Hitman 2

Hitman 2 with the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a pairing where the GPU is doing the heavy lifting, but the older 6-core/12-thread Comet Lake CPU sets a clear ceiling at lower resolutions. The measured data shows this combination is capable of excellent frame rates, but the way performance scales with settings reveals a system where the graphics card is often waiting on the processor. The RTX 4080 SUPER, with its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth, provides a massive buffer that keeps this 2018 stealth title well within playable territory across all tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the High preset is the optimal choice for this combination in Hitman 2, offering the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate stability. At 4K, the High preset delivers 62.1 FPS on average, which is the minimum threshold for a smooth experience on a high-refresh-rate display. The jump from High to Ultra is punishing, costing over 29% of the average frame rate at 4K (from 62.1 to 43.9 FPS), and even at 1440p the Ultra preset drops to 81.3 FPS. The data suggests that the Ultra settings are too demanding for this CPU-GPU pairing to maintain consistently high frame rates.

The Medium preset is a solid fallback if you prioritize higher refresh rates over visual details, especially at 1440p where it produces 142.7 FPS. However, the High preset at 1440p still delivers a very respectable 108 FPS, making it the sweet spot for most players. At 1080p, the High preset produces 173.5 FPS, which is already well beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 223.1 FPS, but this comes with significant visual compromises that are unnecessary given the hardware's headroom. The performance difference between Medium and High at 1080p is only 14.8% (204.4 vs. 173.5 FPS), making High the clear choice for image quality without a meaningful performance penalty.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why the benchmark results are so strong. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the card has ample memory bandwidth (736.3 GB/s) to feed its 10240 shading units. The boost clock of 2550 MHz allows the card to maintain high throughput, and its 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than sufficient for a game from 2018.

The GPU's role becomes clearer when examining the frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra settings. At 1080p, the difference between Low (223.1 FPS) and Ultra (127.1 FPS) is 75.5%, showing that the graphics card has the raw power to handle increased load. However, the CPU's influence becomes apparent when comparing 1080p to 1440p at the same settings. The Low preset at 1080p produces 223.1 FPS, but at 1440p it only drops to 190.3 FPS — a 14.7% reduction that is far smaller than the pixel count increase. This suggests the CPU is limiting performance at 1080p, preventing the GPU from fully stretching its legs at lower resolutions.

The RTX 4080 SUPER's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but not heavily utilized in this title, as the data does not show ray tracing performance. The card's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53610, places it just ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (0.2% delta) and well above the Radeon RX 7700S (2.1% delta). This indicates the GPU has substantial headroom for more demanding titles, but in Hitman 2, the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Hitman 2 at 4K smoothly?

A: Yes, but only on the High preset, which produces 62.1 FPS on average. The Medium preset at 4K yields 76.5 FPS, while the Low preset reaches 100.9 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is not recommended, as it drops to 43.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: The data shows that 1440p with High settings is the most balanced configuration, delivering 108 FPS on average. This provides a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining frame rates well above 100 FPS. At 1080p, the High preset produces 173.5 FPS, but the CPU bottleneck becomes more pronounced at this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from High to Ultra settings?

A: The Ultra preset incurs a substantial penalty across all resolutions. At 1080p, the drop is 26.8% (from 173.5 to 127.1 FPS), while at 1440p it is 24.7% (from 108 to 81.3 FPS). At 4K, the Ultra preset is 29.3% slower than High (from 62.1 to 43.9 FPS), making it the least efficient settings choice.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER overkill for a game from 2018?

A: The GPU's performance percentile (88th) and average benchmark score (53610) suggest it is a high-end card, but the measured results show it provides excellent frame rates in Hitman 2. The 16 GB of VRAM is far more than this game requires, but the headroom ensures the card is not the limiting factor in most scenarios.

Q: Does the Intel Core i5-10400F bottleneck the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The evidence suggests yes, particularly at 1080p. The frame rate difference between 1080p Low (223.1 FPS) and 1440p Low (190.3 FPS) is only 14.7%, which is less than the 78% pixel count increase. This indicates the CPU is preventing the GPU from achieving higher frame rates at 1080p.

Q: What is the minimum FPS I can expect with this combo?

A: The measured data only provides average FPS figures, with no minimum or maximum values recorded. However, the lowest average FPS reported is 43.9 at 4K Ultra, which represents the worst-case scenario in the tested configurations.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F and RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 181st out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 10% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong performance of the GPU, but it also shows that there is room for improvement — likely from pairing the RTX 4080 SUPER with a newer, higher-performing CPU. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 14168, is modest compared to the GPU's 88th percentile ranking.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% faster), AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% slower), and Intel Core i5-8500 (1.1% slower). These comparisons show that the i5-10400F is a mid-range processor that, while adequate for gaming, does not have the single-thread or multi-thread prowess to fully utilize a flagship GPU like the RTX 4080 SUPER in less demanding titles. The combo's rank of 181 suggests that many other configurations achieve higher frame rates, likely due to more balanced CPU-GPU pairings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 173.5 at 1080p to 108 at 1440p (a 37.8% reduction) and then to 62.1 at 4K (a 42.5% reduction from 1440p). The 1440p to 4K drop is more consistent with GPU-bound scaling, while the 1080p to 1440p drop is less severe than expected, indicating the CPU limits performance at 1080p.

The Low preset demonstrates this even more clearly. At 1080p, the system achieves 223.1 FPS, but at 1440p it only drops to 190.3 FPS — a mere 14.7% reduction. The 4K Low preset produces 100.9 FPS, which is a 47% drop from 1440p. This pattern suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting component, while the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The Medium preset follows a similar trend, with 204.4 FPS at 1080p, 142.7 FPS at 1440p, and 76.5 FPS at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 223.1 FPS average
• Medium: 204.4 FPS average
• High: 173.5 FPS average
• Ultra: 127.1 FPS average

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 190.3 FPS average
• Medium: 142.7 FPS average
• High: 108 FPS average
• Ultra: 81.3 FPS average

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 100.9 FPS average
• Medium: 76.5 FPS average
• High: 62.1 FPS average
• Ultra: 43.9 FPS average

The data shows that the High preset is the most consistent across resolutions, offering playable frame rates at 4K and excellent performance at 1440p and 1080p. The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where it still produces 127.1 FPS, but it falls below 60 FPS at 4K. The Low and Medium presets are useful for very high refresh rate displays at 1080p or 1440p, but the visual compromises are significant. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of VRAM ensures that even the Ultra preset at 4K does not encounter memory limitations, but the CPU's 12 MB of L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth are clearly the limiting factors in this pairing.