Hitman 2

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Hitman 2 with the Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 570 reveals a steep and consistent performance cliff as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 72.2 FPS. Dropping to 2560x1440 at Low yields 46 FPS, a 36% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 25.5 FPS, which is 65% below the 1080p Low figure. This pattern strongly suggests the GPU is the primary constraint: pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the frame rate drops roughly in line with that fill-rate demand.

The trend is even more revealing when examining settings escalation. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 41.8 FPS (from 72.2 to 30.4). At 1440p, the same settings jump drops from 46 to 18.1 FPS. At 4K, Ultra is essentially unplayable at 7.6 FPS, while High manages just 14.1 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 17.9 FPS — a narrower absolute gap than at 1080p because the GPU is already saturated by resolution alone. This indicates that at higher resolutions, the RX 570's 4 GB frame buffer and 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are overwhelmed, leaving little headroom for image quality settings.

The scaling behavior also hints at where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the i7-14700KF with 20 cores and 28 threads could theoretically push higher frame rates, but the RX 570's 5.095 TFLOPS FP32 throughput caps the output. The fact that 1080p Ultra (30.4 FPS) is only slightly better than 1440p High (23.1 FPS) suggests the GPU's shading units and texture rate (159.2 GTexel/s) are the limiting factor across the board. The CPU's high single-thread performance — evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6290 — is never the binding constraint in this data.

A curious observation: the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (72.2 to 46) represents a 26.2 FPS loss, while the drop from 1440p to 4K at Low (46 to 25.5) is a 20.5 FPS loss. In percentage terms, the first drop is 36%, the second is 45%. The accelerating percentage loss at 4K implies the memory subsystem — 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus — is becoming increasingly inadequate as resolution forces larger textures and higher bandwidth consumption.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves in Hitman 2?

A: The highest measured average is 72.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the data that exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Is the i7-14700KF or the RX 570 the limiting factor?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and single-core score of 6290 rank in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU's average benchmark score of 30158 places it in the 74th percentile. The FPS scaling with resolution aligns with GPU-bound behavior.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations for Hitman 2?

A: It ranks 1730 out of 1795 total combos, placing it in the bottom 4% of tested systems for this game. This is a very low standing despite the strong CPU.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low produces 46 FPS while Ultra produces 18.1 FPS — a difference of 27.9 FPS. The Medium setting sits at 31.7 FPS, and High at 23.1 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K at any settings?

A: At 3840x2160, the best result is 25.5 FPS on Low settings. High reaches 14.1 FPS, Medium 16.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 7.6 FPS. None of these are playable for smooth action in a stealth title.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score of 30158 is within 0.8% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29928), 0.6% of the NVIDIA Tesla M60 (29969), and 0.2% of both the RTX 5060 (30109) and RX 7700 XT (30097). The delta percentages are negligible in synthetic tests.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip built on GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory operates at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. The base clock is 1168 MHz with a boost of 1244 MHz.

In Hitman 2, these specifications translate into a hard ceiling. The 4 GB frame buffer is the most likely culprit for the severe drop at 4K Ultra (7.6 FPS) versus 4K Low (25.5 FPS). Modern games at 4K with high textures can exceed 4 GB, forcing the GPU to swap data to system memory over PCIe 3.0 x16 — a 16-lane Gen 3 connection that, while functional, lacks the bandwidth of newer interfaces. The 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is also modest by current standards, and the data shows the GPU struggling to maintain even 30 FPS at 1440p Medium (31.7 FPS).

The FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS is identical to FP16 (5.095 TFLOPS, 1:1 ratio), which is unusual for newer architectures but typical of GCN 4.0. This means the GPU cannot offload half-precision work for a performance boost. The 32 ROPs limit pixel fill rate to 39.81 GPixel/s, which explains why 4K resolution (8.3 million pixels) at High settings yields only 14.1 FPS — the ROPs are saturated just clearing pixels, let alone applying shader effects.

The GPU's percentile rank of 74 among all GPUs is misleading in this context. Its average benchmark score of 30158 places it near the RTX 5060 (30109) in synthetic tests, yet in Hitman 2, those synthetic scores do not translate to playable frame rates at higher resolutions. The game's engine appears to stress memory capacity and bandwidth more heavily than raw compute, punishing the RX 570's 4 GB configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a usable range. Low settings produce 72.2 FPS, which is the only measured result above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 52.9 FPS, High to 39.5 FPS, and Ultra to 30.4 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 19.3 FPS, while Medium to High costs 13.4 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 9.1 FPS. The diminishing returns suggest each settings tier adds progressively less visual impact relative to its FPS cost, but also that the GPU is already near its limit at 1080p Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the picture worsens significantly. Low settings yield 46 FPS, which is borderline playable for a stealth game. Medium produces 31.7 FPS, High 23.1 FPS, and Ultra 18.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 14.3 FPS, while Medium to High is 8.6 FPS, and High to Ultra is 5 FPS. The compression of differences at higher settings indicates the GPU is running out of resources — likely the 4 GB VRAM — rather than compute capacity.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings manage 25.5 FPS, which is the best 4K figure. Medium reaches 16.2 FPS, High 14.1 FPS, and Ultra 7.6 FPS. Interesting anomaly: Medium (16.2) slightly outperforms High (14.1) by 2.1 FPS, which could be due to specific rendering paths or memory allocation differences between those presets. This non-monotonic behavior suggests the GPU is thrashing in memory-limited scenarios at 4K.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings: Low goes from 72.2 (1080p) to 46 (1440p) to 25.5 (4K). Medium goes from 52.9 to 31.7 to 16.2. High goes from 39.5 to 23.1 to 14.1. Ultra goes from 30.4 to 18.1 to 7.6. The 4K Ultra figure of 7.6 FPS is 10% of the 1080p Low figure — a 90% reduction in frame rate from the best to worst measured configuration.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a Raptor Lake-R part with 20 cores (likely a mix of performance and efficiency cores), 28 threads, a base clock of 3.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has 33 MB of shared L3 cache, 2 MB L2 per core, and 80 KB L1 per core. The CPU is built on Intel's 10 nm process and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 44557 multi-core and 6290 single-core, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is overshadowed by the GPU. The data shows no scenario where the CPU appears to limit frame rates — even at 1080p Low (72.2 FPS), a modest result for a CPU that can score 6290 single-core in Cinebench R23. The game, being a stealth title from 2018, likely uses a few threads heavily, and the i7-14700KF's high single-thread performance should handle that easily. The 20 cores and 28 threads are overkill for this workload, but they ensure no CPU-related stutter or bottleneck.

The nearest rival comparisons for the CPU show it is essentially tied with the i7-14700K (70074 vs 70104 average score, 0% delta) and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420, -0.4% delta). This means the CPU is not the differentiating factor in this combo's low rank of 1730 out of 1795. The GPU's average benchmark score of 30158, while near the RTX 5060, does not compensate for the RX 570's architectural age — GCN 4.0 from 2017 lacks the modern feature set that Hitman 2's engine may exploit.

The CPU's 125 W TDP and 5.60 GHz boost clock indicate high sustained performance potential, but the measured FPS data never exceeds 72.2 FPS even in the best case. This ceiling correlates more with the GPU's capabilities than the CPU's. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rate plateaus at lower resolutions regardless of settings, but instead we see FPS scaling with settings changes, which is classic GPU-bound behavior.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For 1920x1080, the Low preset at 72.2 FPS is the only configuration that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. Medium at 52.9 FPS is acceptable for a stealth game where precise timing matters less than in action titles. High at 39.5 FPS and Ultra at 30.4 FPS are playable but approach the threshold where input lag becomes noticeable. Given that Hitman 2 rewards patience and observation over reflexes, Medium at 52.9 FPS offers the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness at 1080p.

For 2560x1440, Low at 46 FPS is the only preset that remains in the playable range for most users. Medium at 31.7 FPS is borderline, while High at 23.1 FPS and Ultra at 18.1 FPS are too choppy for consistent gameplay. The data suggests that 1440p users should stick with Low settings, sacrificing visual quality for playability. The 27.9 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is substantial and not worth the visual upgrade.

For 3840x2160, none of the presets achieve acceptable frame rates. Low at 25.5 FPS is the least bad option, but it will feel sluggish in a game that requires stealth timing. The 7.6 FPS Ultra result is effectively a slideshow. The recommendation is clear: avoid 4K with this combo entirely. The GPU's 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are simply insufficient for 4K rendering in Hitman 2.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset at 1080p (52.9 FPS) provides the most balanced experience. It is 19.3 FPS below Low but offers significantly better visuals than Low, and it is 13.4 FPS above High. For users with variable refresh rate monitors, the 52.9 FPS figure is more than adequate. The Ultra preset at 1080p (30.4 FPS) is not recommended — the visual gains over High are marginal while the FPS cost is steep.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i7-14700KF + AMD Radeon RX 570 combination ranks 1730 out of 1795 tested combos for Hitman 2, placing it in the bottom 3.6% of all systems. This is a remarkably low position for a CPU that individually ranks in the 96th percentile. The discrepancy highlights the GPU's limitations: the RX 570's 74th percentile standing among GPUs does not translate to this game, where its 4 GB VRAM and older GCN 4.0 architecture are insufficient.

The rank implies that out of 1795 tested combinations, only 65 perform worse. This places the combo in the company of systems with far weaker CPUs but possibly similar or better GPU configurations. The data suggests that for Hitman 2, GPU choice matters far more than CPU choice. A mid-range CPU paired with a stronger GPU would likely rank higher, whereas this combo's powerful CPU cannot compensate for the GPU's shortcomings.

The nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the RTX 5060 (30109, +0.2% delta) and RX 7700 XT (30097, +0.2% delta) — would likely perform significantly better in Hitman 2 due to their newer architectures and larger VRAM pools, despite having nearly identical average benchmark scores. This reveals a limitation of using aggregate benchmark scores for game-specific predictions: the RX 570's score is inflated by workloads that play to its strengths, but Hitman 2 stresses memory capacity and bandwidth where the GPU is weakest.

The CPU's nearest rivals (i7-14700K at 0% delta, AMD EPYC 9115 at +0.3% delta, Ryzen 9 9950X at -0.4% delta) are all within 1.3% of its average score, indicating that swapping the CPU would not change the game's outcome. The rank of 1730 is therefore almost entirely attributable to the GPU. This is a cautionary tale for benchmark interpretation: a high-ranked CPU does not rescue a low-ranked GPU in GPU-bound scenarios. The data shows that for Hitman 2, the combo's performance is dictated by the RX 570's 4 GB memory and GCN 4.0 compute, not the i7-14700KF's 20 cores and 5.60 GHz boost clock.