Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a performance curve in Hitman 2 that clearly illustrates the shifting bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, with frame rates soaring to 227.2 FPS on Low settings and 126.5 FPS on High. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is a massive 131.3 FPS, indicating that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor. As resolution climbs to 1440p, the average frame rates drop significantly, with High settings yielding 83.2 FPS and Ultra falling to 63.7 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a roughly 34% reduction in High-settings performance, suggesting the GPU begins to take on a more substantial workload. At 4K, the picture changes entirely; the GPU becomes the dominant constraint, with High settings producing just 45.6 FPS and Ultra dropping to a demanding 29.9 FPS. The performance delta between 1080p and 4K at High settings is a stark 80.9 FPS, underscoring that this combo is far more comfortable at lower resolutions where the CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads can stretch their legs.

The data reveals a classic resolution-scaling pattern: the i5-14600KF has ample headroom to feed the RTX 3080 at 1080p, but the GPU’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth become the primary gatekeepers at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 29.9 FPS is particularly telling, as it sits below the 4K High figure of 45.6 FPS, showing that the most demanding settings overwhelm the graphics card, which operates with a boost clock of 1710 MHz and a base clock of 1440 MHz. This resolution analysis suggests that players targeting smooth 4K gameplay would need to dial back settings, while 1440p offers a more balanced experience where the CPU and GPU share the load more evenly.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Hitman 2 shows a clear and predictable degradation as resolution increases, but the rate of that degradation reveals the system’s character. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings reduces the average frame rate from 126.5 FPS to 83.2 FPS, a drop of 43.3 FPS. This is a substantial reduction, but the system remains highly playable. The jump from 1440p to 4K at the same settings is even more severe, with the average plummeting from 83.2 FPS to 45.6 FPS, a decline of 37.6 FPS. This pattern indicates that while the CPU is still contributing at 1440p, the GPU’s rendering load at 4K becomes the dominant factor. The Low settings at 4K produce 77.3 FPS, which is higher than the High settings at 1440p, demonstrating that settings adjustments can compensate for resolution increases, but the hardware’s raw capabilities are finite. The Ultra preset at 4K, yielding 29.9 FPS, is the clearest sign that the RTX 3080 is working at its limits, as this is less than half the frame rate of the 4K Low preset. The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution is consistent: a roughly 150% increase in performance headroom at 1080p, but only a 158% increase at 4K, showing that the GPU’s pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, plays a pivotal role in these results. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory, paired with a 320-bit bus and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth, provides substantial headroom for Hitman 2’s textures, but the data shows that this capacity is not sufficient for the most demanding 4K presets. The GPU’s boost clock of 1710 MHz and base clock of 1440 MHz, combined with 8704 shading units, drive the frame rates, but the measured FPS indicates a clear performance ceiling. At 1080p, the GPU is often idle, as evidenced by the 227.2 FPS Low result, which is likely limited by the CPU’s single-thread performance. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU’s compute capabilities are fully taxed, producing 29.9 FPS. The RTX 3080’s 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present, but Hitman 2 does not appear to heavily utilize ray tracing, so the traditional rasterization performance, measured at 29.77 TFLOPS FP32, is what matters most. The GPU’s 96 ROPs and 272 TMUs, with a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s, are sufficient for 1440p High, but the 4K Ultra result suggests that the fill rate is strained. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 80 among all GPUs indicates it is a capable part, but the data shows that it is not a 4K Ultra powerhouse for this title, with the 4K High result of 45.6 FPS being the more realistic target.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 126.5 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset compare to the 1080p Ultra preset?

A: The 4K Ultra preset yields 29.9 FPS, while the 1080p Ultra preset produces 95.9 FPS, a difference of 66 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 112.1, and given the CPU’s strong multi-core score of 32889 in Cinebench R23, the GPU is likely the primary constraint at this resolution.

Q: What is the lowest measured FPS for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The lowest average FPS is 29.9 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1080p achieves 227.2 FPS, which is 131.3 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 95.9 FPS.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth and how does it relate to 4K performance?

A: The RTX 3080 has a memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s, which is sufficient for 1440p but appears strained at 4K, where the High preset drops to 45.6 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 227.2 FPS, the Medium preset 169.5 FPS, the High preset 126.5 FPS, and the Ultra preset 95.9 FPS. These figures show a clear progression, with Low being 58.7% faster than Medium and 137% faster than Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 145.7 FPS, Medium 112.1 FPS, High 83.2 FPS, and Ultra 63.7 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most pronounced at Low settings, where the frame rate falls by 81.5 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s pixel throughput is beginning to matter. At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields 77.3 FPS, Medium 57.3 FPS, High 45.6 FPS, and Ultra 29.9 FPS. The 4K results show a tighter spread, with Low being only 158% faster than Ultra, compared to the 137% gap at 1080p. This data suggests that the RTX 3080 is well-suited for 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates across all settings, but 4K requires significant settings compromises to achieve playable results. The 4K Low preset of 77.3 FPS is notably the only 4K result above 60 FPS, making it the baseline for smooth gameplay at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 567 out of 1795 combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the upper third of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing for a system built around a 14th-generation Core i5 and a last-generation GeForce GPU. The CPU itself performs admirably, with an average benchmark score of 49367, which is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. However, it trails the AMD EPYC 4345P by 0.5%, showing that the i5-14600KF is competitive but not class-leading. The GPU, with an average benchmark score of 35787, is 0.4% faster than the AMD Radeon 880M but 0.9% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE. This ranking suggests that while the individual components are solid, the combo’s overall position is influenced by the GPU’s 4K limitations, which drag down the average FPS at higher resolutions. The combo’s rank of 567 out of 1795 indicates that there are 566 configurations that perform better in this specific game, likely featuring more powerful GPUs or newer architectures. However, the data also shows that this combo is far from the bottom, with 1228 combinations ranking below it, making it a viable choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where its frame rates are consistently high.