Hitman 2

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 paired with the Intel Core i5-9400 delivers a solid 1080p experience in Hitman 2, but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, particularly with higher graphics presets. The data shows a clear performance hierarchy based on resolution and settings, with the combo ranking in the 1253rd position out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in Hitman 2?

A: The strongest results come at 1920x1080 with Low settings, where the combo achieves an average of 146.4 FPS. For a more balanced visual experience, 2560x1440 at Medium settings delivers a solid 73 FPS average, while 4K at any setting drops below 60 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 7600's VRAM capacity affect performance in Hitman 2?

A: The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In this game, the VRAM allocation seems adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 3840x2160 the average frame rates plummet to between 20.9 and 51.1 FPS depending on settings, indicating that memory bandwidth and capacity become limiting factors at that resolution.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RX 7600 in this game?

A: The CPU has 6 cores and 6 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost up to 4.10 GHz. Benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969, which places it at the 50th percentile among all CPUs. In Hitman 2, the frame rates scale significantly with resolution, suggesting the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU maintains adequate throughput.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among all tested hardware combinations?

A: This specific Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 pairing ranks 1253rd out of 1795 total tested combos for Hitman 2. This places it in the lower 30% of all configurations, reflecting its mid-range positioning relative to high-end gaming setups.

Q: How does the RX 7600 compare to its closest rival in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 7600's average benchmark score is 20258, which is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT's score of 20146. However, it trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile by 1.3%, as that chip scores 20534 in the same aggregate metrics.

Q: Does the CPU's single-core performance impact Hitman 2's frame rates?

A: The i5-9400 achieves a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1125, which is modest by modern standards. In Hitman 2, the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is substantial (146.4 vs 63 FPS), indicating that CPU single-core throughput can influence frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip manufactured on a 6 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 1720 MHz, a boost clock of 2655 MHz, and a game clock of 2250 MHz, which are the frequencies that typically matter during sustained gaming loads. The GPU's memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s and a memory clock of 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective).

In Hitman 2, the GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the card delivers 146.4 FPS on Low, 112.3 FPS on Medium, 81.3 FPS on High, and 63 FPS on Ultra. These numbers indicate that the RX 7600's 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are sufficient for 1080p gaming, with the pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s providing ample fill rates. At 2560x1440, the averages drop to 92.3 FPS (Low), 73 FPS (Medium), 52.3 FPS (High), and 37.8 FPS (Ultra), showing a predictable performance curve as pixel count increases.

The 4K results reveal the GPU's limitations. At 3840x2160, the card averages 51.1 FPS on Low, 34.5 FPS on Medium, 26.5 FPS on High, and just 20.9 FPS on Ultra. These figures suggest that the 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB capacity are not well-suited for 4K rendering in this title, as the bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s becomes a bottleneck. The GPU's FP32 compute throughput of 21.75 TFLOPS and its 32 RT cores do not compensate for the memory constraints at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination ranks 1253rd out of 1795 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 30% of all configurations in the database for Hitman 2. This ranking reflects a mid-range hardware pairing that can handle mainstream gaming but falls short of high-performance expectations. The GPU alone sits at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks at the 50th percentile, indicating that both components are near the median of their respective categories.

When examining the GPU's nearest rivals, the RX 7600's average benchmark score of 20258 positions it closely to several competitors. It is 0.6% faster than the RX 7600 XT and 0.8% faster than the RX 460, but 1.3% slower than the RTX 3070 Mobile and 1.5% slower than the Intel Arc B570. These narrow deltas suggest that the RX 7600 sits in a crowded performance tier, and the combo's overall rank is more heavily influenced by the CPU's limitations than by GPU deficiencies.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern, with the i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2305 being 0.2% higher than the Core i3-10305 and i3-1125G4, but 0.6% lower than the Core i7-8809G. This clustering indicates that the i5-9400 is competitive with other mid-range processors, yet its 6-core, 6-thread configuration without hyper-threading may hinder performance in games that exploit higher thread counts. In Hitman 2, the combo's 1253rd place ranking suggests that other pairings with more recent CPUs or higher-tier GPUs achieve significantly better frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its best results: 146.4 FPS on Low, 112.3 FPS on Medium, 81.3 FPS on High, and 63 FPS on Ultra. These numbers indicate that the RX 7600 can comfortably handle 1080p gaming with high refresh rates at lower settings, while Ultra settings still deliver a playable 63 FPS average.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops but remains mostly playable. Low settings yield 92.3 FPS, Medium produces 73 FPS, High averages 52.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 37.8 FPS. The 52.3 FPS at High settings is borderline for smooth gameplay, while Ultra settings dip below the 40 FPS threshold that many players consider minimum for action games. This resolution represents a compromise between visual fidelity and frame rate, with Medium settings offering the best balance at 73 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results are disappointing for 4K gaming. Low settings average 51.1 FPS, which is technically playable but not smooth, while Medium drops to 34.5 FPS, High to 26.5 FPS, and Ultra to 20.9 FPS. None of these 4K configurations reach the 60 FPS target, and even the Low setting struggles to maintain consistency. The data clearly shows that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in Hitman 2, regardless of the settings chosen.

The scaling pattern between settings is consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, dropping from Ultra to Low improves performance by 132.4%, while at 1440p the improvement is 144.2%, and at 4K it is 144.5%. This consistent scaling indicates that the GPU is the primary performance limiter across all resolutions, with the CPU maintaining sufficient frame pacing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP and support for DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The CPU includes 9 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 256 KB of L2 cache per core and 64 KB of L1 cache per core.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's performance is reflected in its benchmark scores. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and single-core score of 1125 indicate a processor that is adequate for gaming but not exceptional. The 50th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms its mid-range positioning, and its nearest rivals include the Core i3-10305 and Core i3-1125G4, which have similar aggregate scores of 2300 and 2299, respectively. The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2305 places it just 0.2% above these competitors, showing that it is not a performance outlier.

The CPU's 6 threads may limit performance in Hitman 2, which can utilize multiple cores for AI, physics, and scene management. However, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the frame rates drop significantly from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p Low settings, the 146.4 FPS average suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, but the single-core score of 1125 is modest, which could affect minimum frame rates in CPU-intensive scenes.

The processor's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s is relatively low compared to modern CPUs, but it appears sufficient for Hitman 2's requirements. The DDR4 memory support and dual-channel configuration provide a stable platform for the RX 7600, and the PCIe Gen 3 interface with 16 lanes ensures the GPU has enough bandwidth for data transfer. Overall, the i5-9400 serves as a competent partner for the RX 7600 in this game, with the combo's ranking primarily determined by the GPU's performance ceiling rather than CPU limitations.