Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with Intel Core i7-14700F + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a robust Hitman 2 experience, but the data reveals a clear performance hierarchy that shifts dramatically with resolution and quality settings. At 1080p High, the combo produces 156.3 FPS, which falls to 101.5 FPS at 1440p High and further to 54.5 FPS at 4K High. This progression shows a 65% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the GPU becomes the dominant constraint as pixel count rises. The combo ranks 286th out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 16% of all tested systems for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across resolutions tell a clear story about where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 272 FPS, which is exceptionally high and suggests the CPU is still capable of feeding the GPU at this level. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 174.6 FPS, a 35.8% reduction, while 4K Low yields 91.8 FPS, a further 47.4% decline from 1440p. This pattern indicates that even at Low settings, resolution scaling imposes a heavy load on the GPU.

At High settings, the scaling is equally pronounced: 156.3 FPS at 1080p, 101.5 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 54.5 FPS at 4K (a 46.3% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset amplifies this effect, with 116.6 FPS at 1080p, 70.6 FPS at 1440p, and 38.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result represents just 32.9% of the 1080p Ultra performance, confirming that the RX 7900 XTX is the limiting component at higher resolutions. However, the 1080p Low result of 272 FPS versus the 1080p Ultra result of 116.6 FPS shows a 57.1% performance gap purely from settings changes, which suggests the CPU is not fully saturated even at high frame rates.

The data indicates that this combination is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where even Ultra settings maintain 70.6 FPS, but 4K Ultra pushes the GPU to its limits at 38.4 FPS. The scaling from Medium to High at each resolution shows diminishing returns: at 1080p, Medium delivers 205.1 FPS versus High's 156.3 FPS, while at 4K, Medium achieves 72.5 FPS versus High's 54.5 FPS. This suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute capacity are the primary drivers of performance degradation as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its multi-threaded capabilities are substantial, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,443 and a single-core score of 5,003. The CPU sits at the 94th percentile among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,097, placing it just 0.6% below the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and 1.1% below the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D in aggregate CPU benchmarks.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining low-resolution results. At 1080p Low, the 272 FPS result indicates the processor can sustain very high frame rates, but the gap between Low and Medium (205.1 FPS) suggests that game logic and draw call processing are not the primary bottlenecks at lower settings. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (both DDR4 and DDR5) provide adequate bandwidth for the game's stealth-based AI routines and crowd simulations. The 80 KB L1 cache per core and 2 MB L2 cache per core contribute to responsive single-thread performance, which is critical for Hitman 2's physics and enemy AI calculations.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz is particularly relevant for this game, given that Hitman 2 tends to favor higher-frequency cores for its simulation-heavy gameplay. The single-core Geekbench score of 2,711 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5,003 indicate strong per-thread performance, which helps maintain frame pacing even when the GPU is under heavy load at 4K. However, the 1080p High result of 156.3 FPS versus the 1080p Low result of 272 FPS shows that even at the same resolution, settings changes can halve performance, indicating that the GPU's shading and texture work dominates once quality settings rise.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 286th out of 1,795 tested combinations in Hitman 2, which places it in the top 15.9% of all systems tested. This ranking reflects a strong overall pairing, but it is not at the absolute top tier, likely due to the demanding nature of the game at 4K Ultra settings. The RX 7900 XTX itself holds the 85th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44,019, while the CPU's 94th percentile ranking suggests the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card in this pairing.

Comparing the GPU to its nearest rivals, the RX 7900 XTX trails the AMD Radeon Pro 580 by 0.4% in average benchmark score (44,195 versus 44,019) and sits 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667). It is 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (43,313) and 2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (44,900). This places the GPU in a competitive mid-to-high range, but its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth provide a substantial advantage for high-resolution textures in Hitman 2's detailed environments.

The combo's ranking relative to the field suggests that while the individual components are strong, the specific combination does not achieve the top echelon of performance. This is likely because Hitman 2's optimization favors certain architectures, and the RX 7900 XTX's 192 ROPs and 384 TMUs, while powerful, are not the absolute highest in the product stack. The 4K Ultra result of 38.4 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold many players target, which explains why the combo does not rank higher among the 1,795 tested systems.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The data shows 1440p High delivers 101.5 FPS and 1440p Ultra achieves 70.6 FPS, both above the 60 FPS target. At 4K, High produces 54.5 FPS and Ultra drops to 38.4 FPS, so 1440p represents the sweet spot for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in raw performance?

A: The Core i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 54,097, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X (54,450) and 1.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54,681). It is 1.2% higher than the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53,469) and 1.7% higher than the AMD EPYC 7313P (53,206).

Q: Does this combo hit 60 FPS at 4K?

A: At 4K High, the average FPS is 54.5, which falls short of 60 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 72.5 FPS, so dropping to Medium settings is necessary to exceed 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 272 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 116.6 FPS. This represents a 57.1% reduction in performance from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: How does the GPU's memory configuration affect performance?

A: The RX 7900 XTX features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is sufficient for Hitman 2's large, interactive maps. This bandwidth helps maintain texture streaming at 4K, but the 38.4 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates the GPU's compute throughput is still the limiting factor.

Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming?

A: At 1080p High, the combo delivers 156.3 FPS, while at 1440p High, it achieves 101.5 FPS. Both are well above playable thresholds, but the 1440p result offers higher visual fidelity with a 35% performance penalty, making it the more balanced choice for this hardware.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a 5 nm process, featuring 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die. Its 6,144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 ROPs provide substantial raw compute, with a peak FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1,929 MHz, a game clock of 2,365 MHz, and a boost clock of 2,498 MHz, with memory running at 2,500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). The 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus delivers 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Hitman 2's detailed textures and large, open-ended levels.

The GPU's role in this combo becomes evident when examining the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Low, the 272 FPS result suggests the GPU is not fully utilized, as the CPU can feed frames at a very high rate. However, as resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth become the primary constraints. The transition from 1440p High (101.5 FPS) to 4K High (54.5 FPS) represents a 46.3% drop, which aligns with the 4x increase in pixel count being partially mitigated by the GPU's bandwidth and shading capabilities.

The GPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44,195, 0.4% higher), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667, 0.8% lower), and NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (43,313, 1.6% lower). The RX 7900 XTX's average benchmark score of 44,019 places it at the 85th percentile among all GPUs. Its 96 ray accelerators and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 ensure compatibility with modern rendering pipelines, though Hitman 2 does not heavily utilize ray tracing. The GPU's 355 W TDP and dual-slot design with 2x 8-pin power connectors indicate it is a power-hungry component, but the data shows it delivers strong performance in this title when paired with the Core i7-14700F.