Hitman 2

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 lands at rank 1837 out of 3001 tested combinations in Hitman 2. That places it in the bottom half of the field, around the 61st percentile of all tested combos — a position that reflects a mid-range pairing rather than a performance leader. The data suggests this combo is positioned for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver playable framerates, but it struggles to maintain competitive performance at higher resolutions and extreme settings.

What makes this ranking particularly interesting is the delta between the two components' individual standings. The CPU sits at the 71st percentile among all processors, while the GPU sits at the 66th percentile among all graphics cards. Yet the combined result in Hitman 2 falls to roughly the 61st percentile of combos. This gap hints at a system where neither component is dramatically holding the other back, but the overall package doesn't punch above its weight in this specific title. The game's stealth mechanics and crowd AI simulations may place unusual demands on both the processor and the graphics card, preventing either from fully flexing its capabilities.

The ranking also reveals something about Hitman 2's engine characteristics. A combo ranked 1837 out of 3001 suggests there are roughly 1164 combinations that perform worse, but also a substantial number that perform better. The data implies that this pairing is serviceable for the game's core experience — sneaking through crowds, observing targets, and executing elaborate assassinations — but it won't deliver the silky-smooth high-refresh-rate experience that top-tier combos achieve. Players with this setup will need to make deliberate choices about resolution and quality settings to find their comfort zone.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 1920x1080 offers the most comfortable experience across all settings, with framerates ranging from 64 FPS at Ultra up to 152 FPS at Low. At 2560x1440, the combo remains playable at Medium (73 FPS) and High (55 FPS), but 3840x2160 dips below 30 FPS at High settings, making 4K a challenging target.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5050's average benchmark score of 21035 puts it within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (which scores 20713) and within 0.6% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (which scores 21153). It trails the AMD Radeon HD 8970M by 1% and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile by 1.6%, indicating a tightly clustered competitive field.

Q: Is the i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RTX 5050 in Hitman 2?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 17177 sits 0.3% above the AMD EPYC 7H12 and 0.6% above the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U, while trailing the i5-12450H by 0.4% and the Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G by 0.6%. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the processor appears capable of feeding the GPU adequately at lower resolutions, but the 4K FPS drops suggest the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: What settings preset delivers the best balance of quality and performance?

A: At 1080p, Medium settings provide 114 FPS average with a minimum of 97 FPS, making it the sweet spot for smooth gameplay without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. At 1440p, Medium settings deliver 73 FPS average with a minimum of 62 FPS, which remains playable for most users. The High preset at 1080p (86 FPS) is also viable, but Ultra settings at any resolution below 4K cut framerates substantially.

Q: Does the combo support modern graphics APIs?

A: The RTX 5050 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, meaning Hitman 2's DX12 rendering path is fully supported. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 320.0 GB/s bandwidth provides sufficient capacity for the game's textures at 1080p and 1440p, though the 128-bit memory bus may limit performance at 4K.

Q: How does the combo's ranking reflect its overall capability?

A: The rank of 1837 out of 3001 combos indicates a mid-pack performer. The CPU's 71st percentile and GPU's 66th percentile standings suggest both components are competent, but their combined result in Hitman 2 falls short of what their individual scores might predict. This points to a pairing that is well-suited for mainstream gaming but not optimized for this particular title's demands.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Hitman 2 experience with this combo. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset stands out as the recommended choice, delivering 114 FPS average with a minimum of 97 FPS and a maximum of 131 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining decent visual quality. The High preset at 86 FPS is also acceptable, but the drop from Medium to High represents a 28 FPS reduction — a significant cost for incremental visual improvements. Ultra at 64 FPS is technically playable but sits close to the edge of what most players would consider smooth.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset remains the best option, with 73 FPS average and a minimum of 62 FPS. This keeps the experience above the 60 FPS floor while allowing for higher resolution detail. The High preset at 55 FPS is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 41 FPS will feel noticeably less fluid during fast-paced crowd navigation or combat sequences. The Low preset at 97 FPS offers exceptional smoothness but at a significant visual cost that may undermine the game's atmospheric stealth gameplay.

For 3840x2160, the data tells a different story. None of the settings presets achieve 60 FPS, with even Low settings only reaching 52 FPS. The Medium preset at 39 FPS is the highest quality option that remains somewhat playable, while High at 29 FPS and Ultra at 22 FPS fall below the playability threshold for most users. Given these numbers, 4K gaming with this combo requires accepting either substantial visual compromises or sub-60 FPS performance. The recommended approach is to prioritize 1440p Medium for the best overall experience, or 1080p Medium for maximum smoothness with headroom for demanding scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 152 FPS at Low settings, 114 FPS at Medium, 86 FPS at High, and 64 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 97 FPS and maximum of 131 FPS show a tight performance envelope, suggesting stable frame delivery during typical gameplay. The gap between Low and Ultra is a substantial 88 FPS, indicating that settings choices dramatically impact performance at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the framerates drop predictably: 97 FPS at Low, 73 FPS at Medium, 55 FPS at High, and 41 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset's range of 62 to 84 FPS demonstrates that even at this higher resolution, the combo can maintain playable framerates with some headroom. The step from Low to Medium costs 24 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 18 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 14 FPS — a diminishing returns pattern as settings increase.

At 3840x2160, the performance picture becomes more challenging. Low settings achieve 52 FPS, Medium drops to 39 FPS (with a range of 33 to 45 FPS), High falls to 29 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 22 FPS. The 4K Medium preset's minimum of 33 FPS indicates that even the "balanced" setting can dip below 35 FPS in demanding scenes, which may cause noticeable stuttering in a game that relies on precise timing for stealth mechanics. The data clearly shows that 4K gaming with this combo requires significant settings compromises, and even then, the experience may not meet the expectations of players accustomed to higher framerates.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck characteristics. At High settings, the combo delivers 86 FPS at 1080p, 55 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K. This represents a 36% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, which suggests that the GPU's rendering load grows disproportionately as resolution increases — a classic sign of pixel-pushing becoming the limiting factor.

At Low settings, the pattern is similar but with different magnitudes: 152 FPS at 1080p, 97 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 46%. These consistent percentage drops across different settings presets indicate that resolution scaling behaves similarly regardless of quality level, pointing to the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth as the primary constraints.

The CPU's role in this scaling becomes evident when considering the 4K results. With 6 cores and 12 threads running at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, the processor appears sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. However, the substantial FPS drops at 4K suggest that the GPU — with its 8 GB VRAM and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth — becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases. The RTX 5050's 128-bit memory bus and 2560 shading units are simply not enough to maintain high framerates at 4K, regardless of CPU capability. This points to a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU remains adequate for the game's AI and physics calculations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads to the table, running at a base clock of 2.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Rocket Lake architecture processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process, offers a 12 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU's benchmark results show a solid multi-threaded capability, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14340 and a single-core score of 2024, indicating balanced performance across both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, crowd AI, and physics calculations — all of which benefit from the processor's 12 threads. The single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Geekbench single-core score of 1777 and 3DMark single-thread score of 868, is adequate for the game's main simulation thread. The processor's 71st percentile standing among all CPUs reinforces that this is a capable gaming processor, though not a top-tier one.

The CPU's interaction with the GPU becomes apparent when examining the FPS data at different resolutions. At 1080p, where the GPU has less work per frame, the CPU's performance directly influences the achievable framerates. The 152 FPS result at Low settings suggests the CPU can handle the game's logic at high speed, but the fact that Ultra settings at 1080p drop to 64 FPS points to GPU limitations rather than CPU constraints. At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes as the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with even Low settings only reaching 52 FPS. This indicates that the i5-11400F is not the limiting factor in this combo for Hitman 2 — the GPU's rendering capabilities cap the overall performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 16,900 million transistors into a 149 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2317 MHz with a boost clock of 2572 MHz, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 2500 MHz with a 128-bit bus, providing 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. With 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, the card delivers 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance — a solid mid-range specification that positions it at the 66th percentile among all GPUs.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p textures, but the 4K results suggest that memory bandwidth and capacity constraints begin to surface at higher resolutions. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, while adequate for 1080p Medium settings, becomes a limiting factor when rendering 4K scenes with complex lighting and shadow effects. The card's 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores are present, though Hitman 2's rendering demands are more traditional in nature, relying heavily on rasterization performance.

The GPU's performance characteristics directly explain the measured FPS data. At 1080p, the card delivers 152 FPS at Low settings, demonstrating its raw compute capability. The scaling to 114 FPS at Medium and 86 FPS at High shows the cost of additional visual features. The 4K results — 52 FPS at Low, 39 FPS at Medium, 29 FPS at High, and 22 FPS at Ultra — illustrate the GPU's struggle with pixel throughput at this resolution. The card's 82.30 GPixel/s pixel rate and 205.8 GTexel/s texture rate are simply insufficient for smooth 4K gaming in this title, confirming that the RTX 5050 is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming scenarios.