Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT pairing in Hitman 2 presents a clear case of resolution-dependent performance scaling. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 152 FPS average, but stepping up to 3840x2160 at Ultra drops the average to 22 FPS. This represents a 85.5% reduction in frame rate from the lowest stress scenario to the highest, indicating that the rendering load scales dramatically with pixel count.

The scaling pattern between 1080p and 1440p is relatively mild for most settings. At High settings, moving from 1920x1080 (86 FPS) to 2560x1440 (55 FPS) results in a 36% performance loss. The same transition at Low settings shows a 36.2% drop from 152 FPS to 97 FPS. These consistent percentage losses suggest that the GPU is the primary limiting factor even at these lower resolutions, as the frame rate scales almost linearly with the pixel count increase of roughly 77% between these two resolutions.

The jump from 1440p to 4K is where the combination struggles most severely. At High settings, the drop from 55 FPS at 2560x1440 to 29 FPS at 3840x2160 represents a 47.3% reduction, which exceeds the proportional pixel increase. This super-linear degradation indicates that the RX 7600 XT is running out of fillrate or memory bandwidth at 4K, particularly when higher quality settings demand more texture and shader work. The 4K Medium result of 39 FPS versus the 1440p Medium result of 73 FPS confirms this trend with a 46.6% loss.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for playable settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080, all four settings presets remain above 60 FPS average, with Low achieving 152 FPS, Medium at 114 FPS, High at 86 FPS, and Ultra still delivering a comfortable 63 FPS. For players prioritizing smoothness, Medium offers a strong balance—it maintains a 97 FPS minimum in the measured frame range, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold while providing significantly better visuals than Low.

At 2560x1440, the selection narrows. Low (97 FPS) and Medium (73 FPS) are both viable for high-refresh-rate displays, while High (55 FPS) falls just below the 60 FPS line. The Medium preset with its 62 FPS minimum shows that the combo can hold playable frame rates during scenes with more action, but High and Ultra (41 FPS) push the experience into inconsistent territory. The data suggests Medium is the optimal choice at 1440p, as it delivers nearly double the frame rate of Ultra while the visual difference between Medium and High is typically smaller than the 24.7% performance gap measured here.

At 3840x2160, only Low (52 FPS) approaches playability, while Medium (39 FPS), High (29 FPS), and Ultra (22 FPS) all fall below 40 FPS. For 4K users, Low is the only preset that keeps the average above 50 FPS, but even this setting will struggle during dense scenes. The frame time data for 4K Medium shows a range of 33 to 45 FPS, indicating noticeable variance that could translate to stutter. Given these measurements, 4K gaming with this combo requires accepting Low settings or reducing resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Hitman 2, this memory configuration proves sufficient even at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate is limited by compute rather than capacity. The GPU's 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units operate at a boost clock of 2755 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2470 MHz.

The GPU's benchmark profile places it in the 60th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17083. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, scores 17208—a 0.7% delta that places the RX 7600 XT slightly behind. This competitive positioning explains why the combo delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p but falters at 4K: the GPU is strong enough for mainstream resolutions but lacks the raw throughput for 4K Ultra settings.

The 4K scaling pattern points to the GPU's 288.0 GB/s bandwidth as a potential bottleneck. At 4K Medium, the measured range of 33 to 45 FPS shows that the card can process frames but struggles with consistency. The 22.57 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 176.3 GPixel/s pixel rate are adequate for 1440p High, but the 4K Ultra result of 22 FPS suggests that the combination of pixel fill and shader work exceeds what the card can sustain.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 3711 tested combinations in Hitman 2, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT ranks 2357th. This places it in the 36.5th percentile of all combos tested, indicating that the majority of tested systems deliver better performance in this specific title. The rank reflects the combination's mid-tier positioning: capable at 1080p and 1440p but falling short of the high-end systems that dominate the top of the leaderboard.

The combo's ranking is consistent with the component-level data. The CPU sits in the 47th percentile among all processors with an average benchmark score of 2254, while the GPU ranks in the 60th percentile with a score of 17083. The combined ranking being lower than either component's individual percentile suggests that Hitman 2 places demands on the system that neither component fully satisfies, potentially due to the CPU limiting the GPU at lower resolutions or the GPU limiting at higher resolutions.

Compared to the nearest rival combos, this system sits in a narrow band. The CPU's closest competitor, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, scores 2259 with a delta of -0.2%, while the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 with a delta of 0.4%. These sub-1% differences indicate that the CPU is within a tightly clustered performance group, and the overall combo rank is more heavily influenced by the GPU's position relative to its rivals.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides 6 cores and 6 threads running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This Coffee Lake processor has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, yielding 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The CPU's benchmark scores show a single-core Cinebench R23 result of 935 and a multi-core result of 6629, with a Geekbench single-core score of 1389.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU across most measured scenarios. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 152 FPS, which approaches the range where a 6-core/6-thread processor might begin to bottleneck. However, the scaling from Low to Medium at 1080p (152 to 114 FPS, a 25% drop) and from Medium to High (114 to 86 FPS, a 24.6% drop) shows consistent GPU-bound behavior, as the frame rate changes align with increased rendering load rather than CPU limitations.

The CPU's 47th percentile ranking among all processors, with a 0.3% delta to its nearest rival, suggests it is a mid-pack performer. Its 6 threads without hyper-threading may limit performance in heavily threaded scenes, but Hitman 2's engine appears to scale adequately with this configuration based on the measured results. The 4.10 GHz boost clock helps maintain responsive frame times in CPU-light scenes, as evidenced by the tight frame ranges at Medium settings across resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 152 FPS, followed by Medium at 114 FPS with a measured range of 97 to 131 FPS. High settings average 86 FPS, while Ultra drops to 63 FPS. All four presets remain above 60 FPS, making 1080p the resolution where this system offers the most flexibility in settings choice.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance scales down proportionally. Low averages 97 FPS, Medium 73 FPS with a range of 62 to 84 FPS, High 55 FPS, and Ultra 41 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 62 FPS indicates that the system can maintain smooth gameplay even during demanding sequences, while the High and Ultra presets fall into territory where frame drops below 60 FPS become likely.

At 3840x2160, the results show a steep decline. Low averages 52 FPS, Medium 39 FPS with a range of 33 to 45 FPS, High 29 FPS, and Ultra 22 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K (52 to 39 FPS, a 25% drop) mirrors the 1080p scaling, suggesting consistent GPU-bound behavior. However, the absolute frame rates at 4K make this resolution impractical for anything beyond Low settings, and even that preset will see drops below 50 FPS during intense scenes.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming?

A: At 1920x1080, all four presets exceed 60 FPS average. Medium provides 114 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS, offering a strong balance between visual quality and performance headroom.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, only Low settings reach 52 FPS average. Medium drops to 39 FPS, High to 29 FPS, and Ultra to 22 FPS. Playable 4K requires Low settings, and even then frame rates may dip in demanding scenes.

Q: How does the RX 7600 XT compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: The RX 7600 XT has an average benchmark score of 17083, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 scores 17208—a delta of -0.7%. This places the RX 7600 XT slightly behind the RTX 3070 in overall GPU performance.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-core performance relative to its rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 scores 2254 on average. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-10710U, scores 2248 with a delta of 0.3%. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 with a delta of 0.4%.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems in Hitman 2?

A: This combo ranks 2357th out of 3711 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 63.5% of all systems tested in this game.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the GPU provide?

A: The RX 7600 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but appears to limit 4K performance.