Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a high-refresh-rate Hitman 2 experience at 1080p and 1440p, but the combination struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K Ultra settings. Benchmark data shows the combo ranks 468th out of 1795 tested configurations, placing it in the top 26% of all systems. The GPU is the dominant performance driver at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s six-core, twelve-thread design proves sufficient for the game’s stealth simulation demands.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 with High settings delivers an average of 86.3 FPS, making it the sweet spot for balanced visual quality and smooth gameplay. At 1920x1080, Low settings reach 236.7 FPS, but the visual compromise is significant.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070’s average benchmark score is 37283, which is 0.6% below the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507) and 1.9% below the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (38008). It outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 5300M by 2.5% (36371).

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 236.7 FPS, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. However, the i5-11400F’s 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is not a top-tier processor, and it may limit frame rates in CPU-intensive scenarios.

Q: What is the FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 97.2 at 1920x1080 to 35.9 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 61.3 FPS. This indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the i5-11400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals in multi-threaded performance?

A: The i5-11400F’s average benchmark score is 17181, nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta) and within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-1260P (17212) and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17215). It is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-1240U (17141).

Q: Is the RTX 4070’s 12GB VRAM sufficient for Hitman 2 at 4K?

A: The 12GB GDDR6X memory provides a 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, and the measured 4K High average of 47.4 FPS suggests the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at this resolution. The Ultra preset still achieves 35.9 FPS, indicating the GPU’s compute capability is the primary constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and 35,800 million transistors. Its 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines drive the rendering pipeline, with 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores available for advanced effects. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1920 MHz and boosts to 2475 MHz, paired with 12GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivering 504.2 GB/s bandwidth.

In Hitman 2, the GPU’s role shifts dramatically with resolution. At 1920x1080 Low settings, the combo produces 236.7 FPS, indicating the RTX 4070 is not fully utilized. At 3840x2160 Ultra, performance falls to 35.9 FPS, showing the GPU’s pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s are taxed heavily. The 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability is the primary driver for the game’s lighting and shadow calculations, which become more demanding at higher settings. Benchmark results place the RTX 4070 in the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 37283. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 37507 (0.6% higher), while the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A leads by 1.9% with 38008. These close margins suggest the RTX 4070 sits at a competitive performance tier, but the measured FPS data in Hitman 2 shows it delivers playable frame rates only up to 1440p High settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 236.7 at 1920x1080 to 151.7 at 2560x1440 (a 35.9% reduction) and further to 81.5 at 3840x2160 (a 65.6% reduction from 1080p). This steep decline indicates the GPU is the limiting component even at Low settings, as the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads provide consistent instruction throughput.

At High settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute numbers: 135.9 FPS at 1080p, 86.3 FPS at 1440p, and 47.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is notably below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that 4K gaming requires Medium settings or lower for this combo. The Medium preset shows 176.7 FPS at 1080p, 114.2 FPS at 1440p, and 58.6 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 97.2 FPS at 1080p, 62.4 FPS at 1440p, and only 35.9 FPS at 4K.

The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is 34.8 FPS (from 97.2 to 62.4), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 26.5 FPS (from 62.4 to 35.9). This nonlinear scaling highlights that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are exhausted at 4K Ultra. The RTX 4070’s 504.2 GB/s bandwidth and 29.15 TFLOPS are insufficient for the game’s highest preset at 4K, but the 1440p Medium result of 114.2 FPS demonstrates the combo’s capability for high-refresh-rate gaming at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers excellent performance across all settings. Low settings produce 236.7 FPS, Medium yields 176.7 FPS, High achieves 135.9 FPS, and Ultra maintains 97.2 FPS. All presets exceed 60 FPS, making 1080p a viable option for high-refresh-rate monitors. The gap between Low and Ultra is 139.5 FPS, indicating the GPU has ample headroom at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but drops noticeably. Low settings achieve 151.7 FPS, Medium produces 114.2 FPS, High hits 86.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 62.4 FPS. The Ultra preset still clears 60 FPS, making 1440p Ultra playable, though the margin is slim. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 89.3 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings deliver 81.5 FPS, Medium produces 58.6 FPS, High achieves 47.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 35.9 FPS. Only the Low preset exceeds 60 FPS at 4K. The performance degradation from 1440p to 4K is consistent across presets, ranging from 70.2 FPS at Low (151.7 to 81.5) to 26.5 FPS at Ultra (62.4 to 35.9). This data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo requires significant settings compromises.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 468th out of 1795 tested configurations, placing it in the top 26.1% of all systems tested for Hitman 2. This position reflects the balanced nature of the pairing: the RTX 4070’s 81st GPU percentile ranking provides solid graphics performance, while the i5-11400F’s 75th CPU percentile ranking ensures adequate processing power.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmark score of 37283 puts it in close competition with several rivals. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37507 (0.6% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A scores 38008 (1.9% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 5300M scores 36371 (2.5% lower). These narrow deltas suggest the RTX 4070 is well-positioned among its peers, but the Hitman 2 measured results show it excels at 1440p while struggling at 4K Ultra.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 17181 aligns closely with its rivals: the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U scores 17189 (0% delta), the Intel Core i7-1260P scores 17212 (-0.2% delta), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U scores 17215 (-0.2% delta). This near-identical performance with mobile-class processors suggests the desktop i5-11400F’s 65W TDP and 14 nm process node do not provide a significant advantage in synthetic workloads, but the measured FPS data indicates it handles Hitman 2’s CPU demands effectively.

Settings Recommendations

For a 60 FPS target, the data indicates the following optimal configurations: at 3840x2160, only the Low preset (81.5 FPS) achieves the target. At 2560x1440, all presets including Ultra (62.4 FPS) exceed 60 FPS. At 1920x1080, all presets comfortably exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra at 97.2 FPS.

For a 144 FPS target, the options narrow significantly. At 2560x1440, Low (151.7 FPS) is the only preset that reaches this threshold. At 1920x1080, Low (236.7 FPS) and Medium (176.7 FPS) both exceed 144 FPS, while High (135.9 FPS) falls just short.

The most balanced experience is 2560x1440 with High settings, delivering 86.3 FPS. This configuration provides a substantial visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining smooth gameplay. For players prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, 1920x1080 Medium offers 176.7 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. The Ultra preset at 1440p (62.4 FPS) offers the best visual quality while staying above 60 FPS, but the margin is narrow enough that frame drops could be noticeable in crowded scenes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 14 nm process node. It operates at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boosts to 4.40 GHz, with a 65W TDP and 12MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth, and its PCIe Gen 4 interface with 20 lanes provides ample bandwidth for the RTX 4070.

In Hitman 2, the CPU’s role is to manage game logic, AI pathfinding, and physics calculations. The 3dmark benchmark scores show the processor’s threading capabilities: 5619 in the 16-thread test, 4691 in the 8-thread test, and 3171 in the 4-thread test. The single-thread score of 868 indicates moderate per-core performance, which is sufficient for the game’s primary thread. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and single-core score of 2029 provide additional context, showing the processor’s ability to handle both multi-threaded and single-threaded workloads.

The measured FPS data suggests the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at 1080p, where the combo achieves 236.7 FPS at Low settings. However, the CPU’s 75th percentile ranking and its close performance to mobile processors like the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189 vs 17181) indicate that it is not a high-end part. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the FPS drops by over 65% from 1080p Low to 4K Low, while the CPU’s workload remains relatively constant. The 12 threads provide adequate parallelism for Hitman 2’s stealth mechanics, but the processor’s modest single-thread performance means it cannot push frame rates beyond the GPU’s capabilities at lower resolutions.