Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 presents a stark picture in Hitman 2, where the measured frame rates reveal a configuration that is heavily constrained by its graphics subsystem. The data shows a GPU that struggles to maintain playable performance at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s potential remains largely untapped. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, examines the GPU’s role, and contextualizes the combo’s standing among 1,795 tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic collapse in frame rates, indicating that the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the definitive bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 71 FPS, but this drops to 45 FPS at 1440p and plummets to 25.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 64% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, a scaling pattern that is characteristic of a GPU that is simply overwhelmed by pixel count.

The picture becomes even more telling when examining the High preset. At 1080p, the average is 41.5 FPS, which falls to 24.1 FPS at 1440p and reaches a barely functional 11.7 FPS at 4K. The gap between Low and High settings widens as resolution increases, suggesting that the RX 570’s 4 GB frame buffer and 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering with higher quality assets. The Ultra preset at 4K yields only 12.5 FPS, confirming that this resolution is entirely out of reach for this hardware combination.

What the scaling data suggests is a system that is GPU-limited at every resolution tested. The Intel Core i5-11400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads boosting to 4.40 GHz, has ample headroom. The frame rate deltas between 1080p and 1440p are steep (e.g., 71 FPS to 45 FPS on Low), but the drop from 1440p to 4K is even more punishing (45 FPS to 25.6 FPS). This non-linear degradation points directly at the graphics card’s inability to process the increasing pixel workload, rather than any CPU limitation. The data indicates that the i5-11400F is not the limiting factor; the RX 570’s 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is simply insufficient for modern resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip using GCN 4.0 architecture, a design that has been end-of-life for some time. Its specifications include 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, operating at a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. The 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical constraint in Hitman 2’s detailed environments.

The benchmark results show that the GPU’s memory capacity and bandwidth are the primary bottlenecks at higher settings. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages only 27.5 FPS, a significant drop from the 52.7 FPS at Medium. This 48% performance penalty for moving from Medium to Ultra suggests that the 4 GB frame buffer is being exhausted, forcing the card to rely on slower memory paging. The texture-heavy nature of Hitman 2’s levels, combined with the RX 570’s limited VRAM, creates a scenario where the card cannot maintain consistent throughput.

The GPU’s percentile ranking against all GPUs is 74, which places it in the upper quartile of all tested cards, but this is misleading in the context of modern gaming. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (deltaPct 0.2), though these comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks rather than Hitman 2-specific performance. In this game, the RX 570’s 14 nm process node and 150 W TDP translate to a card that can handle 1080p at lower presets but collapses under the weight of higher resolutions. The measured data confirms that the GPU’s role is to provide a baseline 1080p experience, with the i5-11400F’s 51.2 GB/s dual-channel memory bandwidth being more than adequate to feed it.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand database of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1692 out of 1795 combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the bottom 6% of all configurations, which is a poor showing for a CPU that individually sits in the 75th percentile against all CPUs. The disconnect between the CPU’s strong standalone performance and the combo’s low rank underscores how severely the GPU drags down the overall experience.

The i5-11400F’s nearest CPU rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (deltaPct 0) and Intel Core i7-1260P (deltaPct -0.2), indicating that the processor is competitive with other mid-range options. However, this competitive standing is irrelevant when paired with a GPU that is equally matched only by the NVIDIA Tesla M60 (deltaPct 0.6) in synthetic benchmarks. The combination creates a mismatch: a capable 6-core processor that is capable of 14,372 points in Cinebench R23 multicore, paired with a graphics card that can only muster 880 points in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12.

The rank of 1692 suggests that the majority of tested combos in this database achieve better Hitman 2 performance, likely due to more balanced pairings. The data indicates that this combo is viable only for 1080p gaming at Low or Medium settings, and even then, it does not excel. The benchmark results show that this is a legacy configuration, one that might have been acceptable years ago but is now far behind the curve. The combo’s low rank is a direct consequence of the GPU’s age and limitations, not the CPU’s capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combo is achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings, where the average frame rate is 71 FPS. This is the only preset and resolution combination that approaches the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and it does so comfortably. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 52.7 FPS, which is playable but not ideal, and the High preset at 41.5 FPS is borderline for a stealth game that benefits from consistent frame pacing.

At 1440p, the data shows that only the Low preset (45 FPS) is remotely playable, while Medium (36.3 FPS) and High (24.1 FPS) fall below acceptable thresholds. The 4K resolution is entirely unsuitable, with even the Low preset producing only 25.6 FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution; it provides only 27.5 FPS at 1080p and drops to 12.5 FPS at 4K, which is a slideshow.

For players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance, providing a 26.9% improvement in FPS over High while still maintaining reasonable visual quality. However, the data clearly indicates that the Low preset is the only option that fully utilizes the hardware’s potential without hitting severe bottlenecks. The recommendation is to stick with 1080p and adjust settings downward from Medium only if frame rate dips become noticeable. The 4 GB VRAM limit makes High and Ultra settings risky, as they may cause stuttering even when the average FPS appears acceptable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of this combo’s performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 71 FPS (Low), 52.7 FPS (Medium), 41.5 FPS (High), and 27.5 FPS (Ultra). The progression shows a predictable decline as settings increase, but the steep drop from Medium to High (11.2 FPS) and High to Ultra (14 FPS) indicates that the GPU’s resources are quickly exhausted.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages fall to 45 FPS (Low), 36.3 FPS (Medium), 24.1 FPS (High), and 21.6 FPS (Ultra). The delta between High and Ultra narrows to just 2.5 FPS, suggesting that the card is hitting a hard performance ceiling at this resolution regardless of settings. The 1440p results are consistently 36-45% lower than their 1080p counterparts, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the system.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become largely academic for gaming purposes: 25.6 FPS (Low), 20.7 FPS (Medium), 11.7 FPS (High), and 12.5 FPS (Ultra). Interestingly, the Ultra preset slightly outperforms High at this resolution (12.5 vs 11.7 FPS), which is likely a measurement anomaly or a quirk of the game’s rendering pipeline, but it does not change the conclusion that 4K is unplayable. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the sole arbiter of performance, and its 4 GB memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are the limiting factors. The Intel Core i5-11400F’s 12 MB L3 cache and high boost clock are never the constraint, as evidenced by the fact that even the lowest FPS figures at 4K do not reflect any CPU-side savings.