Hitman 2

The pairing of an Intel Core i9-14900K with an AMD Radeon RX 570 in Hitman 2 produces a severely imbalanced result, dominated entirely by the GPU’s limitations. While the CPU is a top-tier part, the benchmark data shows that this combination ranks in the bottom percentile of tested configurations, with playable frame rates only achievable at 1080p with reduced settings. The following analysis details the measured performance metrics.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Hitman 2?

A: This pairing ranks 1709 out of 1795 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations. This indicates that despite the high-end processor, the overall gaming experience is poor due to the graphics card bottleneck.

Q: What is the best-case frame rate for this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 69.6 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches a smooth 60 FPS experience.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: No. At 3840x2160 resolution, the average frame rate ranges from 10.3 FPS at Ultra settings to 25.4 FPS at Low settings. All 4K results are far below playable thresholds, with even the lowest settings failing to reach 30 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K has an average benchmark score of 79824, which places it 97th percentile among all CPUs. It is 0.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7413 and 0.7% ahead of both the Intel Core i9-14900KF and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF.

Q: What is the GPU’s performance percentile relative to other graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 sits in the 74th percentile of all GPUs based on its average benchmark score of 30158. This places it in the mid-to-upper range of historical hardware, but it is clearly outclassed by modern parts that appear in its nearest rivals list.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 45.4 FPS on Low settings to 18.1 FPS on Ultra settings. This represents a 60% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field provides a stark assessment: this configuration sits at rank 1709 out of 1795 total tested combinations. This places the system in the bottom 4.8% of all tested hardware pairings for Hitman 2. The ranking reflects a fundamental mismatch between the components, where the CPU’s capabilities are entirely wasted by the GPU’s inability to render frames quickly enough.

The Intel Core i9-14900K is an exceptionally powerful processor, with an average benchmark score of 79824 and a 97th percentile ranking. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7413 (score 80041, delta -0.3%) and the Intel Core i9-14900KF (score 79245, delta 0.7%), show that the CPU is performing as expected for its class. The GPU, however, tells a different story. The AMD Radeon RX 570, while holding a 74th percentile GPU ranking, is a legacy Polaris part that cannot keep pace with modern gaming demands.

The data indicates that the combination’s low rank is not a reflection of the CPU but rather a direct consequence of the GPU bottleneck. In Hitman 2, which is a demanding title for its era, the RX 570’s 4 GB of VRAM and GCN 4.0 architecture are insufficient for high-resolution or high-detail workloads. The result is a system that performs like a low-end machine despite containing a flagship processor, underscoring that the GPU is the sole limiting factor in this pairing.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration. Its specifications reveal why the measured frame rates are so low. The GPU features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units, with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These are modest figures by modern standards, and the 14 nm process node from GlobalFoundries further limits its efficiency.

In Hitman 2, the GPU’s memory capacity and bandwidth are critical. The game’s detailed environments and crowd simulations require substantial VRAM, and the 4 GB capacity is likely exceeded at higher settings and resolutions, leading to texture thrashing and reduced performance. The pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are also insufficient to drive high-resolution displays smoothly.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 30158 places it in the 74th percentile, but its nearest rivals in the database are modern parts like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (score 30109, delta 0.2%) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (score 30097, delta 0.2%). This is a striking comparison: the RX 570’s synthetic score is nearly identical to these contemporary cards, yet its real-world gaming performance in Hitman 2 is far worse. This discrepancy suggests that the RX 570’s architecture lacks modern features or optimizations that newer GPUs possess, making it particularly weak in this specific title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the results are the most usable: Low settings yield an average of 69.6 FPS, Medium produces 52 FPS, High drops to 41.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 26.7 FPS. This shows that the GPU can handle 1080p gaming only at lower presets, with the Ultra setting already dipping below the 30 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance degrades significantly. The Low preset averages 45.4 FPS, Medium drops to 35.7 FPS, High falls to 24.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 18.1 FPS. None of these settings provide a consistently smooth experience, and the gap between Low and Ultra is 27.3 FPS, highlighting the GPU’s sensitivity to graphical load.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable. The Low preset averages 25.4 FPS, Medium yields 20.9 FPS, High produces 13.5 FPS, and Ultra manages only 10.3 FPS. The 4K data shows a clear pattern: even the lowest settings cannot maintain a playable frame rate, indicating that the GPU is completely overwhelmed by the pixel count and shader complexity at this resolution. The spread between settings is also notable, with Ultra delivering less than half the frame rate of Low.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals the nature of the bottleneck. At Low settings, performance falls from 69.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 45.4 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 25.4 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 63.5% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the lowest quality preset. The scaling is more severe at higher settings: at Ultra, the drop is from 26.7 FPS at 1080p to 18.1 FPS at 1440p, and then to 10.3 FPS at 4K, a total reduction of 61.4%.

This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The Intel Core i9-14900K, with its 24 cores, 32 threads, and boost clock of 6.00 GHz, is more than capable of feeding frames at any resolution. The fact that frame rates plummet as resolution increases indicates that the RX 570’s compute units and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively stable across resolutions, as the processor’s workload does not scale with pixel count.

The data also shows that the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 42.9 FPS (69.6 vs. 26.7). At 1440p, the gap narrows to 27.3 FPS (45.4 vs. 18.1). At 4K, the gap is 15.1 FPS (25.4 vs. 10.3). This narrowing suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so saturated that even reducing settings provides diminishing returns, as the raw pixel throughput becomes the primary obstacle. The conclusion is clear: this combo is only viable for 1080p gaming at Low or Medium settings, and any attempt to push higher resolutions or quality presets will result in an unplayable experience.