Hitman 2

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the Intel Arc B570 lands at rank 2399 out of 3001 tested combos in Hitman 2. That places this configuration in the bottom 20% of all combinations, a modest standing that reflects a mid-range CPU and a GPU whose percentile rank (65th among all GPUs) is stronger than the overall combo position suggests. The pairing is not a top-tier performer for this stealth title, but it is far from the bottom of the barrel, and the data shows a system that can deliver playable frame rates at lower resolutions with adjusted settings.

The combo's rank is influenced heavily by the GPU's measured performance in this specific game rather than the CPU's synthetic strength. The Core Ultra 5 235 sits in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 46062 puts it within 0.2% of rivals like the AMD EPYC 4364P and AMD EPYC 7303, and effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (-0.1% delta). This is a processor that competes at the high end of CPU performance charts, yet the combo rank of 2399 suggests that Hitman 2's demands are not being fully met by the Arc B570 at higher settings. The bottleneck is the graphics card, not the processor.

When examining the measured FPS data, the combo's best absolute performance occurs at 1080p with Low settings, hitting 123 FPS average. That is a strong result that places the system in a comfortable range for fast-paced stealth gameplay. However, pushing to Ultra at 1080p drops the average to 52 FPS, a 58% reduction from Low, which shows a steep performance cliff as graphical fidelity increases. At 4K, the situation is worse, with Ultra averaging only 18 FPS and High managing 24 FPS. This is a combination that excels at 1080p Low-to-Medium, struggles at 1440p beyond Medium, and is essentially unusable at 4K for smooth play. The rank of 2399 reflects this reality: the hardware is capable, but only within a narrow window of settings and resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the defining component in this combo's Hitman 2 performance, and its specifications explain why the measured frame rates behave as they do. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For a game like Hitman 2, which was released in 2018 and does not demand the same memory capacity as modern titles, 10 GB is more than sufficient at 1080p and 1440p, but the bandwidth figure becomes a limiting factor at 4K where the data shows a dramatic FPS drop.

Clock speeds for the Arc B570 are fixed at 2500 MHz for both base and boost, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). This is a relatively high clock for a GPU in this class, and it contributes to the card's 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate. These numbers translate into solid 1080p performance, as evidenced by the 123 FPS average at Low settings and 93 FPS at Medium. The GPU's shading units number 2304, with 144 TMUs and 80 ROPs, and the pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s supports the card's ability to push frames at lower resolutions.

The Arc B570's measured FPS in Hitman 2 tells a clear story about its role. At 1440p High, the average is 45 FPS, which drops to 33 FPS at Ultra. At 4K, every setting except Low falls below 33 FPS, with Medium at 32 FPS and High at 24 FPS. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556, places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% delta above) and the Intel Arc A750 (-0.1% delta below). This is a GPU that competes with mid-range options from previous generations, and in Hitman 2, it shows its limits at higher resolutions. The 10 GB VRAM is never the primary constraint; rather, the raw compute and memory bandwidth are what hold back 4K performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combo in Hitman 2 is at 1080p with Medium settings, which delivers an average of 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. This setting provides a smooth, consistent frame rate that comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for most players, while the minimum of 79 FPS ensures no significant stutters during gameplay. The Medium preset at 1080p is the sweet spot where the Arc B570's capabilities are fully utilized without pushing into the steep performance drop seen at High or Ultra.

At 1080p High, the average drops to 70 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 25% reduction from Medium. The jump to Ultra at 1080p cuts the average to 52 FPS, a 44% decrease from Medium, and this is where frame pacing becomes a concern for a stealth game that rewards precise timing. The data shows that Medium at 1080p is the clear recommendation for the best balance of visual quality and performance.

For 1440p, the best measured result is at Low settings with 79 FPS average, but Medium drops to 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS. That minimum is borderline for smooth play, so 1440p Medium is only viable if the player accepts occasional dips below 60 FPS. The 1440p High preset at 45 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are not recommended for a game where quick reactions matter. At 4K, no setting provides a consistently playable experience, with even Low averaging only 42 FPS and Medium at 32 FPS with a 27 FPS minimum. The recommendation is to stick with 1080p Medium for the primary experience, with 1080p Low (123 FPS) as a competitive option for maximum fluidity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Hitman 2?

A: The measured data shows that 1080p with Medium settings provides the best experience, averaging 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. This offers a smooth frame rate with acceptable visual quality.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: No. At 4K, the highest average FPS is 42 at Low settings, with Medium at 32 FPS, High at 24 FPS, and Ultra at 18 FPS. None of these are consistently playable for a stealth game that requires responsive controls.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 is within 0.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, +0.1% delta), the Intel Arc A750 (20582, -0.1% delta), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, +0.4% delta), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662, -0.5% delta). It sits in the 65th percentile among all GPUs.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Core Ultra 5 235 ranks in the 89th percentile among CPUs with an average score of 46062, while the Arc B570 ranks in the 65th percentile. The measured FPS drops are consistent with GPU-bound performance at higher resolutions and settings.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low settings average 123 FPS, while Ultra averages 52 FPS. This represents a 58% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Does the 10 GB VRAM on the Arc B570 cause any issues in Hitman 2?

A: The data does not indicate VRAM-related problems. The 10 GB GDDR6 memory with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for this 2018 title, as evidenced by the consistent performance scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p without sudden drops that would suggest memory exhaustion.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 93 FPS at 1080p to 59 FPS at 1440p, a 37% reduction, and then to 32 FPS at 4K, a 66% reduction from 1080p. This scaling is not linear; the jump from 1440p to 4K incurs a steeper penalty (46% drop) than the jump from 1080p to 1440p (37% drop), which indicates that the GPU is hitting a bandwidth or compute ceiling at higher pixel counts.

For High settings, the scaling is similar: 70 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 24 FPS at 4K (66% drop from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic falloff, with 52 FPS at 1080p, 33 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 18 FPS at 4K (65% drop). Across all settings, the 4K results are consistently less than half of the 1080p results, which strongly suggests that the Arc B570's memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s and its fillrate capabilities (200.0 GPixel/s) are insufficient to maintain playable frame rates at 2160p.

The resolution scaling also indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions. If the Core Ultra 5 235 were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the steep drops from 1080p to 4K point to GPU-bound performance. At 1080p Low, the 123 FPS average shows that the CPU can feed the GPU effectively at high frame rates, but the GPU cannot sustain that throughput as pixel count increases. The 4K Medium result of 32 FPS with a 27 FPS minimum confirms that the GPU is overwhelmed, and the 4K Ultra result of 18 FPS is effectively unplayable for a stealth title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and it carries 24 MB of shared L3 cache plus 3 MB of L2 per core. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, and it uses a PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes. This is a desktop-class processor with a 65 W TDP, and its synthetic benchmarks place it in the 89th percentile among all CPUs.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to maintain frame pacing and avoid bottlenecking the GPU at lower resolutions. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 123 FPS average, which indicates that the Core Ultra 5 235 can handle the game's single-threaded and multi-threaded demands without issue. The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores of 14769 multi-core and 2085 single-core, along with a PassMark single-thread score of 4516, are strong enough to feed the Arc B570 at high frame rates. The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030, +0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098, -0.1% delta), showing that this processor is competitive with high-end laptop and desktop parts from recent generations.

The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for Hitman 2, which was released in 2018 and does not scale heavily beyond eight threads. The lack of hyperthreading (14 threads for 14 cores) is a minor consideration, but the high boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures strong single-threaded performance, which is what stealth games like Hitman 2 typically rely on for AI and physics calculations. The data shows that the CPU is never the limiting factor in this combo; even at 1080p Low with 123 FPS, the GPU is still the component dictating performance. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 37816 and floating-point math score of 117951 further underscore its capability to handle the game's background simulation without causing frame drops. In summary, the Core Ultra 5 235 is a high-performing processor that pairs well with the Arc B570 in Hitman 2, but the combo's overall rank is constrained by the GPU's limits at higher settings and resolutions.