Hitman 2

Hitman 2 is an older stealth title, but its Glacier engine can still stress modern hardware, especially at higher resolutions and settings. The measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination reveals a system that is exceptionally capable at 1080p, solid at 1440p, but clearly out of its depth at 4K with maximum settings. The performance scaling across the three tested resolutions provides a clear picture of where the bottlenecks lie and how to configure the game for the best experience.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and tells a clear story about the system's balance. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 104 FPS. Moving to 1440p High reduces that average to 66 FPS, a significant 36.5% decrease. Stepping up to 4K High further crushes the average down to 35 FPS, which is a 66.3% drop from the 1080p result and a 47% drop from the 1440p result. This pattern strongly indicates that the RTX 5060's rendering capabilities, particularly its memory bandwidth and fill rate, become the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The scaling is even more dramatic when looking at the Low preset. The system hits a very high 183 FPS at 1080p Low, but this falls to 117 FPS at 1440p Low. The 4K Low average of 62 FPS is still playable, but it represents a massive 66.1% reduction from the 1080p figure. The fact that even the Low preset sees such a large penalty at 4K suggests the GPU is being saturated by the sheer number of pixels the game has to fill, regardless of the complexity of the shading.

The nature of the scaling changes with the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 76 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 49 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to just 26 FPS. This steep curve indicates that the combination of high resolution and the most demanding settings is too much for this hardware. The 4K Ultra result is essentially unplayable for a smooth experience, and even 1440p Ultra is marginal for a 60 FPS target. The data shows a system that is clearly optimized for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K reserved for lower presets or less demanding scenes.

GPU Role

The RTX 5060 is the primary driver of performance in this system, and its specifications align with the observed scaling. The card features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This is a modest configuration for 4K gaming, and the data suggests that the memory subsystem is a likely bottleneck at that resolution. The 48 ROPs and a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s further indicate that the card is not designed to push the massive pixel counts required by 4K Ultra settings. This is evident in the 26 FPS average at 4K Ultra, which is a clear sign of the GPU being overwhelmed.

The card's clock speeds are relatively high, with a base of 2280 MHz and a boost of 2497 MHz. These clocks help the card achieve strong results at lower resolutions where it is not as constrained by memory bandwidth. For instance, the 183 FPS average at 1080p Low demonstrates that the GPU's compute and shading units are more than capable of handling the workload when the pixel fill rate is not the primary limit. The performance at 1080p and 1440p shows that the card is well-balanced for these resolutions, but the 4K results are a stark reminder of its target market.

The data also shows the card's position relative to its peers. Its average benchmark score is 26331, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, has an average score of 26011, which is 1.2% lower. This indicates that the RTX 5060 is a solid mid-range performer. However, the 4K Hitman 2 results suggest that its 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus are not future-proof for high-resolution gaming with demanding settings, making it a better fit for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on the best settings-to-performance trade-offs. For players targeting a smooth 60 FPS experience, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. At 1080p Medium, the system achieves an average of 137 FPS with minimums of 117 FPS, providing a very comfortable margin. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS target and provides a great balance of visual quality and performance.

For those with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, the High preset is the best choice, delivering 104 FPS average. This is a significant improvement over the Ultra preset's 76 FPS, and the visual difference between High and Ultra is often less noticeable than the performance hit. At 1440p, High is also viable, with a 66 FPS average, but it sits closer to the edge of the 60 FPS target, so players sensitive to frame drops may prefer the smoother Medium preset.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this hardware. While it produces a playable 76 FPS at 1080p, the 49 FPS average at 1440p and 26 FPS at 4K are too low for a consistent experience. The Low preset, while offering high frame rates, sacrifices too much visual fidelity. The data suggests that the optimal experience is found with the Medium or High presets, depending on the resolution and refresh rate of the display. For a 1440p 60 Hz monitor, Medium is the clear recommendation. For a 1080p 144 Hz monitor, High is the best choice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates shows a consistent performance hierarchy across all resolutions.

1920x1080:

• Low: The system delivers its highest frame rate here, with an average of 183 FPS.
• Medium: The average is 137 FPS, with minimum and maximum frames of 117 and 158 FPS, respectively. This is a very stable and fast setting.
• High: The average is 104 FPS, which is a substantial drop from Medium but still very smooth.
• Ultra: The most demanding 1080p setting yields an average of 76 FPS, which is still playable but shows a clear performance cost.

2560x1440:

• Low: The average is 117 FPS, a significant drop from the 1080p Low result.
• Medium: The average is 88 FPS, with minimum and maximum frames of 75 and 101 FPS. This is the best balance for 1440p.
• High: The average is 66 FPS, which is right at the threshold for a 60 FPS experience.
• Ultra: The average drops to 49 FPS, which is not smooth enough for most players.

3840x2160:

• Low: The average is 62 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that approaches a playable frame rate.
• Medium: The average is 47 FPS, with minimum and maximum frames of 40 and 54 FPS. This is not a smooth experience.
• High: The average is 35 FPS, which is too low for a consistent 60 FPS target.
• Ultra: The average is a very low 26 FPS, making this combination unplayable for most users.

These numbers clearly illustrate the system's limits. The jump from 1080p to 1440p is manageable on most presets, but the jump to 4K requires a significant reduction in settings to remain playable.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Hitman 2 at 4K 60 FPS?

A: No. The data shows the highest 4K average is 62 FPS on the Low preset, with the Medium preset dropping to 47 FPS. No preset achieves a stable 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: For a 144 Hz display, 1080p is the only resolution that consistently provides high frame rates. The Low preset hits 183 FPS, and the Medium preset hits 137 FPS, both of which are suitable for a 144 Hz refresh rate.

Q: How much faster is the Medium preset compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 88 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 49 FPS. The Medium preset is approximately 79.6% faster.

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

A: The performance scaling across resolutions indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor, especially at 4K. The frame rate drops dramatically as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p High and 1440p High?

A: At 1080p High, the average frame rate is 104 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 66 FPS. This represents a 36.5% reduction in performance when moving to the higher resolution.

Q: Does the system maintain a minimum frame rate above 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, but only on the Medium preset. The minimum frame rate at 1440p Medium is 75 FPS. The High preset's average is 66 FPS, but a minimum value is not listed, so it may dip below 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides more than enough processing power to keep up with the RTX 5060 in Hitman 2. The CPU features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This modern architecture is well-suited for gaming workloads. Its performance is evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and single-core score of 2085. The strong single-core performance is critical for games like Hitman 2, which often rely on a few primary threads for game logic and AI.

The CPU's benchmark percentile supports this analysis. It ranks in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-13900HX, has a score of 46098, which is only 0.1% higher. This places the Ultra 5 235 in a very competitive position, ensuring it will not bottleneck the GPU in this title. The data shows that the CPU's performance is more than sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested settings and resolutions.

The fact that frame rates scale so heavily with resolution confirms the CPU is not the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively flat as resolution increased. Instead, the large drops from 1080p to 4K indicate that the GPU is being pushed to its absolute limits, while the CPU has headroom to spare. This is a well-balanced pairing for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the CPU's strong single-threaded performance and the GPU's high clock speeds work together effectively.