Hitman 2

Hitman 2, a stealth title from 2018, presents a demanding load for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination. The benchmark data indicates that this pairing is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K resolution proving too taxing for the GPU. The most balanced experience across resolutions is achieved at Medium settings, which provides a significant boost over High settings while maintaining playable frame rates. The data clearly shows a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while the modern 14-core CPU provides ample headroom to prevent bottlenecks.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers a clear hierarchy for this hardware combination. For players targeting the highest fidelity, the Ultra preset is only viable at 1920x1080, where it delivers an average of 61 FPS. This is a playable frame rate for a stealth game, but the margin for error in demanding scenes is minimal. At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset drops to an average of 39 FPS, which falls below the threshold for smooth gameplay. At 3840x2160, Ultra is effectively unplayable, with an average of just 21 FPS.

The High preset is a more reasonable choice for 1440p, producing an average of 53 FPS. This is a playable experience, though not exceptionally smooth. At 1080p, High settings yield a solid 82 FPS average, making it a strong option for players who prioritize visual quality over maximum frame rates. However, the data suggests that High is not the optimal choice for this combo.

The Medium preset emerges as the standout recommendation for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and RX 7600. It provides a substantial performance uplift over High settings across all resolutions. At 1080p, the average FPS jumps from 82 to 109, a 33% increase. At 1440p, it climbs from 53 to 70 FPS, a 32% improvement. Even at 4K, Medium settings manage to reach an average of 37 FPS, which is the only playable option at that resolution, with a minimum of 32 FPS. This preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and performance, ensuring a comfortable frame rate buffer.

The Low preset is for those who prioritize performance above all else. It delivers an average of 145 FPS at 1080p, which is exceptional for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1440p, it still achieves a very respectable 93 FPS. While this preset will noticeably reduce visual quality, it is the only way to fully utilize high-refresh-rate displays with this hardware. The recommendation is clear: Medium is the sweet spot for this pairing, offering a significant performance headroom over High while retaining a decent level of visual detail.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Hitman 2 with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1920x1080 is the most comfortable resolution, providing high frame rates even on the Ultra preset. 2560x1440 is also viable, but only with Medium or Low settings to maintain smooth performance. 3840x2160 is not recommended, as even Low settings only produce an average of 49 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 yields an average of 39 FPS. This is below the generally accepted threshold for smooth gameplay and is not recommended for this combination, as the frame rate is likely to dip further in crowded or complex scenes.

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

A: The data indicates the AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. For example, at 4K, dropping from High to Low settings only increases the average FPS from 28 to 49. However, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 has a strong Passmark multi-thread score of 38706, suggesting it is not the limiting component in this title.

Q: Can this system achieve 144 FPS in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, but only at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which produces an average of 145 FPS. At Medium settings, the average is 109 FPS, so a 144Hz monitor would not be fully saturated on that preset.

Q: Should I use the High or Medium preset at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset is generally the better choice. It provides a 33% increase in average FPS (from 82 to 109) over High. This extra performance headroom will help maintain a stable frame rate during action sequences, making the Medium preset a more consistent experience.

Q: How does the combo rank among other tested systems?

A: This specific combination of CPU and GPU ranks 2090 out of 3001 tested combos for this game. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which aligns with the performance data showing it is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming than for 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 holds a rank of 2090 out of 3001 combos for Hitman 2. This places the pairing in the 30th percentile of tested systems, indicating that it is a mid-to-low-tier performer for this specific title. This ranking is consistent with the measured FPS, which shows the system is incapable of delivering a high-refresh-rate experience at 4K and struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 1440p on higher presets.

The ranking suggests that while this is a modern, capable platform, it is outpaced by a significant number of other combinations in the database. The Core Ultra 5 245 processor itself performs well in synthetic benchmarks, with an average benchmark score of 48995, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, from which it trails by just 0.5%, and the Intel Core i5-14600K, which it leads by 0.8%. This indicates the CPU is a very strong performer.

The bottleneck is clearly the AMD Radeon RX 7600, which has an average benchmark score of 15171 and sits in the 57th percentile of all GPUs. Its performance is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM, with a delta of -0.2%. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU results in a system that is fundamentally limited by its graphics card in a GPU-bound scenario like Hitman 2 at higher resolutions. The 2090th rank out of 3001 combos reflects this imbalance, positioning the system as a solid 1080p performer that is not optimized for 4K or high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at the system's performance. At 1920x1080, the system performs admirably. The Low preset achieves an average of 145 FPS. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 109 FPS, with a minimum of 93 and a maximum of 125 FPS, showing good frame pacing. The High preset yields an average of 82 FPS. Finally, the Ultra preset produces an average of 61 FPS, which is still playable.

At 2560x1440, the performance impact of the higher resolution becomes evident. The Low preset averages 93 FPS, a significant drop from the 1080p result. Medium settings produce an average of 70 FPS, with a minimum of 59 and a maximum of 80 FPS, which is a good experience for most players. The High preset falls to an average of 53 FPS. The Ultra preset is the weakest at this resolution, with an average of only 39 FPS, making it unsuitable for consistent, smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the system is clearly overburdened. The Low preset is the only one that comes close to playable, with an average of 49 FPS. Medium settings drop to an average of 37 FPS, with a minimum of 32 FPS. The High preset averages just 28 FPS, and the Ultra preset is effectively unplayable at an average of 21 FPS. The data shows a steep decline in performance as resolution increases, which is characteristic of a system constrained by its GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a classic pattern of GPU limitation. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the High preset, the average FPS drops from 82 to 53, a 35% decrease. Scaling further to 3840x2160, the average plummets to 28 FPS, a 66% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep drop-off is a clear indicator that the AMD Radeon RX 7600's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus are insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering.

The scaling on the Medium preset is similar. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS falls from 109 to 70, a 36% reduction. From 1080p to 4K, the average falls to 37 FPS, a 66% reduction. The consistency of this ~66% performance loss from 1080p to 4K across different presets strongly suggests that the GPU is the sole limiting factor. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect the performance gap to narrow at lower resolutions where the CPU has more work to do relative to the GPU.

This analysis is supported by the CPU's strong performance metrics. With a Passmark multi-thread score of 38706 and a single-thread score of 4394, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is well-equipped to handle the game's logic and physics. The data indicates that the system's 4K performance is entirely dictated by the graphics card. The RX 7600, with a Passmark G3D score of 16634, simply does not have the raw throughput to maintain high frame rates at 4K, regardless of the capable CPU driving it.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it performs exceptionally well, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and a single-core score of 4648. Its Passmark single-thread score of 4394 places it in a strong position for gaming workloads, which often rely on a few high-performing cores.

In the context of Hitman 2, this CPU provides more than enough processing power. The game is not known for being heavily CPU-bound, and the data confirms this. The benchmark results show that the system is consistently GPU-limited, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops at higher resolutions. The Core Ultra 5 245's high single-thread performance ensures that the game's main simulation thread is not a bottleneck, even at 1080p with the Low preset, where the GPU is producing 145 FPS.

The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory further contribute to its capability. Its performance in the database is solid, with a 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs. It is statistically tied with its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and Intel Core i5-14600K, differing by less than 1% in average benchmark score. This indicates that for Hitman 2, the choice of CPU is not the primary concern; the limiting factor is unequivocally the AMD Radeon RX 7600. The data shows a system where the CPU has significant headroom, and the gaming experience is dictated almost entirely by the graphics card's capabilities.