Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a workable but tiered experience in Hitman 2, a stealth game that rewards careful observation and consistent frame pacing. This combination ranks 2018 out of 3711 tested combos, placing it in the middle of the pack for this title. The measured data shows a system that can comfortably handle high-refresh 1080p gaming, remains playable at 1440p, but struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K, particularly when settings are pushed beyond Medium. The 20-core CPU with 28 threads is far from the bottleneck in most scenarios; instead, the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus of the RTX 4060 define the performance ceiling as resolution and detail levels increase.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the sweet spot for this combo. The data shows an average of 82 FPS at this resolution and setting, with a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS. That minimum is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider the baseline for smooth gameplay, and the variance between minimum and maximum is tight enough to avoid jarring stutters. At 1920x1080, Medium pushes the average up to 129 FPS, with a minimum of 109 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh monitors. If you own a 144Hz display, this is the preset to use. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs you 32 FPS on average (from 129 to 97), which is a significant drop for marginal visual gains in a game that is not graphically demanding by modern standards.

At 1440p, High is still playable, averaging 62 FPS, but the minimum frame data is not provided, leaving uncertainty about dips during crowded scenes. Ultra is not recommended for any resolution where you want consistent gameplay. At 1080p Ultra, the average falls to 72 FPS, which sounds acceptable, but at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 46 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it collapses to 24 FPS. The pattern is clear: Ultra settings are disproportionately punishing on this GPU, likely due to the VRAM capacity and bandwidth limitations rather than raw compute power. For a stealth game where you often observe large environments with many NPCs from a distance, Medium provides the most reliable experience. It maintains frame rates that allow for smooth camera panning and quick reactions when you are spotted.

The Low preset is worth mentioning only for competitive or speedrun scenarios. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 171 FPS average, and at 1440p Low, it still reaches 110 FPS. This shows that the CPU and GPU have ample headroom when graphical effects are stripped away. However, for most players, the visual downgrade is not worth the extra frames, especially since Medium already delivers high performance. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the most balanced configuration, offering a 70 FPS minimum that ensures the game never feels sluggish, while still providing enough detail to spot guards, cameras, and environmental hazards. If you must use High, stick to 1080p, where the 97 FPS average keeps the experience fluid.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die. Its base clock is 1830 MHz, boosting to 2460 MHz, and it has 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The memory configuration is where this card shows its limits for Hitman 2: 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus provides 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a modest amount for a game that can be played at 4K, and the measured FPS data reflects this. At 4K Medium, the average is 44 FPS with a minimum of 37 and a maximum of 50, showing that the GPU is working hard but cannot sustain high frame rates due to memory bandwidth constraints. The 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present, but Hitman 2 does not heavily utilize ray tracing, so the traditional rasterization performance, measured at 15.11 TFLOPS FP32, is what matters here.

The GPU's 115 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest it is a power-efficient card, but that efficiency does not translate into high-end 4K performance. In the benchmark suite, the RTX 4060 scores 19545 in Passmark G3D, placing it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon HD 7790 at 17666 (deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Radeon 780M at 17588 (deltaPct 0.3), the AMD Radeon Pro 560 at 17551 (deltaPct 0.5), and the AMD Radeon Pro 460 at 17509 (deltaPct 0.7). These are older or integrated-class parts, which underscores that the RTX 4060 is positioned as a mainstream card, not a high-end one. In Hitman 2 specifically, the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 171 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 58 FPS, a 66% reduction. This is not a CPU limitation; the i7-14700KF is more than capable. The 8 GB VRAM is likely the culprit at 4K, as the game's textures and draw distances at that resolution can exceed the memory capacity, causing performance to plummet.

The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface is another consideration, though it is unlikely to bottleneck in this game. The 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU must fetch more data per frame, and the combination of limited VRAM and a 128-bit bus creates a bottleneck. The measured FPS at 4K High (33 FPS) and 4K Ultra (24 FPS) are essentially unplayable for a stealth game where timing is critical. The GPU's pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s are respectable for the mid-range, but they cannot compensate for the memory limitations at extreme resolutions. For this combo, the RTX 4060 is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p with Medium settings, where its strengths are showcased without exposing its weaknesses.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 129 at 1080p to 82 at 1440p, and then down to 44 at 4K. This is a 66% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a substantial loss. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, with a 46% drop in average FPS, indicating that the GPU is struggling to fill the extra pixels. At Low settings, the pattern is similar: 171 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p, and 58 FPS at 4K. The fact that even at Low settings, 4K cannot break 60 FPS is telling. It implies that the raw pixel throughput demands of 4K exceed what the RTX 4060 can deliver, regardless of the visual complexity.

At High settings, the scaling is even more punishing: 97 FPS at 1080p, 62 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is a 66% drop from 1440p High, showing that the GPU is being overwhelmed. Ultra settings are the worst, with 72 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is below the threshold for playable frame rates in most games, and it suggests that the 8 GB VRAM is not sufficient for the highest texture and shadow quality at that resolution. The CPU, on the other hand, shows no signs of being the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 171 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would stress many CPUs, but the i7-14700KF with its 20 cores and 28 threads handles it without issue. The benchmark scores for the CPU, such as 44167 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 6235 in singlecore, are robust and well above what Hitman 2 requires.

The resolution scaling data points to a GPU-bound system at 1440p and above. At 1080p, the system is balanced, with the CPU and GPU working in tandem to produce high frame rates. However, as resolution increases, the GPU's memory bandwidth and capacity become the limiting factor, causing frame rates to drop disproportionately. For players using a 4K monitor, this combo is not recommended for Hitman 2 unless you are willing to play at Low settings, which still only yields 58 FPS. At 1440p, the system is capable of smooth gameplay at Medium, and at 1080p, it excels. The data suggests that the ideal resolution for this combo is 1080p, where even High settings maintain a 97 FPS average, and Medium settings reach 129 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 2018 out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the 54th percentile, meaning it outperforms just over half of all tested systems. This is a mid-pack ranking, which is consistent with the GPU's performance class. The CPU is a top-tier part, ranking in the 94th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 70163. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F at 69996 (deltaPct 0.2), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69875 (deltaPct 0.4), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (deltaPct 0.9), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K at 70879 (deltaPct -1). These are all high-end processors, and the i7-14700KF holds its own, being within 1% of its closest competitors.

The GPU, however, is a different story. The RTX 4060 ranks in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17639. Its nearest rivals are much older or lower-tier parts, such as the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (deltaPct -0.2) and the AMD Radeon 780M (deltaPct 0.3). This indicates that while the GPU is not a weak performer for its class, it is not a high-end card. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU creates an imbalance in this game. The CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with data at very high frame rates, but the GPU cannot keep up at higher resolutions. This is why the combo rank is in the middle of the pack; it excels at 1080p but falls behind combos with more powerful GPUs at 1440p and 4K.

The rank of 2018 suggests that there are 1693 combos that perform worse and 1693 that perform better. This places the combo in a large cluster of similar systems, likely those with mid-range GPUs and high-end CPUs. The data shows that the combo's performance is heavily dependent on resolution and settings, with the best results at 1080p Medium, where it achieves 129 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 24 FPS, which is among the worst results for any resolution in this test. The ranking reflects this variability; the combo is not a top performer, but it is also not a slouch. For a stealth game like Hitman 2, which is not a demanding title by modern standards, this combo offers a playable experience at most settings, but it cannot push the highest visual quality at high resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. Its cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a powerful CPU, as evidenced by its benchmark scores: 44167 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 6235 in singlecore, and 21462 in Geekbench multicore. In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, and physics, and the data shows that it is not a bottleneck at any resolution or setting in this test. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 171 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would expose CPU limitations in less capable processors. The fact that this CPU can sustain such performance indicates that it has ample headroom.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all top-tier parts, and the i7-14700KF is competitive with them, showing a deltaPct of less than 1% in most cases. This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, such as low-resolution gaming with a powerful GPU, this processor will not hold you back. In Hitman 2, the game is more GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but at 1080p, the CPU's performance is crucial for achieving high frame rates. The 28 threads allow for efficient multi-tasking, and the game can utilize multiple cores for AI processing and level streaming. The boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that single-threaded performance is also strong, which is important for the game's main loop.

The fact that the CPU is not the limiting factor is evident from the FPS scaling. When moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings, the FPS drops significantly, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain similar across resolutions. Instead, the data shows a clear GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions. This means that if you were to upgrade the GPU to a more powerful model, the combo's performance in Hitman 2 would improve substantially, especially at 1440p and 4K. The CPU's percentile ranking of 94 indicates that it is in the top 6% of all CPUs, making it a future-proof choice for gaming. For this game, the CPU is more than sufficient, and its capabilities are not fully utilized due to the GPU's limitations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance across all settings. At Low, the average FPS is 171, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors. At Medium, the average drops to 129 FPS, with a minimum of 109 and a maximum of 148 FPS. This is the most balanced setting at this resolution, offering high frame rates with improved visual quality. At High, the average is 97 FPS, which is still smooth, but the drop from Medium is noticeable. At Ultra, the average falls to 72 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a game that benefits from high frame rates for smooth camera movement. The minimum and maximum FPS data is only available for Medium, showing a range of 109 to 148 FPS, which indicates good frame pacing without major spikes or drops.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. At Low, the average is 110 FPS, which is still very good. At Medium, the average is 82 FPS, with a minimum of 70 and a maximum of 95 FPS. This is the recommended setting for this resolution, as the minimum is above 60 FPS, ensuring a consistent experience. At High, the average is 62 FPS, which is at the edge of playability, but the lack of minimum FPS data means you cannot be sure about dips during intense scenes. At Ultra, the average is 46 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and likely to feel choppy. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings results in a 36% drop in average FPS (from 129 to 82), which is significant but expected for a mid-range GPU.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. At Low, the average is 58 FPS, which is barely above 60 FPS and may dip below during busy scenes. At Medium, the average is 44 FPS, with a minimum of 37 and a maximum of 50 FPS. This is not smooth enough for a stealth game where timing is important. At High, the average drops to 33 FPS, and at Ultra, it falls to 24 FPS. These results are consistent with the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus, which cannot handle the demands of 4K rendering in this game. The minimum FPS of 37 at 4K Medium indicates that the frame rate can dip below 40 FPS, which is a poor experience. The data shows that this combo is best used at 1080p or 1440p, and 4K should only be attempted at Low settings if you are willing to accept lower visual quality and potentially inconsistent frame rates.