Hitman 2

Hitman 2, a stealth title from late 2018, presents an interesting case study for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination. The measured data shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable, but the scaling across resolutions reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior that defines the experience. At 1080p, the CPU dominates; at 4K, the GPU takes over, and the transition between these states is where the analysis gets interesting.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating a classic GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 169.0 FPS at 1920x1080 to 107.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 61.5 FPS. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average drops to 60.3 FPS, which is a 36.4% decrease from the 1440p figure. This trajectory shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting factor as pixel count increases, with the CPU's headroom becoming less relevant.

The data at Low settings reinforces this. The 1080p Low result of 301.2 FPS is exceptionally high, but this drops to 194.9 FPS at 1440p and then to 105.2 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 35.3%, which is nearly identical to the 36.4% drop observed at High settings between the same resolutions. This similarity suggests that the game's rendering pipeline is heavily dependent on fill rate and memory bandwidth, which scale with resolution, rather than on the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls.

The most telling sign of CPU limitation is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (301.2 FPS) and Ultra (125.3 FPS) is 175.9 FPS, a massive spread. However, at 4K, the same gap is only 63.0 FPS (105.2 vs 42.2). This compression of the settings gap at higher resolutions is the hallmark of a GPU bottleneck. When the GPU is saturated with pixel work, lowering the settings has diminishing returns because the CPU has already prepared the frames. The data indicates that for this combo, 1440p is the sweet spot where the CPU and GPU are more evenly matched, but 4K is firmly in GPU territory.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. In Hitman 2, which is not known for utilizing massive thread counts, the single-thread performance is critical. The benchmark data shows a strong single-core score, with a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1286 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3341. These scores, combined with the high boost clock, explain why the 1080p Low and Medium results are so high; the CPU can process the game logic and issue draw calls faster than the GPU can render them at low resolutions.

The CPU's role is further highlighted by the 1080p Ultra result of 125.3 FPS. This is a substantial drop from the Medium result of 224.4 FPS. This specific delta indicates that the Ultra preset introduces CPU-intensive effects, likely related to simulation or post-processing, that tax the processor's thread scheduling. The Ryzen 9 9900X has 12 cores, but Hitman 2 likely scales well up to a few cores, meaning the high boost clock of 5.60 GHz is doing the heavy lifting. The data suggests that the CPU is never the primary limiter at 4K, but it absolutely dictates the ceiling at 1080p, where the RTX 4080 SUPER is not fully engaged.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This memory bandwidth is a crucial factor in Hitman 2's high-resolution performance. The 4K High result of 60.3 FPS is a playable frame rate, but the drop to 42.2 FPS at Ultra shows the GPU's limits when texture quality and shadow resolution are pushed. The GPU's boost clock of 2550 MHz and 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power are substantial, but the game's engine appears to be heavily dependent on memory throughput rather than raw shader math.

The GPU's role becomes more apparent when examining the 1440p results. The High setting yields 107.5 FPS, while Medium yields 147 FPS. This 39.5 FPS gap is more moderate than the 1080p gap, but it still shows the GPU's sensitivity to settings. The RTX 4080 SUPER is rated at 88th percentile among all GPUs in the database, and its average benchmark score of 53610 places it in a tight cluster with rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (0.2% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (2.9% delta). This competitive positioning suggests that while the 4080 SUPER is not the absolute fastest, its performance is well-balanced for this title, providing strong results without hitting a hard architectural wall.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low at 301.2 FPS, Medium at 224.4 FPS, High at 169.0 FPS, and Ultra at 125.3 FPS. These numbers show a linear progression of performance loss as settings increase, with each step costing roughly 50-70 FPS. This is a clear sign of a CPU-bound scenario, as the GPU is capable of much higher output if the CPU can provide the data.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 194.9 FPS, Medium at 147 FPS, High at 107.5 FPS, and Ultra at 79.2 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 47.9 FPS, which is less severe than the 1080p drop, indicating the GPU is starting to become a factor. The High to Ultra drop of 28.3 FPS is also notable, showing that the Ultra preset's additional visual features are costly at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 105.2 FPS, Medium at 76.9 FPS, High at 60.3 FPS, and Ultra at 42.2 FPS. Here, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Low to Medium drop is 28.3 FPS, and the High to Ultra drop is 18.1 FPS. The frame rates are still playable, but the margin for error is thin. The 4K Ultra result of 42.2 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the target for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X and RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 129th out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 7.2% of all configurations, which is a strong showing. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU, as neither component is a weak link. The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 94, and the GPU's percentile vs all GPUs is 88, so both are high-end parts. The rank of 129 is likely influenced by the fact that Hitman 2 does not scale perfectly with the 12-core CPU, meaning that systems with faster single-thread performance or more optimized memory configurations might edge it out.

The data shows that this combo is not a top-10 contender, but it is firmly in the upper echelon. The nearest rival CPUs, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (0.4% faster) and Intel Core i7-14700F (0.7% slower), suggest that the 9900X is well-positioned in its class. The GPU is similarly competitive, with the RTX 4080 SUPER sitting just 0.2% ahead of the RX 6900 XT. This means that the overall combo rank is a product of two solid, well-matched components rather than a single standout part.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the High preset at 169.0 FPS is the best balance. The Ultra preset drops to 125.3 FPS, which is still high, but the 43.7 FPS sacrifice for marginal visual gains is not justified. The Medium preset at 224.4 FPS is excessive for most displays, so High is the recommended choice.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 107.5 FPS is again the recommended sweet spot. The Medium preset at 147 FPS offers a smoother experience but does not provide a significant visual upgrade over High. The Ultra preset at 79.2 FPS is playable but falls below the 80 FPS mark, making High the better choice for consistency. For 3840x2160, the High preset at 60.3 FPS is the recommended starting point. The Low preset at 105.2 FPS is too compromised visually, while the Ultra preset at 42.2 FPS is too slow for a responsive stealth game. The Medium preset at 76.9 FPS is a viable alternative if the user prefers higher frame rates over visual fidelity, but High offers the best overall experience for a 60 FPS target.