Hitman 2

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Hitman 2 with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 reveals a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 223.6 FPS, while Medium drops to 167.9 FPS, High to 128.6 FPS, and Ultra to 94.9 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 55.7 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs 33.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the pattern holds: Low produces 143.7 FPS, Medium 107.9 FPS, High 80.5 FPS, and Ultra 63.1 FPS. At 3840x2160, the numbers compress significantly: Low yields 75.3 FPS, Medium 57.1 FPS, High 40.4 FPS, and Ultra 30.1 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the target display. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 128.6 FPS offers a balanced experience, remaining well above 60 FPS while providing substantially better visual fidelity than Medium. The Ultra preset at 94.9 FPS is also viable for high-refresh 1080p panels, but the 33.7 FPS penalty over High may not justify the visual gains. For 1440p displays, Medium at 107.9 FPS is the sweet spot, as High at 80.5 FPS and Ultra at 63.1 FPS both remain playable but with diminishing returns. For 4K displays, the data shows a different story: only Low at 75.3 FPS and Medium at 57.1 FPS deliver acceptable frame rates, while High at 40.4 FPS and Ultra at 30.1 FPS fall below the smoothness threshold for action-oriented stealth gameplay.

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset provides the most consistent experience across all three resolutions, as it is the only settings tier that maintains above 57 FPS at 4K while still exceeding 107 FPS at 1440p. Users prioritizing frame rate above all else should select Low, which never drops below 75.3 FPS even at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 223.6 at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The Ultra preset at the same resolution produces 94.9 FPS, showing the wide performance envelope.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations for Hitman 2?

A: The combination ranks 599th out of 1795 tested combos in this game, placing it in the upper third of all configurations measured.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 30.1 FPS, combined with the sharp drop from 63.1 FPS at 1440p Ultra, indicates the GPU is heavily loaded at higher resolutions and settings, as the Ryzen 9 5950X has ample multi-threaded capacity.

Q: What is the FPS penalty for moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS falls from 128.6 at 1920x1080 to 80.5 at 2560x1440 and then to 40.4 at 3840x2160. This represents a 68.6% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Does the Low preset at 4K outperform the Ultra preset at 1440p?

A: Yes. Low at 3840x2160 averages 75.3 FPS, which is 12.2 FPS higher than the 63.1 FPS achieved by Ultra at 2560x1440. This suggests resolution scaling is more forgiving than settings scaling for this hardware.

Q: What is the average benchmark score of the CPU and GPU in isolation?

A: The CPU has an average benchmark score of 49062, placing it in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs. The GPU has an average benchmark score of 34780, placing it in the 79th percentile among all GPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the Ryzen 9 5950X and RX 9070 combination scales across resolutions. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings reduces the average FPS from 128.6 to 80.5, a 48.1 FPS drop. Moving further to 3840x2160 at High settings reduces the average to 40.4, another 40.1 FPS drop. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at High is 88.2 FPS, meaning 4K delivers only 31.4% of the 1080p frame rate.

At Low settings, the scaling is proportionally different. The 1080p result of 223.6 FPS falls to 143.7 FPS at 1440p and then to 75.3 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 68.4 FPS, which is larger than the 79.9 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p. This indicates that at Low settings, the GPU is still the primary limiter as resolution increases, but the CPU has more headroom to push higher frame rates at lower resolutions.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest scaling curve. From 94.9 FPS at 1080p, the frame rate falls to 63.1 FPS at 1440p and then to 30.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is less than one-third of the 1080p result. This pattern suggests that the RX 9070's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient, but the raw compute throughput of 36.13 TFLOPS becomes the bottleneck at 4K Ultra. The CPU, with 16 cores and 32 threads, does not appear to constrain the results at any resolution, as the frame rates scale consistently with pixel count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the four settings produce the following average frame rates: Low at 223.6 FPS, Medium at 167.9 FPS, High at 128.6 FPS, and Ultra at 94.9 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 128.7 FPS, demonstrating that Hitman 2 responds strongly to settings changes at this resolution. The gap between Medium and High is 39.3 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 33.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are: Low at 143.7 FPS, Medium at 107.9 FPS, High at 80.5 FPS, and Ultra at 63.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 80.6 FPS. The Medium to High drop is 27.4 FPS, and the High to Ultra drop is 17.4 FPS. Compared to 1080p, the absolute differences between settings narrow, but the percentage differences remain similar.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are: Low at 75.3 FPS, Medium at 57.1 FPS, High at 40.4 FPS, and Ultra at 30.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 45.2 FPS. The Medium to High drop is 16.7 FPS, and the High to Ultra drop is 10.3 FPS. At 4K, even the Low preset cannot reach the 1080p Ultra frame rate of 94.9 FPS, indicating that resolution has a more substantial impact than settings at this tier.

The data shows that the RX 9070 delivers playable frame rates (above 60 FPS) at 1080p for all settings, at 1440p for Low, Medium, and High, and at 4K only for Low. The Ultra preset at 4K at 30.1 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold by a significant margin.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 599th out of 1795 tested combos for Hitman 2. This places the configuration in the 66.6th percentile of all measured systems, meaning it outperforms roughly two-thirds of the tested combinations. The rank is derived from the measured FPS data across all resolution and settings pairs, not from isolated component scores.

The CPU's individual standing helps contextualize the combo rank. The Ryzen 9 5950X has an average benchmark score of 49062, which places it in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, has an average score of 49166, representing a 0.2% difference. The Intel Core i5-14600KF scores 49367, a 0.6% difference, while the AMD EPYC 4345P scores 49595, a 1.1% difference. These small deltas indicate the 5950X is competitively positioned against modern processors despite being from an earlier generation.

The GPU's individual ranking is lower. The RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 34780, placing it in the 79th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA A2, scores 34866, a 0.2% difference. The NVIDIA Quadro GV100 scores 34677, a 0.3% difference, and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 scores 34541, a 0.7% difference. The relatively modest GPU percentile, combined with the strong CPU percentile, suggests the combo rank of 599 is influenced more by the GPU's performance ceiling than by CPU limitations.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The processor has a 64 MB L3 cache, with 64 KB of L1 and 512 KB of L2 per core. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU is built on a 7 nm process at TSMC, with 8,300 million transistors spread across a die size of 2x 74 mm².

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5950X shows strong multi-threaded performance. It scores 38607 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5450 in single-core. The 3DMark results show scaling from 944 in single-thread to 11597 in max-threads, with intermediate scores of 1856 for 2 threads, 3595 for 4 threads, 6598 for 8 threads, and 10810 for 16 threads. The PassMark multi-thread score is 45424, with a single-thread score of 3470.

For Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (223.6 FPS) is high enough that the CPU's 16 cores are likely not saturated, as even the 4-thread 3DMark score of 3595 suggests the processor can handle moderate thread counts efficiently. The game's stealth genre typically involves complex AI and crowd simulations, but the 5950X's 32 threads provide ample headroom. The fact that the frame rate scales consistently with resolution and settings indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting component at higher loads, while the CPU maintains a stable delivery of frames. The boost clock of 4.90 GHz helps ensure that single-threaded game code paths do not become a bottleneck.