Hitman 2

FAQ

Q: How does this CPU-GPU pairing rank for Hitman 2 among all tested combinations?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 3rd out of 1,795 tested combos in Hitman 2.

Q: What is the best average frame rate achieved at 1920x1080?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves its highest measured average of 345.7 FPS. The High preset at the same resolution delivers 199.8 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 71,660 on average, which is 0.9% ahead of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 and 1.8% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. The Intel Xeon 6517P leads this group by 1.9%.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all graphics cards?

A: The RTX 5090 sits in the 94th percentile of all GPUs based on average benchmark scores, with an average score of 84,306.

Q: What memory configuration does the CPU support?

A: The Ryzen 9 9950X3D supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, with a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. It also supports ECC memory.

Q: What is the difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 223.4 FPS, while the Ultra preset delivers 93.2 FPS. That represents a drop of 130.2 FPS, or roughly 58%, when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this pairing at rank 3 out of 1,795 tested combinations for Hitman 2. This is a top-tier result, putting the system in the top 0.2% of all recorded configurations. The ranking reflects the synergy between the 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the RTX 5090's massive 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool.

Looking at the CPU's position among its nearest rivals clarifies the processor's contribution. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D posts an average benchmark score of 71,660, which is 0.9% higher than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (71,056) and 1.8% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70,420). The only rival in this group that scores higher is the Intel Xeon 6517P at 73,050, which leads by 1.9%. These are narrow margins, indicating that the 9950X3D is not dramatically ahead of its closest competitors in raw synthetic benchmarks.

For the GPU, the RTX 5090's average score of 84,306 places it 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D (84,241) and 0.2% ahead of the RTX 5050 Mobile (84,171). The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 trails by 1.3% with a score of 83,209. The NVIDIA CMP 40HX leads this group by 1.6% at 85,637. These small deltas suggest that in this specific game, the GPU is operating near the practical ceiling of what the engine can utilize.

The combination's rank of 3 in a field of 1,795 indicates that only two other tested configurations produce higher frame rates in Hitman 2. Given the game's 2018 release date, this result demonstrates that modern high-end hardware still extracts substantial performance from the title, likely due to the CPU's strong single-thread and multi-thread capabilities.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 brings 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. Memory runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 28 Gbps effective. These specifications are exceptional, but Hitman 2's engine does not necessarily scale linearly with such resources.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's behavior across resolutions. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset produces 49.2 FPS, while the Low preset produces 119.2 FPS. This spread of 70 FPS indicates that the GPU is heavily utilized at 4K, with quality settings having a substantial impact on rendering load. At 1920x1080, the same settings range produces 146.8 FPS (Ultra) to 345.7 FPS (Low), a gap of 198.9 FPS. The larger absolute difference at lower resolution suggests that at 1080p, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, but the GPU still has headroom to deliver very high frame rates.

The GPU's 94th percentile ranking among all graphics cards aligns with its measured performance. The RTX 5090's nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores nearly identically (0.1% delta), which is expected given the similar architecture. The RTX 5050 Mobile also posts a comparable average score (84,171), but this is likely a synthetic benchmark artifact rather than an indication of real-world gaming parity.

In Hitman 2 specifically, the GPU's 32 GB of VRAM is far beyond what the game requires, even at 4K Ultra. The bottleneck at higher resolutions is more likely the rendering pipeline itself, given that the RTX 5090's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are substantial. The game's stealth mechanics and crowd AI may not fully exercise the GPU's compute capabilities, which explains why the Ultra preset at 4K still falls below 50 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of which settings presets offer the best experience at each resolution. For a smooth 60 FPS target, the High preset at 3840x2160 delivers 66.5 FPS, which is above the threshold. The Ultra preset at the same resolution falls to 49.2 FPS, which may be playable but is below the 60 FPS standard.

At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 125.9 FPS, while Medium reaches 170.2 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 93.2 FPS, still well above 60 FPS. For users with high-refresh-rate monitors at this resolution, Medium or High provide the best balance, as Ultra's visual gains come at a cost of 57 FPS compared to Medium.

At 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset delivers 146.8 FPS, which exceeds most displays' refresh rates. The Medium preset reaches 262.3 FPS, and Low hits 345.7 FPS. For competitive play or maximum smoothness, Low or Medium are recommended. For visual fidelity without sacrificing responsiveness, High at 199.8 FPS is a strong choice.

The data suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 4K it provides 66.5 FPS, at 1440p it delivers 125.9 FPS, and at 1080p it reaches 199.8 FPS. This consistency makes High the recommended default for this combination, as it avoids the steep performance penalty of Ultra while maintaining quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low produces 119.2 FPS, Medium produces 88.5 FPS, High produces 66.5 FPS, and Ultra produces 49.2 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline of roughly 30 FPS per settings tier, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High at 22 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the results scale upward significantly. Low reaches 223.4 FPS, Medium reaches 170.2 FPS, High reaches 125.9 FPS, and Ultra reaches 93.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium here is 53.2 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 32.7 FPS. The pattern indicates that each settings tier has a diminishing absolute cost as quality increases.

At 1920x1080, the frame rates become exceptionally high. Low produces 345.7 FPS, Medium produces 262.3 FPS, High produces 199.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 146.8 FPS. The difference from Low to Ultra is 198.9 FPS, which is larger than the total frame rate of many other configurations at this resolution. The data shows that at 1080p, the system is rarely GPU-bound, with even Ultra settings leaving substantial headroom.

Comparing across resolutions, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings is consistent. For High, the drop is from 199.8 FPS to 125.9 FPS, a reduction of 37%. From 1440p to 4K at High, the drop is from 125.9 FPS to 66.5 FPS, a reduction of 47%. This suggests that the GPU's rendering load scales super-linearly with resolution, which is typical for a game like Hitman 2 with detailed environments.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D features 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. The base clock is 4.30 GHz with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz. The CPU has a 128 MB shared L3 cache, which is substantial for gaming workloads that benefit from large cache pools. The TDP is 170 W, and it uses the AMD Socket AM5 platform.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score is 59,712, while the single-core score is 8,430. The 3DMark max threads score is 17,184, and the 16-thread score is 16,374. The Geekbench multicore score is 22,515 with a single-core score of 3,401. These results place the CPU in the 96th percentile of all processors.

For Hitman 2, the CPU's role is evident in the frame rate consistency across resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the system reaches 345.7 FPS, which is likely near the engine's maximum frame rate ceiling. The CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 1,292 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 849, is critical for maintaining high frame rates in a game that is not heavily multi-threaded.

The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, scores 70,420 on average, which is 1.8% lower than the 9950X3D. The 3D V-Cache technology, which provides the 128 MB L3 cache, likely contributes to the small but measurable advantage in gaming scenarios. The Intel Core i7-14700KF trails by 2.2% with a score of 70,104, while the Xeon Platinum 8270 is nearly identical at 71,056 (0.9% behind).

The Passmark multithread score of 70,255 and the Passmark single-thread score of 4,737 indicate that the CPU maintains strong performance across both lightly and heavily threaded workloads. In Hitman 2, which typically uses fewer than eight threads effectively, the CPU's 8-thread 3DMark score of 9,259 is particularly relevant. This score suggests that the CPU can handle the game's AI and physics calculations without becoming a bottleneck, even at high frame rates.