Hitman 2

Hitman 2 is a stealth game that scales predictably with both resolution and graphics preset, and the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the Intel Arc B570 shows a clear pattern: the combination is capable of smooth, high-refresh-rate play at 1080p, but it runs out of headroom quickly as you move up to 1440p and especially 4K. The benchmark results indicate that this setup is best treated as a 1080p-focused configuration for this title, with the Medium preset offering the best balance of frame rate and visual fidelity at that resolution. Pushing to Ultra at any resolution comes with a severe performance penalty, while Low settings provide the highest frame rates but likely sacrifice too much visual quality for a game that relies on atmosphere and environmental detail.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data makes the ideal settings configuration straightforward. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 93 FPS, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and provides a comfortable margin for demanding scenes. The High preset at the same resolution drops the average to 70 FPS, which is still playable, but the 23 FPS gap between Medium and High suggests that the visual upgrade is not worth the performance cost, especially considering that the minimum frame rate is not recorded for High, implying it may be less stable. The Low preset at 1080p hits 123 FPS average, but this is likely overkill for the game's genre and may indicate that the CPU is not the limiting factor at this point.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the only viable option for a consistently smooth experience, producing an average of 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS. This is right at the edge of playability, and the frame time variance suggests it will be playable but not perfectly smooth. The High preset at 1440p drops to 45 FPS average, which is below the ideal threshold for a stealth game where quick reactions matter. The Low preset at 1440p offers 79 FPS average, but this requires significant graphical sacrifices that likely undermine the game's visual presentation. At 3840x2160, the data is clear: no preset achieves a playable frame rate. The Medium preset averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS, which is not smooth enough for the game's mechanics, and the High preset at 24 FPS and Ultra at 18 FPS are essentially unplayable.

The optimal choice is 1080p Medium. This preset provides the best combination of a high average frame rate, a recorded minimum frame rate that stays above 75 FPS, and a maximum that reaches 106 FPS, indicating good scaling and headroom. The data shows that the jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 23 FPS on average, which is a significant drop for what is typically a modest increase in shadow quality and texture filtering. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset at 1080p offers 123 FPS, which could be used to maximize smoothness, but the Medium preset is the recommended starting point for a balanced experience.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570's role in Hitman 2 is defined by its memory configuration and clock speeds. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. This memory size is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming in this title, but the measured FPS at 4K suggests that the combination of memory bandwidth and compute power is insufficient for that resolution. The GPU's base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, and the memory clock is 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective), providing a stable platform for the rendering workload.

The benchmark results show that the GPU's performance scales almost linearly with resolution. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 123, which drops to 79 at 1440p Low and 42 at 4K Low. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU is likely able to feed frames faster than the GPU can render them at 1440p and 4K. The GPU's 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are the raw numbers behind this scaling. The GPU's percentile ranking of 65 versus all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 20556 place it in the mid-range tier, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with a deltaPct of 0.1%, confirming that its performance is roughly equivalent to a mobile high-end part.

The data suggests that the Arc B570's 10 GB memory buffer is not the limiting factor at 1080p or 1440p, as the frame rates drop proportionally with resolution. However, at 4K, the average FPS across all settings is below 42, indicating that the GPU's raw compute power and memory bandwidth are insufficient for that resolution. The GPU's texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s and its 144 TMUs are likely being fully utilized at 4K, but the resulting frame rates are not playable. The GPU's 18 RT cores are not directly relevant to Hitman 2's performance, as the game does not heavily utilize ray tracing effects.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F provides a strong foundation for Hitman 2, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture. The CPU's base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz are high, and its 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps with game data access. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive, with a Passmark single-thread score of 4691 and a multithread score of 36470, placing it in the 94th percentile versus all CPUs. This indicates that the CPU is more than capable of handling the game's logic and AI.

The CPU's role in the measured FPS is most evident at 1080p Low, where the average FPS of 123 suggests that the CPU is still able to push frames well beyond the GPU's capabilities at that resolution. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX with a deltaPct of 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-14700KF with a deltaPct of -0.2%, meaning the 9700F performs within 0.2% of these parts in synthetic benchmarks. This puts it in the top tier of gaming CPUs, and it is unlikely to be a bottleneck in Hitman 2 at any resolution below 4K.

At 1440p and 4K, the data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor. The frame rate drops are consistent with the GPU's workload scaling, and the CPU's high single-thread performance ensures that it can feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates without issue. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support are sufficient for the game's data streaming. The CPU's TDP of 65 W and 4 nm process node indicate that it runs efficiently, but these factors do not directly impact game performance. The CPU's 24 PCIe Gen 5 lanes are more than enough for the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, so there is no bandwidth bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the system's performance across resolutions and settings. At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. The Low preset averages 42 FPS, the Medium preset averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 and a maximum of 36, the High preset averages 24 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 18 FPS. None of these are playable for a stealth game that requires precise timing and visual clarity. The frame rate drops by 10 FPS from Low to Medium, 8 FPS from Medium to High, and 6 FPS from High to Ultra, showing a consistent degradation as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the results are better but still constrained. The Low preset achieves an average of 79 FPS, which is playable, but likely lacks the visual polish for a game that emphasizes environment detail. The Medium preset averages 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 68, which is the sweet spot for this resolution. The High preset drops to 45 FPS average, and the Ultra preset falls to 33 FPS average. The gap between Low and Medium is 20 FPS, and the gap between Medium and High is 14 FPS, indicating that the Medium preset is the most efficient choice for the visual quality it provides.

At 1920x1080, the system shines. The Low preset averages 123 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset averages 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 and a maximum of 106, providing a very smooth experience. The High preset averages 70 FPS, which is still playable but shows a 23 FPS drop from Medium. The Ultra preset averages 52 FPS, which is below the ideal 60 FPS threshold. The data shows a clear pattern: the performance cost of each settings tier is roughly consistent, but the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance, with a minimum frame rate that is 26 FPS higher than the High preset's average.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and the Intel Arc B570 ranks 2399 out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the bottom 20% of all configurations. This ranking is surprising given the individual components' strengths, but it reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking versus all CPUs suggests that it is a top-tier processor, but the GPU's 65th percentile ranking versus all GPUs indicates that it is a mid-range part. The combo's overall rank is dragged down by the GPU's inability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K and its marginal performance at 1440p.

The benchmark results show that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it achieves frame rates that are competitive with more expensive configurations. The combo's rank of 2399 out of 3001 suggests that there are many other combinations that perform better, but this is likely due to the GPU's mid-range positioning. The GPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Arc A750 with a deltaPct of -0.1%, meaning the B570 is essentially 0.1% slower than its predecessor in synthetic benchmarks, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with a deltaPct of 0.1%, showing that it is on par with a mobile high-end part. The CPU's rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X with a deltaPct of 0.7%, indicating that the 9700F is 0.7% slower than that flagship part.

The data indicates that the combo's rank is primarily due to the GPU's performance. At 1080p, the combo can deliver over 90 FPS on Medium settings, which is a good experience. However, the rank of 2399 out of 3001 suggests that a large number of other GPU and CPU pairings are faster overall, likely due to having higher-end GPUs that can push higher frame rates at 1440p and 4K. For a builder targeting 1080p gaming, this combo is effective, but for higher resolutions, it falls short of many other configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Hitman 2?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with the Medium preset is the optimal choice, delivering an average of 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. This provides a smooth and visually balanced experience.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: No, the measured FPS at 3840x2160 are not playable. The best result is 42 FPS on Low settings, and the Medium preset averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS. All other settings are below 24 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 20556, and it is 0.1% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and 0.1% slower than the Intel Arc A750. It is also 0.4% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M and 0.5% slower than the AMD Radeon R9 M390X.

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its closest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 69996. It is 0.2% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, 0.2% slower than the Intel Core i7-14700KF, 0.7% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and 0.9% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck for this combo?

A: The data indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 123 FPS, but this drops to 79 FPS at 1440p Low and 42 FPS at 4K Low, showing that the GPU cannot sustain frame rates as resolution increases.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 2399 out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the lower 20% of all configurations, primarily due to the GPU's mid-range performance at higher resolutions.