Hitman 2

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 paired with the Intel Core i7-14700KF delivers a performance profile in Hitman 2 that is heavily dictated by resolution and preset, with the GPU acting as the primary constraint at higher settings. Benchmark results show a clear scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K, where the combination moves from high refresh rate territory to borderline playability, revealing a system whose 8 GB frame buffer and mid-range GPU positioning limit its ceiling in this stealth title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep performance drop as resolution increases, a pattern that directly points to the GPU as the limiting component. At 1080p with High settings, the combo averages 90 FPS, which drops to 58 FPS at 1440p and then to 31 FPS at 4K. That represents a 65.5% reduction in average frame rate from 1080p to 4K at the same preset, a severe decline that indicates the Radeon RX 9060 is struggling to maintain pixel throughput as the render load expands. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing: the 58 FPS at 1440p falls to 31 FPS at 4K, a 46.5% loss, which is far steeper than the linear resolution increase would suggest. This non-linear drop is a hallmark of a GPU hitting memory bandwidth or fill rate limits, not a CPU bottleneck.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 159 FPS, dropping to 102 FPS at 1440p and 54 FPS at 4K. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K at Low is 66%, nearly identical to the High preset decline, which confirms that the GPU is the dominant factor across all settings. Notably, the gap between Low and High at each resolution is substantial: at 1080p, Low scores 159 FPS versus High’s 90 FPS, a 76.7% advantage for Low. This wide spread suggests that the game’s visual options have a massive impact on the GPU’s workload, and the RX 9060’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus are insufficient for high-fidelity rendering at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset offers the only complete FPS range data (min/max/avg) in the pack, providing insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 119 FPS with a min of 101 and max of 137, indicating a stable experience with only a 30% variance between minimum and maximum. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 76 FPS with a min of 65 and max of 88, showing a similar relative stability. However, at 4K Medium, the average falls to 41 FPS with a min of 35 and max of 47, where the variance narrows but the absolute performance becomes marginal for smooth play. The data suggests that at 4K, the GPU is operating near its limits, and any scene complexity spike could push frame rates below playable thresholds.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience balances frame rate and visual fidelity at each resolution. At 1080p, the High preset at 90 FPS is the clear recommendation for most users, as it provides a smooth, responsive experience well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining decent visual quality. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 66 FPS, which is still playable but offers diminishing returns over High given the significant drop from 90 to 66 FPS. For competitive play or maximum smoothness, the Low preset at 159 FPS is available, but the visual compromise is substantial. The Medium preset at 119 FPS is a middle ground, but High’s 90 FPS is close enough that the extra visual detail is generally worth the frame rate cost.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 58 FPS, which is below the ideal 60 FPS target but still playable for a stealth game where precise timing is less critical than in fast-paced shooters. The Medium preset at 76 FPS is the safer choice for maintaining smoothness, as it provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The Low preset at 102 FPS is the best option for high refresh rate monitors, but it sacrifices significant visual detail. The Ultra preset at 43 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the playability threshold for most users, and the visual gains over High are unlikely to justify the 25.9% performance hit.

At 4K, the situation is dire. The High preset averages only 31 FPS, which is stuttery and not recommended for general play. The Medium preset at 41 FPS is the best playable option, though it still falls short of the 60 FPS ideal. The Low preset at 54 FPS is the only preset that approaches playable smoothness, but it requires accepting the lowest visual quality. The Ultra preset at 23 FPS is effectively unplayable. The data indicates that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in Hitman 2 unless the user is willing to drop to Low settings and tolerate sub-60 FPS performance. For most scenarios, 1440p Medium or High, or 1080p High, represents the best experience per the measured data.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is the clear bottleneck in this combination for Hitman 2, and its specifications explain the observed performance. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest for a modern card targeting 1440p and 4K gaming. The 8 GB frame buffer is particularly problematic at 4K, where the texture and geometry data can easily exceed that capacity, leading to the severe FPS drops observed. The card’s 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs are also limited, with a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s that struggle to keep up with the resolution scaling.

The clock speeds are relatively high, with a base of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost of 2990 MHz. However, these clocks do not compensate for the underlying architecture’s limitations. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS is respectable for the segment, but in Hitman 2, the memory bandwidth and capacity appear to be the primary constraints. The RDNA 4.0 architecture on a 4 nm process from TSMC is efficient, but it cannot overcome the physical limitations of the 128-bit memory interface.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its mid-range positioning. Its passmark G3D score of 17631 places it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (with a deltaPct of -0.7) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (deltaPct of 1). This means the RX 9060 performs nearly identically to the RTX 3060 Ti in synthetic benchmarks, but in Hitman 2, the measured FPS at 4K suggests that the 8 GB frame buffer is a liability. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3322 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 39476 are moderate, indicating that while it can handle modern APIs, its raw throughput is not sufficient for high-resolution gaming without compromises.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested combinations for Hitman 2, this pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1739 out of 3001 combos. This places it in the bottom 42% of tested configurations, which is a surprisingly low position given the CPU’s strength. The rank indicates that while the CPU is a top-tier performer, the GPU drags the overall experience down significantly. The combo’s rank of 1739 suggests that most other tested combinations, likely those with higher-end GPUs, achieve better FPS in this game.

The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks are excellent, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and a single-core score of 6235, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. However, these strengths do not translate to Hitman 2 performance because the game is GPU-bound at the tested settings. The combo’s rank is more reflective of the GPU’s limitations than the CPU’s capabilities. The nearest rival CPUs to the i7-14700KF, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (deltaPct of 0.2) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct of 0.9), show that the CPU is competitive, but this does not help the overall ranking.

The low rank also suggests that many users with this CPU likely pair it with a more powerful GPU, resulting in better Hitman 2 performance. The RX 9060’s performance percentile of 59% is below what would be expected for a high-end gaming rig, and this mismatch is the primary reason for the poor combo ranking. In essence, the data shows a significant imbalance: a top-tier CPU paired with a mid-range GPU yields a below-average gaming experience for this title, and the ranking reflects that imbalance rather than any deficiency in the CPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF provides a massive amount of processing power that is largely underutilized in Hitman 2 due to the GPU bottleneck. The CPU features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This configuration is designed for heavy multi-threaded workloads, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and Passmark multithread score of 52425. The single-core performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6235 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2578, which is crucial for games that rely on a few fast threads.

However, in Hitman 2, the CPU’s role is secondary. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (159 FPS) and 1440p Low (102 FPS) suggest that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at high frame rates, but once the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher settings, the CPU’s headroom is irrelevant. The i7-14700KF’s 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample memory for game logic, but this does not translate to higher FPS when the GPU is saturated.

The CPU’s architecture, Raptor Lake on Intel’s 10 nm process, is mature and well-optimized. Its power draw of 125 W TDP is manageable, and its support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory gives flexibility, though the memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor in this game. The CPU’s benchmark scores show it is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and 0.9% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X in average synthetic score, but these differences are negligible in gaming. The data indicates that in Hitman 2, the CPU is never the limiting factor; even at 1080p Low, the 159 FPS is more likely capped by the GPU’s rendering capabilities than by any CPU constraint. For this game, users could pair this CPU with a significantly weaker processor and see little difference in FPS, highlighting that the GPU is the sole determinant of the measured performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings for this combo?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 90 FPS, with no minimum or maximum values recorded in the data.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 3060 Ti, in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, while the RTX 3060 Ti has a score of 16129, giving the RX 9060 a deltaPct of -0.7, meaning it performs 0.7% worse than the RTX 3060 Ti.

Q: What is the best playable preset at 4K based on the measured data?

A: The Medium preset at 4K offers an average of 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 and maximum of 47, which is the best balance of playability and visual quality, as the High preset drops to 31 FPS and Ultra falls to 23 FPS.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations for Hitman 2?

A: The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1739 out of 3001 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of all results.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance in this game?

A: The data clearly shows the GPU is the limiting factor, as FPS scales dramatically with resolution and settings while the CPU’s strong multi-core and single-core benchmarks (e.g., 44167 in Cinebench R23 multi-core) do not prevent the FPS drops at 4K.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 102 FPS, while the High preset averages 58 FPS, representing a 75.9% performance advantage for Low settings over High settings.