Hitman 2

Hitman 2, a stealth title from 2018, presents an interesting test for a modern flagship pairing like the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The measured data reveals a configuration that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher settings and resolutions, but shows the CPU's strength in pushing extreme frame rates at lower presets. This analysis walks through the measured FPS rows to determine the optimal settings, the scaling behavior across resolutions, and the distinct roles each component plays.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific combination, the data suggests that the "High" preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 194 FPS, which is a significant drop from the 342 FPS seen at Low, but it is still far above the 143 FPS of the Ultra preset. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 51 FPS on average, a 26% reduction, while the jump from Medium to High only costs 63 FPS (from 257 to 194). This indicates that the High preset provides a substantial visual uplift over Medium without the disproportionate performance hit associated with Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the High preset maintains an average of 124 FPS, which is still well within the territory of high-refresh-rate gaming. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 91 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show the cost of maximum settings. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 219 FPS, but this is likely to be a visually bare experience that does not leverage the hardware's capabilities. The data indicates that High is the sweet spot, offering a 33 FPS advantage over Ultra while remaining 40 FPS behind the less demanding Medium preset.

The situation at 3840x2160 is more constrained. The High preset delivers an average of 66 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 49 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced stealth game but is not ideal. The Medium preset at 4K achieves 87 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely not worth the 21 FPS gain over High. Therefore, the High preset is the recommended choice for this combo across all resolutions, as it offers the best compromise between visual fidelity and performance, with 4K being the only resolution where frame rates approach the lower limit of comfort.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 342 FPS, which is achieved with the Low preset at 1920x1080.

Q: How much of a performance drop does the Ultra preset cause compared to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 91 FPS, which is 33 FPS lower than the High preset's average of 124 FPS.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra preset playable with this hardware?

A: The measured data shows an average of 49 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is below the 60 FPS standard, but may be considered acceptable for a stealth game, though the High preset at 66 FPS is a safer choice.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded across all tests?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 74 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset.

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

A: The combo ranks 77th out of 3711 tested combinations, placing it in the top 2% of all tested systems for Hitman 2.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the limiting factor at 4K Ultra?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K Ultra, as the frame rate drops to 49 FPS, which is a significant reduction from the 91 FPS at 1440p Ultra, indicating a resolution-bound performance ceiling.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the shift in system bottleneck from the CPU to the GPU. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 342 FPS at 1920x1080 to 219 FPS at 2560x1440, a 36% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 117 FPS, which is a 46% drop from the 1440p figure. This steep decline at Low settings suggests that even at 4K, the CPU is still feeding the GPU enough data, but the GPU's rendering workload is increasing dramatically.

For the High preset, the scaling is more linear. The average FPS goes from 194 at 1080p to 124 at 1440p (a 36% drop) and then to 66 at 4K (a 47% drop from 1440p). This pattern indicates that the system is becoming increasingly GPU-bound as resolution increases. The gap between the Low and High presets also narrows at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference is 148 FPS (342 vs 194), but at 4K, the difference shrinks to 51 FPS (117 vs 66). This convergence shows that at 4K, the GPU's pixel throughput is the primary constraint, and the visual settings have a relatively smaller impact on the final frame rate compared to the resolution itself.

The Ultra preset data reinforces this. The average FPS drops from 143 at 1080p to 91 at 1440p (a 36% drop) and then to 49 at 4K (a 46% drop from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across all presets when moving from 1440p to 4K (around 46-47%) strongly suggest that the GPU's shading and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. The RTX 5090's 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth and 32 GB of VRAM are being taxed heavily by the 4K resolution, regardless of the quality preset. This analysis points to a system that is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming but becomes GPU-limited at 4K, where even the most powerful consumer GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates with maximum settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination achieves a rank of 77 out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places the system in the top 2.1% of all configurations tested for this game, indicating that it is one of the fastest pairings available. The rank is a measure of the combined system's performance, and the data shows that it is capable of delivering exceptionally high frame rates, especially at lower resolutions and settings.

The rank is particularly impressive given the game's age. Hitman 2 was released in 2018, and its engine is not as demanding as more modern titles. However, the high rank suggests that the combination of the 9800X3D's strong single-threaded performance and the RTX 5090's raw compute power overcomes any potential bottlenecks. The fact that it ranks 77th out of over 3,700 combos means that only 76 other systems (likely with newer, more powerful GPUs like an RTX 5090 Ti or similar) can outperform it in this specific title.

This ranking is also notable because it is not the absolute top configuration. The presence of 76 other combos ahead of it implies that there are systems with even higher performance potential, possibly due to more aggressive factory overclocks or different CPU choices. However, for a standard retail pairing of a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and an RTX 5090, the 77th place ranking is a strong indicator of premium-tier performance. The percentile rank of the CPU (87th) and GPU (92nd) individually further support this, as both components are in the top decile of their respective categories, and their combination yields a system that is more than capable of handling Hitman 2 at its highest settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D's role in Hitman 2 is primarily to provide a high-performance foundation that prevents CPU-bound frame rate drops. The CPU features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. Its architecture is Zen 5, built on a 4 nm process, and it is equipped with a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. In a game like Hitman 2, which can be sensitive to single-thread performance, the 9800X3D's high boost clock and large cache are advantageous.

The benchmark data for the CPU shows strong single-threaded capabilities, with a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1212 and a geekbench_singlecore score of 2964. These scores are critical for a stealth game where AI calculations and game logic often run on a single thread. At lower resolutions like 1080p, where the GPU is not fully taxed, the CPU's ability to process frames quickly is the key to achieving the 342 FPS average at Low settings. The CPU's passmark_single_thread score of 4430 reinforces its top-tier performance in this area.

However, the data also shows that the CPU's performance is not the primary limitation in most scenarios. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 10081 and the cinebench_r23_multicore score of 23230 indicate that the CPU has ample multi-threaded headroom. In Hitman 2, the game likely does not utilize all 16 threads effectively, so the CPU's advantage lies in its per-core speed and cache latency rather than raw throughput. The fact that the 9800X3D's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (with a deltaPct of -0.8) and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (with a deltaPct of -0.7) shows that it is closely matched with other high-end processors in synthetic benchmarks. In practical gaming terms, the CPU's role is to ensure that frame times are consistent and that the GPU is never starved of data, which is evident from the high frame rates at 1080p and the relatively small performance gap between presets at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system performs exceptionally well. The Low preset achieves an average of 342 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 257 FPS, with a min of 218 and a max of 295 FPS. The High preset averages 194 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 143 FPS. This shows a clear linear progression where each increase in settings costs roughly 50-60 FPS, demonstrating that the system is heavily CPU-bound at this resolution, as the GPU has plenty of headroom.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show the GPU's increased workload. The Low preset averages 219 FPS, a 36% drop from 1080p. The Medium preset averages 164 FPS, with a min of 140 and a max of 189 FPS. The High preset averages 124 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 91 FPS. The performance gap between presets narrows slightly, with the difference between Low and Ultra being 128 FPS (compared to 199 FPS at 1080p). This indicates that the GPU is becoming a more significant factor, but the CPU is still capable of pushing high frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the system becomes clearly GPU-limited. The Low preset averages 117 FPS, which is a 47% drop from 1440p. The Medium preset averages 87 FPS, with a min of 74 and a max of 101 FPS. The High preset averages 66 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 49 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is now only 68 FPS, showing that the GPU's rendering capabilities are the primary constraint at 4K. The data at 4K also reveals that the Medium preset is the only one with recorded min and max FPS values, suggesting that the other presets may have more variable frame pacing, but the average numbers clearly show a diminishing return on investment for higher settings at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, especially at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a massive 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its boost clock is rated at 2407 MHz, and it has 21,760 shading units. The RTX 5090's immense compute power is evident in its passmark_g3d score of 39650 and its 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 18355.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role is to handle the rendering of the game's detailed environments and character models. The data shows that the RTX 5090 is more than capable of handling the game at 1440p with high settings, achieving 124 FPS. The GPU's performance at 1080p is so high that it is not the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 194 FPS at High settings. However, at 4K, the GPU's workload increases exponentially, and the frame rates drop to 49 FPS at Ultra settings.

The GPU's 32 GB of VRAM is likely not a limiting factor in Hitman 2, as the game's texture requirements are modest compared to modern titles. The memory bandwidth, however, plays a crucial role. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is necessary to feed the GPU's 176 ROPs and 680 TMUs at 4K resolution. The data shows that the GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution, indicating that its raw compute and memory throughput are the primary determinants of frame rate at 4K. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, has an avgScore of 79605, which is only 0.3% different from the RTX 5090's score of 79842, but the RTX 5090's architecture is far more efficient for gaming workloads. The GPU's percentile rank of 92 places it in the top 8% of all GPUs, confirming its status as a top-tier component that drives the overall system's high ranking in this game.