Hitman 2

Hitman 2 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a playable but uneven experience, with the data showing a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. The strongest balance of performance and image quality appears at 1440p High, where the combo produces an average of 86 FPS, while 1080p High reaches 135 FPS and 4K High drops to 46 FPS. The Ultra preset is punishing across all resolutions, yielding only 99 FPS at 1080p and 34 FPS at 4K, suggesting that this setting demands more than the CPU can consistently feed at higher resolutions. Overall, the pairing ranks 652nd out of 3001 tested combos, placing it in the top quarter of all systems but far from the top tier for this title.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the High preset at 1440p is the clear standout. It delivers an average of 86 FPS, which is smooth for a stealth game where precise timing matters, and it avoids the steep cost of Ultra. At 1080p, High produces 135 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh displays, but the jump to Medium at 1080p only raises the average to 178 FPS—a 32% improvement—while the visual difference between High and Medium in Hitman 2 is typically modest. If maximum fluidity is the priority, 1080p Low hits 238 FPS, but that sacrifices most of the game's visual detail for a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 1440p, the data shows a similar pattern: Low delivers 152 FPS, Medium drops to 114 FPS, and High sits at 86 FPS. The step from High to Ultra at 1440p is catastrophic, falling from 86 FPS to 64 FPS, a 26% loss for what is often incremental visual gain. At 4K, the situation reverses—High at 46 FPS is barely playable, Medium at 61 FPS is the best playable option, and Low at 81 FPS becomes the only way to approach a 60+ FPS target. Given that the RTX 4090 is an end-of-life flagship with a launch MSRP of 1,599 USD, the data suggests that users should prioritize High at 1080p or 1440p, or Medium at 4K, to avoid the diminishing returns of Ultra.

The Medium preset at 1080p shows a minimum FPS of 152 and a maximum of 205, indicating a wide variance that could cause noticeable stutter in crowded scenes. In contrast, the High preset at 1080p has no reported minimum, but its average of 135 FPS suggests a more stable frame pacing. For a stealth game where sudden camera pans can reveal enemies, consistency matters more than peak FPS. The data points to 1440p High as the sweet spot: it provides enough resolution to appreciate the game's environments, a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold, and it avoids the severe penalties of Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a 16-core, 22-thread mobile processor with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, built on the Meteor Lake architecture with a 7 nm process. Its benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded capability—Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 14,551 points, and Passmark multithread scores 25,933—but single-thread performance is less impressive, with Passmark single-thread at 3,509 and Cinebench R23 single-core at 1,759. Hitman 2 is a game that relies heavily on CPU performance for AI, physics, and scene management, so the 165H's single-thread results are the limiting factor.

The data reveals this bottleneck clearly. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 238 FPS, but dropping to High at 1080p reduces the average to 135 FPS—a 43% decrease that is far larger than what the GPU alone would explain. This suggests that the CPU's ability to handle the game's logic at higher settings is strained, even though the RTX 4090 is more than capable. The 165H's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 22 threads help with background tasks, but the lack of a higher single-thread score means the CPU cannot keep up with the GPU's raw output at lower resolutions.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 165H sits within a tight band. It is 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H, and 0.4% behind the AMD EPYC 4244P and AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X. These tiny deltas indicate that the 165H is not a standout for gaming, but rather a mid-pack mobile chip. In Hitman 2, this translates to a CPU that can deliver high frame rates at 1080p with lower settings, but it becomes the primary constraint when pushing higher resolutions or Ultra presets, where the GPU waits on the CPU to process game state updates.

The CPU's 28 W TDP and mobile market segment further reinforce this interpretation. It is not designed for sustained high-frequency operation, and the boost clock of 5.00 GHz is likely only achievable on a few cores for short bursts. In a game like Hitman 2, which benefits from consistent multi-core utilization, the 165H's 22 threads help, but the per-core performance is insufficient to fully drive an RTX 4090 at 1080p. Benchmark results indicate that the CPU's percentile rank of 84 versus all CPUs is respectable, but the deltaPct values against rivals show no meaningful advantage that would boost Hitman 2 performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a 24 GB GDDR6X behemoth with 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, running at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. Its memory bandwidth is 1.01 TB/s across a 384-bit bus, and it delivers 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. These specifications are overwhelming for Hitman 2, a game released in 2018, and the data confirms that the GPU is rarely the limiting component at 1080p or 1440p.

At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 238 FPS, which is near the practical limit for most displays. However, at 4K High, the average drops to 46 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 34 FPS. This dramatic scaling is not due to the GPU's raw power—the RTX 4090 has a Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9,223—but rather to the CPU's inability to feed the GPU at higher resolutions. The GPU's percentile rank of 88 versus all GPUs places it in the top 12%, and its average benchmark score of 60,347 is far above the 46 FPS observed at 4K High, indicating that the GPU is underutilized.

The RTX 4090's 24 GB of VRAM is far more than Hitman 2 needs, but the bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s ensures that texture streaming is never a bottleneck. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz is high, but the data shows that increasing settings from Low to Ultra at 1080p only reduces FPS from 238 to 99, a 58% drop. This is a larger penalty than expected, suggesting that the game's draw calls and shader complexity at Ultra overwhelm the CPU's ability to prepare frames, leaving the GPU idle. At 4K, the GPU's fill rate and pixel rate (443.5 GPixel/s) are sufficient, but the CPU's single-thread performance becomes the ceiling, as evidenced by the 81 FPS at 4K Low versus 238 FPS at 1080p Low.

The GPU's nearest rivals show it is in a unique position: it is 0% different from the Intel Arc Pro A60, 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, and 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V710. These are professional and workstation cards, not gaming GPUs, which underscores that the RTX 4090 is a consumer flagship with no direct competition in this benchmark set. In Hitman 2, the GPU's role is to provide headroom that the CPU cannot use, making it a wasted resource at low resolutions but a savior at 4K Medium, where its 61 FPS average remains playable.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 652nd out of 3,001 tested combinations, placing it in the 78th percentile of all systems. This is a strong showing, but it is not exceptional given the RTX 4090's position as a top-tier GPU. The ranking suggests that the CPU is holding back the GPU significantly; otherwise, a 4090-based system would typically rank much higher. The data shows that the combo's performance is closer to mid-range systems than to the top 100, which likely feature desktop CPUs with higher single-thread scores.

The rank of 652 means that 2,349 other combos perform better in Hitman 2, which is surprising given the RTX 4090's raw power. This is a clear indication that the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H's mobile design, with its 28 W TDP and BGA 2049 socket, is not suited for pushing a flagship GPU in a CPU-intensive game. The combo's percentile rank of 78% is respectable, but it does not reflect the GPU's potential. If paired with a desktop-class CPU, the same GPU would likely rank in the top 100, but the data only reflects this specific pairing.

The ranking also highlights that the combo is better suited for higher resolutions. At 4K, the CPU bottleneck is less severe because the GPU is more heavily loaded, and the 61 FPS at Medium is competitive. At 1080p, the CPU bottleneck is exposed, and the combo's 135 FPS at High is only slightly better than what a mid-range GPU might achieve. The 652nd rank is a verdict on the pairing as a whole, and it indicates that users should not expect flagship-level performance in Hitman 2 despite the RTX 4090's presence.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS shows a steep drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings. At High, the average falls from 135 FPS at 1080p to 86 FPS at 1440p (36% drop) and then to 46 FPS at 4K (47% drop from 1440p). This scaling is non-linear, which is unusual for a GPU-bound scenario. If the GPU were the limiting factor, the drop from 1080p to 1440p would be around 30-40% based on pixel count, but the drop to 4K would be even larger. Instead, the data shows a smaller drop from 1440p to 4K, suggesting that the CPU becomes more of a factor at 1440p, and the GPU only becomes fully utilized at 4K.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more revealing: 238 FPS at 1080p drops to 152 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and then to 81 FPS at 4K (47% drop). This indicates that at low settings, the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p, but as resolution increases, the GPU starts to take over, though the CPU still holds back the 4K Low result. The 4K Low score of 81 FPS is only 34% of the 1080p Low score, which is less than the expected 25% pixel ratio, confirming that the CPU is still a bottleneck even at 4K.

The Medium preset shows the most consistent scaling: 178 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p (36% drop), and 61 FPS at 4K (47% drop). This consistency suggests that Medium is the best balanced setting for this combo, as it does not overly stress the CPU's single-thread performance (unlike Ultra) nor does it underutilize the GPU (unlike Low). The Ultra preset shows the worst scaling, with 99 FPS at 1080p dropping to 64 FPS at 1440p (35% drop) and then to 34 FPS at 4K (47% drop). The absolute numbers at 4K Ultra are unplayable, but the percentage drops are similar to other presets, indicating that the CPU is consistently limiting the frame rate regardless of resolution.

The data supports a conclusion that the limiting component is the CPU at all resolutions, but the degree of limitation decreases as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU prevents the GPU from exceeding 238 FPS, which is a massive underutilization of the RTX 4090. At 4K, the CPU still caps the FPS at 81 on Low, but the GPU's workload is higher, making the bottleneck less severe. Benchmark results indicate that to fully utilize the RTX 4090, a higher single-thread CPU would be required, but this combo's 5.00 GHz boost clock is insufficient for sustained high-FPS gaming.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1440p High offers the best balance, with an average of 86 FPS. At 1080p, High achieves 135 FPS, but the CPU limits the GPU, while at 4K, only Medium (61 FPS) is playable.

Q: Why does the RTX 4090 not produce higher frame rates at 1080p?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H's single-thread performance, with a Passmark score of 3,509, is the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 238 FPS, but the CPU cannot feed the GPU fast enough to exceed that, leaving the RTX 4090 underutilized.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 652nd out of 3,001 combos, placing it in the top 78th percentile. This is strong, but it is lower than expected for an RTX 4090 system, indicating the CPU is holding back performance.

Q: Is the 4K performance adequate for Hitman 2?

A: At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 61, which is playable, but High drops to 46 FPS and Ultra to 34 FPS. For a smooth experience, 4K Medium is the only viable option per the measured data.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 7 165H is 0.3% faster than the Core Ultra 5 338H, 0.4% slower than the EPYC 4244P and Ryzen AI 7 350, and 0.5% faster than the Ryzen 7 3700X. These tiny differences mean the CPU does not offer a meaningful advantage in gaming.

Q: What does the scaling from 1080p to 4K reveal about the system?

A: The FPS drops by roughly 36% from 1080p to 1440p and 47% from 1440p to 4K across most presets. This consistent pattern indicates the CPU is the limiting component at all resolutions, though the GPU becomes more involved at 4K.