Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the Intel Arc B390 produces a severely GPU-bound experience in Hitman 2, where the 16-core processor’s substantial compute headroom is left largely unused while the integrated-class graphics solution struggles to maintain playable frame rates at most settings. Benchmark data shows the combination ranks 2662nd out of 3001 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 11 percent of all configurations, a direct consequence of the Arc B390’s 9th percentile standing among all GPUs.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience in Hitman 2 with this specific hardware pairing. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 80 FPS, which is the only configuration across all resolutions and settings that approaches what most users would consider a fluid experience for a stealth title. The Medium preset at the same resolution produces 60 FPS average with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 69, which remains technically playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. High at 1080p drops to 46 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 34 FPS.

For users prioritizing a responsive experience, the 1080p Low setting is clearly the best measured option. The 80 FPS average represents a 33 percent improvement over the next-best playable option (1080p Medium at 60 FPS) and a 135 percent improvement over 1080p High. Given that Hitman 2 is a stealth game where precise timing and observation matter, the smoother frame delivery at Low outweighs the visual fidelity loss, especially since the Arc B390’s 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 24 ROPs are simply insufficient for higher presets at acceptable frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the situation degrades considerably. Low produces 51 FPS average, which is borderline for a game requiring quick reactions. Medium drops to 39 FPS with a minimum of 33, while High yields 29 FPS and Ultra plummets to 21 FPS. None of these 1440p options meet the 60 FPS threshold that the 1080p Low setting achieves, so users should only consider 1440p if they are willing to accept significantly reduced smoothness.

The 3840x2160 results are uniformly poor. Low averages 27 FPS, Medium 21 FPS, High 16 FPS, and Ultra 11 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K gaming is not viable with this combination, regardless of quality preset. The data suggests that the only sensible configuration for actual gameplay is 1920x1080 with Low settings, with 1080p Medium as a fallback for users who prioritize visual detail over frame rate stability. The 1080p Medium minimum of 51 FPS does stay above 50, but the Low preset’s higher average provides more consistent performance for a genre where frame pacing matters.

FAQ

Q: What is the best measured performance this combo achieves in Hitman 2?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 80 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the entire measured dataset that exceeds 80 FPS, and it represents the sole option that comfortably clears the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Can this system run Hitman 2 at 4K resolution?

A: No. The best 3840x2160 result is 27 FPS average at Low settings, with Medium at 21 FPS, High at 16 FPS, and Ultra at 11 FPS. All 4K configurations fall well below playable frame rates, indicating the Intel Arc B390 lacks the raw throughput for this resolution in Hitman 2.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has an average benchmark score of 75779, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755, scores 75738, a delta of just 0.1 percent. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 scores 75488, representing a 0.4 percent gap, meaning the 9950X3D is statistically tied with these competitors in synthetic workloads.

Q: Why does the GPU rank so poorly despite the powerful CPU?

A: The Intel Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463 with a 1.3 percent delta. This GPU is designed as an integrated-class solution with a 80 W TDP and system-shared memory, which severely limits its ability to render demanding game scenes regardless of CPU capability.

Q: What frame rates can users expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows 2560x1440 Medium produces an average of 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay, and the 33 FPS minimum indicates noticeable stutter during complex scenes.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9950X3D the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 95th percentile of all processors with 16 cores, 32 threads, and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz. The GPU ranks in the 9th percentile. The FPS scaling across resolutions confirms the GPU is the limiting component, as frame rates drop dramatically when resolution increases while CPU load remains relatively constant.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a stark resolution scaling pattern that clearly identifies the limiting component in this pairing. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 80 FPS to 51 FPS, a 36 percent reduction. Continuing to 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 27 FPS, representing a 66 percent reduction from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline indicates that the Intel Arc B390’s rendering throughput becomes increasingly saturated as pixel count rises.

At High settings, the scaling is even more dramatic. The 1080p High average of 46 FPS drops to 29 FPS at 1440p, a 37 percent decrease, and then to 16 FPS at 4K, a 65 percent reduction from 1080p. The Ultra preset shows 34 FPS at 1080p, 21 FPS at 1440p, and 11 FPS at 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and shading capacity are the primary constraints, rather than memory bandwidth or CPU-side bottlenecks.

The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s for the Arc B390 provide context for these results. At 4K resolution (3840x2160), the GPU must process roughly 8.3 million pixels per frame. With a 60 GPixel/s pixel rate, the theoretical maximum fill rate allows for approximately 7.2 frames per second if the GPU were purely fill-rate limited, though the measured 11 FPS at Ultra indicates that other factors like shading units (1536) and ROPs (24) also contribute to the final output.

The system-shared memory architecture means the GPU uses the same DDR5 memory as the CPU, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This creates additional latency and bandwidth contention at higher resolutions where memory traffic increases. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 80 FPS while 4K Low only reaches 27 FPS — a 66 percent drop — demonstrates that the GPU’s compute resources (7.680 TFLOPS FP32) are insufficient for the pixel workload at high resolutions, regardless of the CPU’s substantial 128 MB L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth.

The scaling behavior suggests that users should not attempt to push this combo beyond 1080p. The frame rate halving from 1080p Low to 1440p Low (80 to 51 FPS) and then roughly halving again to 4K Low (51 to 27 FPS) follows a pattern consistent with a GPU that has limited pixel throughput. The CPU, which ranks in the 95th percentile, is clearly not the constraint, as evidenced by the fact that even the most demanding CPU scenarios in Hitman 2 would not require the full capability of 16 Zen 5 cores running at up to 5.70 GHz.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration delivers the following measured results across presets. Low settings achieve an average of 80 FPS with no minimum or maximum recorded. Medium produces an average of 60 FPS, with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 69. High drops to 46 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 34 FPS. The 1080p data shows a clear linear decline from Low to Ultra, with each preset tier costing approximately 14-15 FPS on average.

The 1080p Medium result is notable because it is the only preset that provides both a 60 FPS average and a recorded minimum above 50 FPS (51 FPS). This makes it a viable alternative to Low for users who want better visual quality without dropping below the 50 FPS threshold. However, the 80 FPS Low result offers a 33 percent higher average, which is substantial for a game where maintaining target frame rates matters for stealth mechanics.

At 2560x1440, the measured values show a significant step down. Low averages 51 FPS, which is 36 percent lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 44. High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 21 FPS. The 1440p Medium minimum of 33 FPS indicates that during demanding scenes, frame rates can dip below the threshold where smooth motion perception begins to degrade.

The 3840x2160 measurements are uniformly poor. Low averages 27 FPS, Medium 21 FPS with a minimum of 17 and maximum of 24, High 16 FPS, and Ultra 11 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 17 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows that even the mid-range preset can produce frame rates well below 20 FPS during gameplay. The gap between 4K Low (27 FPS) and 4K Ultra (11 FPS) represents a 59 percent performance penalty for enabling the highest quality settings.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low settings provide roughly double the frame rate of Ultra settings. At 1080p, Low gives 80 FPS versus Ultra’s 34 FPS (135 percent faster). At 1440p, Low gives 51 FPS versus Ultra’s 21 FPS (143 percent faster). At 4K, Low gives 27 FPS versus Ultra’s 11 FPS (145 percent faster). This consistent ratio suggests that the GPU’s shading and texture units scale predictably with quality settings, but the absolute performance is too low for anything beyond 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2662nd out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the bottom 11.3 percent of all configurations. This ranking reflects the extreme mismatch between the CPU and GPU capabilities. The processor alone sits in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, while the graphics solution sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, and the combined result skews heavily toward the weaker component.

A rank of 2662 out of 3001 means that approximately 339 other combinations perform worse, while 2661 combinations deliver better frame rates in Hitman 2. This places the combo in the lower quartile of tested systems, consistent with a GPU that has an average benchmark score of only 1482 — a figure that rivals the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), GeForce 800M (1460), and GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446). The Arc B390’s closest competitor, the GT 520MX, is a legacy discrete GPU from over a decade ago, highlighting the performance tier this combo occupies.

The rank is particularly striking given the CPU’s position. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s average benchmark score of 75779 puts it ahead of the AMD EPYC 8224P (75582) and Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (75488) by 0.3 and 0.4 percent respectively. Yet in actual game performance, this top-tier CPU cannot compensate for a GPU that delivers only 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 24 ROPs. The 2662nd rank demonstrates that for Hitman 2, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining overall system capability.

The combo rank of 2662 out of 3001 also indicates that users who pair this CPU with a more capable GPU would see dramatically different results. However, based on the measured data, the current configuration is firmly in the lower performance tier, suitable only for 1080p Low settings at playable frame rates. The 9th percentile GPU ranking aligns with the combo’s bottom-quartile position, confirming that the Arc B390’s limitations define the system’s overall gaming capability in this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D brings substantial compute resources to this pairing, with 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture codenamed Granite Ridge. The processor operates at a base clock of 4.30 GHz and boosts to 5.70 GHz, with a 170 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a large 128 MB L3 cache, which is particularly beneficial for gaming workloads that exhibit data locality.

Synthetic benchmarks demonstrate the CPU’s strength. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42018 and single-core score of 2259 indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The Geekbench multicore score of 26736 with a single-core score of 3064 further confirms this. The PassMark multithread score of 70255 and single-thread score of 4737 show that the CPU excels in both parallel and serial workloads. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 16374 and max-thread score of 17184 suggest that the CPU’s scaling across cores is efficient, with the 16-thread result being 95 percent of the max-thread score.

In Hitman 2 specifically, the CPU’s role appears minimal based on the frame rate data. The game was released in 2018, and while it can utilize multiple cores, the 16-core/32-thread configuration of the 9950X3D far exceeds what the game demands. The measured FPS scaling across resolutions — from 80 FPS at 1080p Low to 27 FPS at 4K Low — shows a pattern that is entirely consistent with GPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, frame rates would remain relatively constant across resolutions, as CPU-bound scenarios produce similar FPS regardless of pixel count.

The CPU’s 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 75779, places it just 0.1 percent ahead of the nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (75738). This narrow margin indicates that the 9950X3D is at the very top of CPU performance, yet the combo rank of 2662 out of 3001 shows that this advantage is irrelevant when the GPU is the limiting factor. The Arc B390’s system-shared memory and 80 W TDP mean that even the CPU’s 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth is shared with the GPU, potentially creating contention that further limits performance.

The data indicates that for Hitman 2, the CPU’s contribution to the final frame rate is essentially negligible. The 16 cores, 32 threads, and 5.70 GHz boost clock provide far more compute capacity than the game requires, and the benchmark results confirm that the CPU is not a bottleneck. Users upgrading from a lesser CPU would see no improvement in this specific configuration because the GPU cannot translate additional CPU performance into higher frame rates. The CPU’s role is to provide a stable platform that does not constrain the GPU, which it does effortlessly, but the GPU’s 9th percentile ranking means the overall experience remains poor.