A critically acclaimed game, Hitman: World of Assassination, on the Nintendo Switch 2, has an undocumented feature – a significant increase in performance based on its system display settings.
The unusual characteristic was first noted when the Switch 2’s TV output was adjusted from 4K to 720p, leading to a “very solid and stable frame-rate” in the Hawkes Bay Mission, as reported in an email by Mingham. Further investigation by them revealed that the game can reach up to 60 frames per second (fps) at this resolution, a considerable jump from the mid-40s fps experienced in more demanding parts of the game.
To understand the effect of different resolutions on the game’s frame rate, Digital Foundry tested the game in different locations – including Paris, Berlin, Mumbai, and Whittleton Creek – using the console’s system display options. The most notable variation in frame rate was seen in Whittleton Creek, known for being GPU-intensive. At 4K, the average frame rate was 40.45fps; it rose to 46.88fps at 1080p and further to 59.93fps at 720p, marking a 9.7% increase from 4K to 1080p and a substantial 62.5% boost from 4K to 720p. Consequently, the frame rate at 720p was 48.2% higher than at 1080p.
Observations at 1080p and 4K settings showed that the resolution is not as expected. At 1080p, the game appeared to be at a slightly increased resolution – between 1152p and 1188p. Even at the 4K setting, pixel counts stayed within the 1152p/1188p limits, despite a drop in frame rate, implying that it is upscaled to the chosen resolution. The drop in performance at 4K resulted in an estimated 2.4ms cost, possibly due to the upscaling.
Berlin demonstrated the same pattern, where 720p was 61% faster than 4K, and 1080p was seven points faster. Specifically, frame rates averaged 55.1fps at 720p, 36.7fps at 1080p, and 34.26fps at 4K.
However, in areas with many Non-Player Characters (NPCs), such as the fashion show in Paris, the differences between the frame rates at various settings converged: 42fps at 720p, 39fps at 1080p, and 35fps at 4K, as the CPU became the limiting component.
Players now have to choose between a smoother gaming experience with a lower visual fidelity at 720p or a more visually pleasing but potentially choppier experience at higher settings. For those with 4K displays, switching to 1080p yields a minor improvement of around 9% in frame rate, albeit still upscaled.
This undocumented performance behavior, potentially tied to the Switch 2’s handling of performance during mode changes, has sparked curiosity. Typically, such options are in-game settings. Digital Foundry has contacted Io Interactive to shed more light on the matter.
