Hitman 2

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-14600KF compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The data shows the i5-14600KF posts an average benchmark score of 49367, placing it 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K (49166) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49062). It trails the AMD EPYC 4345P by 0.5% (49595) and leads the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 1.4% (48698).

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested systems for Hitman 2?

A: This particular pairing of the i5-14600KF with the RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 115th out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 6.4% of all configurations evaluated for this game.

Q: What are the measured frame rates at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 127.4 FPS. This is notably lower than the Low preset's 302 FPS and Medium's 227 FPS at the same resolution, showing the significant cost of maxing out graphical features.

Q: How does the GPU's synthetic benchmark score compare to its nearest competitors?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER achieves an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53489) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (53414). It leads the AMD Radeon RX 7700S by 2.1% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 2.9%.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the primary bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the frame rate drops from 103.7 FPS on Low settings to 41.6 FPS on Ultra, a 62.1 FPS spread. This large gap across settings suggests the GPU is the limiting component at 4K, as CPU load typically remains constant while GPU workload scales dramatically with resolution and quality.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking relative to all processors?

A: The i5-14600KF holds a 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, indicating it outperforms 93% of processors in the database. This positions it as a high-end desktop part, though the GPU's 88th percentile suggests the graphics card is slightly less dominant relative to its own field.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER secures the 115th position out of 1,795 tested configurations in Hitman 2. This places the pairing comfortably within the top tier of results, with roughly 94% of all recorded combos falling behind it. The rank reflects a balanced pairing where neither component dramatically undermines the other's potential.

Examining the data, the CPU's 93rd percentile against all processors and the GPU's 88th percentile suggest both parts are near the top of their respective hierarchies. The fact that the combo's in-game rank (115th of 1795) sits slightly below the CPU's percentile might indicate that Hitman 2's engine rewards certain architectural traits present in other high-end CPUs, or that the RTX 4080 SUPER's strengths are not fully exercised by this particular title. The delta between the CPU's synthetic standing and the combo's game-specific rank invites further scrutiny into how Hitman 2 utilizes the available hardware.

When compared to the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 4080 SUPER leads the RX 6900 XT by only 0.2% in average benchmark score, yet the game performance at 1440p High (111.9 FPS) and 4K High (62.2 FPS) suggests the NVIDIA card handles this title's rendering paths efficiently. The rank also implies that the i5-14600KF's 14 cores and 20 threads provide sufficient headroom for the GPU to operate without frequent stalls, as evidenced by the strong scaling across lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes more noticeable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF brings 14 cores, 20 threads, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz to the pairing. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz, combined with a 24 MB shared L3 cache, provides a responsive foundation for Hitman 2's stealth gameplay, which often involves complex AI routines and crowd simulations. The CPU's Raptor Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process, demonstrates strong single-thread performance with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4643, which is crucial for the game's primary simulation thread.

In synthetic multi-threaded workloads, the i5-14600KF achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 15636. These figures indicate ample parallel processing capability, though Hitman 2's engine typically scales well up to a certain thread count before diminishing returns set in. The data shows the CPU's 93rd percentile ranking, and its nearest rival, the i5-14600K, trails by just 0.4% in average score—a negligible difference that suggests the "KF" variant's lack of integrated graphics has little bearing on gaming performance.

The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4273 reinforces its strength in lightly-threaded scenarios. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 302 FPS, which far exceeds display refresh rates and indicates the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently at lower resolutions. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p (302 vs 127.4 FPS) shows that while the CPU is capable, the GPU's workload becomes the limiting factor as graphical complexity increases. The CPU's 14 cores are likely underutilized in Hitman 2, but the high boost clock ensures that the few heavily-loaded threads operate at peak speed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern across all four resolutions and settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 302 FPS on Low, 227 FPS on Medium, 169.6 FPS on High, and 127.4 FPS on Ultra. These numbers show a predictable decline as settings increase, with Ultra costing roughly 57.8% of the Low preset's performance. At 2560x1440, the figures drop to 195.1 FPS (Low), 143.8 FPS (Medium), 111.9 FPS (High), and 78.8 FPS (Ultra). The 1440p results maintain a similar proportional relationship, with Ultra delivering 40.4% of Low's frame rate.

Moving to 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably: 103.7 FPS on Low, 78.6 FPS on Medium, 62.2 FPS on High, and 41.6 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only measurement below 60 FPS, which is a critical threshold for smooth gameplay. Across all resolutions, the gap between Medium and High (roughly 25-30% fewer frames) is more pronounced than the gap between High and Ultra (approximately 33-35% fewer frames), suggesting that High settings offer a reasonable middle ground. The data set lacks minimum and maximum FPS values, so only average performance can be assessed, but the averages are consistent and stable across the measured range.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and houses 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2550 MHz and 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute provide substantial raw power, which is reflected in its 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, scores within 0.2%, yet the NVIDIA card's feature set—including ray tracing cores and DLSS—may offer additional benefits not captured in average benchmark scores.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully taxed, as evidenced by the 302 FPS Low result, which likely exceeds the CPU's ability to prepare frames. At 4K, the GPU's workload expands significantly, and the data shows a 2.5x difference between Low (103.7 FPS) and Ultra (41.6 FPS) at that resolution. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for Hitman 2's textures, even at 4K, where memory pressure typically becomes a concern. The GPU's memory clock of 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective) ensures that texture streaming and geometry processing do not stall, contributing to the smooth average frame rates observed.

The RTX 4080 SUPER's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 and PassMark G3D score of 34245 place it firmly in enthusiast territory. However, the 88th percentile indicates that a select group of GPUs outperform it, which explains why the combo rank in Hitman 2 (115th of 1795) does not crack the top 100. The GPU's performance in this game appears strong but not exceptional, with the 4K Ultra result being the only sub-60 FPS outcome in the entire measured set.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, High delivers 169.6 FPS, which is 33.5% lower than Medium's 227 FPS but still far above any display refresh rate. At 1440p, High achieves 111.9 FPS, comfortably above 60 FPS and suitable for high-refresh monitors. At 4K, High produces 62.2 FPS, just above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the highest settings tier that maintains playable performance at that resolution.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity at 4K, Ultra's 41.6 FPS may be acceptable for slower-paced stealth gameplay, but the average frame rate dips below the smoothness threshold. Medium at 4K (78.6 FPS) provides a substantial improvement over Ultra while sacrificing some visual quality, and it stays well above 60 FPS. The Low preset, while delivering 103.7 FPS at 4K, likely strips away too many graphical features to be recommended for a game like Hitman 2, where environmental detail contributes to the stealth experience.

The data suggests High is the "sweet spot" for this combo, as it maintains 60+ FPS at 4K and exceeds 100 FPS at lower resolutions. The 1440p High result of 111.9 FPS offers the best combination of visual fidelity and performance headroom for users with high-refresh-rate displays. At 1080p, even Ultra's 127.4 FPS exceeds 120 FPS, so users at this resolution can afford to maximize settings without concern.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals how performance scales across the three tested resolutions. At Low settings, the frame rate declines from 302 FPS at 1080p to 195.1 FPS at 1440p (a 35.4% drop) and then to 103.7 FPS at 4K (a 46.9% drop from 1440p). At Ultra settings, the progression is 127.4 FPS (1080p) → 78.8 FPS (1440p, a 38.1% drop) → 41.6 FPS (4K, a 47.2% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates that resolution scaling follows a predictable pattern, with the transition to 4K imposing the heaviest penalty.

This scaling behavior points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The CPU's workload in Hitman 2, which involves AI and game logic, remains relatively constant regardless of resolution. As pixel count increases, the GPU must process more fragments and textures, leading to the observed performance degradation. The fact that 4K Low (103.7 FPS) nearly matches 1440p High (111.9 FPS) further demonstrates that the GPU's workload, not the CPU, governs performance at higher pixel densities.

The 1080p results, particularly the 302 FPS Low measurement, suggest that the CPU's limits may be approached at this resolution, but the i5-14600KF's high boost clock ensures it can still feed the GPU adequately. The 1440p results sit in a comfortable zone where both components contribute meaningfully, while 4K results clearly show GPU-bound behavior. For users targeting 4K, the data implies that reducing settings from Ultra to High provides a 49.5% performance uplift (from 41.6 to 62.2 FPS) with a relatively modest visual sacrifice, making High the recommended ceiling for this resolution.