Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with Intel Core Ultra 7 165H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The data for Hitman 2 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 shows a combo that ranks 1635th out of 3001 tested combinations, placing it near the middle of the database. This pairing of a mobile Meteor Lake processor with a desktop-class Blackwell GPU produces a wide spread of frame rates across resolutions and settings, from a barely playable 24 FPS at 4K Ultra to a very fluid 169 FPS at 1080p Low. The measured results reveal a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions but capable of excellent performance when settings are tuned appropriately.

FAQ

Q: What is the best measured average FPS this combo achieved in Hitman 2?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 169 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 127 FPS at the same resolution with Medium settings, followed by 108 FPS at 2560x1440 on Low.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairings for Hitman 2?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H combined with the RTX 5070 ranks 1635th out of 3001 tested combos for this game, placing it in the 54th percentile of all configurations in the database.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded, and under which conditions?

A: The lowest average FPS is 24, measured at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only tested configuration that falls below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered minimally playable.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-core performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 7 165H has an average benchmark score of 34083, which is 0.3% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H and 0.4% higher than both the AMD EPYC 4244P and AMD Ryzen AI 7 350. It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X by 0.5%.

Q: What is the GPU's VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 28 Gbps effective.

Q: Are there any settings where the frame rate is consistently above 60 FPS across all resolutions?

A: No, but at 2560x1440, both High (61 FPS) and Low (108 FPS) settings exceed 60 FPS, while Medium (81 FPS) also does. At 1920x1080, all four settings (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra) average above 60 FPS, with Ultra hitting 70 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Hitman 2 with this hardware combination shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate, with the sweet spot depending heavily on target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 127 FPS average with a minimum of 108 FPS and maximum of 146 FPS, making it the most balanced choice for high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset at 96 FPS is also viable, but Ultra at 70 FPS sacrifices nearly half the frame rate of Medium for marginal visual gains in a stealth game where smooth camera movement matters.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the strongest recommendation, producing 81 FPS average with a 69-93 FPS range. This keeps the experience comfortably above 60 FPS while offering better image quality than Low (108 FPS) or High (61 FPS). The High setting at exactly 61 FPS is borderline, as any scene complexity could drop it below the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra at 45 FPS is not recommended for this resolution unless the player prioritizes visuals over responsiveness.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The Low preset at 57 FPS is the only configuration that approaches smoothness, while Medium drops to 43 FPS and High falls to 33 FPS. Ultra at 24 FPS is effectively unplayable for a game requiring precise timing. For 4K, the recommendation is to use Low settings for playable performance, or alternatively, to drop to 1440p and use Medium for a better overall experience. The data suggests that this combo is not well-suited for 4K gaming in Hitman 2 beyond the lowest settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a 16-core, 22-thread Meteor Lake processor with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551 and a single-core score of 1759, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 25933 and single-thread score of 3509.

For Hitman 2, a game originally released in 2018, the CPU's single-thread performance is likely more relevant than its multi-core capabilities, as the game's engine typically scales with fewer, faster cores. The single-core Cinebench R20 score of 1303 and R15 score of 257 indicate solid per-core performance, which aligns with the frame rates observed at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 169 FPS, suggesting that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls to maintain high frame rates.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 84 among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 34083, places it in the upper tier of mobile chips. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 7 165H is essentially neck-and-neck with the Core Ultra 5 338H (0.3% faster), the EPYC 4244P (0.4% faster), and the Ryzen AI 7 350 (0.4% faster), while trailing the Ryzen 7 3700X by 0.5%. This tight grouping suggests that the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo; the GPU and resolution settings are the primary drivers of performance variance in Hitman 2.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 1635th out of 3001 tested combinations for Hitman 2, placing it slightly above the median of the database. This ranking reflects the balance between a strong mobile CPU and a capable desktop GPU, but the position in the middle of the pack indicates that many other pairings achieve better performance in this specific title.

The ranking is somewhat surprising given the RTX 5070's capabilities. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 29137 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077 put it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, yet the combo's in-game ranking is only in the 54th percentile. This discrepancy suggests that either the CPU is bottlenecking at certain settings, or that Hitman 2's engine does not fully utilize the RTX 5070's architecture. The measured FPS at 1080p Ultra (70 FPS) versus 1080p Low (169 FPS) shows a 2.4x scaling, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios, but the absolute numbers still lag behind what the GPU's synthetic scores would suggest.

The combo's ranking is more impressive when considering the CPU's mobile nature. The Core Ultra 7 165H has a TDP of just 28 W, yet it manages to keep pace with desktop processors like the Ryzen 7 3700X in average benchmark scores. This efficiency, combined with the RTX 5070's 250 W TDP, creates a system that delivers solid 1080p and 1440p performance in Hitman 2, even if it falls short at 4K Ultra. The data implies that users who prioritize frame rate over resolution will find this combo more than adequate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units. It operates at a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, delivering 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The GPU's memory subsystem is built around 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s — a figure that proves crucial for high-resolution gaming.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the GPU has ample headroom, as evidenced by the 169 FPS at Low settings and 127 FPS at Medium. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 31 FPS (from 127 to 96), while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 26 FPS (from 96 to 70). These diminishing returns highlight how the game's Ultra settings impose heavy shading and texture costs that the RTX 5070 must process.

At 1440p, the GPU's workload increases significantly. The 108 FPS at Low drops to 81 FPS at Medium, a 25% reduction, and further to 61 FPS at High. The Ultra setting at 45 FPS shows that the RTX 5070's 12 GB of VRAM and 672 GB/s of bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates when the game's most demanding settings are enabled. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck: even Low settings only produce 57 FPS, and Ultra drops to 24 FPS. This pattern indicates that the RTX 5070 is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Hitman 2, with 4K reserved for the lowest settings.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores reinforce this assessment. Its PassMark G3D score of 29137 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 178923 demonstrate strong raw performance, but the in-game results show that Hitman 2's specific rendering demands, particularly at Ultra settings, can overwhelm the GPU's capabilities. The nearest rival comparisons (AMD Radeon Pro 580 at 0.1% higher average score, and Radeon Pro WX 7100 at 0.8% higher) suggest the RTX 5070 is closely matched with workstation-class GPUs in synthetic tests, but its gaming-oriented features like 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores don't provide an advantage in this non-ray-traced title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo covers four resolutions and four settings presets, yielding a comprehensive picture of performance. At 1920x1080, the results are consistently strong: Low averages 169 FPS, Medium averages 127 FPS with a range of 108-146, High averages 96 FPS, and Ultra averages 70 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 99 FPS, indicating that settings have a profound impact on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates drop by roughly 35-40% across all settings compared to 1080p. Low averages 108 FPS, Medium averages 81 FPS (69-93 range), High averages 61 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium (69) is still above the 60 FPS threshold, but High's average of exactly 61 FPS leaves little margin for demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, the performance falls off a cliff. Low averages 57 FPS, Medium averages 43 FPS (37-50 range), High averages 33 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS. The Ultra result is the only measured configuration below 30 FPS, making it the only truly unplayable setting in the entire dataset. The Medium preset's minimum of 37 FPS indicates that even mid-range settings at 4K can experience significant frame drops.

The data also reveals that the Medium preset consistently provides the tightest FPS range relative to its average, suggesting better frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the range is 38 FPS (108-146); at 1440p Medium, it's 24 FPS (69-93); at 4K Medium, it's 13 FPS (37-50). This consistency makes Medium the most predictable setting choice across all resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component of this combo. At Low settings, performance drops from 169 FPS at 1080p to 108 FPS at 1440p (a 36% reduction) and then to 57 FPS at 4K (a 47% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering resolution directly impacts the GPU's workload.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar but slightly steeper: 127 FPS at 1080p drops to 81 FPS at 1440p (36% reduction) and then to 43 FPS at 4K (47% reduction). At High settings, the pattern continues: 96 FPS to 61 FPS (36% reduction) to 33 FPS (46% reduction). At Ultra, the numbers shift: 70 FPS to 45 FPS (36% reduction) to 24 FPS (47% reduction).

The consistent ~36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~47% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do, but the data shows that even at 1080p Low (169 FPS), the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU sufficiently. The RTX 5070's 192-bit memory bus and 672 GB/s bandwidth become increasingly strained as pixel count rises, explaining the steep 4K penalties.

This scaling analysis suggests that the Core Ultra 7 165H provides more than enough processing power for Hitman 2 at any resolution, while the RTX 5070's performance ceiling is reached at around 1440p Medium for smooth gameplay. For users targeting 4K, the data implies that sacrificing settings to Low is necessary, and even then, the 57 FPS average is barely adequate. The combo's sweet spot is clearly 1440p with Medium or High settings, where the GPU's strengths are fully utilized without hitting the memory bandwidth and shading limitations that plague 4K performance.