Hitman 2

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 presents a stark contrast in generational capability within the Hitman 2 benchmark data. This combination pits a six-core Rocket Lake processor—a solid mid-range part from 2021—against NVIDIA’s flagship Blackwell GPU, which leads to a set of results that reveal significant bottlenecks and scaling limitations. The measured frames per second across all presets and resolutions provide a clear picture of how the game engine interacts with this hardware, and the data suggests that the CPU is the primary constraint in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the "High" preset offers the most balanced experience for this specific hardware combination, particularly at higher resolutions. At 4K, the High preset delivers an average of 64.9 FPS, which is playable and represents a substantial improvement over the Ultra preset’s 51.8 FPS average. The data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns when moving from High to Ultra, as the performance cost is steep while the visual fidelity gains in a title from 2018 are likely minimal. At 1440p, the High preset achieves 126.5 FPS, which is well-suited for high-refresh-rate displays, and at 1080p, it reaches 198.5 FPS.

For users prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Medium preset is a viable alternative. It provides a significant frame rate boost over High at every resolution, with 89.9 FPS at 4K and 165.5 FPS at 1440p. The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates—topping out at 261.6 FPS at 1080p—likely compromises visual quality to a degree that is unnecessary given the GPU’s capabilities. Given that the RTX 5090 is an exceptionally powerful card, the data suggests that the Ultra preset’s demands on the CPU are too high for this processor, making High the recommended choice for the best combination of visual quality and performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings immense resources to this pairing, including 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The GPU’s boost clock is rated at 2407 MHz, and it features a massive 21760 shading units. With an FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS, the card is theoretically capable of rendering Hitman 2 at extremely high frame rates. The GPU’s benchmark percentile of 94 versus all GPUs confirms its position near the top of the performance hierarchy.

However, the measured data shows that this raw power is not fully utilized. The frame rate differences between the Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets at a fixed resolution are substantial, but the overall FPS ceiling appears to be capped by the CPU. For instance, at 1080p, the difference between Low (261.6 FPS) and Ultra (144.1 FPS) is 117.5 FPS, which is a massive swing. This indicates that while the GPU is capable of processing the visual data, the frame delivery is heavily influenced by the game’s draw calls and physics calculations, which fall to the processor. The GPU’s role is to handle the rendering, but it is often left waiting for the CPU to provide the necessary instructions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache and a 65 W TDP. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor scores 14,372 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,029 in single-core. Its percentile versus all CPUs is 75, indicating it is a capable mid-range part. However, the data from Hitman 2 suggests that its performance is the limiting factor in this configuration.

The evidence for this is the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS is 261.6. When the resolution is increased to 1440p, the FPS drops to 222.4, and at 4K, it falls to 116.4. This scaling pattern indicates that the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions and lower settings, as the GPU is not being stressed enough to become the limiting factor. The CPU’s single-thread performance, while decent for its class, is likely insufficient to feed the RTX 5090’s massive rendering pipeline in a game like Hitman 2, which is known for its complex AI and simulation. The data implies that a stronger processor would allow the GPU to reach higher frame rates, especially at 1080p and 1440p.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the i5-11400F and RTX 5090 holds a rank of 65 out of 1795 combos for Hitman 2. This places it in the top 3.6% of all tested configurations, which is a strong overall position. However, this ranking is likely buoyed by the GPU’s dominance at higher resolutions, where the CPU bottleneck is less severe. The ranking suggests that while the combo is fast, it is not reaching its full potential.

The data suggests that the ranking could be improved with a different CPU. The RTX 5090’s nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark list are the RTX 5090 D, RTX 5050 Mobile, and AMD Radeon PRO W6600, but these are irrelevant to the CPU comparison. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U and Intel Core i7-1260P, have similar average scores, but they are mobile parts. The fact that the combo ranks 65th implies that there are 64 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates, likely those pairing this GPU with higher-end desktop processors that can better keep up with its capabilities.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides a clear diagnostic of the limiting component. At 1080p High, the combo produces 198.5 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the FPS drops to 126.5, a reduction of 36%. Moving from 1440p to 4K High, the FPS drops to 64.9, a further reduction of 49%. This pattern of decreasing performance with increasing resolution is expected, but the magnitude of the drops suggests that the system is not purely GPU-limited.

If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, we would expect the frame rate to scale inversely with the pixel count. The pixel count from 1080p to 4K quadruples, and the FPS drops from 198.5 to 64.9, which is a 3.06x reduction. This is close to the expected 4x reduction, but not exact, indicating that the CPU is starting to have more influence at 1080p. At the Low preset, the scaling is even more telling: 261.6 FPS at 1080p drops to 222.4 at 1440p and then to 116.4 at 4K. The 1440p to 4K drop is a 48% reduction, while the 1080p to 1440p drop is only 15%. This suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the hard limit, and the GPU has plenty of headroom. The data implies that the RTX 5090 is underutilized at 1080p and 1440p with this CPU, and only at 4K does the GPU start to become the primary limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 4K?

A: The High preset, with an average of 64.9 FPS, offers the best balance. The Ultra preset drops to 51.8 FPS, which is a significant performance hit for the highest visual quality.

Q: Is the i5-11400F bottlenecking the RTX 5090 in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, the data strongly indicates a CPU bottleneck, especially at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 261.6 FPS, and the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 1440p is minimal, suggesting the CPU is limiting the frame delivery.

Q: How much faster is the Ultra preset compared to Low at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 91.3 FPS, while the Low preset averages 222.4 FPS. This represents a 131.1 FPS difference, showing that the Ultra preset is significantly more demanding.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 65th out of 1795 tested combinations.

Q: Does the RTX 5090’s memory capacity matter for Hitman 2?

A: The GPU has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, which is far more than required for a game from 2018. The data shows that frame rates are more dependent on the CPU than memory capacity in this scenario.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p and 4K on the Medium preset?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average is 235.1 FPS, while at 4K Medium, it is 89.9 FPS, representing a drop of 145.2 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: the Low preset achieves 261.6 FPS, the Medium preset achieves 235.1 FPS, the High preset achieves 198.5 FPS, and the Ultra preset achieves 144.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 117.5 FPS, which is the largest spread across all resolutions. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary constraint, and the higher presets load the processor more heavily, reducing the frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the results show 222.4 FPS on Low, 165.5 FPS on Medium, 126.5 FPS on High, and 91.3 FPS on Ultra. The scaling is more linear here, with a difference of 131.1 FPS between Low and Ultra. This resolution still shows significant CPU influence, as the frame rates are high, but the gap between presets is consistent.

At 3840x2160, the data shows 116.4 FPS on Low, 89.9 FPS on Medium, 64.9 FPS on High, and 51.8 FPS on Ultra. This is the only resolution where the GPU’s workload becomes more significant. The difference between Low and Ultra is 64.6 FPS, which is smaller than at lower resolutions. The frame rates here are more typical of a GPU-bound scenario, but the CPU still prevents the RTX 5090 from delivering its maximum potential, as even the Low preset does not exceed 116.4 FPS.