Hitman 2

The benchmark data for Hitman 2 with the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT reveals a configuration that is heavily influenced by graphical settings and resolution. The measured FPS across resolutions shows a clear pattern where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher fidelity presets, while the CPU’s capabilities are exposed at lower settings. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, component roles, and overall ranking of this combo.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic and consistent drop in frame rates across all quality presets, indicating that the rendering load scales steeply with pixel count. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 110.4 at 1920x1080 to 69.4 at 2560x1440, and then to 39.4 at 3840x2160. This represents a 64% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, a substantial decline that points directly to the GPU’s pixel throughput as the limiting factor.

The scaling behavior becomes even more pronounced when examining the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 197.2 FPS, which drops to 124.7 at 1440p and then to 66.5 at 4K. The 66% decrease from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is notable because it suggests that even when the graphical load is minimized, the resolution increase still overwhelms the rendering pipeline. This is a strong indicator that the Radeon RX 7700 XT’s 432.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 244.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are being saturated by the 4K pixel count, regardless of the scene complexity.

The Medium preset mirrors this trend with 146.3 FPS at 1080p, 96.6 FPS at 1440p, and 50.8 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling, falling from 80.3 FPS at 1080p to 54.1 FPS at 1440p and finally to 27.3 FPS at 4K. The Ultra 4K result is particularly telling: it is less than half the frame rate of the High 4K result, demonstrating that the combination of maximum pixel count and highest quality settings creates an extreme load that the GPU cannot sustain for smooth gameplay.

The data shows that the limiting component changes with resolution. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough across all presets (80.3 to 197.2 FPS) that the CPU likely provides a reasonable floor, but the GPU still has headroom. At 4K, the GPU is unequivocally the bottleneck, as the FPS drops are proportional to the increase in pixel count and setting complexity. This scaling pattern is typical for a mid-range GPU paired with a capable 6-core processor, where the GPU’s memory interface and shading units become the constraining factor at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide the computational foundation for this combo. The benchmark scores for this CPU show a balanced multithreaded and single-threaded profile: the Cinebench R23 multicore score is 14372, while the single-core score is 2029. The Geekbench results reinforce this with a multicore score of 7579 and a single-core score of 1979.

In the context of Hitman 2, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary at higher resolutions but more prominent at lower ones. At 1080p Low, the 197.2 FPS result suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to sustain very high frame rates. The processor’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game’s data streaming requirements. The 3DMark multithreaded benchmark score of 5652 indicates that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads effectively, which is relevant for Hitman 2’s AI and physics simulations.

However, the CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals shows it is an average performer. Its average benchmark score of 17181 places it at the 75th percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, has a nearly identical average score of 17189 with a 0% delta, making them functionally equivalent in synthetic benchmarks. The Intel Core i7-1260P and Core Ultra 7 164U are both 0.2% slower, while the Core i5-1240U is 0.2% faster. This tight clustering means that the i5-11400F provides no significant CPU advantage over its peers in this game, but it also does not hold the combo back in a measurable way.

The CPU’s influence on the measured FPS is most visible when comparing the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings. The drop from 197.2 to 124.7 FPS (a 37% reduction) is smaller than the drop from 1440p to 4K (124.7 to 66.5 FPS, a 47% reduction). This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is still capable of pushing frame rates above what the GPU can render at higher resolutions, but the GPU’s limitations start to dominate as pixel count increases.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the dominant component in this combo, with its RDNA 3.0 architecture and 5 nm process providing substantial rendering power. The GPU features 3456 shading units, 216 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2544 MHz and a game clock of 2171 MHz. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for high-resolution textures and effects.

The GPU’s benchmark performance places it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 30097. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, has a score of 30109 with a 0% delta, indicating parity. The AMD Radeon RX 570 is 0.2% slower, the NVIDIA Tesla M60 is 0.4% faster, and the RTX 5070 Mobile is 0.6% faster. This places the RX 7700 XT in a competitive mid-range tier, but the Hitman 2 results show that it struggles at 4K Ultra.

The GPU’s memory and clock specifications directly explain the resolution scaling observed. At 4K Ultra, the 27.3 FPS result is a clear sign that the GPU’s 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 549.5 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for the combined load of high pixel count and maximum quality settings. The memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s is also likely a limiting factor, as 4K textures require large data transfers that can saturate the bus. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for the game’s requirements, but the bandwidth becomes constrained at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s role is further highlighted by the gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (197.2 FPS) and Ultra (80.3 FPS) is 117 FPS, while at 4K the difference is 39.2 FPS (66.5 vs 27.3). This compression of the performance gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is running out of compute and memory resources, making the quality settings less impactful as the pixel count becomes the primary bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s ranking in Hitman 2 is 819 out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the 54th percentile of all system configurations. This mid-tier ranking reflects the balanced but not exceptional performance of the i5-11400F and RX 7700 XT pair. The rank suggests that while this combo can handle the game at playable frame rates for most settings, it falls behind a significant portion of tested systems, particularly in high-fidelity 4K scenarios.

The ranking is consistent with the individual component percentiles: the CPU at 75th percentile and the GPU at 73rd percentile. The combo’s rank being lower than either component’s percentile indicates that the pairing does not synergize as well as some other combinations. This is likely due to the GPU being the limiting factor at 4K, which prevents the CPU’s relatively strong performance from being fully utilized. The data shows that at 1080p, the combo can achieve over 80 FPS even at Ultra settings, which is respectable, but at 4K Ultra, the 27.3 FPS result is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Compared to other combos with similar component scores, the 819th rank out of 1795 suggests that Hitman 2 is not particularly favorable to this hardware combination. The game’s stealth genre often involves complex crowd and AI simulations, which may tax the CPU more than typical shooters, but the measured FPS indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The rank also implies that there are 976 combos that perform better, likely featuring higher-end GPUs or more balanced CPU-GPU pairings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and setting combination for this hardware in Hitman 2?

A: The data shows that 1080p High provides 110.4 FPS, which is smooth and visually detailed. For higher fidelity, 1440p High at 69.4 FPS is playable, while 4K High at 39.4 FPS is borderline. The 4K Ultra result of 27.3 FPS is not recommended for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17181, which is 0% different from the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U’s 17189. It is 0.2% slower than the Intel Core i7-1260P and Core Ultra 7 164U, and 0.2% faster than the Core i5-1240U. This makes it statistically equivalent to its peers.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The FPS drops from 39.4 at High to 27.3 at Ultra, and the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s and pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s are insufficient for the pixel load. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are not the bottleneck at this resolution.

Q: What is the GPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 30097, which is 0% different from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060’s 30109. It is 0.2% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 570, 0.4% slower than the NVIDIA Tesla M60, and 0.6% slower than the RTX 5070 Mobile.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: At High settings, the frame rate drops from 110.4 FPS at 1080p to 69.4 FPS at 1440p, a 37% reduction. This indicates that the GPU’s rendering load increases significantly with the pixel count, but the performance remains playable at both resolutions.

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 819 out of 1795 tested combinations in Hitman 2. This places it in the middle of the field, indicating that it performs adequately but does not stand out among other system configurations. The CPU and GPU both sit in the 73-75th percentile of their respective categories, but the combo’s rank is lower, suggesting the pairing is not optimal for this game.