Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 delivers a highly capable Hitman 2 experience, but the data reveals a system that is heavily skewed toward high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p play, with 4K Ultra pushing the hardware to its limits. This combination ranks 212th out of 3711 tested configurations, placing it in the top percentile of systems for this specific title, though the scaling patterns show distinct bottlenecks depending on the resolution and preset.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the workload shifts. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 178 FPS at 1920x1080 to 114 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 61 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 36% reduction going from 1080p to 1440p, followed by another 46% reduction going from 1440p to 4K. The overall drop from 1080p to 4K High is 66%, which is a steep curve that indicates the RTX 5080 is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The pattern holds across all presets. At Low settings, the system delivers 314 FPS at 1080p, 201 FPS at 1440p, and 107 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop here is 66% as well, showing consistent scaling behavior. At Ultra, the numbers are 131 FPS at 1080p, 84 FPS at 1440p, and 45 FPS at 4K — a 66% total reduction. This consistency suggests that the GPU is the dominant constraint across all settings, but the magnitude of the drop at 4K Ultra (45 FPS) reveals that this resolution is simply too demanding for the RTX 5080 to maintain playable frame rates at maximum quality.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial. At 1080p, Low produces 314 FPS while Ultra produces 131 FPS — a 58% performance penalty for maxing out the settings. At 1440p, the gap is 201 FPS down to 84 FPS, a 58% penalty as well. At 4K, Low hits 107 FPS while Ultra drops to 45 FPS, again a 58% reduction. This uniform penalty across resolutions indicates that the game's Ultra preset adds a consistent amount of GPU work regardless of pixel count, and the RTX 5080 handles that additional load proportionally.

The data suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the i7-14700F is likely keeping pace with the GPU, as the massive frame rates (up to 314 FPS at Low 1080p) would not be achievable if the CPU were severely bottlenecked. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor, with even Medium settings only producing 80 FPS average. The jump from 80 FPS at Medium 4K to 61 FPS at High 4K is a 24% drop, which is a larger relative penalty than the 1080p-to-1440p transition at the same settings, reinforcing that the GPU is stretched thin at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if I want consistently high frame rates?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. At High settings, it delivers 114 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay)Skip, while 4K at High only manages 61 FPS average. At 1440p Medium, the average jumps to 150 FPS with a minimum of 128 FPS, providing a comfortable margin for competitive play.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, but only at lower presets. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 107, which is playable. At 4K Medium, it drops to 80 FPS with a minimum of 68 FPS, still acceptable. However, at 4K High, the average falls to 61 FPS, and at Ultra, it drops to 45 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for smooth action in a stealth game.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its nearest rivals in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5080 has an average benchmark score of 56083, placing it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. It is 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon 8060S stub, 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and 2.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X. However, it is 2.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE, making that card its closest competitor from above.

Q: What is the CPU's synthetic performance profile relative to its rivals?

A: The i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 53620, ranking in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. It is 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon 6505P, 0.3% ahead of the Intel Xeon Phi 7290, 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, and 0.8% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P. Its multicore Cinebench R23 score is 35122, while its single-core score is 4958.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at Medium settings, and how does it vary by resolution?

A: The measured minimum FPS only appears for Medium settings. At 1080p, the minimum is 200 FPS with a maximum of 270 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 128 FPS with a maximum of 173 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 68 FPS with a maximum of 92 FPS. These figures show that the 1440p Medium preset maintains a solid 128 FPS floor, while 4K Medium stays above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank in this game compared to all other tested systems?

A: This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 212th out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 5.7% of all configurations, which is an exceptional result for a mainstream desktop pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. It features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The GPU has 10752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. Its base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2617 MHz, while the memory runs at 1875 MHz, equivalent to 30 Gbps effective. The GPU's transistor count is 45,600 million on a die size of 378 mm², with a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s.

In Hitman 2, the RTX 5080's 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for any resolution tested, as the game does not appear to be memory-constrained at 4K Ultra. The bottleneck is raw compute throughput, as evidenced by the 58% performance penalty between Low and Ultra at all resolutions. The GPU's FP32 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS is high, but the game's Ultra preset at 4K still manages to reduce the average FPS to 45, indicating that the rendering workload is substantial.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it excels at compute tasks, with a Geekbench OpenCL score of 235901 and a Vulkan score of 255450. Its Passmark G3D score is 36565, and its DirectX 12 score is 151, which is notably lower than its DirectX 11 score of 324. This suggests that the RTX 5080's performance in older APIs may be relatively weaker, but Hitman 2 benefits from the GPU's strong raw compute capabilities as shown in the measured FPS data.

The RTX 5080's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs puts it ahead of most competitors, but the nearest rival data shows it is only marginally faster than the AMD Radeon 8060S and RX 6750 GRE 12 GB in average benchmark scores. The GPU's boost clock of 2617 MHz is high for a modern card, and the 960 GB/s memory bandwidth ensures that texture-heavy scenes in Hitman 2 are not limited by data transfer rates. The measured FPS at 4K Medium (80 FPS average) and 4K High (61 FPS average) demonstrate that the GPU is the primary driver of performance at high resolutions, while the CPU takes a backseat.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data clearly indicates that 4K Ultra is not viable, as it only produces 45 FPS average. Dropping to 4K High raises the average to 61 FPS, which is right at the threshold, but the lack of a reported minimum FPS for High settings means there is no guarantee of smoothness during demanding scenes. The safer option at 4K is Medium, which delivers 80 FPS average with a minimum of 68 FPS, ensuring a consistent experience.

At 2560x1440, the choice is between High and Medium. High produces 114 FPS average, while Medium produces 150 FPS average with a minimum of 128 FPS. Given the substantial 36 FPS difference and the guaranteed minimum floor, Medium is the better choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors. Ultra at 1440p drops to 84 FPS average, which is still playable but not worth the 30% performance hit over High.

At 1920x1080, the system is so powerful that even Ultra produces 131 FPS average, which is smooth on most monitors. However, if the user has a 240 Hz or higher refresh display, Medium at 235 FPS average (with a 200 FPS minimum) is the optimal choice, as it provides a significant boost over Ultra without sacrificing visual quality to the point where the game looks dated. Low at 1080p hits 314 FPS, which is only useful for esports-style play where every frame counts, but the visual quality penalty is severe.

The best overall balance for this combo in Hitman 2 appears to be 1440p Medium, which delivers 150 FPS average with a 128 FPS minimum. This combination ensures high frame rates that fully utilize the i7-14700F's capabilities while maintaining acceptable visual fidelity. For players who prioritize image quality over frame rate, 1440p High at 114 FPS average is a strong alternative. The data suggests avoiding 4K Ultra entirely, as the 45 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and even 4K High at 61 FPS is borderline.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 212th out of 3711 tested combinations in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 5.7% of all systems tested, which is an outstanding result. The ranking of 212 out of 3711 means that only 211 other configurations achieved a higher average FPS in this game, and the vast majority of those are likely to feature more expensive, higher-end components.

The CPU's 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs (with an average benchmark score of 53620) and the GPU's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs (with an average benchmark score of 56083) together form a well-matched pair. The i7-14700F's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Xeon 6505P (0.2% ahead), AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (0.6% behind), and AMD EPYC 7313P (0.8% behind), showing that it competes with workstation-class processors in raw compute. The RTX 5080's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (2.2% ahead) and AMD Radeon 8060S (0.6% behind), indicating that it sits in a highly competitive performance tier.

The fact that this combo achieves a rank of 212 out of 3711 while using a mainstream desktop CPU and a single GPU suggests that Hitman 2 scales well with both CPU and GPU performance. The system's ability to produce 314 FPS at 1080p Low demonstrates that the i7-14700F is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions, and the 45 FPS at 4K Ultra shows that the RTX 5080 is the limiting factor at the highest settings. This balance makes the combo versatile for a wide range of gaming scenarios, from competitive play at high refresh rates to visually demanding single-player experiences.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 314 FPS, while Medium produces 235 FPS average with a minimum of 200 FPS and a maximum of 270 FPS. High settings yield 178 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 131 FPS average. The progression shows a clear trade-off between visual quality and frame rate, with each preset tier costing roughly 40-50 FPS on average.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected drop from 1080p. Low settings produce 201 FPS average, Medium produces 150 FPS average with a minimum of 128 FPS and a maximum of 173 FPS, High produces 114 FPS average, and Ultra produces 84 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 117 FPS, which is a 58% reduction, consistent with the scaling pattern seen at other resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates at maximum settings. Low produces 107 FPS average, Medium produces 80 FPS average with a minimum of 68 FPS and a maximum of 92 FPS, High produces 61 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 45 FPS average. The minimum FPS of 68 at 4K Medium is the only reported minimum for this resolution, and it suggests that even Medium settings can occasionally dip below the 70 FPS mark, though it remains playable.

The measured data shows that the RTX 5080's performance in Hitman 2 scales predictably with resolution and settings. The 58% penalty from Low to Ultra is consistent across all resolutions, indicating that the game's Ultra preset adds a fixed amount of workload that the GPU handles proportionally. The i7-14700F's strong single-core performance (4958 in Cinebench R23 single-core) ensures that it does not bottleneck the GPU at any resolution, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low. Overall, this combo delivers a versatile gaming experience that is well-suited for both high-refresh-rate monitors and 4K displays with moderate settings.