Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a highly playable Hitman 2 experience at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K. This combo ranks in the 1601st position out of 3711 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all systems benchmarked for this title. The data reveals a system that is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate gaming at standard resolutions, yet clearly limited by the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and memory bandwidth when pushing extreme pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 110 FPS at 1920x1080 to 70 FPS at 2560x1440, a 36% reduction, and then plummets to just 38 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 46% drop. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3070 is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames but the GPU cannot keep up with the increased pixel workload.

The scaling pattern becomes even more pronounced at Ultra settings. From 81 FPS at 1080p, the average drops to 52 FPS at 1440p and then to 28 FPS at 4K. That final step from 1440p to 4K represents a 46% loss in performance, which is consistent with a GPU that is completely saturated. At 4K Ultra, the system produces only 28 FPS on average, which is below the threshold for comfortable playability in a stealth game where timing matters.

Conversely, at Low settings, the system shows remarkable scaling capabilities. The jump from 194 FPS at 1080p to 124 FPS at 1440p and 66 FPS at 4K demonstrates that when graphical load is reduced, the RTX 3070 can still deliver playable frame rates even at 4K. This suggests that for 4K gaming, dropping to Low settings can nearly double the frame rate compared to High, making it a viable option for players who prioritize smoothness over visual fidelity.

The data indicates that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combination. At Medium settings, the system delivers 93 FPS at 2560x1440, which is excellent for a game like Hitman 2 where precise camera movements and quick reactions benefit from higher frame rates. Even at High settings, 70 FPS at 1440p is respectable, though the Medium preset provides a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This CPU sits in the 94th percentile of all processors tested, indicating it is among the top 6% of CPUs for overall performance. Its Cinebench R23 scores of 33440.5 multi-core and 2160 single-core demonstrate exceptional capability across both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads.

In the context of Hitman 2, a stealth game that typically relies more on single-threaded performance for game logic and AI, the 14700K's single-core strength is particularly relevant. The single-core Cinebench R20 score of 2617 and Geekbench single-core score of 2569 show that this CPU can handle the game's primary thread with ease. The high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that even the most demanding scenes in Hitman 2's large, open-ended levels will not cause CPU-bound frame drops.

The multi-threaded performance, while not directly critical for this game, provides headroom for background tasks such as streaming or recording. The Passmark multi-thread score of 52392 and the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5 indicate that this CPU will not become a bottleneck even when the system is handling multiple concurrent workloads. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache also helps with data locality, which can benefit the game's asset streaming in large levels.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 14700K is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, showing a negligible 0.2% deficit in average benchmark score. It is also within 0.9% of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F. This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, this processor performs on par with the fastest alternatives available, ensuring that the RTX 3070 is the primary limiting factor in this system.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process. It features 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, along with 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz with a boost clock of 1725 MHz, delivering a peak FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is the most significant limitation in this system for Hitman 2 at high resolutions. The game's detailed environments and complex lighting effects consume VRAM quickly, and the data suggests that at 4K Ultra settings, the 8 GB capacity is insufficient, resulting in the low 28 FPS average. At 1440p and 1080p, the memory bandwidth is adequate, as evidenced by the playable frame rates.

The RTX 3070 sits in the 61st percentile of all GPUs tested, placing it slightly above the median but far from the top tier. Its Passmark G3D score of 22214 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3162 show solid DirectX 12 performance, which is relevant for Hitman 2's modern rendering pipeline. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure that it can take full advantage of the game's graphical features.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 3070 is 0.7% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT and 1% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690. However, it trails the NVIDIA Tesla K40c by 1.5%. These marginal differences indicate that the RTX 3070 is competitive with other mid-range to upper-mid-range GPUs, but it does not have the raw power to dominate at 4K resolutions in demanding titles like Hitman 2.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1601 out of 3711 tested configurations, this system places in the 43rd percentile of all CPU-GPU combinations tested for Hitman 2. This ranking reflects a balanced pairing where neither component is severely mismatched, but the overall performance is constrained by the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions.

The ranking suggests that this system outperforms the majority of tested combos, which is expected given the 14700K's top-tier CPU performance and the RTX 3070's respectable mid-range GPU capabilities. However, the 1601st position also indicates that there are many systems with more powerful GPUs that achieve significantly better frame rates in this game, particularly at 4K resolution.

The data shows that this combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates at most settings. At 4K, the system falls into the lower echelon of performance, with only Low settings providing a playable experience. This ranking is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows a clear performance cliff as resolution increases.

For context, the CPU's 94th percentile ranking and the GPU's 61st percentile ranking create an imbalance where the CPU is significantly stronger than the GPU. This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, the system performs near the top of its class, but in GPU-bound scenarios, it falls behind systems with less powerful CPUs but stronger GPUs. The overall combo rank reflects this compromise.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions tested. At 1080p, Medium delivers 146 FPS average with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS, providing a smooth and responsive experience well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p, Medium produces 93 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS, which remains comfortable for fast-paced stealth gameplay.

At 4K, Medium settings yield 50 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 57 FPS. While this is below the ideal 60 FPS target, it is still playable for a game like Hitman 2 where precise timing is important but not as critical as in competitive shooters. The minimum of 42 FPS indicates some frame drops in demanding scenes, but the overall experience remains acceptable.

For players seeking the highest visual fidelity, High settings are viable at 1080p and 1440p, delivering 110 FPS and 70 FPS respectively. At 4K, High settings drop to 38 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users. Ultra settings are only recommended at 1080p, where the system achieves 81 FPS, while at 1440p the 52 FPS average may be acceptable for some players but is borderline.

Low settings are not recommended for this system except for 4K gaming, where the 66 FPS average provides the only smooth experience at that resolution. The substantial visual downgrade is a significant trade-off, but the data shows that it is the only way to achieve 60+ FPS at 3840x2160 with this hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system's performance ranges from 194 FPS at Low settings to 81 FPS at Ultra settings. The Medium preset delivers 146 FPS average with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS, while High settings produce 110 FPS. This resolution provides the most flexibility, with all settings above the 60 FPS threshold and even Ultra maintaining a comfortable 81 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low settings achieve 124 FPS, Medium delivers 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and maximum of 107 FPS, High produces 70 FPS, and Ultra drops to 52 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p offers the best combination of smoothness and visual quality, with the minimum staying above 75 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings produce 66 FPS, Medium delivers 50 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 57 FPS, High drops to 38 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28 FPS. The steep decline from Low to Medium (24% reduction) and from Medium to High (24% reduction) illustrates how quickly the RTX 3070's resources are exhausted at this resolution.

The data shows that the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at all settings, as evidenced by the playable frame rates. However, at 4K, the combination of high pixel count and demanding settings overwhelms the GPU, resulting in sub-60 FPS performance across all presets except Low. The minimum FPS figures for Medium settings at 1440p and 4K provide additional context, showing that the system maintains relatively stable frame times even under load.