Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers a peculiar scaling curve in Hitman 2. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops by roughly 35-38% across all settings, which is a typical resolution penalty. However, the jump from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is far more punishing: at High settings, performance collapses from 54.5 FPS to 30 FPS, a 45% loss. At Ultra settings, the decline is even steeper, falling from 41.8 FPS to 20.3 FPS. This nonlinear drop at 4K strongly indicates the GPU is hitting a hard memory bandwidth or pixel-throughput ceiling, given the RX 7600’s 128-bit bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 1080p, the scaling is much gentler, suggesting the CPU still has headroom to feed the GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the RX 7600 produces 148.1 FPS on Low and 84.1 FPS on High, a spread of 64 FPS that shows the graphics card is doing meaningful work but the processor is keeping pace. The i7-14700KF, with 20 cores and 28 threads, is unlikely to be the limiting factor here; its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and single-core score of 6290 place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. At 2560x1440, the picture changes: Low settings yield 97 FPS, while High drops to 54.5 FPS. The gap between Low and High narrows from 64 FPS at 1080p to 42.5 FPS at 1440p, which is typical as pixel count rises.

The real story is at 3840x2160. Low settings produce 48.3 FPS, but High falls to 30 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 20.3 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra widens from 88.7 FPS at 1080p to just 28 FPS at 4K, but the absolute numbers are so low that playability becomes questionable. The RX 7600’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 2048 shading units are simply overwhelmed by 4K pixel counts. Notably, the 4K Low result of 48.3 FPS is only 11 FPS slower than the 1440p High result of 54.5 FPS, suggesting that even at Low settings, the GPU is struggling to maintain throughput. The data indicates that 4K is not viable for this combination unless the player accepts sub-30 FPS averages on High or Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

For a balanced experience, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers the most compelling compromise. The measured 72.7 FPS is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, while the visual uplift over Low is substantial. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 112.5 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays, though High at 84.1 FPS may be preferable for image quality without sacrificing smoothness. The Ultra preset is difficult to justify at any resolution: at 1080p it produces 59.4 FPS, at 1440p it falls to 41.8 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 20.3 FPS. Given that High at 1080p beats Ultra at 1440p by 42.3 FPS, the performance cost of Ultra is disproportionate to its visual gains in this engine.

At 4K, the recommendation is clear: stick to Low settings, which yields 48.3 FPS. Medium at 35.2 FPS and High at 30 FPS are borderline, but the low frame times will likely make stealth gameplay feel unresponsive. For players targeting 4K, the RX 7600 simply lacks the raw throughput, and the data suggests that even Low settings cannot guarantee a stable 60 FPS. The most sensible path is to run 1440p Medium or High, where the card delivers 72.7 FPS and 54.5 FPS respectively. The 1080p Low result of 148.1 FPS is the only measurement that approaches high-refresh territory, but it comes at the cost of visual fidelity.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7600 is the dominant factor in these results. Its base clock of 1720 MHz and boost clock of 2655 MHz provide the raw compute, but the limiting resource is memory. The 8 GB GDDR6 buffer on a 128-bit bus delivers 288.0 GB/s, which is adequate for 1080p but becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions. The card’s 64 ROPs and 128 TMUs are well-matched for 1080p rasterization, as evidenced by the 148.1 FPS Low result. However, at 4K, the pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s is insufficient to maintain smooth frame pacing, leading to the steep drop-offs observed in the measured data.

The GPU’s 32 ray accelerators and RDNA 3.0 architecture are not directly relevant to Hitman 2’s standard rasterization path, but the FP32 throughput of 21.75 TFLOPS does influence shader-heavy scenes. The card’s percentile ranking of 63 among all GPUs places it firmly in the mid-range, and its nearest rivals include the Radeon RX 7600 XT (0.6% faster) and the RTX 3070 Mobile (1.3% faster). This context explains why the card can handle 1080p Ultra at 59.4 FPS but falls apart at 4K Ultra at 20.3 FPS. The 8 GB memory capacity is also a concern: Hitman 2’s large, detailed environments can exceed this limit at high resolutions, forcing texture streaming that compounds the bandwidth constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range is playable. Low produces 148.1 FPS, Medium drops to 112.5 FPS, High yields 84.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 59.4 FPS. The step from High to Ultra costs 24.7 FPS, which is a 29% penalty for the highest preset. At 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low 97 FPS, Medium 72.7 FPS, High 54.5 FPS, and Ultra 41.8 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 18.2 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 12.7 FPS. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 48.3 FPS, Medium 35.2 FPS, High 30 FPS, and Ultra 20.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 13.1 FPS, and Medium to High is just 5.2 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

The 1080p Low result of 148.1 FPS is the only measurement that exceeds 120 FPS, making it the sole candidate for high-refresh displays. The 1440p Low result of 97 FPS is respectable, but 1440p High at 54.5 FPS is more representative of the card’s capabilities for modern visual standards. At 4K, no setting achieves 60 FPS, and the highest result is Low at 48.3 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: each resolution step halving the headroom, with 1080p offering 2.5x the FPS of 4K at equivalent settings. This aligns with the pixel count difference and the GPU’s bandwidth limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i7-14700KF and RX 7600 ranks 1197 out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the 33rd percentile of all system configurations. This is a surprisingly low ranking given the CPU’s strength. The i7-14700KF alone sits in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70104, nearly identical to the i7-14700K (0% delta) and slightly ahead of the Ryzen 9 9950X (-0.4% delta). The GPU, however, ranks in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 20258, only 0.6% behind the RX 7600 XT and 1.5% behind the Intel Arc B570.

This disparity—a top-tier CPU paired with a mid-range GPU—explains the combo’s modest rank. In Hitman 2, a stealth game that is more GPU-bound than CPU-bound at higher resolutions, the RX 7600 holds the combo back. The CPU’s potential is visible in the 1080p Low result of 148.1 FPS, where the processor can stretch its legs, but the GPU’s 8 GB memory and 128-bit bus become the ceiling at 1440p and beyond. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates, but its 4K performance is severely constrained. Users seeking higher ranks in this benchmark would need a more substantial GPU, as the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing.