Hitman 2

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 lands at rank 1440 out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places the pairing in the bottom 20% of all configurations, a result that reflects the CPU's middling standing among processors. The i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile when compared to all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300 (a 0.2% delta), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 also scores 2299 (0.2%), and the Intel Xeon E-2134 scores 2295 (0.4%). The only competitor that edges ahead is the Intel Core i7-8809G at 2319, which is 0.6% faster. These margins are negligible, meaning the i5-9400 is essentially interchangeable with these parts in compute-bound scenarios.

The GPU, however, is a different story. The RX 6600 ranks at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25235. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 890M at 25246 (0.0% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 6700M at 25180 (0.2% ahead), and the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP at 25287 (0.2% behind). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti trails by 0.5% at 25120. This clustering shows the RX 6600 is competitive with mid-range parts from both previous and current generations.

The mismatch is clear: a stronger-than-average GPU is held back by a processor that sits exactly at the median. In a game like Hitman 2, which relies heavily on AI calculations and physics for its stealth simulation, this CPU bottleneck becomes the defining characteristic of the combo. The measured frame rates confirm this, as the data shows the GPU is rarely the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear sweet spot for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium settings deliver 101 FPS on average, which is a highly playable experience for a stealth title where precision matters. High settings drop to 77.7 FPS, still smooth but with a noticeable 23% reduction in frame rate. Ultra settings at 1080p yield 56.8 FPS, which is playable but begins to approach the threshold where fast camera movements in crowded scenes could feel less responsive.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce 64.2 FPS, which remains fluid for the genre. High settings at this resolution drop to 48.6 FPS, which is borderline for players who prefer 60 FPS as a baseline. Low settings at 1440p push to 83.9 FPS, but this sacrifices visual fidelity that the game's detailed environments benefit from.

The optimal experience, balancing visual quality and performance, is Medium settings at 1080p. This configuration delivers a 101 FPS average, which is 76.9% higher than the 4K Ultra result of 19.1 FPS. For players with 1440p displays, Medium settings at 64.2 FPS is the recommended fallback. The data does not support Ultra settings at any resolution for this combo, as the 4K Ultra result of 19.1 FPS is unplayable, and even 1080p Ultra at 56.8 FPS does not provide enough headroom for consistent frame pacing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 132.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 83.9 FPS, a 36.5% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 45.9 FPS, which is 65.3% lower than the 1080p result. This steep decline indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is becoming the primary constraint as resolution increases.

The scaling pattern changes with settings. At High settings, the drop from 1080p (77.7 FPS) to 1440p (48.6 FPS) is 37.5%, and then to 4K (23.8 FPS) is 69.4% from the 1080p baseline. At Ultra settings, the 1080p result of 56.8 FPS falls to 33.2 FPS at 1440p (41.5% drop) and 19.1 FPS at 4K (66.4% drop). The similarity in percentage drops across settings suggests that the GPU is consistently the limiting component at higher resolutions, regardless of the preset.

However, the CPU's influence is visible at 1080p. The jump from Low (132.1 FPS) to Medium (101 FPS) is a 23.5% reduction, which is larger than the typical scaling one would expect from purely GPU-bound workloads. This indicates the i5-9400's six threads are working hard to feed the RX 6600 at lower resolutions. The data shows that the combo becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution rises, but at 1080p, the processor's limitations cap the maximum achievable frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete FPS dataset for this combo spans three resolutions and four settings levels. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 45.9 FPS, Medium at 35.2 FPS, High at 23.8 FPS, and Ultra at 19.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra represents a 58.4% reduction in performance, showing that 4K is only viable at the lowest settings for this pairing.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are: Low at 83.9 FPS, Medium at 64.2 FPS, High at 48.6 FPS, and Ultra at 33.2 FPS. The scaling here is more gradual, with each settings tier reducing performance by roughly 20-25%. This resolution offers the best compromise for players who want higher fidelity without sacrificing playability.

At 1920x1080, the results are: Low at 132.1 FPS, Medium at 101 FPS, High at 77.7 FPS, and Ultra at 56.8 FPS. The 1080p Low result is the only configuration that exceeds 120 FPS, which is significant for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium setting at 101 FPS is the standout configuration, offering nearly double the frame rate of 4K High (23.8 FPS) while maintaining respectable visual quality.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs approximately 20-25% of the previous tier's performance. The exception is at 4K, where the cost of moving from Low to Medium is 23.3%, but from High to Ultra is only 19.7%. This suggests the game's Ultra preset at 4K is not efficiently utilizing the GPU's resources, possibly due to the CPU struggling to issue draw calls in dense scenes.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's clocks are notable: a base of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost of 2491 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. These specifications place the card at a level where it can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming comfortably, but 4K pushes it beyond its intended envelope.

The GPU's 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 8.928 TFLOPS is respectable for the mid-range segment. The card also features 28 ray tracing cores, though Hitman 2 does not utilize ray tracing, so this hardware remains idle during gameplay.

The RX 6600's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Hitman 2 at all tested settings and resolutions. The game's largest memory allocation occurs at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS of 19.1 indicates the GPU is compute-limited rather than memory-limited. The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for the game's texture streaming needs, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates without stuttering in the measured data.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 15096, placing it at the 69th percentile. Its nearest rival, the integrated AMD Radeon 890M, matches its average score almost exactly (0.0% delta), while the RX 6700M is 0.2% behind. This indicates the RX 6600 is well-positioned among its peers, but the combo's overall rank suffers because the CPU cannot consistently feed it at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 132.1 FPS result suggests the GPU still has headroom, but the i5-9400's six threads without hyper-threading limit further gains. The data shows that upgrading the processor while keeping this GPU would yield significant improvements at 1080p, while the GPU itself remains the primary constraint at 4K.