Hitman 2

# CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread desktop processor built on the Arrow Lake-S architecture, fabricated on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 65W TDP. This is a notably high single-thread ceiling for a mid-range desktop part, which matters for Hitman 2's frame pacing in crowded sandbox environments. The processor includes 24 MB of shared L3 cache, and its per-core L2 cache is 3 MB, which helps with the game's frequent AI state checks and physics interactions. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, yielding a theoretical memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 245 posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and a single-core score of 4648. Its PassMark multithread score is 38706, with a single-thread score of 4394. These numbers place the CPU in the 90th percentile among all tested processors, indicating strong general-purpose compute capability. However, the game's measured FPS data reveals that at 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 80 FPS average, while at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 34 FPS. The CPU's high single-thread performance is likely sufficient to feed the GPU at lower settings, but the Ultra preset introduces enough geometry and shadow complexity that the integrated GPU becomes the bottleneck.

The nearest rival comparisons show the Core Ultra 5 245 sitting within a tight performance band: it trails the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G by 0.4% and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 by 0.5%, while leading the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-14600K by 0.8% in average benchmark score. This clustering suggests that the CPU's raw compute is not the differentiator in Hitman 2; rather, the integrated graphics and memory sharing dictate the outcome. The CPU's 14 threads (14 cores, no hyperthreading) align with modern game engines that use up to 8-12 threads effectively, but Hitman 2, released in 2018, may not fully utilize all 14 cores, meaning single-thread performance carries more weight. At 1080p Low, the 80 FPS result indicates the CPU can drive the game at a playable rate, but the GPU's 9th percentile ranking (relative to all GPUs) limits what the processor can achieve.

# Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Examining the measured FPS across the four settings presets at each resolution reveals a clear pattern. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 80 FPS average, Medium delivers 60 FPS (with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 69), High delivers 46 FPS, and Ultra delivers 34 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 20 FPS (25% reduction), while Medium to High costs 14 FPS (23% reduction), and High to Ultra costs 12 FPS (26% reduction). The diminishing returns are evident: each preset step yields roughly a 20-26% frame rate penalty, but the visual fidelity gains from Medium to High may be more perceptible than from Low to Medium.

At 2560x1440, the presets scale similarly: Low produces 51 FPS, Medium produces 39 FPS (minimum 33, maximum 44), High produces 29 FPS, and Ultra produces 21 FPS. The 1080p Medium preset at 60 FPS average is the only row that hits the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered smooth for action games. At 1080p Low, the 80 FPS result is well above playable, but the visual quality may be too compromised for a stealth game that relies on environmental detail and NPC visibility. The Medium preset at 1080p, with its 51 FPS minimum and 69 FPS maximum, offers the best balance: it maintains a minimum above 50 FPS while providing moderate visual enhancements over Low.

At 4K (3840x2160), all presets fall below playable thresholds: Low averages 27 FPS, Medium averages 21 FPS (minimum 17, maximum 24), High averages 16 FPS, and Ultra averages 11 FPS. None of these are suitable for smooth gameplay, so 4K is effectively off-limits for this combo. The data suggests that the Medium preset at 1080p is the sweet spot, as it provides the only combination of acceptable average FPS and reasonable minimum frame rate. The 1440p Low preset at 51 FPS may be acceptable for those prioritizing resolution over detail, but the 39 FPS Medium result at 1440p is marginal. For players who value frame consistency, 1080p Medium with its 51 FPS minimum is the safest choice.

# Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling data reveals a steep performance cliff that strongly implicates the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 60 at 1080p to 39 at 1440p (a 35% reduction) and then to 21 at 4K (a 65% reduction from 1080p). At Low settings, the progression is 80 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 27 FPS at 4K (66% drop). The consistent ~35% penalty for the 1.78x pixel increase from 1080p to 1440p, and the additional ~46% penalty from 1440p to 4K (which is a 2.25x pixel increase), aligns with a GPU-bound scenario where the rendering pipeline cannot keep up with pixel fill demands.

The Intel Arc B390's specifications support this interpretation. It has a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. Its pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute of 7.680 TFLOPS. These are modest figures for a gaming GPU, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in the 9th percentile among all GPUs. The nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts — the GeForce GT 520MX (deltaPct 1.3%), GeForce 800M (1.5%), GT 625 OEM (2.5%), and GT 710 (2.7%) — indicating the Arc B390 competes with decade-old entry-level hardware.

The memory configuration is "System Shared," meaning the GPU uses the CPU's DDR5 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," so the effective memory throughput is constrained by the CPU's dual-channel memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. This shared memory architecture likely exacerbates the 4K performance collapse, as the GPU must compete with CPU workloads for bandwidth while also handling larger frame buffers. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648) is insufficient to compensate for the GPU's fill-rate limits at high resolutions. The data shows that the limiting component is unequivocally the GPU: as resolution increases, the CPU's frame production capability becomes irrelevant because the GPU cannot render frames fast enough.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where any preset reaches 60 FPS or above. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 80, and at Medium it is 60. The 1440p and 4K resolutions fail to reach 60 FPS on any preset, with the highest 1440p result being 51 FPS at Low and the highest 4K result being 27 FPS at Low.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's average benchmark score is 1482, which places it slightly ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% faster), GeForce 800M (1.5% faster), GT 625 OEM (2.5% faster), and GT 710 (2.7% faster). These deltas are minimal, indicating performance parity with those legacy parts.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 CPU strong enough for this game?

A: The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and single-core score of 4648, along with its 90th percentile ranking, suggest ample compute power. The 1080p Low result of 80 FPS indicates the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at lower settings, but at higher presets and resolutions, the GPU limits performance.

Q: What does the 4K performance look like across settings?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 11 FPS, High averages 16 FPS, Medium averages 21 FPS (with a minimum of 17 and maximum of 24), and Low averages 27 FPS. All 4K results are below playable thresholds, so this combo is not suitable for 4K gaming in Hitman 2.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995. It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196) by 0.4% and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228) by 0.5%, while leading the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698) by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-14600K (48618) by 0.8%.

# GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. Its memory configuration is entirely System Shared, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM; the GPU draws from the same DDR5 pool as the CPU. The memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," which means the effective memory performance is tied to the host CPU's dual-channel memory controller. In this case, the Core Ultra 5 245 provides 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, but that bandwidth is shared between CPU and GPU workloads, creating potential contention.

The GPU's clock speeds are 300 MHz base and 2500 MHz boost, which is a wide dynamic range typical of integrated parts that idle at very low clocks and ramp up under load. With 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, the Arc B390 has a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. Its FP32 compute throughput is 7.680 TFLOPS. These specifications place it in the 9th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482 from the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. The nearest rivals are all NVIDIA parts from the early 2010s, with the GT 520MX being the closest at 1463 (1.3% slower), followed by the 800M at 1460 (1.5% slower), GT 625 OEM at 1446 (2.5% slower), and GT 710 at 1443 (2.7% slower).

The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which means it is feature-complete for modern APIs, but the raw throughput is insufficient for demanding titles. In Hitman 2, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU's performance collapses as resolution and settings increase. At 1080p Low, the 80 FPS average suggests the GPU can handle the game at minimal fidelity, but the 34 FPS at 1080p Ultra shows a 57% performance drop when enabling the highest preset. The GPU's 24 ROPs are particularly limiting for fill-rate-heavy scenes like Hitman 2's crowds and reflective surfaces. The System Shared memory also means that texture streaming and geometry data must be fetched from system RAM, which is slower than dedicated GDDR or HBM memory, contributing to the frame rate drops at higher settings.

# Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo produces an average of 80 FPS on Low settings. The Medium preset delivers 60 FPS average, with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 69 FPS. High settings yield 46 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 34 FPS average. The progression from Low to Medium to High to Ultra shows a consistent degradation, but the Medium preset's minimum of 51 FPS indicates it can hold above 50 FPS even in demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, Low settings average 51 FPS. Medium averages 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 44 FPS. High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 21 FPS. The 1440p Low result is the only one at this resolution that approaches playability, but the 51 FPS average suggests occasional dips below 50 FPS in busy areas. The Medium preset's 33 FPS minimum is borderline for a stealth game where reaction timing matters.

At 3840x2160, Low settings average 27 FPS. Medium averages 21 FPS, with a minimum of 17 and maximum of 24 FPS. High averages 16 FPS, and Ultra averages 11 FPS. None of these results reach even 30 FPS, confirming that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 6 FPS (27 to 21), while the gap between Medium and High is 5 FPS (21 to 16), and High to Ultra is also 5 FPS (16 to 11). This suggests that the GPU is so severely bottlenecked at 4K that even reducing settings yields marginal improvements.

The overall pattern across all resolutions is that the FPS scales almost linearly with the number of pixels rendered, with the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth being the limiting factors. The CPU's high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648) is irrelevant beyond 1080p Low, as the GPU cannot produce enough frames to saturate the CPU's capabilities.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the Intel Arc B390 achieves a combo rank of 2662 out of 3001 tested combinations in Hitman 2. This places the combo in the bottom 11.3% of all tested systems, which is consistent with the GPU's 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking does not compensate for the GPU's poor performance, as the game is heavily GPU-bound at most settings and resolutions.

The combo rank of 2662 out of 3001 indicates that there are 339 tested combos that perform worse, but the vast majority (2661 combos) outperform this pairing. This rank is particularly low considering the CPU's strong compute scores — the Core Ultra 5 245's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and single-core score of 4648 would suggest a mid-tier gaming system, but the integrated Arc B390 drags the overall experience down to entry-level territory. The nearest GPU rivals (GT 520MX, 800M, GT 625 OEM, GT 710) are all parts that would be considered obsolete for modern gaming, and the combo rank reflects this reality.

In practical terms, a combo ranked 2662 out of 3001 means that this system is only suitable for low-resolution, low-settings gaming in Hitman 2. The 1080p Medium preset at 60 FPS is the best case scenario, but even that requires turning down the game's visual features significantly. The 4K results (11-27 FPS across settings) and 1440p results (21-51 FPS) are not competitive with even modest dedicated GPUs. The data shows that while the CPU is a capable modern processor, the integrated GPU's performance class (9th percentile) makes this combo unsuitable for anything beyond casual play at 1080p with reduced settings. The rank of 2662 out of 3001 places it in the lowest performance tier for this game, and users seeking higher frame rates would need to consider a system with a dedicated GPU.