Hitman 2

# Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Hitman 2 with this Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination points to Medium settings as the optimal balance across all three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 170 FPS average with a minimum of 144 FPS and maximum of 195 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over High's 128 FPS average. The gap between Medium and Low at 1080p is notable—Low reaches 227 FPS—but the visual fidelity trade-off rarely justifies the extra 57 FPS when Medium already clears high-refresh-rate monitors with headroom.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset produces 109 FPS average with a 92 FPS minimum and 125 FPS maximum. This is the only settings tier at this resolution that maintains an average above 100 FPS while still providing meaningful visual quality over Low's 145 FPS. High at 1440p drops to 82 FPS, which remains playable but introduces more variability in dense scenes, whereas Medium's 92 FPS floor keeps frame pacing consistent.

The 3840x2160 results tell a different story. Here, Medium yields 58 FPS average with a 49 FPS minimum and 67 FPS maximum, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. High at 4K produces only 44 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. For 4K, the data suggests that Medium is the practical ceiling for this combo, as the step from Medium to High costs 14 FPS (a 24% drop) while the visual gains are typically marginal in Hitman 2's crowd and lighting systems. Low at 4K reaches 77 FPS, but the reduction in shadow quality and texture detail undermines the game's stealth mechanics, where readability of enemy sightlines matters.

The verdict is clear: Medium settings provide the best experience per the measured rows. At 1080p and 1440p, it delivers frame rates that exceed typical display refresh rates, and at 4K, it is the only tier that stays within a playable range without sacrificing too much visual information. Ultra settings are only recommended for screenshot purposes, as the 32 FPS at 4K and 61 FPS at 1440p indicate a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 3080's resources are stretched thin.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 serves as the primary performance driver in this combination, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus provides 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Hitman 2's texture streaming at 4K, though the data shows diminishing returns as settings escalate. The GPU's boost clock of 1710 MHz (base 1440 MHz) combined with 8704 shading units and 272 texture mapping units delivers the raw throughput reflected in the measured FPS.

The RTX 3080's 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores are present in the architecture, but Hitman 2's standard rendering path does not heavily leverage these features based on the benchmark results. The FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s align with the observed scaling: at 1080p, the GPU is not the bottleneck, as evidenced by the jump from 128 FPS at High to 227 FPS at Low, indicating CPU or API overhead limits. At 4K, however, the GPU becomes the limiting factor—the 44 FPS at High versus 77 FPS at Low shows a 43% performance swing that correlates with pixel throughput demands.

The GPU's 68th percentile ranking among all tested GPUs places it in the upper tier, but its nearest rivals in the benchmark database—the NVIDIA P106-100, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, AMD Radeon RX 6600M, and AMD Radeon R9 M290X—are all within 0.4% of its average benchmark score of 23172. This clustering suggests that while the RTX 3080 is capable, its performance headroom in Hitman 2 is not exceptional compared to those near neighbors. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for all tested settings, with no evidence of texture thrashing in the min FPS data at Medium settings (49 FPS at 4K, 92 FPS at 1440p, 144 FPS at 1080p).

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured FPS, 2560x1440 with Medium settings offers the best overall experience, delivering 109 FPS average with a 92 FPS minimum. This resolution balances visual clarity with frame rate headroom, whereas 4K at Medium drops to 58 FPS and 1080p at Medium reaches 170 FPS but with less visual detail.

Q: Can this combo handle Ultra settings in Hitman 2?

A: Ultra settings are playable only at 1080p, where the average FPS is 95. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 61 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 32 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The data indicates that Ultra is not a viable preset for this game at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM affect Hitman 2 performance?

A: The 10 GB GDDR6X memory did not appear to limit performance in any tested configurationasi. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings (49 FPS at 4K, 92 FPS at 1440p, 144 FPS at 1080p) do not show signs of VRAM-related stutters, suggesting the memory capacity is sufficient for Hitman 2's requirements across all presets.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p in Hitman 2?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes the limiting factor at 1080p. The FPS jump from High (128 FPS) to Low (227 FPS) at 1080p is 99 FPS, while the same settings change at 4K only yields a 33 FPS difference (44 to 77 FPS). This pattern indicates GPU-bound behavior at 4K and CPU-bound behavior at 1080p.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with this combo?

A: At 4K, the playable options are Medium at 58 FPS average (49 min, 67 max) and Low at 77 FPS. High drops to 44 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. For a consistent experience, Medium is the recommended 4K preset.

Q: How does this combo's performance scale between settings tiers?

A: Scaling is steepest at 1080p, where Low to Medium to High to Ultra yields 227, 170, 128, and 95 FPS respectively. At 4K, the same progression gives 77, 58, 44, and 32 FPS. The diminishing returns from Medium to Ultra are more pronounced at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination ranks 1078 out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 29% of all configurations. This percentile position is respectable but not elite, reflecting the GPU's 68th percentile standing among all GPUs and the CPU's 77th percentile among all CPUs. The rank indicates that while this combo delivers strong performance in absolute terms, there are 1077 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in this specific game.

The combo's ranking relative to its component percentiles suggests a slight underperformance in Hitman 2 specifically. The CPU's 77th percentile and GPU's 68th percentile would nominally predict a higher combined rank, but the game's engine appears to favor configurations with different balance characteristics. The measured FPS data supports this: at 1080p Low, the 227 FPS result shows the combo can reach very high frame rates, but at 4K Ultra, the 32 FPS result drags down the overall assessment.

Compared to the component nearest rivals, the CPU's average benchmark score of 25292 is effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25284, 0% delta), Intel Core 5 120 (25362, -0.3%), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, -0.3%), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25201, 0.4%). The GPU's average score of 23172 is similarly clustered with its rivals, all within 0.4%. This tight clustering means that swapping to any of these near-equal components would likely produce similar Hitman 2 results, making the combo's rank more dependent on the game's optimization than on component choice.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides the computational foundation for this combo, featuring 10 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz. This Raptor Lake-S architecture processor has 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache, which supports the game's AI and physics calculations. The CPU's benchmark scores—particularly Cinebench R23 multicore at 22604 and single-core at 3191—indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance that aligns with Hitman 2's requirements.

The CPU's role becomes increasingly evident at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080, the FPS differences between settings tiers (227, 170, 128, 95 FPS for Low through Ultra) show that the CPU can feed the GPU with enough frames to reach high refresh rates, but the scaling pattern suggests a bottleneck. The passmark single-thread score of 3634 and 3dmark single-thread score of 960 indicate the CPU's per-core performance is sufficient for the game's main thread, but the 16 threads are not fully utilized given the modest gains from Low to Medium at 1080p (57 FPS improvement) versus the larger relative gains at 4K.

The CPU's 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it above average, and its nearest rivals—AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, Intel Core 5 120, AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H—all have average benchmark scores within 0.4% of the i5-13400F's 25292. This means the CPU is not a differentiator in Hitman 2; the game's performance is more sensitive to GPU load at higher resolutions, while at 1080p, the CPU's 10-core configuration provides adequate headroom without becoming a severe limitation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 227 FPS average, which is the fastest result in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 170 FPS average with a 144 FPS minimum and 195 FPS maximum, providing a smooth experience even during intense scenes. High settings drop to 128 FPS, and Ultra falls to 95 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 132 FPS, showing that settings have a massive impact at this resolution, with the GPU never being the limiting factor.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows more variance. Low settings reach 145 FPS, Medium delivers 109 FPS average with 92 FPS minimum and 125 FPS maximum, High drops to 82 FPS, and Ultra settles at 61 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is particularly notable for its consistency, as the 92 FPS floor ensures no noticeable stutters. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p is 27 FPS, which is proportionally larger than at 1080p (42 FPS difference), indicating the GPU is starting to become more involved.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings produce 77 FPS, Medium yields 58 FPS average with 49 FPS minimum and 67 FPS maximum, High drops to 44 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the only tier that stays above 50 FPS average, but the 49 FPS minimum suggests occasional dips below the 50 FPS threshold. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is 45 FPS, which is the smallest absolute spread across resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at 4K.

The complete dataset shows a consistent pattern: Medium settings offer the best compromise between visual quality and performance at every resolution, with the 1080p Medium result (170 FPS) being the standout for high-refresh-rate displays, the 1440p Medium result (109 FPS) being ideal for standard 144Hz monitors, and the 4K Medium result (58 FPS) being the only viable 4K option above 50 FPS. Ultra settings are only recommended at 1080p, where the 95 FPS average remains playable, but the 32 FPS at 4K Ultra is effectively a slideshow.