Hitman 2

Hitman 2, a stealth classic from 2018, still presents a meaningful challenge to modern hardware at its highest settings. This analysis of the Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER reveals a system that is exceptionally strong at 1080p and 1440p, but which meets its match at 4K with maximum detail. The measured data shows a combination that is versatile, though its performance scaling suggests a clear shift in bottleneck from the CPU at lower resolutions to the GPU at higher ones.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and tells a classic story. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 265.7 FPS, which falls to 170.6 FPS at 1440p and then to 92.7 FPS at 4K. This progression shows that the system is heavily CPU-limited at 1080p; the GPU is not being fully utilized. As resolution increases, the load shifts to the graphics card, and the frame rate drops accordingly. The most dramatic single step is from 1440p to 4K, where the average FPS nearly halves across all settings, indicating the RTX 4070 SUPER is becoming the primary limiting factor at the higher pixel count.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets. For instance, at High settings, the system delivers 149.4 FPS at 1080p, 97.5 FPS at 1440p, and only 50.2 FPS at 4K. The performance cliff at 4K is particularly pronounced on the Ultra preset, where the frame rate plummets to 36.8 FPS from 70 FPS at 1440p. This indicates that while the CPU has enough headroom to drive high frame rates at lower resolutions, the GPU's 12 GB of VRAM and its compute capabilities are stretched thin when rendering Hitman 2's detailed environments at 4K Ultra. The data clearly shows this is a 1080p and 1440p champion, not a 4K powerhouse.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. It features 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores, with a boost clock of 2475 MHz. The memory configuration is 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. In Hitman 2, the GPU's role becomes dominant at 4K, where the frame rate difference between Low (92.7 FPS) and Ultra (36.8 FPS) is a massive 55.9 FPS. This shows that the game's higher presets drastically increase the rendering load, likely due to more complex shadows, reflections, and geometric detail.

The GPU's performance relative to its peers is solid, sitting in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 42576 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA RTX A6000, which is only 0.2% faster, and the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, which is 0.3% faster. The card is also 1.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 580X. In Hitman 2 specifically, the 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K Ultra, it is likely being pushed to its limit. The data suggests that the card is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at lower resolutions, but its 4K Ultra performance is not playable, pointing to the need for settings adjustments.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its multi-threaded performance is strong, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and Geekbench multi-core score of 15636. The CPU's single-thread performance is also excellent, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4643. This processing power is crucial for Hitman 2, which has complex AI and physics simulations that can be CPU-intensive.

In this combo, the CPU is the clear performance leader at 1080p. The jump from Low (265.7 FPS) to Medium (199.8 FPS) is 65.9 FPS, but the jump from 1080p Medium to 1440p Medium (127.5 FPS) is 72.3 FPS, showing the GPU's growing influence. The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory help maintain high minimum frame rates, though the data does not provide specific min FPS values. The i5-14600KF sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 49367 is only 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. This indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck in most scenarios, allowing the RTX 4070 SUPER to perform at its best.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 309th out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 17.2% of all systems tested, which is a strong result for a mainstream gaming desktop. The ranking reflects a balance of CPU and GPU power that excels at the most common gaming resolutions. While it is not at the very top tier of performance, its position suggests it can handle a vast majority of the game's content smoothly at high settings.

This rank is achieved through the synergy of a high-end CPU and a mid-to-high-end GPU. The CPU's 14 cores ensure that the game's logic is never starved for processing power, while the GPU's 7168 shading units provide ample rasterization performance for 1080p and 1440p. The fact that the combo is in the 309th position, rather than higher, is likely due to the GPU's limitations at 4K, where more powerful cards would pull ahead. For a 1080p or 1440p gamer, this ranking is excellent, but for 4K enthusiasts, the system would fall behind dedicated high-end 4K configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data points to a clear best experience setting for this combo. At 1080p, the High preset delivers an excellent 149.4 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 109.2 FPS, is also very playable and offers the best visual quality. For players with 1440p monitors, the High preset at 97.5 FPS is the sweet spot, providing a great balance of visual fidelity and performance. The Medium preset at 1440p (127.5 FPS) is also a strong choice for those prioritizing higher refresh rates.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for 4K gaming, as it only achieves 36.8 FPS, which is below the playable threshold. At 4K, the High preset's 50.2 FPS is borderline, but it may be acceptable for a slower-paced stealth game. The best experience overall appears to be the High preset at 1440p, which offers high visual detail without sacrificing smoothness. The data shows that the Medium preset at 1440p is a good fallback for higher refresh rates, while the Low preset is only necessary for competitive play or when targeting maximum FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Here are the exact measured average FPS values for this combo in Hitman 2:

• 1920x1080 (1080p)
• Low: 265.7 FPS
• Medium: 199.8 FPS
• High: 149.4 FPS
• Ultra: 109.2 FPS

• 2560x1440 (1440p)
• Low: 170.6 FPS
• Medium: 127.5 FPS
• High: 97.5 FPS
• Ultra: 70 FPS

• 3840x2160 (4K)
• Low: 92.7 FPS
• Medium: 71.1 FPS
• High: 50.2 FPS
• Ultra: 36.8 FPS

The data shows a consistent hierarchy across all resolutions: Low is always the fastest, followed by Medium, High, and then Ultra. The performance gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the gap is 156.5 FPS; at 1440p, it is 100.6 FPS; and at 4K, it is 55.9 FPS. This indicates that the GPU's limitations become more pronounced at higher resolutions, as the cost of enabling Ultra settings becomes relatively more expensive in terms of frame rate. For a smooth 60 FPS experience, the system can comfortably do so at 1080p Ultra and 1440p High. For 4K, only the Low and Medium presets maintain frame rates above 60 FPS.