Hitman 2

Hitman 2, a 2018 stealth title, presents an interesting test for this combination of AMD's Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4080. The benchmark data reveals a pairing that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, yet shows surprising headroom at 1080p. This analysis will explore the measured FPS across various settings and resolutions, interpreting what the numbers mean for the components' respective roles and the overall gaming experience.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform and features a base clock of 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This 9000-series chip has a 65 W TDP and uses a 4 nm process node from TSMC. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. The processor supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s.

In the context of Hitman 2, a game released in late 2018, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and manage game logic. The data suggests that at lower resolutions like 1920x1080, the CPU's strong single-threaded performance (evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 4691) is sufficient to drive high frame rates. The processor's overall benchmark average is 69996, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, has an average score of 69875, making the 9700F 0.2% faster. This places it in a performance tier just above the Intel Core i7-14700KF (which it beats by 0.2%) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (which it leads by 0.7%).

The CPU's 16 threads could be a factor in maintaining stable frame pacing in Hitman 2's crowded environments, though the game's age means it likely doesn't utilize all cores heavily. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at 4K, where frame rates drop significantly, but it provides the necessary headroom to achieve very high frame rates at 1080p. The 8 cores and 16 threads ensure that background tasks and game threads have ample resources, preventing stutters that could affect the measured average FPS.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 achieves a rank of 255 out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places the pairing in the top 7% of all systems tested, indicating a high-performance setup that outperforms the vast majority of configurations. This rank is a holistic metric that considers the balance between CPU and GPU capabilities.

Given that the RTX 4080 is a top-tier GPU (with a Passmark G3D score of 34457, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs), the rank of 255 primarily reflects the GPU's dominance in this pairing. The CPU, while capable, does not drag the combo down; its relative performance against rivals like the Intel Core i7-14700K (which it beats by 0.9% in average benchmark score) ensures that the GPU is adequately fed. The data shows that this combo sits in a performance tier where the GPU is the clear driver of in-game FPS results, especially at higher resolutions. The rank suggests that while there are 254 faster combos, they likely consist of even more powerful GPUs paired with similar or slightly faster CPUs.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves 172 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings, the average FPS drops to 110, a 36% reduction. At 3840x2160, the average further drops to 58 FPS, a 66% reduction from the 1080p figure. This steep decline with increasing resolution strongly indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the limiting component.

The CPU's performance is largely resolution-independent; its workload in terms of game logic and draw calls remains consistent. The GPU, however, must render more pixels at higher resolutions. The data shows that the RTX 4080, despite its power, is overwhelmed at 4K in Hitman 2. The difference between 1440p (110 FPS) and 4K (58 FPS) is nearly halved, which is a common indicator of a GPU hitting its limits. At 1080p, the 172 FPS result suggests that the CPU is still capable of pushing the GPU to high levels of output, but the GPU's rendering capacity is the ceiling. If the CPU were the primary limiter, we would expect to see similar frame rates across all resolutions, which is not the case here.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a high frame rate?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 172 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of many monitors. At 2560x1440, the average drops to 110 FPS, which is still very playable for high-refresh-rate displays. At 3840x2160, the average falls to 58 FPS, which is more suited for 60 Hz displays.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX's score of 69875. This indicates that the 9700F is slightly faster in general processing tasks, despite being a desktop part compared to a mobile HX-series chip.

Q: Is the RTX 4080's performance significantly different from the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The data shows the RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, which is only 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209. This indicates that in practice, the two GPUs perform nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields an average of 193 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields an average of 81 FPS. This is a significant difference of 112 FPS, showing a large performance cost for the highest visual quality settings.

Q: Does the combo maintain a stable frame rate at Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 227, with a minimum of 193 and a maximum of 261. This indicates a relatively stable frame rate with a variance of 68 FPS between the minimum and average. At 2560x1440, the average is 145 FPS, ranging from 123 to 167.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the CPU?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F has a launch MSRP of $289.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features the AD103 chip. It is manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC and contains 45,900 million transistors. The GPU has a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz. It is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The card's memory clock is 1400 MHz, with an effective data rate of 22.4 Gbps. It has 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines, along with 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores.

In Hitman 2, the GPU is the primary driver of performance, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, even at 4K Ultra settings, which prevents any potential texture swapping or stuttering. The boost clock of 2505 MHz allows the card to maintain high throughput in compute-heavy scenes. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 34457 places it in the 86th percentile, and its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% slower. The data indicates that the RTX 4080 provides a substantial amount of graphical horsepower, but Hitman 2's engine seems to cap its effectiveness at 4K, where it can only produce 58 FPS on High settings. The card's performance at 1080p and 1440p shows it can easily handle high refresh rate gaming.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the "Medium" preset seems to offer the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combo, particularly at 1440p. At 2560x1440, Medium yields an average of 145 FPS with a minimum of 123 FPS, which ensures a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors. The jump to High drops the average to 110 FPS, which is still good but provides diminishing returns for the added visual detail. At 4K, the Medium preset is the only one that provides a playable frame rate above 60 FPS, at 77 FPS, while High drops to 58 FPS and Ultra is unplayable at 43 FPS.

For users with a 4K 60 Hz display, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, as it is the only one that consistently stays above the refresh rate. For 1440p users, High is a viable option, but Medium offers a more comfortable margin above 60 FPS and higher headroom for frame time spikes. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset achieves 126 FPS, so users can prioritize visual quality without worrying about frame rate. The "Low" preset provides the highest frame rates (302 FPS at 1080p, 193 FPS at 1440p) but sacrifices significant visual detail that the RTX 4080 can easily afford to render.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The data provides a comprehensive look at average frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 302 FPS average.
• Medium: 227 FPS average, with a minimum of 193 and a maximum of 261.
• High: 172 FPS average.
• Ultra: 126 FPS average.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 193 FPS average.
• Medium: 145 FPS average, with a minimum of 123 and a maximum of 167.
• High: 110 FPS average.
• Ultra: 81 FPS average.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 103 FPS average.
• Medium: 77 FPS average, with a minimum of 66 and a maximum of 89.
• High: 58 FPS average.
• Ultra: 43 FPS average.

These numbers show a clear scaling pattern. The RTX 4080's performance degrades predictably as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combo is likely CPU-bound at Low settings (302 FPS), suggesting the Ryzen 7 9700F's limits are near 300 FPS. As settings increase, the GPU becomes more engaged. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is completely saturated, producing only 43 FPS. The Medium preset data at all three resolutions includes minimum and maximum FPS values, showing the variability in frame times, which is useful for understanding stutter potential. The 4K Medium data shows a 23 FPS spread between min (66) and max (89), which is a noticeable variance but typical for this game.