Every laptop we have figures for

Frame rates measured by Notebookcheck.

What it asks of a laptop

Hitman 2 looks relatively forgiving on the evidence available, but the evidence is limited: Notebookcheck’s measured figures cover just four laptops, all tested at 1920x1080 on the High preset with upscaling disabled. Those four machines returned between 79fps and 90fps, with a median of 85fps. Every measured laptop cleared 60fps, while none reached 100fps or 144fps.

That is a useful result for buyers considering laptops equipped with the GPUs represented here. At this particular 1080p High setting, the game was comfortably playable on all four systems, including the slowest result. The 11fps gap between the fastest and slowest machines is not especially large, either: the Acer Predator Triton 500 managed 79fps and the MSI GE66 Raider reached 90fps.

The GPU-tier results are particularly worth reading carefully. The two RTX 2070 laptops averaged 86fps, while the two RTX 2080 laptops averaged 84fps. That does not mean an RTX 2070 is inherently faster than an RTX 2080 in Hitman 2. With only two laptops in each group, it instead shows that the GPU name alone does not explain the measured results. Laptop power limits, cooling, processor configuration and other machine-specific factors can affect performance, and the figures here should be treated as results for these particular laptops rather than a universal ranking of mobile GPUs.

Still, the narrow spread suggests that, among these four high-end laptops, Hitman 2 did not place extreme demands on graphics hardware at 1080p High. The measured numbers are well above the 60fps mark, but they also indicate that a buyer targeting a consistently very high-refresh-rate experience should not assume that 100fps or 144fps will be available at these settings. Neither target was reached by any of the tested machines.

What runs it

The available results provide a clear answer for a 60fps target. Both GPU tiers represented in Notebookcheck’s figures cleared it in every tested laptop.

• RTX 2070: The MSI GE66 Raider recorded 90fps, while the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XB reached 83fps. Across those two laptops, the RTX 2070 mean was 86fps. Both machines were above 60fps, but neither reached 100fps or 144fps.
• RTX 2080: The Asus Strix Scar 17 recorded 88fps, while the Acer Predator Triton 500 managed 79fps. The mean for the two RTX 2080 laptops was 84fps. Again, both systems cleared 60fps, but neither reached 100fps or 144fps.

For someone with one of these specific laptops, the practical conclusion is straightforward: all four measured machines handled Hitman 2 at 1920x1080 High without upscaling at more than 60fps. The slowest measured result, 79fps on the Acer Predator Triton 500, still left a substantial margin over that target.

For 100fps, the data is less encouraging. The MSI GE66 Raider was closest at 90fps, followed by the Asus Strix Scar 17 at 88fps, but Notebookcheck’s numbers contain no 100fps result. It would therefore be misleading to describe either RTX 2070 or RTX 2080 as a proven 100fps option for this game at the tested settings. Lower settings may alter that outcome, but there are no measured figures here for other presets or resolutions.

The same applies even more strongly to 144fps. None of the four laptops approached that figure in the supplied test configuration. A 144Hz display can still be used, of course, but these figures do not show Hitman 2 running at 144fps at 1080p High with upscaling off on any of the measured machines.

The cheapest laptop that handles it

No laptop prices are included in the fact sheet, so it is not possible to identify the cheapest option from the supplied information. It would be unsafe to infer current UK pricing from the laptop names alone, particularly as laptop configurations and prices vary considerably.

What can be said is that all four named machines handled the tested workload above 60fps:

• MSI GE66 Raider with RTX 2070: 90fps
• Asus Strix Scar 17 with RTX 2080: 88fps
• Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XB with RTX 2070: 83fps
• Acer Predator Triton 500 with RTX 2080: 79fps

If comparing used or discounted examples of these specific models, price should be the deciding factor only after checking the exact specification and condition. The measured results do not establish a meaningful performance advantage for the RTX 2080 machines over the RTX 2070 machines in this four-laptop sample.

What this means if you’re buying

For a buyer whose goal is simply to play Hitman 2 at 1920x1080 High at 60fps or better, the measured figures are reassuring. Every laptop in this small sample achieved that standard, and the median result was 85fps. The evidence suggests that these particular RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 laptops have enough performance headroom for the tested settings.

Do not buy solely on the assumption that the RTX 2080 label guarantees a better result than RTX 2070. In Notebookcheck’s four measurements, the RTX 2070 average was slightly higher, 86fps versus 84fps, and the fastest individual laptop was the RTX 2070-equipped MSI GE66 Raider. That is not proof of a general RTX 2070 advantage; it is a reminder to assess the complete laptop rather than its GPU badge alone.

Buyers seeking a proven 100fps or 144fps result at 1080p High should be more cautious. The available measurements do not support that expectation for any of these four machines. For a conventional 60fps target, however, all four tested laptops delivered it comfortably.