Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with Intel Core i9-14900K + Intel Arc B370

The Intel Arc B370, paired with the Intel Core i9-14900K, delivers playable frame rates in Hitman 2 only at 1080p with lower settings, while higher resolutions and settings push the system into sub-30 FPS territory. This combination ranks near the bottom of the tested pool — 2768th out of 3001 combos — reflecting a GPU that is severely outclassed by the CPU in this title. The data shows a system where the graphics card is the dominant bottleneck at every resolution above 1080p, and even at 1080p, the Arc B370's limited throughput caps performance well below what the 24-core i9-14900K could otherwise deliver.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep and consistent performance drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, clearly indicating that the Intel Arc B370 is the limiting component in this pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, the system averages 73 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops performance to 46 FPS — a 37% reduction — and at 4K Low, the average falls to 25 FPS, which is a 66% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern shows that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being saturated early, as the i9-14900K's processing power remains largely unused at higher resolutions.

The Medium settings row provides additional detail on this scaling trend. At 1080p Medium, the average is 54 FPS, with a minimum of 46 and a maximum of 63. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 35 FPS, with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 19 FPS, with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 21. The min-to-max spread at 1080p Medium is 17 FPS, which narrows to 10 FPS at 1440p and just 5 FPS at 4K — indicating that as the resolution increases, the frame time variance compresses because the GPU is consistently saturated, leaving little headroom for fluctuation.

High settings show a similar pattern. The 1080p High average is 41 FPS, which drops to 26 FPS at 1440p and 14 FPS at 4K. That represents a 66% reduction from 1080p to 4K, identical to the Low settings drop. Ultra settings are the most demanding, with 30 FPS at 1080p, 19 FPS at 1440p, and 10 FPS at 4K — a 67% drop from 1080p to 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings presets strongly suggests that resolution scaling is purely GPU-bound, with the CPU playing no meaningful role in the frame rate degradation.

What this scaling data says about the limiting component is unambiguous: the Intel Arc B370's 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs cannot sustain adequate throughput beyond 1080p. The GPU's pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are simply too low for 1440p or 4K rendering in Hitman 2, regardless of the settings preset chosen. The 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 compute figure further confirms that this is an entry-level graphics solution struggling with a 2018 title at modern resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by Intel. Its base clock is 300 MHz, boosting to 2400 MHz, and it operates with system-shared memory, meaning its bandwidth and capacity are "System Dependent" rather than fixed. This shared memory configuration is a critical factor in Hitman 2's performance, as the game's texture streaming and geometry processing rely heavily on memory bandwidth that the Arc B370 cannot dedicate exclusively to graphics tasks.

The GPU's specifications paint a clear picture of its limitations. With 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 render output units, the Arc B370 is architecturally similar to a very low-end discrete GPU from over a decade ago. The 10 ray tracing cores are present, but Hitman 2 does not utilize ray tracing in its standard rendering path, so they offer no benefit here. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 6.144 TFLOPS, while not negligible on paper, is hampered by the shared memory subsystem and the low 25 W TDP, which constrains sustained clock performance.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score for the Arc B370 is 1184, which places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1186, delta -0.2%), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1190, delta -0.5%), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (score 1192, delta -0.7%), and the AMD FirePro M2000 (score 1168, delta 1.4%). This means the Arc B370 performs within 1.4% of these legacy GPUs, all of which are over a decade old. The fact that Hitman 2, a title from 2018, still only manages 73 FPS at 1080p Low with a modern i9-14900K driving the system underscores how severely the GPU bottlenecks this pairing.

The boost clock of 2400 MHz is respectable for an integrated part, but the 300 MHz base clock indicates that thermal and power constraints under load are substantial. In Hitman 2, the GPU's clock behavior is not explicitly measured, but the average FPS figures across all resolutions suggest that the Arc B370 cannot sustain high clocks during extended gaming sessions. The 25 W TDP is a fraction of what even entry-level discrete GPUs consume, and this power envelope directly limits the achievable performance in a demanding game like Hitman 2.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. This is an extremely powerful CPU, as evidenced by its benchmark scores: 39399.5 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 2262.5 in Cinebench R23 singlecore, 21697 in Geekbench multicore, and 2655 in Geekbench singlecore. Its Passmark multithread score is 58674, and its single-thread score is 4697.

In the context of Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, physics, and draw call submission. The i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads provide far more processing capability than the game requires, even at 1080p where CPU load is typically highest relative to GPU load. The CPU's Passmark physics score of 3140 and data compression score of 792694 indicate strong single-thread and multi-thread performance, respectively, which should easily keep up with Hitman 2's engine demands.

However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 73 FPS, which is a respectable frame rate but far below what the i9-14900K could drive with a more capable GPU. The CPU's benchmark percentile of 95th vs all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79097, places it among the top processors available. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-14900KF (avg score 79371, delta -0.3%), the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (avg score 79574, delta -0.6%), the AMD EPYC 7413 (avg score 80041, delta -1.2%), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (avg score 77740, delta 1.7%). These delta percentages show that the i9-14900K is within 1.7% of these competitors, confirming its high-end status.

The CPU's 6.00 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for Hitman 2, which is a game that responds well to high single-core performance. The Cinebench R15 singlecore score of 324.5 and R20 singlecore score of 2935 demonstrate excellent per-core throughput. Yet, even with this CPU horsepower, the system cannot exceed 73 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a clear indication that the GPU is the bottleneck. If the Arc B370 were replaced with a more powerful GPU, the i9-14900K would likely push frame rates much higher, but with the current pairing, the CPU's capabilities are largely wasted in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i9-14900K + Intel Arc B370 combination ranks 2768th out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the bottom 7.8% of all configurations. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's severe performance limitations, as the CPU is in the top 5% of all processors. The disparity between the CPU's percentile (95th) and the GPU's percentile (5th) creates a massively unbalanced system where the GPU holds back the entire platform.

The combo rank of 2768 means that 233 other tested combinations perform worse than this pairing. However, it also means that 2767 combinations perform better, which includes systems with much weaker CPUs paired with moderately better GPUs. In Hitman 2, the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rate, so the i9-14900K's high-end status does little to boost this combo's ranking. The data suggests that even a mid-range CPU paired with a low-end discrete GPU from the same era as Hitman 2's release would likely outperform this configuration.

The rank is particularly telling because Hitman 2 is not a particularly demanding game by modern standards, having been released in 2018. The fact that this 2026-era integrated GPU (release date 2026-01-26) cannot achieve playable frame rates at 1440p or 4K in a six-year-old title indicates that the Arc B370 is fundamentally unsuited for gaming beyond 1080p low-to-medium settings. The combo's rank reflects this reality, with the GPU's 5th percentile standing and its proximity to decade-old ATI and AMD parts in benchmark scores sealing its fate.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 73 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only measured configuration that exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K or the Intel Arc B370 the bottleneck in this system?

A: The Intel Arc B370 is the bottleneck. The GPU's 5th percentile ranking and its benchmark scores, which are within 1.4% of GPUs like the ATI Radeon HD 5770, contrast sharply with the CPU's 95th percentile ranking. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 66-67% reduction across all settings, indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: Can this combo run Hitman 2 at 4K resolution?

A: Technically yes, but not at playable frame rates. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 25; at 4K Medium, it is 19; at 4K High, it is 14; and at 4K Ultra, it is 10. None of these configurations approach the 30 FPS threshold typically considered minimally playable.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its nearest rivals are the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% faster), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% faster), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, 0.7% faster), and the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, 1.4% slower).

Q: What is the FPS range at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system averages 35 FPS, with a minimum of 30 FPS and a maximum of 40 FPS. This is the only 1440p configuration with reported min/max values.

Q: Does the i9-14900K's high core count benefit Hitman 2 performance?

A: No, the 24 cores and 32 threads do not provide a measurable benefit in this title with this GPU. The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 95th percentile, but the system's FPS is capped by the GPU at 73 FPS max, indicating that the CPU's resources are largely underutilized.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset for this combo is 1080p with Low settings, which delivers an average of 73 FPS. This is the only configuration that provides a smooth experience above the 60 FPS threshold. The 1080p Medium preset, at 54 FPS average, is also viable for players who prefer better visual quality over maximum smoothness, though the 46 FPS minimum may cause occasional stutter in dense scenes.

For players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, the 1080p High preset at 41 FPS average is the highest quality setting that remains playable. The 1080p Ultra preset, at 30 FPS average, is borderline and only recommended for players who can tolerate lower frame rates. At 1440p, the Low preset (46 FPS average) is the only viable option, while the Medium preset (35 FPS average) is marginal and the High (26 FPS) and Ultra (19 FPS) presets are not recommended. At 4K, no preset delivers playable performance — the best is Low at 25 FPS average, which is below the generally accepted playability threshold.

The data indicates that the Arc B370's 1280 shading units and 25 W TDP simply cannot handle Hitman 2's rendering demands at higher resolutions. The system-shared memory configuration further compounds the issue, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth. Therefore, the recommended configuration is 1080p Low for optimal frame rate, with 1080p Medium as a compromise for improved visuals at a modest FPS cost.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 73 FPS, Medium yields 54 FPS (minimum 46, maximum 63), High achieves 41 FPS, and Ultra drops to 30 FPS. The 27 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p demonstrates that the GPU's limited shading units and ROPs are progressively overwhelmed as image quality increases.

At 2560x1440, performance falls significantly across all presets. Low averages 46 FPS, Medium averages 35 FPS (minimum 30, maximum 40), High averages 26 FPS, and Ultra averages 19 FPS. The 27 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1440p mirrors the 1080p spread, but at lower absolute values — indicating that the resolution increase uniformly taxes the GPU without changing the relative cost of each settings tier.

At 3840x2160, the system becomes largely unplayable. Low averages 25 FPS, Medium averages 19 FPS (minimum 16, maximum 21), High averages 14 FPS, and Ultra averages 10 FPS. The 15 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest of all resolutions, suggesting that the GPU is so heavily saturated at 4K that even reducing settings provides diminishing returns. The 4K min/max data for Medium (16-21 FPS) shows a narrow 5 FPS range, indicating consistent GPU saturation with minimal frame time variance.

Across all resolutions, the scaling from Low to Ultra is consistent: a 58-60% reduction in average FPS from the lowest to highest settings. This consistency indicates that Hitman 2's settings presets scale graphics load linearly, and the Arc B370 responds predictably to increased demand. However, the absolute FPS values at 1440p and 4K are too low for practical gaming, making 1080p the only viable resolution for this combo.