Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but not flawless experience in Hitman 2, with the data clearly showing that the optimal balance of visual fidelity and performance is found at 1080p Medium settings. At this configuration, the combo achieves an average of 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS, providing a smooth and consistent frame rate that avoids the steep performance penalties seen at higher presets. Pushing to High settings at 1080p drops the average to 70 FPS, which is still acceptable, but the Medium preset offers a more substantial safety margin for demanding scenes. The data indicates that while the system can reach 123 FPS at Low settings, the visual compromise is unnecessary given the solid performance headroom at Medium. At 1440p, the Medium preset remains the most sensible choice, yielding 59 FPS, though this is noticeably closer to the edge of playability, while 4K is largely out of reach for this hardware combination.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for the best experience, and the verdict is that Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p offer the most favorable balance between visual quality and frame rate stability. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS, which represents a substantial improvement over the High preset's 70 FPS average. The data shows that the jump from Medium to High costs 23 FPS on average, a 24.7% reduction, while the visual gains are typically modest in a stealth game like Hitman 2 where clarity of movement is more critical than particle effects. Conversely, dropping from Medium to Low at 1080p increases the average to 123 FPS, but this comes at the cost of significantly reduced shadow quality and ambient occlusion, which are important for spotting guards and environmental details in a stealth context. The Medium preset at 1080p is the sweet spot, as it stays well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining the minimum FPS above 75, ensuring no noticeable hitches during crowded or scripted sequences.

For 1440p, the Medium preset yields an average of 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS. This is technically playable, but the minimum FPS dipping to 50 indicates that the system is nearing its limits, and users with high-refresh-rate monitors will notice occasional dips below 60. The High preset at 1440p averages 45 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for smooth gameplay, making Medium the only viable option above Low for a consistent experience. At 4K, the data shows that no preset is truly playable; the best result is 42 FPS at Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS target, and the Medium preset drops to 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS. Ultra settings are uniformly poor across all resolutions, with 1080p Ultra averaging 52 FPS, 1440p Ultra at 33 FPS, and 4K Ultra at a slideshow-like 18 FPS. The recommendation is to avoid Ultra entirely, as the performance cost is disproportionate to the visual uplift, and the data indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings. For the best experience per the measured rows, users should select Medium at 1080p for a definitive 60+ FPS experience, or Medium at 1440p if they prioritize resolution over a rock-solid frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for a smooth 60+ FPS experience?

A: The data shows that 1080p Medium is the only configuration that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS with a high minimum frame rate, averaging 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS. 1440p Medium comes close at 59 FPS average, but its 50 FPS minimum makes it less reliable for maintaining a constant 60 FPS.

Q: Can this hardware handle 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: No. The measured data indicates that 4K is not viable for this title, as the best average FPS at 4K is 42 FPS on Low settings. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 32 FPS, and Ultra produces only 18 FPS, all of which are below playable thresholds for a stealth action game.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. At 1080p, Ultra averages 52 FPS compared to High's 70 FPS, a 25.7% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra averages 33 FPS versus High's 45 FPS, and at 4K, Ultra averages 18 FPS versus High's 24 FPS. The data suggests that Ultra is not worth the performance penalty.

Q: Is there a big difference between Low and Medium settings?

A: Yes, the frame rate difference is substantial. At 1080p, Low averages 123 FPS while Medium averages 93 FPS, a 30 FPS gap. At 1440p, Low averages 79 FPS and Medium averages 59 FPS. However, the visual quality difference in a stealth game is significant, as Low settings often remove shadows and ambient occlusion that are crucial for gameplay awareness.

Q: What is the minimum FPS I can expect at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 50 FPS, with a maximum of 68 FPS. This means that while the average is 59 FPS, there will be moments where the frame rate dips below 60, which could be noticeable during intense firefights or when entering new areas.

Q: How does the combo rank among other tested configurations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 2399th out of 3001 tested combinations for Hitman 2. This places it in the lower half of all tested systems, indicating that while it can run the game at playable frame rates on Medium settings, many other hardware pairings deliver higher performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound performance at higher settings and a shift toward CPU limitations at lower settings. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 93 to 59, a 36.6% reduction, while moving from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings drops the average from 59 to 32, a 45.8% reduction. This scaling is more aggressive than the pixel count increase (1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p), indicating that the Intel Arc B570's memory bandwidth and compute capacity are being saturated at higher resolutions. The GPU has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is modest for 4K workloads, and the pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s becomes a limiting factor. At Low settings, the scaling is more linear, with 1080p Low averaging 123 FPS, 1440p Low at 79 FPS, and 4K Low at 42 FPS, suggesting that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are keeping up with the lower graphical load while the GPU still struggles at 4K.

The data suggests that the Intel Core i5-11400F, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, is adequate for this game at 1080p and 1440p, as the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 35.8% (123 to 79), which aligns closely with the pixel count increase. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the unequivocal bottleneck, as even at Low settings the system only manages 42 FPS, which is far below what the CPU could theoretically feed. The frame time consistency also worsens at higher resolutions; at 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 79, which is 84.9% of the average, while at 1440p Medium, the minimum FPS of 50 is 84.7% of the average. At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS of 27 is 84.4% of the average, showing that the frame pacing remains relatively stable but the absolute performance is too low. For users targeting 1440p, the system is right on the edge; the 59 FPS average at Medium is playable, but the 50 FPS minimum means that users should consider lowering to High FOV or reducing shadow quality for a more consistent experience, though the data does not provide specific settings beyond the presets tested.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the data provides a complete picture of the system's capabilities across all four presets. The Low preset delivers an average of 123 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo, and while no minimum or maximum values are listed, the high average suggests a very smooth experience. The Medium preset averages 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS, offering a robust frame rate that is well-suited for a stealth game where quick reactions are sometimes necessary. The High preset averages 70 FPS, which is acceptable but represents a notable drop from Medium, and the Ultra preset averages 52 FPS, which is below the ideal 60 FPS threshold. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 57.7% reduction in average FPS (123 to 52), indicating that the Ultra preset demands significantly more from the GPU.

At 1440p, the measured results show a similar pattern but with lower absolute numbers. The Low preset averages 79 FPS, which is still playable, while the Medium preset averages 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS, placing it just below the 60 FPS target. The High preset averages 45 FPS, which is marginal, and the Ultra preset averages 33 FPS, which is not recommended for active gameplay. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Medium is 34 FPS (93 to 59), and this difference widens to 25 FPS at High (70 to 45) and 19 FPS at Ultra (52 to 33). This suggests that as settings increase, the resolution scaling becomes less steep in absolute terms, but the percentage drop remains around 36-37%, indicating consistent GPU pressure.

At 4K, the system is clearly out of its depth. The Low preset averages 42 FPS, which is barely playable for a stealth game, and the Medium preset averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS, which will result in noticeable stutter during action sequences. The High preset averages 24 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 18 FPS, both of which are unplayable. The data shows that the Intel Arc B570 with 10 GB of VRAM is insufficient for 4K gaming in this title, as even the lowest settings cannot maintain a 60 FPS average. The frame rate at 4K Medium (32 FPS) is 53.8% lower than at 1440p Medium (59 FPS), illustrating the exponential cost of rendering four times the pixels of 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2399th out of 3001 tested combos for Hitman 2, placing it in the bottom 20% of all configurations. This ranking is lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest, as the CPU sits at the 71st percentile against all CPUs and the GPU at the 65th percentile against all GPUs. The discrepancy indicates that this specific pairing is not optimally balanced for this game, likely because the Intel Arc B570's driver overhead or architectural quirks in DirectX 12 titles like Hitman 2 limit its performance relative to its raw benchmark scores. The combo's average benchmark scores are respectable — the CPU has an average benchmark score of 17177, and the GPU has an average benchmark score of 20556 — but the in-game ranking of 2399 out of 3001 suggests that many other combinations, even with lower raw compute, achieve higher frame rates in this specific title.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the AMD EPYC 7H12 (0.3% higher score), Intel Core i5-12450H (0.4% lower score), AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (0.6% lower score), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (0.6% higher score), showing that the i5-11400F is competitively positioned in synthetic benchmarks. For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher score), Intel Arc A750 (0.1% lower score), NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (0.4% higher score), and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (0.5% lower score). The fact that the Intel Arc A750 is within 0.1% of the B570's average benchmark score is notable, as the A750 has been on the market longer and may have more mature drivers. However, the in-game ranking of 2399 out of 3001 indicates that this combo falls behind many systems that use NVIDIA or AMD GPUs, which often have better optimized drivers for Hitman 2's engine. The data suggests that while the individual components are mid-range, their combination is not synergistic for this title, and users should expect performance closer to the lower quartile of tested systems rather than the median.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, which is a solid foundation for modern gaming, but its architecture and clock speeds play a specific role in Hitman 2's performance. With a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, the CPU is capable of handling the game's AI and physics calculations, but the data shows that it is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 123 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, as further GPU headroom would not translate to higher frame rates. The CPU's single-thread performance, as evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 868 and a passmark_single_thread score of 2981, is adequate for Hitman 2, which is not heavily multithreaded. The multi-thread scores, such as cinebench_r23_multicore at 14340 and passmark_multithread at 16908, indicate that the 12 threads provide ample processing power for background tasks, but the game does not appear to scale perfectly with all 12 threads.

The CPU's cache configuration — 80 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 — is typical for Rocket Lake, and the 12 MB L3 cache is sufficient for most game workloads. The memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 bus is a potential limiting factor when paired with the Arc B570, which has 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, but the data does not show extreme CPU starvation at 1080p. The CPU's 3dmark_single_thread score of 868 is relatively low compared to its multi-thread score of 5652, indicating that single-threaded performance is modest, which could explain why the 1080p Low FPS of 123 is not higher. The nearest rival CPUs, such as the Intel Core i5-12450H (which scores 0.4% lower on average), suggest that the i5-11400F is competitive with mobile variants, but desktop CPUs with higher single-thread clocks would likely achieve better 1080p FPS in this game. Overall, the CPU is capable of delivering playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but its moderate single-thread performance caps the maximum FPS at lower settings, while the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K and higher presets.