Hitman 2

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a solid 1080p and 1440p experience in Hitman 2, but the data shows that 4K Ultra is a stretch too far. The measured results reveal a system where the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution climbs, while the CPU’s strength keeps low and medium settings extremely fast.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 235.9 at 1920x1080 to 150.3 at 2560x1440 and then to 81.1 at 3840x2160. That is a 36% reduction going from 1080p to 1440p, and another 46% drop moving to 4K. This pattern is typical of a GPU-limited scenario; the RTX 4070’s 12 GB of memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 179.5 FPS at 1080p, 115.7 FPS at 1440p, and 63.2 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is about 65%, which is slightly less severe than at Low, suggesting that the additional shading work at Medium slightly changes the balance. However, it is still clear that the GPU is the limiting factor here. The High preset shows the same trend: 135.4 FPS at 1080p, 87.1 FPS at 1440p, and 43.3 FPS at 4K.

Ultra settings produce the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p, the combo manages 100.1 FPS, which is smooth, but this drops to 64.5 FPS at 1440p and falls to a nearly unplayable 33.8 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that at 4K Ultra, the RTX 4070 is overwhelmed, and the 33.8 FPS average reflects a situation where the GPU’s pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s are insufficient for the workload. The CPU’s high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1292, is not the limiting factor; rather, it is the GPU’s rendering capabilities that cap performance at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p and 1440p gaming, the data clearly supports using High or Ultra settings. At 1920x1080, High delivers 135.4 FPS, which is well above the threshold for a high-refresh-rate monitor, while Ultra still provides 100.1 FPS, making it viable for most displays. At 2560x1440, High is the sweet spot with 87.1 FPS, which is acceptable for 60 Hz and many 120 Hz monitors, but Ultra drops to 64.5 FPS, which is still playable but less consistent. For 4K, the recommendation is more nuanced. Medium settings yield 63.2 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz panel, but High drops to 43.3 FPS and Ultra to 33.8 FPS. Therefore, the best experience per the measured rows is High at 1080p or 1440p, and Medium at 4K if you insist on that resolution.

The gap between Low and Medium is also informative. At 1440p, Low produces 150.3 FPS, while Medium produces 115.7 FPS, a difference of 30%. This suggests that Medium offers a significant visual improvement for a moderate FPS cost, making it a better choice than Low for most users. At 1080p, the jump from Medium (179.5 FPS) to High (135.4 FPS) is larger in percentage terms (24% loss), but High’s absolute frame rate is still high enough to justify it. For competitive play, Low at 1080p provides 235.9 FPS, which is exceptionally high, but the visual fidelity loss is not necessary given that High is still above 120 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Hitman 2, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 443rd out of 1795 combos. That places it in the top 25% of all tested systems. The rank is influenced by the CPU’s overall strength, as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D sits in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU’s 81st percentile standing pulls the combo down somewhat. The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, is only 1.8% slower in average benchmark score, while the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 is 0.9% faster. This indicates that the CPU is not a weak link; it is the RTX 4070 that determines the combo’s final rank.

The GPU’s nearest rivals highlight its mid-range positioning. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is 0.6% slower, and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A is 1.9% slower, but the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is 2.2% faster. This suggests that the desktop RTX 4070 is closely matched with some mobile and older desktop parts, which explains why the combo rank is not higher. For Hitman 2 specifically, the game’s release in 2018 means it is not particularly demanding by modern standards, so the CPU’s immense power is somewhat wasted at lower settings, but the GPU still handles the load adequately at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 3840x2160, the combo achieves 43.3 FPS on High, 81.1 FPS on Low, 63.2 FPS on Medium, and 33.8 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 47.3 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset imposes a heavy cost. At 2560x1440, the scores are 87.1 FPS on High, 150.3 FPS on Low, 115.7 FPS on Medium, and 64.5 FPS on Ultra. Here, the difference between Low and Ultra is 85.8 FPS, a larger absolute gap due to the higher baseline. At 1920x1080, the results are 135.4 FPS on High, 235.9 FPS on Low, 179.5 FPS on Medium, and 100.1 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p Low result of 235.9 FPS is the highest measured value, indicating that the CPU’s 16 cores and 32 threads, with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at this resolution.

The data also shows diminishing returns between Medium and High. At 1440p, moving from Medium to High costs 28.6 FPS (from 115.7 to 87.1), while moving from Low to Medium costs 34.6 FPS (from 150.3 to 115.7). This suggests that High is a more efficient step than Medium relative to its visual impact, but the absolute FPS at High is lower. At 4K, the gap between Medium and High is 19.9 FPS (from 63.2 to 43.3), which is significant, but the gap between High and Ultra is only 9.5 FPS (from 43.3 to 33.8), indicating that Ultra is a poor trade-off.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 plays a central role in these results, and its memory configuration is a key factor. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, the GPU has a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1920 MHz are standard for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and its FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS is adequate for a game from 2018. However, the 64 ROPs and 184 TMUs are relatively modest, which explains why the 4K Ultra result of 33.8 FPS is so low.

The GPU’s 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present, but Hitman 2 does not heavily use ray tracing, so these features are not fully utilized. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 26927 places it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable but not top-tier. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, is only 0.6% slower, indicating that the RTX 4070 is not a huge leap over older flagship cards in this specific workload. The GPU’s 12 GB memory is sufficient for Hitman 2 at all settings, as the game’s textures are not likely to exceed this at 4K, but the raw compute power is what caps performance. The data suggests that the RTX 4070 is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates, but it struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K on higher presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 on High settings yields 87.1 FPS, which is a good balance of visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, High delivers 135.4 FPS, while at 4K, High drops to 43.3 FPS, making 1440p the optimal choice.

Q: Can this setup handle 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, but with compromises. At 4K Medium, the combo achieves 63.2 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz monitor. However, 4K High (43.3 FPS) and 4K Ultra (33.8 FPS) are below 60 FPS, so Medium is the recommended preset for 4K.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is 1.8% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X in average benchmark score, and 2.2% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700KF. It is 0.9% slower than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: Yes, the data indicates that the RTX 4070 is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K, while the CPU’s high scores suggest it has headroom. The GPU’s 81st percentile ranking versus the CPU’s 96th percentile confirms this.

Q: What is the highest FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 235.9 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This demonstrates the CPU’s ability to push very high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily taxed.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: It ranks 443rd out of 1795 combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 25% of all tested combinations. This is a strong result, driven mainly by the CPU’s performance.