Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 produces a consistent, predictable performance curve in Hitman 2, with the data showing that the combination is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, making higher settings less viable. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, examines the role of each component, and provides clear recommendations based solely on the benchmark data.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions. The data shows a clear pattern: stepping down from High to Medium yields a substantial FPS increase, while the visual quality difference between these two settings is typically less impactful than the jump from Medium to Low. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 114 FPS, which is 28 FPS higher than High’s 86 FPS and only 38 FPS lower than Low’s 152 FPS. For a stealth game where smoothness and reaction time matter, the 114 FPS average with a minimum of 97 FPS provides a comfortable margin above common display refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, Medium remains the standout choice, producing 73 FPS average with a minimum of 62 FPS. This is a significant step up from High’s 55 FPS, and the 62 FPS minimum ensures that busy scenes with multiple NPCs will not cause noticeable stutter. Low at this resolution hits 97 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely too severe for a game where observing distant details is part of the core loop. Ultra at 1440p drops to 41 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay and should be avoided.

For 3840x2160, the data presents a more constrained picture. Medium manages a 39 FPS average with a 33 FPS minimum, which is playable but not ideal for a stealth-action title. High at 4K drops to 29 FPS, and Ultra falls to 22 FPS—both are poor experiences. Low at 4K reaches 52 FPS, but this setting removes too much of the game’s environmental detail to be recommended. The measured data suggests that 4K should be reserved for Medium at most, with the understanding that the experience will be playable rather than optimal.

The High preset is the best choice for users who prioritize visual fidelity and are willing to accept lower frame rates. At 1080p, High’s 86 FPS is still very playable, and at 1440p, 55 FPS is workable for a slower-paced game. However, the jump from High to Medium provides a 33% FPS improvement at 1080p (from 86 to 114) and a 33% improvement at 1440p (from 55 to 73). Given that Hitman 2 benefits from consistent frame pacing, Medium offers the best trade-off between image quality and performance. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it produces the lowest FPS in every row and provides diminishing returns over High.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Hitman 2 at 1080p with high refresh rates?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 152 FPS on Low, 114 FPS on Medium, and 86 FPS on High. Only Ultra drops below 60 FPS, with a 64 FPS average. The Medium preset’s 114 FPS average and 97 FPS minimum make it ideal for 144Hz displays.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p for a smooth experience?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 97 FPS, Medium averages 73 FPS, and High averages 55 FPS. The Medium preset’s 62 FPS minimum ensures the experience stays above the 60 FPS threshold most of the time, making it the recommended choice for 1440p.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware?

A: It is borderline. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 39 FPS with a 33 FPS minimum, while Low averages 52 FPS. High and Ultra are not viable, producing 29 FPS and 22 FPS respectively. Medium at 4K is playable, but users seeking 60 FPS should stick to 1440p or lower settings.

Q: What is the best settings preset for visual quality without sacrificing playability?

A: The High preset at 1080p (86 FPS) or 1440p (55 FPS) offers the best visual quality while remaining above 30 FPS. For a more stable experience, Medium at 1440p (73 FPS) is the sweet spot, as it maintains a minimum above 60 FPS.

Q: How significant is the performance drop from Low to Ultra?

A: The data shows a massive range. At 1080p, Low averages 152 FPS while Ultra averages 64 FPS—a drop of 58%. At 1440p, the drop is from 97 FPS to 41 FPS (58% reduction). At 4K, Low averages 52 FPS while Ultra averages 22 FPS (58% reduction). The consistent drop percentage indicates the GPU is scaling uniformly with settings.

Q: Does the combo have enough headroom for future patches or background tasks?

A: Yes, at 1080p Medium and Low, the combo has significant headroom. The 97 FPS minimum at 1080p Medium provides a 37 FPS buffer over 60 FPS. Even at 1440p Medium, the 62 FPS minimum leaves only a small buffer, but the 73 FPS average suggests that minor background tasks will not cause major dips.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is the performance limiting factor in this pairing, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Hitman 2’s environments but becomes strained at 4K. The measured FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic: on High, the average falls from 86 FPS to 29 FPS, a 66% reduction. This indicates that the GPU’s compute throughput, rated at 13.17 TFLOPS FP32, is quickly overwhelmed by the pixel count at 3840x2160.

The GPU’s clock behavior also plays a role. The base clock of 2317 MHz and boost clock of 2572 MHz are relatively high, but the 130 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest this is a mid-range part. The 2560 shading units and 80 TMUs are enough for 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the playable FPS numbers, but the 32 ROPs become a bottleneck at 4K where pixel fill rate (82.30 GPixel/s) is insufficient to maintain high frame rates.

The RTX 5050’s 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21035, places it in the mid-range tier. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (1.6% lower score) and the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (0.6% higher score). This competitive positioning explains why the GPU handles 1080p and 1440p well but struggles at 4K. The 8 GB VRAM is adequate for Hitman 2’s textures at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with Ultra settings, the memory capacity and bandwidth become limiting factors, contributing to the 22 FPS result.

The data shows that the GPU’s performance scales consistently with settings. At 1080p, the FPS range from Low (152) to Ultra (64) spans 88 FPS, while at 4K, the range from Low (52) to Ultra (22) spans 30 FPS. This narrower range at 4K suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling regardless of settings, confirming that the RTX 5050 is not designed for 4K gaming in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 combination ranks 1837 out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places the combo in the bottom 39th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that while it is not a low-end performer, it falls short of the majority of configurations in the benchmark database. The rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning, as the CPU is a high-end part that will be analyzed in a later section.

The combo’s rank is influenced by the fact that Hitman 2 is a well-optimized title that can run on a wide range of hardware. The 3001 combos tested include many high-end GPUs that achieve 4K Ultra at 60 FPS, which the RTX 5050 cannot match. The 1837 rank suggests that this combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it performs admirably, but it will be outclassed in 4K scenarios.

The rank also reflects the balance of the combo. The CPU is capable of driving higher frame rates, as shown by the 152 FPS result at 1080p Low, but the GPU limits the overall score. In the benchmark database, combos with similar CPUs but faster GPUs likely rank much higher, while combos with weaker CPUs and the same GPU might rank lower due to CPU bottlenecks. The 1837 rank out of 3001 is a mid-pack result, consistent with a pairing of a top-tier CPU with a mid-tier GPU.

For context, the CPU alone ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 53620. The GPU ranks in the 66th percentile among GPUs. The combined rank of 1837 out of 3001 is lower than either component’s individual percentile, which underscores that the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios. This combo is best viewed as a 1080p/1440p machine that can dip into 4K at reduced settings, and its rank reflects that positioning.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 86 at 1080p to 55 at 1440p (a 36% reduction) and then to 29 at 4K (a 47% reduction from 1440p). This indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU’s performance is not affected by resolution in the same way.

The scaling is consistent across all settings. At Low, the FPS drops from 152 at 1080p to 97 at 1440p (36% reduction) and then to 52 at 4K (46% reduction). At Medium, the drop is from 114 to 73 (36%) and then to 39 (47%). At Ultra, the drop is from 64 to 41 (36%) and then to 22 (46%). The near-identical percentage drops across all settings (36% from 1080p to 1440p, and roughly 46-47% from 1440p to 4K) strongly suggest that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the limiting factor, not the CPU.

The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, provides additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 97 FPS, which drops to 62 FPS at 1440p and 33 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS drops by 36% from 1080p to 1440p and by 47% from 1440p to 4K, matching the average FPS scaling. This consistency indicates that the GPU is being utilized uniformly across the test, with no sudden CPU-related stutters at higher resolutions.

The resolution scaling analysis points to the GPU as the limiting component. The CPU’s role will be examined in the next section, but the FPS data suggests that even at 1080p Low, the 152 FPS result is not limited by the CPU, as the GPU is still capable of delivering those frames. At 4K, the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 320 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates, as evidenced by the 22 FPS Ultra result. Users should target 1080p or 1440p for the best experience, with 4K reserved for Medium settings at best.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are strong across the board. Low averages 152 FPS, Medium averages 114 FPS with a minimum of 97 and a maximum of 131, High averages 86 FPS, and Ultra averages 64 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 38 FPS (25% reduction), while the gap between Medium and High is 28 FPS (25% reduction), and the gap between High and Ultra is 22 FPS (26% reduction). This consistent 25% reduction per settings tier indicates a well-scaled rendering pipeline.

At 2560x1440, the performance is still solid but shows the GPU’s limits. Low averages 97 FPS, Medium averages 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 and a maximum of 84, High averages 55 FPS, and Ultra averages 41 FPS. The percentage reductions between settings are similar to 1080p: Low to Medium is a 25% drop (97 to 73), Medium to High is a 25% drop (73 to 55), and High to Ultra is a 25% drop (55 to 41). The minimum FPS of 62 at Medium is just above the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that users with 60Hz displays will have a near-perfect experience.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles significantly. Low averages 52 FPS, Medium averages 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 45, High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 22 FPS. The reductions between settings are again consistent: Low to Medium is a 25% drop (52 to 39), Medium to High is a 26% drop (39 to 29), and High to Ultra is a 24% drop (29 to 22). The minimum FPS of 33 at Medium indicates that the experience will dip below 30 FPS in demanding scenes, making 4K gaming a compromise.

The data shows that the Medium preset is the only setting with minimum FPS data, which provides a useful reference for frame pacing. At 1080p, the 97 FPS minimum is 85% of the average (114 FPS), indicating smooth performance. At 1440p, the 62 FPS minimum is 85% of the average (73 FPS), still solid. At 4K, the 33 FPS minimum is 85% of the average (39 FPS), but the absolute values are low enough to cause visible judder in fast-moving scenes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a high-end desktop processor with 20 cores and 28 threads, capable of boosting up to 5.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35122 and a single-core score of 4958, placing it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. The CPU’s 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample bandwidth for game logic and physics, which are essential for Hitman 2’s complex AI and interactive environments.

In this combo, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 152 FPS, which is likely near the GPU’s maximum output rather than the CPU’s limit. The CPU’s high single-thread performance (Geekbench single-core score of 2429) ensures that the game’s main thread is well-fed, while the multi-core performance (Geekbench multi-core score of 19620) handles background tasks and NPC simulation without issue.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (0.6% higher average score) and the AMD EPYC 7313P (0.8% higher). This indicates that the i7-14700F is competitive with top-tier consumer and server CPUs, providing more than enough processing power for Hitman 2. The CPU’s 65 W TDP is notably low for a 20-core part, suggesting efficient power delivery that won’t throttle under sustained gaming loads.

The data shows that the CPU’s performance is sufficient for all tested resolutions and settings. At 4K Ultra, the 22 FPS result is clearly GPU-limited, as the CPU is capable of far higher frame rates in other titles. The consistent 25% FPS reduction per settings tier across all resolutions further confirms that the CPU is not introducing variable performance penalties. Users can expect the CPU to remain a non-issue for Hitman 2, with the GPU being the sole determinant of achievable frame rates. The CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads also provide headroom for streaming, recording, or running background applications while gaming, without impacting the measured FPS.