Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a wide spread of frame rates across Hitman 2's four quality presets and three resolutions. The measured data shows a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher settings, with the CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads providing ample headroom even at 1080p. This combination ranks 956th out of 3001 tested combos in this game, placing it in the 68th percentile of all configurations measured.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the RTX 4080's rendering load scales predictably with pixel count. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 123 at 1920x1080 to 79 at 2560x1440, a 35.8% reduction, then further to 42 at 3840x2160, a 46.8% drop from 1440p. This progression shows that the GPU is the primary constraint as resolution increases.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic. The average FPS starts at 217 at 1080p, drops to 139 at 1440p (a 35.9% reduction), and then falls to 74 at 4K (a 46.8% drop from 1440p). The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical between High and Low settings suggests that the rendering pipeline's resolution cost is roughly proportional, regardless of the quality preset.

Medium settings show a similar pattern: 163 FPS at 1080p, 104 at 1440p, and 55 at 4K. The percentage reductions are 36.2% and 47.1% respectively, nearly matching the other presets. Ultra settings follow the same trajectory with 91 FPS at 1080p, 58 at 1440p, and 31 at 4K — a 36.3% drop followed by a 46.6% drop.

The consistency of these scaling factors across all four presets is telling. Since the percentage losses are so uniform, the limiting component at each resolution is the same: the GPU's pixel throughput. The CPU, with its 5.40 GHz boost clock and 16 cores, is not introducing a bottleneck at any resolution, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate scales exactly with the resolution's pixel count increase. A CPU-limited scenario would show diminishing FPS drops at higher resolutions, which is not observed here.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals that Medium settings offer the best balance between visual quality and frame rate for most users. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 163 average FPS with a minimum of 138 and maximum of 187, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay while maintaining a meaningful quality improvement over Low. High settings at 1080p still deliver 123 average FPS, which is playable, but the jump from Medium to High costs 40 FPS (a 24.5% reduction) for what is typically a modest visual gain.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings provide 104 average FPS with a minimum of 89 and maximum of 120. This is an excellent experience for a stealth game like Hitman 2, where frame pacing matters for precise movement and aiming. High at 1440p drops to 79 average FPS, which is still playable but begins to approach the threshold where frame drops become noticeable. Ultra at 1440p falls to 58 average FPS, which is marginal for a game that benefits from responsiveness.

For 3840x2160, the data suggests that Medium is the highest viable preset, delivering 55 average FPS with a minimum of 47 and maximum of 64. Low at 4K gives 74 average FPS, which is smoother but sacrifices visual fidelity. High at 4K drops to 42 average FPS, and Ultra falls to 31 average FPS — both are below the threshold for comfortable play. The minimum FPS of 47 at 4K Medium indicates that the system can hold reasonably steady frame rates, but users with high-refresh-rate 4K displays will need to accept either Low settings or a lower resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock reaches 2505 MHz, with a base clock of 2205 MHz. These specifications place the RTX 4080 in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54209, a delta of just 0.1% — indicating that the non-SUPER variant is essentially matched in overall compute capability.

In Hitman 2 specifically, the GPU's role becomes clear when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. The uniform percentage drops from 1080p to 4K indicate that the RTX 4080's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the determining factors. At 4K Ultra, the system manages only 31 average FPS, which suggests that the game's Ultra preset imposes a rendering load that exceeds the GPU's comfortable capability at that resolution.

The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is likely sufficient for Hitman 2 at all tested settings, as the game is from 2018 and does not exhibit the extreme memory demands of newer titles. The 1400 MHz memory clock (22.4 Gbps effective) provides ample bandwidth for the game's textures and geometry. The RTX 4080's 9728 shading units and 112 ROPs contribute to its strong rasterization performance, which is what Hitman 2 primarily relies on.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces the following averages: Low delivers 217 FPS, Medium delivers 163 FPS (minimum 138, maximum 187), High delivers 123 FPS, and Ultra delivers 91 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 58% reduction in frame rate, which is substantial but expected given the quality differences.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 139 FPS, Medium at 104 FPS (minimum 89, maximum 120), High at 79 FPS, and Ultra at 58 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is consistent, with Medium retaining a playable minimum of 89 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 74 FPS, Medium at 55 FPS (minimum 47, maximum 64), High at 42 FPS, and Ultra at 31 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 47 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS reading in the entire dataset, making 4K Medium the lowest playable configuration.

The data shows that the gap between Low and Medium is roughly 25% at each resolution (217 to 163 at 1080p, 139 to 104 at 1440p, 74 to 55 at 4K), while the gap between High and Ultra is larger at 27-30% (123 to 91 at 1080p, 79 to 58 at 1440p, 42 to 31 at 4K). This suggests that the Ultra preset carries a disproportionately heavy rendering cost compared to High.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 956th out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the 68th percentile of all configurations, meaning roughly a third of tested systems deliver higher frame rates in this game.

Given that the RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs and the Ryzen 9 8945HX sits in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, the combo's 68th percentile ranking in Hitman 2 suggests that the game does not heavily favor this hardware combination. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX with an average score of 76155 (0.1% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D with 75779 (0.6% delta), indicating that the CPU is competitive with top-tier alternatives.

The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern: the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54209 (0.1% delta), while the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55757 (a 2.7% higher score). These narrow deltas suggest that the RTX 4080 is well-matched against its direct competitors, and the combo's mid-tier ranking likely reflects the game's optimization patterns rather than a weakness in either component.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 4K for this system?

A: Medium settings deliver 55 average FPS with a minimum of 47 FPS at 3840x2160. High drops to 42 average FPS and Ultra to 31 average FPS, so Medium is the highest preset that maintains a reasonably smooth experience.

Q: How much of a frame rate difference is there between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the system delivers 123 average FPS at 1920x1080 and 42 average FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 65.9% reduction in performance when moving from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Hitman 2?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are nearly identical in percentage terms across all settings (roughly 35-36% for 1080p to 1440p and 46-47% for 1440p to 4K), which is characteristic of GPU-bound rendering.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 89, with an average of 104 and a maximum of 120.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Hitman 2?

A: This combination ranks 956th out of 3001 tested combos, placing it in the 68th percentile of all systems measured in this game.

Q: What is the frame rate at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the system achieves 91 average FPS, which is playable but notably lower than the 163 FPS at Medium settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the 8000 series, based on the Zen 4 architecture with a 5 nm process. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, and it carries 64 MB of L3 cache. The CPU's average benchmark score is 76212, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (76155, 0.1% delta) and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (75779, 0.6% delta).

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The frame rate scaling across resolutions follows pixel-count proportions almost exactly, which would not occur if the CPU were struggling to feed the GPU. The 5.40 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance, which is important for a game like Hitman 2 that relies on AI and physics calculations. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6030 confirms this capability.

The 16 cores and 32 threads are more than sufficient for Hitman 2's threading model. The PassMark multithread score of 51405 indicates that the CPU can handle heavy multi-threaded loads, but the game's frame rates suggest it does not need to use all cores at any tested resolution. The data shows that even at 1080p Low settings, where the GPU is least stressed, the CPU maintains 217 average FPS without becoming the bottleneck — a scenario where a weaker processor would typically limit performance.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s (dual-channel DDR5) is adequate for feeding the RTX 4080's 716.8 GB/s of GPU bandwidth, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface with 28 lanes provides sufficient data transfer capacity. The combination of high boost clocks and ample cache ensures that Hitman 2's level streaming and entity updates are processed without introducing frame time spikes that would lower the minimum FPS readings.