IO Interactive has just released the Ray Tracing patch for the PC version of Hitman 3, and boy do these RT effects require a high-end GPU. As we’ve already reported, IO Interactive has used Ray Tracing in order to enhance the game’s reflections and shadows. And, from what we can see, even an NVIDIA RTX3080 is unable to run these RT effects smoothly at reasonable resolutions.
For our initial tests, we used an Intel i9 9900K with 16GB of DDR4 at 3800Mhz and NVIDIA’s RTX 3080. We also used Windows 10 64-bit, the GeForce 512.77 driver. We’ve also tested the latest 512.95 drivers, and performance was identical to the 512.77 drivers.
Our PC test system was simply unable to run the Dubai benchmark smoothly, even at 1440p/Ultra. Hell, even when we enabled DLSS Performance Mode, we were frequently dropping below 50fps.
What’s really ironic here is that Hitman 3’s Ray Tracing Mode runs SIGNIFICANTLY worse than Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. It even runs slower than Cyberpunk 2077.
The main reason behind this HUGE performance hit is the big crowd that Hitman 3 has. Let’s also not forget that the Dubai area has a lot of reflective surfaces. Nevertheless, we’d expect IO Interactive to find ways to further optimize the RT performance (instead of relying solely on raw GPU power). As such, and while you can have more accurate reflections, it’s simply not worth enabling them.
We’ll have more benchmarks and comparison screenshots in a later article, so stay tuned for more. For now, here are some screenshots that showcase the RTX3080 dropping below 50fps at 1440p/DLSS Performance.
UPDATE:
It appears that this underwhelming performance was caused by a DLSS glitch/bug. This issue may occur when enabling/disabling Ray Tracing. However, it does not happen each and every time you enable/disable RT. Although we replicated it twice, we’ve been unable to do so lately. Again, we don’t really know what caused this issue. Right now, the game can run with constant 60fps at 1440p/Ultra/Ray Tracing with DLSS Quality Mode. So, it’s good news that the game can run smoothly at 1440p with DLSS. Our PC Performance Analysis article is now live, so be sure to check it out.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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