Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with Intel Core i5-14600KF + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but uneven Hitman 2 experience, with performance collapsing at 4K Ultra and only reaching smooth framerates at 1080p Low or Medium settings. Benchmark data shows a combo ranking of 2399 out of 3001 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 20% of all combos for this title. The system's 14-core, 20-thread CPU is rarely the bottleneck; instead, the Arc B570's 10 GB of VRAM and 160-bit memory bus become the primary limiting factors as resolution and settings scale upward. Measured results indicate that the sweet spot for this pairing is 1080p Medium, where the average of 93 FPS provides a fluid experience without the severe frame rate penalties seen at higher presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, confirming that the Intel Arc B570 is the dominant constraint in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 123 FPS, but dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 79 FPS—a 36% loss. The decline continues to 42 FPS at 4K Low, representing a 66% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario, where pixel count directly dictates throughput.

The gap between 1080p and 1440p at High settings is equally telling: 70 FPS at 1080p falls to 45 FPS at 1440p, a 36% drop that mirrors the Low preset scaling almost exactly. Between 1440p and 4K at High settings, the frame rate plunges from 45 to 24 FPS—a 47% reduction—indicating that the memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s and the 160-bit bus width cannot sustain the data throughput required at 3840x2160. The 4K Ultra result of 18 FPS is nearly unplayable, while 4K Medium manages only 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS, suggesting frequent dips below acceptable thresholds.

The scaling from 1080p Medium to 1440p Medium shows 93 FPS dropping to 59 FPS (37% loss), and further to 32 FPS at 4K Medium (66% loss overall). This consistent ~35-40% penalty per resolution step-up at each preset level underscores that the Arc B570's 10 GB VRAM buffer and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are inadequate for higher-resolution rendering in this game. At 1080p, the CPU's single-core strength can keep up with the GPU, but at 4K, the pixel fill requirements overwhelm the graphics card. The data indicates that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo, and even then only at Low or Medium settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2399 out of 3001 tested configurations places this pairing in the 20th percentile for Hitman 2, meaning roughly four out of five other system combinations deliver higher average frame rates. This low standing is primarily attributable to the GPU, which sits in the 65th percentile among all GPUs but faces a demanding title that stresses memory bandwidth heavily. The CPU, by contrast, ranks in the 90th percentile among all processors, highlighting a significant imbalance in this pairing.

Within the GPU's nearest rival group, the Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750 (20582). However, those synthetic benchmark similarities do not translate to Hitman 2 performance, where the measured data shows the B570 struggling at higher resolutions. The CPU's nearest rivals—the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 at 49228 average score (0.3% higher), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G at 49196 (0.4% higher), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 at 48995 (0.8% higher)—all perform nearly identically to the i5-14600KF's 49394 average benchmark score, meaning CPU choice is not the differentiator here.

The rank disparity between CPU and GPU percentiles (90th vs 65th) suggests that swapping in a stronger graphics card would yield substantial gains, while upgrading the processor would produce negligible improvements in Hitman 2. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 123 FPS, which is respectable, but the 4K Ultra result of 18 FPS drags the overall ranking down considerably. For a game released in 2018, this modern hardware pairing should perform better, but the Arc B570's architectural limitations in this specific title are evident across the measured rows.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF brings 14 cores and 20 threads from the Raptor Lake-R architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. In Hitman 2, a stealth title that relies on AI-driven crowd simulations and complex physics calculations, the CPU's multi-threaded throughput matters, but the measured frame rates suggest the 14-core configuration is more than sufficient. Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and single-core score of 4594 indicate strong performance, yet the game's frame rates do not improve proportionally with CPU headroom.

The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data locality for the game's level geometry and NPC behavior systems. PassMark multi-thread score of 38697 and single-thread score of 4273 confirm that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution tested. Evidence for this comes from the scaling pattern: if the CPU were limiting, frame rates would plateau at higher resolutions, but instead they continue to drop linearly with pixel count, which is a GPU-bound signature.

At 1080p Low, the 123 FPS result likely approaches the CPU's upper limit for this game engine, but even at 4K Ultra (18 FPS), the CPU is barely utilized. The 5.30 GHz boost clock provides strong single-threaded performance for Hitman 2's primary game thread, which handles player actions and enemy AI. The 20 threads help with background simulation tasks, but the game's engine does not appear to scale well beyond 8-10 cores, leaving much of the i5-14600KF's capability unused. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 65th percentile further confirms that the processor is overqualified for this pairing in this specific title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 123 FPS average, making the game very smooth. Medium settings drop to 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS, providing a tight frame time distribution that should feel consistent. High settings yield 70 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less fluid than Medium. Ultra settings fall to 52 FPS, which is borderline for a stealth action game where precision matters.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degradation becomes more pronounced. Low settings average 79 FPS, still respectable. Medium settings produce 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS—the 50 FPS floor indicates occasional stutter during busy scenes. High settings drop to 45 FPS, which begins to feel sluggish. Ultra settings collapse to 33 FPS, making the game difficult to play smoothly.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely disappointing. Low settings average 42 FPS, which is barely acceptable for slower-paced stealth gameplay. Medium settings average 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 36 FPS, meaning the game will frequently dip below 30 FPS during action sequences. High settings average 24 FPS, approaching unplayability. Ultra settings average 18 FPS, which is effectively a slideshow. The measured data shows no resolution where 4K provides a consistent 60 FPS experience, and even 1440p requires Low settings to approach that threshold.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth with a base and boost clock of 2500 MHz. The GPU's 2304 shading units and 144 TMUs provide raw compute capability, but the 80 ROPs and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate become critical constraints at higher resolutions. The 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die using TSMC's 5 nm process give the card solid theoretical performance, yet Hitman 2's rendering demands expose its limitations.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the memory subsystem becomes a bottleneck. The 160-bit bus width limits memory bandwidth to 380.0 GB/s, which is modest compared to the demands of 4K texturing and post-processing. The measured data supports this: 4K High drops to 24 FPS, and 4K Ultra to 18 FPS, while 1080p Ultra manages 52 FPS—a 65% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at the same settings.

The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 14195 places it in the 65th percentile, with nearest rivals including the RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher) and Arc A750 (0.1% lower). In Hitman 2, these synthetic similarities do not hold up, as the B570's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for the game's dense environments at high resolutions. The 18 RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are largely irrelevant for this 2018 title, which predates ray tracing adoption. The GPU's 150 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x8 interface suggest a mid-range positioning, and the benchmark results confirm that this card is best suited for 1080p gaming, with 1440p at medium settings being the practical limit.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo is 1080p with Medium settings, delivering 93 FPS average with a 79 FPS minimum. This preset provides a 27% improvement over High settings (70 FPS) while maintaining visual fidelity above Low. The minimum of 79 FPS ensures no dips below 60 FPS, making this the most consistent configuration for smooth gameplay. For players prioritizing frame rate above all else, 1080p Low at 123 FPS is the fastest option, but the visual quality loss may not be worth the 30 FPS gain over Medium.

At 1440p, Medium settings at 59 FPS is the only reasonable choice, though the 50 FPS minimum means occasional slowdowns. The 79 FPS result at 1440p Low is smoother but sacrifices too much visual detail for a stealth game where enemy visibility matters. 1440p High at 45 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are not recommended, as the frame rates fall below the 60 FPS threshold that modern displays expect.

4K is not viable for this combo in Hitman 2. Even at Low settings, the 42 FPS average is below playable standards for most users, and Medium at 32 FPS with a 27 FPS minimum is unacceptable for action sequences. The data clearly shows that 1080p Medium is the sweet spot, balancing the 93 FPS average with a stable frame time curve (79-106 FPS range). If forced to choose a higher resolution, 1440p Medium at 59 FPS is the only passable option, but users should expect frame drops to 50 FPS during intense scenes. The combination of the i5-14600KF's strong single-threaded performance and the Arc B570's memory bandwidth limitations means that lower resolutions and medium presets extract the most value from this hardware pairing.