Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination delivers a decisive performance profile in Hitman 2, a 2018 stealth title that remains demanding at high resolutions. The data indicates a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p but encounters a significant bottleneck at 4K, particularly when settings are pushed to their limits. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates, component roles, and overall ranking.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic pattern of scaling, but with a notable inflection point at 4K. At 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, with the RTX 5070 showing its strength. The average frame rate at 1080p Low is 257.1 FPS, which drops to 191.2 FPS at Medium and 148.2 FPS at High. This progression shows that even at the highest settings, the GPU has ample headroom, and the frame rate is likely limited by the CPU's ability to feed the frames. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p is steep, falling to 107.3 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces a significant load on the GPU.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain very high but begin to show a more balanced workload. The 1440p Low setting produces 162.5 FPS, while Medium achieves 122 FPS, and High dips slightly to 95.8 FPS. The 1440p Ultra setting, however, shows a substantial drop to 65.9 FPS, suggesting that the combination of higher resolution and the Ultra preset is starting to stress the GPU more heavily. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at High settings is a drop from 148.2 FPS to 95.8 FPS, a 35.4% reduction, which is a significant but expected cost for the resolution increase.

The most dramatic shift occurs at 4K. The 4K Low setting still manages a solid 90 FPS, but the Medium setting drops to 67.8 FPS, and High falls to 48.6 FPS. The 4K Ultra setting is the most demanding, yielding only 36.4 FPS. This pattern strongly implies that at 4K, the RTX 5070 becomes the primary limiting component. The 1080p High to 4K High transition is a drop from 148.2 FPS to 48.6 FPS, a 67.2% reduction. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU that is running out of pixel throughput and memory bandwidth, rather than a CPU limitation. The data suggests that the CPU has sufficient headroom at 4K, as the frame rates are not consistent with a CPU bottleneck; instead, they scale directly with the GPU's rendering load.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 148.2 FPS. This is a very playable frame rate for a stealth game, ensuring smooth camera movements and quick reactions.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra experience compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: The 4K Ultra setting delivers an average of 36.4 FPS, while 1080p Ultra achieves 107.3 FPS. The data shows a 70.9 FPS difference, indicating that 4K Ultra is a significant challenge for this GPU.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1440p Medium?

A: At 1440p Medium, the system achieves 122 FPS. Given that the frame rate is high and the resolution is moderate, the system appears well-balanced, but the steep drop at 1440p Ultra (65.9 FPS) suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck as settings increase.

Q: What is the best resolution for a high-refresh-rate monitor?

A: For the highest frame rates, 1080p is the clear choice, with 1080p Low hitting 257.1 FPS and 1080p Medium at 191.2 FPS. Even 1440p Low at 162.5 FPS would be suitable for a 144Hz display.

Q: Does the game perform better at 4K Low or 1440p Ultra?

A: The 4K Low setting produces 90 FPS, which is higher than the 1440p Ultra's 65.9 FPS. The data suggests that a player prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity should choose 4K Low over 1440p Ultra.

Q: How much of a performance hit does the High preset take compared to Medium at 1080p?

A: The average FPS drops from 191.2 FPS at Medium to 148.2 FPS at High. This is a 43 FPS difference, representing a 22.5% reduction in performance for the higher visual quality settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1080p, the Medium preset at 191.2 FPS offers an excellent balance, providing high frame rates for competitive play while maintaining decent visual fidelity. The High preset at 148.2 FPS is also highly playable and offers better visuals, with the data showing no risk of dropping below playable thresholds. The Ultra preset at 107.3 FPS is smooth, but the performance cost from High to Ultra is substantial, making it less attractive unless visual quality is the absolute priority.

At 1440p, the High preset at 95.8 FPS is the sweet spot for a 60Hz or higher refresh rate display, offering a great balance of speed and detail. The Medium preset at 122 FPS is the better choice for players with a 120Hz or 144Hz monitor, as it ensures the frame rate stays comfortably above the refresh rate. The Ultra preset at 65.9 FPS is playable but requires a VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) display to avoid screen tearing, given its proximity to standard 60Hz refresh rates. The Low preset at 162.5 FPS is only recommended for extreme competitive settings where every frame counts.

For 4K gaming, the data paints a more challenging picture. The Low preset at 90 FPS is the only setting that consistently provides a smooth, high-refresh-rate experience. The Medium preset at 67.8 FPS is acceptable for a 60Hz display, and High at 48.6 FPS is borderline, likely requiring a VRR display to feel smooth. The Ultra preset at 36.4 FPS is not recommended for general play, as the frame rate falls below the threshold for a consistent 60 FPS experience. The data suggests that for the best 4K experience, players should either use the Low or Medium presets or be prepared to accept lower frame rates at higher settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high. The Low setting produces an average of 257.1 FPS, Medium achieves 191.2 FPS, High reaches 148.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 107.3 FPS. This shows a clear hierarchy, with a 149.8 FPS difference between the lowest and highest settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains robust. The Low setting yields 162.5 FPS, Medium is at 122 FPS, High comes in at 95.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 65.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 96.6 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset has a significant impact on the GPU load.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more demanding. The Low setting still manages 90 FPS, but Medium falls to 67.8 FPS, High is at 48.6 FPS, and Ultra is the most taxing at 36.4 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 53.6 FPS, which is a smaller absolute gap than at lower resolutions, but the relative cost is high, with Ultra being 59.6% slower than Low. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent trend: the Ultra preset is disproportionately demanding compared to the High preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the central component in determining the visual performance ceiling. Its 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The benchmark results indicate the GPU operates with a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz. The data suggests that this memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K Ultra, the combination of high resolution and heavy effects likely saturates the available VRAM and bandwidth. The 4K Ultra average of 36.4 FPS is a clear indication that the GPU is heavily loaded. The GPU's 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is substantial, yet the 4K results show that pixel throughput and texture fill rates are a limiting factor. The RTX 5070's benchmark percentile of 83 places it above average among all GPUs, but the Hitman 2 data shows that high-end 4K gaming remains a challenge. The measured results suggest that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rate scales directly with the resolution and settings, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a high-end processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, capable of boosting up to 5.60 GHz. Its 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and Passmark single-thread score of 4672 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for game logic and physics. The CPU's 64 MB of shared L3 cache is also beneficial for gaming workloads. The data implies that the CPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p, as the frame rates reach up to 257.1 FPS, which is beyond what most displays can show. The frame rate differences between resolutions at the same settings are consistent with a GPU bottleneck, not a CPU one. The CPU's 3DMark max-thread score of 13929 shows it has ample multi-threaded capability, but Hitman 2 may not fully utilize all 24 threads. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the RTX 5070 at 1080p and 1440p, but the GPU’s rendering limits become apparent at 4K. The CPU's performance is likely a non-issue, as the system's frame rates are more closely tied to the GPU’s ability to render frames at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 holds a combo rank of 360 out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 20% of all tested systems. The CPU's average benchmark score is 54450, which puts it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The GPU's average benchmark score is 41687, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. The combos rank suggests that while both components are individually powerful, their combined performance in this specific game is strong, but not at the absolute top tier. The nearest rival CPUs, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681, -0.4% delta) and Intel Core i7-14700F (54097, 0.7% delta), have very similar average scores, indicating that the CPU choice is not a major differentiator in this context. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (41441, 0.6% delta), has a nearly identical average score, suggesting that the RTX 5070 and RTX 3090 offer comparable compute performance. However, the measured FPS in Hitman 2 shows that the RTX 5070 is capable of high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but its 4K performance is its primary weakness. The combo's rank of 360 reflects a system that is excellent for high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K gaming requiring compromises in settings to achieve playable frame rates.