Intel Optimizing Hitman 3 for CPUs With 8 or More Cores

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Hitman 3 and Rocket Lake should launch at similar times.

An image from Hitman 3, showing Agent 47 on a pier.
(Image credit: IO Interactive)

Intel is working with developer IO Interactive to optimize the PC version of Hitman 3, the latter announced today. 

IO used some odd parlance, writing that the optimizations will enhance the game "for PC players with 8+ core CPUs." We read that as eight or more CPU cores, which would make some amount of sense, since the game is launching on January 20, 2021, and we're expecting Intel's 11th Gen Rocket Lake desktop processors to come in Q1 of 2021. That lineup is expected to top out at eight cores, though enhancements could still work for high-end desktop (HEDT) chips. We have reached out to Intel for further clarification on the language.

Either way, IO is promising that Intel's optimizations will allow for more people in crowds, "complex destructibility" and more. The game will also feature variable rate shading, and GPU ray tracing will come later in 2021, following the game's launch.

IO Interactive develops games on its Glacier engine. Hitman 3 will conclude the "World of Assassination" trilogy and serve as the eighth game in the main series.

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Andrew E. Freedman
Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mdd1963
    Lemme guess.....! "Runs best on 14 nm++++++++!" :)
    Reply
  • watzupken
    Intel's new strategy is to work with game developers to give their CPU an artificial advantage, likely similar to the deal they have for Marvel. Not sure how a few titles can save them. Moreover these titles aren't really very popular to begin with. Marvel Avengers is mainly because of the movies but that hype train came to a screeching halt.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    More, cores is more cores! Good to see games moving beyond 8!
    Exspecially game ai would benefit from more cores.
    Reply
  • Soaptrail
    I will be really curious how this will affect the mainstream king Ryzen 5600X, although with 12 threads maybe it will not.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    watzupken said:
    Intel's new strategy is to work with game developers to give their CPU an artificial advantage,
    It's not new, every game ever uses the intel compiler and was optimized for the most common CPU which would have been an intel CPU.
    watzupken said:
    Not sure how a few titles can save them.
    They don't need any saving, they are very close to ryzen 3 performance and you can actually buy intel CPUs, by the time there are enough ryzen 3 out there rocket lake will have launched.
    hannibal said:
    Exspecially game ai would benefit from more cores.
    That's only true for chess and other turn based strategy games, were the whole game stops at the end of the turn so there is no new data and you can make a thread for any possible moves the CPU can make and then compare the results.

    Look how well far cry 5 did when they tried to make their AI multithreaded, it became a meme.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    watzupken said:
    Intel's new strategy is to work with game developers to give their CPU an artificial advantage, likely similar to the deal they have for Marvel. Not sure how a few titles can save them. Moreover these titles aren't really very popular to begin with. Marvel Avengers is mainly because of the movies but that hype train came to a screeching halt.

    Saving from what? $70 billion in revenue? Do you realliy think AMD being more competitive in the consumer and server markets is going to kill a company that makes more each quarter than AMD does in a year?

    They don't need saving. They need to get thir heads on straight and get back to making the best process tech, although arguably theirs is the best just not the "smallest". Otherwise they will be just fine. AMD has just started and looks to be planning to try to enter some of the higher margin markets like FPGAs.
    Reply