Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers the top measured performance in Hitman 2, ranking first out of 3,001 tested combinations. This pairing produces frame rates ranging from 52 FPS at 4K Ultra to 365 FPS at 1080p Low, with the data suggesting a system that scales predictably across resolutions and settings. The following analysis breaks down how these scores were achieved and what they imply about the underlying hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how Hitman 2 responds to resolution changes when driven by the RTX 5090 D and Core i7-14700K. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 207 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 132 FPS, a reduction of approximately 36%. At 4K High, the score falls further to 71 FPS, which is about 46% lower than the 1440p result and 66% lower than the 1080p figure. This pattern indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count rises, since the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings shows a similar trend: 274 FPS at 1080p falls to 175 FPS at 1440p, a 36% drop. From 1440p to 4K Medium, the numbers go from 175 FPS to 93 FPS, a 47% decrease. The consistency of these percentages across settings suggests that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of the preset chosen, which points to a GPU-bound scenario at higher pixel densities.

At Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is steeper: 365 FPS drops to 234 FPS, a 36% reduction. From 1440p to 4K Low, the figures go from 234 FPS to 124 FPS, a 47% decline. Interesting is that the percentage drops remain nearly identical across Low, Medium, and High, which implies that the RTX 5090 D’s rendering pipeline is the dominant factor at each resolution step, not the CPU or memory subsystem.

Ultra settings show the largest absolute losses. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 153 FPS; at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 98 FPS; at 4K Ultra, it falls to 52 FPS. The 1440p-to-4K drop here is 47%, matching the other presets, but the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 36%, again consistent. The fact that even at 1080p Ultra the frame rate never exceeds 153 FPS suggests that Ultra settings introduce enough shading and geometry work to keep the GPU fully occupied, even at lower resolutions.

What the scaling data implies is that the RTX 5090 D is the limiting component in this configuration for Hitman 2. The Core i7-14700K, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, likely has the processing headroom to feed the GPU at all tested resolutions, since the FPS losses track almost perfectly with pixel-count increases. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between 1080p and 1440p, or a plateau at higher resolutions. Instead, the steady decline indicates a pure GPU workload.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The highest average FPS is 365, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 52, which is the lowest recorded score for this configuration.

Q: What is the rank of this CPU-GPU combination among all tested combos in Hitman 2?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks first out of 3,001 tested combinations.

Q: Are there any min/max FPS values recorded for the Ultra settings?

A: No, the measured data for all Ultra settings (1080p, 1440p, and 4K) only includes average FPS values, with no min or max figures reported.

Q: Which settings preset at 1440p yields the highest average FPS?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 234 FPS, which is the highest average at that resolution.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Medium compared to 4K Medium?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 274, while at 4K Medium it is 93, making the 1080p result roughly 2.9 times higher.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the primary driver of Hitman 2’s frame rates in this pairing. Its memory configuration includes 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. For a game released in 2018, this is an enormous amount of memory bandwidth, and the data suggests that the GPU rarely, if ever, encounters a memory capacity or bandwidth constraint. The highest VRAM usage scenario, 4K Ultra, still produces 52 FPS, which is playable but shows the GPU’s limits under maximum load.

Clock speeds for the RTX 5090 D are listed as a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz. These clocks, combined with 21,760 shading units, deliver 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. In Hitman 2, a stealth game that involves rendering large crowds, reflective surfaces, and complex lighting, these raw compute numbers translate to high frame rates. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,915 further indicate a GPU that excels in both synthetic and real-world workloads.

The RTX 5090 D also includes 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores, which are not directly utilized by Hitman 2 given its 2018 release date, but these features contribute to the GPU’s overall architecture. The data shows that even at 4K High, the combo maintains 71 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered smooth. The GPU’s role is further highlighted by the scaling patterns discussed earlier: the FPS drops align with pixel-count increases, confirming that the RTX 5090 D is the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 365 FPS, but this is likely constrained by the CPU or game engine’s frame rate limits rather than the GPU itself.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% higher average score), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (-1.6%), and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (-2.1%). These deltas are small, suggesting that the RTX 5090 D sits in a competitive performance tier, but in Hitman 2 specifically, its combination of memory bandwidth and compute power yields the top rank among 3,001 combos. The 32 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for any settings preset, and the 512-bit bus ensures that texture streaming at 4K Ultra does not cause stutters, as evidenced by the 52 FPS average with no reported min FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame data places this configuration at rank 1 out of 3,001 tested combinations for Hitman 2. This is the top position, meaning no other CPU-GPU pairing in the database produces higher average FPS across the tested resolutions and settings. The ranking is based on measured data, not synthetic predictions, which adds weight to the result.

To contextualize this rank, consider the CPU’s nearest rivals in general benchmarks: the AMD EPYC 9115 (0.1% higher average score), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (-0.2%), and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (-0.7%). These deltas are within 1% of the i7-14700K’s average score, indicating that the CPU is not uniquely superior to its peers. Similarly, the GPU’s nearest rivals are within 2.4% in average score. Yet in Hitman 2, this specific pairing achieves the top rank, which suggests that the combination of the i7-14700K’s high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,160) and the RTX 5090 D’s massive throughput is particularly well-suited to this game’s engine.

The rank also implies that the measured FPS values are the highest recorded across all 3,001 combos. For example, at 1080p Low, the 365 FPS average is likely unmatched by any other pairing, given that the combo ranks first overall. The fact that this rank holds across all resolutions and settings, from 4K Ultra (52 FPS) to 1080p Low (365 FPS), shows that the i7-14700K and RTX 5090 D do not have a weak point in Hitman 2. Even at the lowest settings, the frame rate is high enough to be limited by other factors, yet it still outpaces all competitors.

The data suggests that the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provide a buffer that prevents any resolution or texture-quality bottleneck. Meanwhile, the i7-14700K’s 5.60 GHz boost clock and 20 cores ensure that the game’s AI and physics computations are handled without delaying frame delivery. This combination of high-frequency CPU and high-bandwidth GPU results in a rank that is not just top-tier but the absolute best in the database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 207 FPS on High, 365 FPS on Low, 274 FPS on Medium, and 153 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset includes min and max values of 233 and 315 FPS, respectively, while the other presets only report averages. The 1080p results show that even at Ultra, the frame rate remains well above 144 FPS, which is suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.

At 2560x1440, the scores are 132 FPS on High, 234 FPS on Low, 175 FPS on Medium, and 98 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset again includes min and max values of 149 and 201 FPS. The 1440p results indicate that the combo can easily drive 1440p at high refresh rates, with only Ultra dipping below 100 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is 34 FPS, which is a significant cost for the extra visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the scores drop to 71 FPS on High, 124 FPS on Low, 93 FPS on Medium, and 52 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset has min and max values of 79 and 107 FPS. The 4K results show that the combo is capable of 4K gaming, but only at Low or Medium settings does it exceed 90 FPS. High and Ultra are playable but fall below the 100 FPS threshold that some gamers prefer.

Comparing the same settings across resolutions reveals consistent scaling. For High, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 75 FPS (207 to 132), and from 1440p to 4K is 61 FPS (132 to 71). For Low, the drops are 131 FPS (365 to 234) and 110 FPS (234 to 124). For Medium, the drops are 99 FPS (274 to 175) and 82 FPS (175 to 93). For Ultra, the drops are 55 FPS (153 to 98) and 46 FPS (98 to 52). The largest absolute drops occur at Low settings, which suggests that the GPU is pushed hardest when the CPU can feed it more frames, but the relative scaling remains similar.

The min and max FPS values for Medium at all resolutions show a consistent spread: 233-315 at 1080p, 149-201 at 1440p, and 79-107 at 4K. The spread narrows as resolution increases, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios where frame times become more consistent at higher pixel loads. At 1080p, the spread of 82 FPS indicates some frame time variance, possibly due to CPU or memory latency, while at 4K, the spread of 28 FPS shows smoother delivery.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and frame rate. For 1080p, all presets deliver playable frame rates, but Ultra at 153 FPS is the best balance of visual quality and performance, since it remains above 144 FPS. If the goal is maximum frame rate, Low at 365 FPS is the choice, but the visual trade-off is substantial. Medium at 274 FPS offers a middle ground, with min and max values of 233 and 315 FPS ensuring that the experience stays smooth.

For 1440p, High at 132 FPS is the recommended preset for most users, as it provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium (175 FPS) while still exceeding 120 FPS. Ultra at 98 FPS is viable for those who prioritize graphics over frame rate, but the 34 FPS drop from High to Ultra may not justify the visual gains. Low at 234 FPS is overkill for most displays, unless using a 240 Hz monitor, where it would be the only preset to fully utilize the refresh rate.

For 4K, the recommendations shift. Medium at 93 FPS is the best option for a balance of quality and performance, with min and max values of 79 and 107 FPS indicating that the experience remains fluid. High at 71 FPS is playable but may be too low for fast-paced action. Low at 124 FPS is the only preset that exceeds 120 FPS at 4K, making it the choice for high-refresh-rate 4K monitors. Ultra at 52 FPS is only recommended for cinematic playthroughs, as the frame rate is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth motion.

The data implies that the combo is best utilized at 1440p High or 4K Medium, depending on the display. At 1440p High, the 132 FPS average is smooth and visually rich, while at 4K Medium, the 93 FPS average is a solid trade-off. For competitive play, 1080p Low at 365 FPS is unmatched, but the game’s stealth genre does not require such extreme frame rates. The Medium presets at each resolution provide the most stable frame pacing, as evidenced by the min and max values, making them the safest choice for consistent performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K plays a crucial role in Hitman 2, though its contribution is less visible than the GPU’s. The CPU has 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. For a game like Hitman 2, which involves complex AI routines, physics calculations, and large open levels, the CPU’s single-thread performance is often more important than its multi-thread capabilities.

The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,160 and multi-core score of 33,440.5 indicate that the i7-14700K excels in both areas. In Hitman 2, the game’s engine likely relies on a few main threads for game logic, while other threads handle asset streaming and audio. The 5.60 GHz boost clock ensures that these main threads run at maximum speed, reducing frame time spikes that could cause stutters. The 33 MB L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, which is beneficial for the game’s AI pathfinding and object interactions.

The CPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69,355. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, which has a 0.2% lower average score, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, which is 0.7% lower. These tiny deltas suggest that the i7-14700K is not significantly faster than its competitors in synthetic tests, yet the combo still ranks first in Hitman 2. This implies that the CPU’s combination of high clocks and large cache is particularly effective in this game, or that the RTX 5090 D is so powerful that the CPU becomes the limiting factor only at very low resolutions and settings.

At 1080p Low, the 365 FPS average is likely CPU-bound, since the GPU has far more headroom. The i7-14700K’s 20 cores and 28 threads allow it to handle the game’s draw calls and AI updates at that frame rate, but the data shows that the FPS does not scale linearly with resolution decreases, which indicates that the CPU is reaching its limit. However, the fact that the combo still ranks first overall suggests that no other CPU in the database can feed the RTX 5090 D faster in Hitman 2.

The CPU’s memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, with dual-channel bus, also plays a role. While the exact memory configuration used in the test is not specified, the i7-14700K’s support for high-speed DDR5 likely provides enough bandwidth to avoid stalling the GPU. The 10 nm process node and 125 W TDP indicate a power-efficient design that can sustain high clocks without thermal throttling, which is essential for maintaining frame rates over long gaming sessions.

In summary, the CPU’s role is to provide high single-thread performance and sufficient multi-thread capacity to keep the RTX 5090 D fed. The data shows that at 4K, the GPU is the bottleneck, but at 1080p Low, the CPU comes into play, yet still delivers the highest FPS in the database. This balance is why the combo ranks first in Hitman 2, and it demonstrates that the i7-14700K is not just a capable processor but one that complements the RTX 5090 D perfectly for this title.