Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a severely GPU-bound experience in Hitman 2. Across all tested resolutions, the GTX 1650’s 4 GB VRAM and modest compute resources cap performance far below the CPU’s potential, making the graphics card the definitive bottleneck. The data indicates that only the Low preset at 1080p approaches playable smoothness, while higher settings or resolutions quickly degrade into stutter-prone territory. This combo ranks near the very bottom of the database, at 1738 out of 1795 tested combinations, confirming that the pairing is fundamentally mismatched for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows reveal a clear hierarchy: at 1080p, the Low preset delivers 67.5 FPS average, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that clears a 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset drops to 50.5 FPS, a 25% reduction that still remains technically playable but with noticeable frame pacing issues. High settings at 1080p produce 38.4 FPS, while Ultra collapses to 29.3 FPS — both fall below the 40 FPS comfort zone for a stealth game that rewards precise timing.

For the best experience per the measured data, the 1080p Low preset is the clear recommendation. It offers a 34% improvement over Medium and a 76% improvement over High at the same resolution, demonstrating that the GTX 1650 has little headroom for graphical fidelity. At 1440p, even Low settings only reach 44.8 FPS, which is marginal for this genre, while Medium falls to 34.5 FPS and High to 23.7 FPS. The 4K results are effectively unplayable across the board, with Low at 21.7 FPS and Ultra at 8.7 FPS — the latter representing a 87% drop from the 1080p Low figure.

Given that Hitman 2’s stealth mechanics reward consistent frame delivery, the data strongly favors sacrificing visual quality for responsiveness. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 17 FPS, a penalty far larger than the visual gain typically justifies on this hardware. Users seeking a stable experience should lock to 1080p Low; anything above that preset risks dipping below playable thresholds during crowded scenes.

GPU Role

The GTX 1650’s specifications explain the measured results: 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 128.1 GB/s bandwidth, paired with 896 shading units and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The card’s 2.984 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is simply insufficient for Hitman 2’s rendering demands at higher presets. The VRAM capacity is especially problematic — at 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 8.7, which strongly suggests the game exceeds the 4 GB frame buffer, forcing constant texture swapping.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 43 places it below the median of all tested graphics cards, and its average benchmark score of 8713 sits within 0.5% of rivals like the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 and AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100. In Hitman 2 specifically, the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 57% performance loss (67.5 to 29.3 FPS), which is a typical penalty for a card with this memory configuration. The 75 W TDP and lack of external power connectors indicate a design constrained by thermal and power limits, yet the card still manages to deliver playable results only at the lowest settings.

The GTX 1650’s role here is purely limiting. The benchmark data shows that even at 1080p Low, the card is likely running near its maximum capability, as evidenced by the steep drop-offs when any additional load is applied. The 4K Ultra result of 8.7 FPS is not a gradual degradation but a cliff, confirming that the GPU’s 4 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus cannot handle the game’s high-resolution textures.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is massively overqualified for this pairing. With 14 cores, 20 threads, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, the CPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 93rd percentile of all processors. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and single-core score of 4643 demonstrate computing headroom that the GTX 1650 cannot exploit in Hitman 2. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, scores only 0.4% higher on average, confirming this chip is already at the top of its class.

In this game, the CPU’s role is largely passive. Hitman 2’s engine does benefit from strong single-thread performance for AI and physics, and the 14600KF’s 5.30 GHz boost clock provides that in abundance. However, the measured FPS data shows no scenario where the CPU becomes the limiting factor — even at 1080p Low with 67.5 FPS, the GPU is still the constraint. The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 and DDR5) ensure that data feeding is never a bottleneck, but this advantage is wasted when the GPU can only render 67 frames per second at best.

The CPU’s benchmark percentile of 93 versus the GPU’s 43 illustrates the imbalance. This is a pairing where the processor could drive a much more powerful graphics card, but the GTX 1650 holds every scene back. The data shows no FPS variation that correlates with CPU load — all performance differences are attributable to GPU settings and resolution changes.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 1738 out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the bottom 3% of the database. This ranking is consistent with the hardware disparity: a top-7% CPU paired with a bottom-57% GPU produces a result that reflects the weakest link. The combo rank is not a measure of absolute performance but of how well the two components work together in this specific game — and the data shows they do not complement each other.

The ranking suggests that the GTX 1650 is the sole determinant of this combo’s position. Any CPU paired with this GPU would likely land in a similar range, as the graphics card’s 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth create a hard ceiling. The 14600KF’s computational strength cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations in a rasterization-heavy title like Hitman 2. Users with this combo would see no meaningful improvement from upgrading the CPU, as the measured FPS would remain identical until the GPU is replaced.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook GPU-bound pattern. At Low settings, the drop is from 67.5 FPS at 1080p to 44.8 FPS at 1440p (a 34% reduction) and then to 21.7 FPS at 4K (a further 52% reduction). This compounding loss indicates that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are being overwhelmed by pixel count. At Medium settings, the progression is 50.5 to 34.5 to 20.2 FPS, showing a similar trend but with a shallower 4K drop, suggesting the settings are already stressing the GPU.

The High preset tells a starker story: 38.4 FPS at 1080p, 23.7 at 1440p, and 15 at 4K. The 4K result is only 39% of the 1080p figure, which confirms that the GTX 1650’s 2.984 TFLOPS cannot sustain the workload. Ultra scaling is the most dramatic, dropping from 29.3 FPS at 1080p to 20.8 at 1440p and then collapsing to 8.7 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 70% lower than 1080p Low, quantifying the dual penalty of resolution and settings.

Resolution scaling data indicates the CPU is never the constraint. If the CPU were limiting, the FPS would stay relatively flat across resolutions, but every setting shows a consistent downward slope. The 4K Low result of 21.7 FPS versus the 1080p Low of 67.5 FPS is a 68% loss, which is characteristic of a GPU with a 128-bit memory bus struggling to feed the frame buffer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear progression: Low averages 67.5 FPS, Medium 50.5 FPS, High 38.4 FPS, and Ultra 29.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium (17 FPS) is larger than the gap between High and Ultra (9.1 FPS), indicating that the first settings tier imposes the biggest performance cost. At 2560x1440, Low averages 44.8 FPS, Medium 34.5 FPS, High 23.7 FPS, and Ultra 20.8 FPS. The High-to-Ultra gap narrows to 2.9 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, all settings produce sub-25 FPS averages: Low 21.7, Medium 20.2, High 15, and Ultra 8.7. The Low-to-Medium gap at 4K is only 1.5 FPS, meaning the settings are no longer the primary factor — sheer pixel count dominates. The Ultra result of 8.7 FPS is the worst in the dataset, representing a 87% reduction from the best 1080p result. Across all resolutions, the 1080p Low preset is the only configuration that exceeds 60 FPS, and the 1440p Low preset is the only other one that clears 40 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: The 1080p Low preset delivers 67.5 FPS average, which is the only configuration above 60 FPS in the entire dataset. All other presets at any resolution fall below 50.5 FPS.

Q: How much faster is this CPU than its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49367, which is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K’s 49166. It trails the AMD EPYC 4345P by 0.5% and leads the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X by 0.6%.

Q: Does the GPU bottleneck this combo at 4K?

A: Yes. At 4K Low, the combo averages 21.7 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 8.7 FPS. The steep scaling from 1080p Low (67.5 FPS) indicates the GTX 1650’s 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are overwhelmed.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested combinations?

A: It ranks 1738 out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the bottom 3.2% of the database. This reflects the GPU’s limiting role rather than CPU performance.

Q: What is the GPU’s benchmark percentile compared to the CPU’s?

A: The GTX 1650 sits in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs, while the Core i5-14600KF sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs — a 50-point gap that explains the severe bottleneck.

Q: What is the FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 50.5 FPS; at 4K Medium, it drops to 20.2 FPS. This 60% reduction is consistent with a GPU-bound workload where pixel count dominates.