Hitman 2

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for this CPU/GPU combo in Hitman 2?

A: The measured data shows the Medium preset delivers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p it holds a 119 FPS average with a 101 FPS minimum, at 1440p it drops to 76 FPS average with a 65 FPS minimum, and even at 4K it maintains a 41 FPS average with a 35 FPS minimum. High and Ultra presets sacrifice significant performance for marginal visual gains.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its closest GPU rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The Radeon RX 9060 posts an average benchmark score of 16014, which places it 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129), 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862), and 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852). These are near-parity results, indicating the RX 9060 sits in a tightly contested performance tier.

Q: Is the Core i5-10400F a bottleneck for the RX 9060 in this game?

A: The CPU's percentile rank of 68 against all processors, combined with its 6-core/12-thread configuration, suggests it has enough headroom for the RX 9060 at most settings. However, the performance scaling from 1080p to 4K shows the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions; at 1080p Low the combo reaches 159 FPS, while the same preset at 4K drops to 54 FPS, a 66% reduction that points to GPU-bound rendering at higher pixel counts.

Q: What 4K experience can users expect with this hardware?

A: The data shows 4K gaming is only viable on lower presets. The Low preset achieves a 54 FPS average, Medium drops to 41 FPS with a 35 FPS minimum, High falls to 31 FPS, and Ultra is effectively unplayable at 23 FPS. Users targeting 60 FPS at 4K would need to reduce resolution or accept the Low preset's performance.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14185. It sits 0.2% ahead of the Intel Xeon 6756E (14163), 0.5% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115), 0.3% behind the Intel Core 7 160UL (14232), and 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14277). This places it in a cluster of similarly performing processors.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how does it relate to Hitman 2's demands?

A: The RX 9060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The measured FPS data shows that higher settings and resolutions stress this memory subsystem; the Ultra preset at 4K only produces 23 FPS, while the same preset at 1080p produces 66 FPS, indicating that the 8 GB capacity and bandwidth become a constraint at 4K Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Hitman 2 across this Core i5-10400F and Radeon RX 9060 combination reveals a clear hierarchy of playable presets. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers a 119 FPS average with a 101 FPS minimum, which is the sweet spot for smooth gameplay without unnecessary GPU load. The High preset at 1080p produces 90 FPS, while Low reaches 159 FPS and Ultra drops to 66 FPS. Given that the minimum FPS is only recorded for Medium, it is the only preset at 1080p with confirmed frame-time stability data, showing a 101 FPS floor that keeps gameplay fluid.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the recommended choice. It achieves a 76 FPS average with a 65 FPS minimum, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays. High at 1440p runs at 58 FPS, which is technically playable but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes. Low at 1440p produces 102 FPS, but the visual quality hit is substantial. Ultra at this resolution falls to 43 FPS, which is not smooth enough for a stealth game that rewards precise timing.

For 3840x2160, the only viable option is the Low preset, which produces a 54 FPS average. Medium at 4K drops to 41 FPS with a 35 FPS minimum, which will feel stuttery during crowded scenes. High and Ultra at 4K are effectively non-options at 31 FPS and 23 FPS respectively. The data suggests that users targeting 4K should stick with Low settings, while those prioritizing visual fidelity should drop to 1440p Medium.

The overall recommendation is Medium across all resolutions, as it provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality. At 1080p it delivers a 119 FPS average that exceeds most high-refresh monitors, at 1440p it maintains a 76 FPS average that works with standard 60 Hz displays, and at 4K it offers a playable 41 FPS for users who accept the compromise. Users with 144 Hz monitors should consider 1080p Low to reach 159 FPS, but the visual downgrade is significant.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K reveals how the RX 9060 scales with pixel count in Hitman 2. At the Low preset, the frame rate drops from 159 FPS at 1080p to 102 FPS at 1440p, a 36% reduction, and then to 54 FPS at 4K, a 47% further reduction. This steep decline indicates that the GPU's rendering pipeline becomes increasingly stressed as resolution increases, a pattern consistent with a mid-range graphics card operating near its limits.

The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 119 FPS at 1080p drops to 76 FPS at 1440p, a 36% decrease, and further to 41 FPS at 4K, a 46% additional drop. The High preset scales from 90 FPS at 1080p to 58 FPS at 1440p, a 36% reduction, and then to 31 FPS at 4K, a 47% further decline. The Ultra preset follows the same pattern: 66 FPS at 1080p becomes 43 FPS at 1440p, a 35% drop, and 23 FPS at 4K, a 47% additional reduction.

The consistent 35-36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and the 46-47% drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets indicates that the RX 9060's performance is scaling predictably with the number of pixels rendered. The GPU is the primary limiting component at every resolution, as the CPU's 6-core/12-thread configuration is capable of feeding frames faster than the GPU can render them at higher pixel counts. At 1080p Low with 159 FPS, the CPU is likely still not the bottleneck, as the GPU's 1792 shading units are fully engaged.

The scaling data suggests that the RX 9060 is a 1080p-to-1440p class card for Hitman 2. At 1440p Medium, the 76 FPS average is solid, but at 4K even the Low preset only manages 54 FPS. Users who want to play at 4K will need to accept significant compromises in settings, while those who stay at 1080p or 1440p can enjoy high frame rates. The frame rate drops are consistent with the GPU's 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, which becomes a limiting factor as texture and pixel data demands increase with resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread of performance across the four presets. The Low preset delivers a 159 FPS average, which is the highest recorded frame rate in the entire dataset. Medium produces 119 FPS with a 101 FPS minimum and a 137 FPS maximum, providing confirmed frame-time stability. High runs at 90 FPS, and Ultra drops to 66 FPS. This spread shows that the RX 9060 has substantial headroom at 1080p, with even the most demanding preset staying above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low produces 102 FPS, Medium delivers 76 FPS with a 65 FPS minimum and 88 FPS maximum, High runs at 58 FPS, and Ultra falls to 43 FPS. The Medium preset's 65 FPS minimum is the only recorded minimum at this resolution, indicating that frame times remain stable even when the average drops below the 60 FPS threshold. The jump from Low to Medium costs 26 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 15 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low produces 54 FPS, Medium delivers 41 FPS with a 35 FPS minimum and 47 FPS maximum, High runs at 31 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, showing a 12 FPS difference between the floor and ceiling. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 13 FPS, while High and Ultra are both below 32 FPS, making them unsuitable for responsive gameplay.

Comparing the same preset across resolutions provides insight into scaling efficiency. Low goes from 159 to 102 to 54 FPS across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Medium goes from 119 to 76 to 41 FPS. High goes from 90 to 58 to 31 FPS. Ultra goes from 66 to 43 to 23 FPS. The consistent proportional drops indicate that the game's rendering load scales linearly with pixel count, and the RX 9060's performance envelope is well defined by these numbers.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. The GPU contains 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 149.2M per mm². It features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The base clock runs at 1700 MHz, the game clock at 2400 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2990 MHz. Memory operates at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed.

The 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is a key factor in the measured FPS results. At 1080p, the GPU's pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s are sufficient for high frame rates, as evidenced by the 159 FPS at Low settings. However, at 4K, the same GPU resources are spread across four times as many pixels, and the 23 FPS at Ultra settings reflects the memory bandwidth constraint.

The GPU's FP32 compute performance of 21.43 TFLOPS places it in a competitive position against its nearest rivals. The average benchmark score of 16014 puts it 0.7% behind the RTX 3060 Ti, 1% ahead of the R9 370X, and 1% ahead of the RX 7700. This near-parity in synthetic benchmarks translates to the measured gameplay results, where the RX 9060 delivers consistent frame rates that align with its position in the 59th percentile of all GPUs.

The DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility are relevant for Hitman 2, which benefits from modern API features. The measured DirectX 12 benchmark score of 44 from Passmark is notably lower than the DirectX 11 score of 182, but this synthetic result does not directly map to game performance. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 88183 and Vulkan score of 39476 provide additional context for compute workloads. The GPU's 132 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU rating indicate it is a power-efficient option for this performance class.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Core 10th Gen series, built on the Comet Lake architecture using Intel's 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy consists of 64 KB L1 per core, 256 KB L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s and connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes.

The CPU's benchmark results show a balanced profile between single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10283 and single-core score of 1451 indicate that the 6-core/12-thread configuration provides solid throughput for gaming workloads. The Geekbench multi-core score of 6257 and single-core score of 1420 support this assessment. The 3DMark results show scaling from 688 in single-thread to 4748 in 16-thread tests, demonstrating that the CPU can leverage additional threads when available.

In the context of Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 159 FPS, which suggests the CPU is capable of driving frame rates well above 60 FPS. Even at 4K Ultra with 23 FPS, the CPU is likely not the bottleneck, as the GPU is clearly overwhelmed by the pixel load. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking against all processors places it in the upper-middle tier, with nearest rivals including the Xeon 6756E (0.2% ahead), Core 7 160UL (0.3% behind), EPYC 7552 (0.5% ahead), and Ryzen 3 7320C (0.6% behind).

The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory at 42.7 GB/s provide adequate memory bandwidth for gaming. The Passmark multi-thread score of 12115 and single-thread score of 2541 confirm that the i5-10400F is a capable gaming processor. The data compression score of 185944 and floating-point math score of 25956 indicate strong computational performance for non-gaming tasks, but for Hitman 2 specifically, the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RX 9060 at any resolution or preset combination tested.