed environments can consume over 8 GB at high settings. This capacity prevents texture swapping and stuttering, which is reflected in the measured minimum FPS values. At 1440p Medium, the minimum FPS is 74, and at 1080p Medium it is 116, indicating that the GPU maintains consistent frame delivery without memory-related hitches.

The GPU's 200-watt TDP and suggested 550-watt PSU indicate it is a power-hungry component, but the 2x 8-pin connectors and dual-slot design make it straightforward to install in most cases. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is sufficient for this GPU, as it does not saturate the bandwidth of the previous generation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers the following average frame rates: Low settings produce 182 FPS, Medium settings produce 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 and maximum of 157, High settings produce 103 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 76 FPS. These results show that the system is well-suited for high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, with even Ultra settings exceeding 75 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops as expected: Low settings yield 116 FPS, Medium settings yield 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 and maximum of 100, High settings yield 66 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 49 FPS. The 1440p results indicate that High settings are the upper limit for smooth gameplay, while Ultra requires a tolerance for frame rates below 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates fall further: Low settings produce 62 FPS, Medium settings produce 46 FPS with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 53, High settings produce 35 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 26 FPS. These 4K results show that only Low settings achieve the 60 FPS target, while Medium can be considered playable for a slower-paced game like Hitman 2.

The measured FPS data also reveals the impact of settings on frame rate. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra reduces performance by 58%, from 182 to 76 FPS. At 1440p, the reduction is 58% as well, from 116 to 49 FPS. At 4K, the reduction is 58% too, from 62 to 26 FPS. This consistent 58% penalty for Ultra settings across all resolutions indicates that the settings scale uniformly, with no single setting causing a disproportionate impact.

The minimum FPS values, available only for Medium settings, show that the combo maintains respectable frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 116 FPS is 85% of the average, indicating smooth performance. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 74 FPS is also 85% of the average, suggesting no major stutters. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 39 FPS is 85% of the average, which is acceptable for a stealth game where precision is more important than speed.