Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination occupies the 568th spot out of 1,795 tested combos in Hitman 2. That places this pairing in the top third of all configurations, a strong result for a game that rewards balanced hardware. The rank is not a top-tier finish, but the data shows a system that can handle demanding stealth scenarios without becoming a bottleneck, especially when settings are tuned away from the most punishing presets.

How This Combo Ranks

Benchmark results indicate this combo sits at rank 568 out of 1,795, which is a percentile position of roughly 68. This is a solidly above-average placement, though not elite. The ranking reflects the RTX 3080's age relative to newer GPUs, as the CPU is still a high-end part. The i7-13700K posts an average benchmark score of 47,282, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, meaning it is outpacing nearly every processor on the market. On the GPU side, the RTX 3080 averages 35,787 and sits in the 80th percentile of all graphics cards, which is respectable but shows it is not at the very top anymore.

The data shows the combo is heavily CPU-favored in terms of relative strength, which matters in Hitman 2. The game's AI-driven crowds and complex physics simulations are known to scale with processor power, so having a top-7% CPU helps maintain frame pacing even when the GPU is near its limits. The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, which scores 36,101 and is 0.9% ahead, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile at 35,435, which is 1% behind. These are margins of a few points, confirming the 3080 is in a tightly contested performance band. The CPU, meanwhile, trades blows with the Intel Core i7-13700KF (0.1% behind) and the AMD EPYC 4364P (0.3% ahead), showing that the 13700K is essentially at the top of its peer group.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080 brings 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. That memory capacity is a key factor in Hitman 2, where large open-world maps with dense foliage and reflective surfaces can strain VRAM at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 31.5, and while that is playable for some, it is far from smooth. The GPU's base clock is 1440 MHz with a boost of 1710 MHz, and the memory runs at 19 Gbps effective. These clocks are modest by today's standards, but the architecture's 8,704 shading units and 68 RT cores provide substantial raw compute, with FP32 performance at 29.77 TFLOPS.

In Hitman 2 specifically, the GPU role is most apparent when moving from Medium to Ultra settings. At 1440p, the jump from Medium (110.1 FPS) to Ultra (61.3 FPS) shows a 44% performance hit, which is a direct consequence of increased shading and texture loads. The 10 GB frame buffer is adequate for 1440p High (84.5 FPS) but begins to show strain at 4K Ultra, where the 31.5 FPS result suggests the GPU is the primary limiter rather than the CPU. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 228.8 FPS, which is close to the CPU's maximum frame output in that scenario, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU's rendering workload dominates, and the frame rate collapses by nearly 86% from that low-settings peak.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p High, the combo averages 126.6 FPS, which drops to 84.5 FPS at 1440p High (-33%) and then to 46.5 FPS at 4K High (-63% from 1080p). This steep decline is consistent with a GPU that is being saturated by pixel count, not a CPU limitation. At 1080p Low, the average is 228.8 FPS, which is an enormous figure that few CPUs could feed, but the i7-13700K's single-thread score of 1,136 in 3DMark and 5,505 in Cinebench R23 shows it has the headroom to push very high frame rates. The drop from 228.8 FPS at 1080p Low to 144.9 FPS at 1440p Low is 37%, which is nearly identical to the 33% drop seen at High settings, indicating the GPU's fill rate is the dominant factor at both quality levels.

The most telling data point is the 4K Ultra result of 31.5 FPS, which is less than a quarter of the 1080p Low result. This is not a linear scaling issue; it is a hard limit imposed by the GPU's 320-bit memory bus and 10 GB capacity. At 1440p Ultra, the combo still manages 61.3 FPS, which is playable, but 4K Ultra pushes the memory subsystem to its breaking point. The 760.3 GB/s bandwidth is high, but Hitman 2's Ultra preset likely exceeds the 10 GB frame buffer at 2160p, causing spills into system memory. The CPU, with 16 cores and 24 threads, is not the issue here; the 3DMark 16-thread score of 10,717 and max-thread score of 12,412 show it can handle heavy multi-threaded loads without breaking a sweat.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p High in Hitman 2?

A: The average FPS is 126.6, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This result shows the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution, as the GPU is still able to push high frame rates without being constrained by the processor.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: At 4K High, the combo averages 46.5 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 31.5 FPS, indicating the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM and 320-bit bus are the limiting factors, not the CPU.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-13700K scores 47,282 on average, which is 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700KF (47,334) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4364P (47,131). This places it in a dead heat with its closest competitors, with differences of less than a single percentage point.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p Low, the combo averages 144.9 FPS, while at 1440p Ultra it drops to 61.3 FPS. This represents a 58% reduction in frame rate, showing that Ultra settings impose a heavy load on the GPU's shading and memory subsystems.

Q: Does the RTX 3080's VRAM capacity affect performance at 4K?

A: The 10 GB GDDR6X memory is likely the cause of the 4K Ultra result of 31.5 FPS. The 760.3 GB/s bandwidth is high, but the capacity appears insufficient for the game's Ultra preset at 2160p, leading to a significant drop from the 4K High result of 46.5 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance influence Hitman 2?

A: The i7-13700K scores 39,000 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 12,412 in 3DMark max threads. These scores indicate strong multi-threaded capability, which is beneficial for Hitman 2's AI and physics simulations, but the data shows the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with 30 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications translate to exceptional single-thread and multi-thread performance, as evidenced by the Geekbench single-core score of 2,850 and multicore score of 17,731. In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI pathfinding, and draw call submissions, which are heavily single-threaded tasks. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1,136 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 554 show that this processor has top-tier per-core performance, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 228.8 FPS, which is a strong indicator that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well above 200 frames per second. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,333 and the PassMark multithread score of 45,887 further reinforce this, showing that the processor can handle both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads. The 16-core configuration is overkill for a game like Hitman 2, which likely uses fewer than eight cores, but the high boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensures that the few cores that are active run at maximum speed. This is why the combo's rank in-game (568/1,795) is better than the GPU's percentile (80th), as the CPU lifts the overall result in less GPU-intensive settings.

The data shows that at 1440p High, the average FPS is 84.5, which is a 33% drop from 1080p High. This drop is consistent with the GPU becoming more stressed, but the CPU is still not the limiting factor. The 3DMark 8-thread score of 8,193 and 4-thread score of 4,469 show that the processor's mid-range thread counts are still very strong, ensuring that even if Hitman 2 scales to eight threads, there is ample headroom. The CPU's integrated UHD Graphics 770 is not relevant for this discrete GPU setup, but its presence does not interfere with the RTX 3080's operation. Ultimately, the i7-13700K is a top-7% CPU that provides a solid foundation for the RTX 3080, but the GPU's 80th percentile ranking means it is the component that holds the combo back from higher positions in the benchmark database.