Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a performance profile in Hitman 2 that is highly dependent on resolution and graphics preset. The measured data shows a clear hierarchy: at 1080p, the combination is overwhelmingly capable, while at 4K, it struggles to maintain playable frame rates. The Arc B580’s 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for the game’s engine, but the raw compute demands of higher resolutions quickly overwhelm the GPU’s 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo spans three resolutions and four settings tiers, with no minimum or maximum frame rate values recorded, only averages.

At 1920x1080, the combo is exceptionally strong. Low settings produce an average of 141.2 FPS, which is more than double the 60 FPS playable threshold. Moving to Medium yields 101.9 FPS, a 27.8% drop from Low but still a very comfortable margin above the target. High settings deliver 80.2 FPS, representing a 21.3% reduction from Medium. The most demanding preset, Ultra, still holds an average of 60.7 FPS, which is just barely above the playable threshold. This means the entire settings range at 1080p is technically playable, though Ultra offers almost no headroom for frame-time spikes.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes significantly. Low settings produce 90 FPS, which is a 36.2% decrease from the same preset at 1080p. Medium settings average 68.7 FPS, a 32.5% drop from 1080p Medium and still playable. However, High settings fall to 49.4 FPS, which is 18.3% below the playable threshold and represents a 28.1% decline from Medium. Ultra settings at 1440p yield just 37.1 FPS, which is 38.2% slower than High and far from playable. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 52.9 FPS, indicating a steep scaling curve as graphical fidelity increases.

At 3840x2160, the combo is largely out of its depth. Low settings average 45.3 FPS, which is 24.5% below the playable threshold. Medium settings drop to 36.5 FPS, a 19.4% reduction from Low. High settings manage only 29.6 FPS, and Ultra plummets to 20.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 25.1 FPS, showing that even the lowest preset cannot reach 60 FPS. No settings tier at 4K is playable by the 60 FPS standard.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU has sufficient headroom to keep up at lower settings. The Intel Core i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989 and a single-core score of 2257, indicating strong per-thread performance for game logic. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 141.2 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at high frame rates. The scaling from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is a 36.2% reduction in FPS, while the scaling from 1440p Low to 4K Low is a 49.7% reduction. This pattern indicates that resolution increases place exponentially more strain on the GPU, as the CPU workload remains relatively constant.

The preset scaling within each resolution further confirms the GPU’s dominance. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 27.8% of performance, and Medium to High costs 21.3%. At 1440p, the same transitions cost 23.7% and 28.1%, respectively. At 4K, the Low-to-Medium transition costs 19.4%, but the Medium-to-High transition costs 18.9%. The fact that these percentage drops are similar across resolutions suggests that the GPU’s shading units and texture units are the limiting factor, not the CPU. The Arc B580’s 2560 shading units and 160 TMUs must process increasing pixel counts, and the 213.6 GPixel/s pixel rate is simply insufficient for 4K Ultra.

The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at the lowest resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the 141.2 FPS result approaches the practical ceiling for many mid-range CPUs, but the i5-12400’s 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and multi-thread score of 5890 indicate it is not a bottleneck here. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see diminishing returns when lowering the preset at 1080p, but the jump from High (80.2 FPS) to Low (141.2 FPS) shows a 76.1% improvement, proving the GPU is still the active constraint even at the lightest settings. The data supports a conclusion that this game is GPU-bound across all tested configurations for this combo.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i5-12400 provide context for its CPU-level performance in this pairing. The AMD EPYC 7643 has an average benchmark score of 18697, which is 0.1% lower than the i5-12400’s 18683, making them statistically equivalent. The Intel Core i7-1355U scores 18730, 0.3% higher, while the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 scores 18811, 0.7% higher. The Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519, which is 0.9% lower. In practical terms, any of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Hitman 2 when paired with the same GPU, as the game’s engine is not particularly CPU-sensitive based on the measured scaling.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B580’s nearest rivals are more interesting. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP has an average score of 23061, just 0.2% higher than the B580’s 23021. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895, which is 0.6% lower. The RTX 3080 scores 23172, 0.7% higher, and the NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23249, 1.0% higher. These deltaPct values are all within 1%, meaning a user with an RTX 3080 would see nearly identical FPS in Hitman 2 as this i5-12400 + B580 combo, assuming the CPU is not the bottleneck. The RTX 2080’s performance parity is notable given its older architecture, but the B580’s Xe2-HPG design with 20 ray tracing cores and 12 GB of VRAM offers modern feature support that older cards may lack.

A system builder looking for similar behavior could swap the i5-12400 for an i3-14100F and lose only 0.9% of CPU benchmark performance, which would be imperceptible in this game. Alternatively, replacing the B580 with an RTX 2080 would cost 0.6% of GPU performance. The closest overall alternative is the AMD RX 580 2048SP, which matches the B580 within 0.2%, though it lacks the B580’s newer feature set.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Hitman 2 at 1080p with all settings maxed?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 60.7 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS playable threshold. This leaves minimal headroom, but it is technically playable.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 produce an average of 68.7 FPS, which is the highest preset that stays above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at this resolution fall to 49.4 FPS, which is not playable.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with this hardware?

A: No. The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 45.3 FPS on Low settings, which is 24.5% below the 60 FPS target. All other presets at 4K are below 40 FPS.

Q: How does this combo compare to an RTX 2080 system?

A: The Intel Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021, which is 0.6% higher than the RTX 2080’s 22895. In Hitman 2, the two GPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with equivalent CPUs.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings average 141.2 FPS, while Ultra averages 60.7 FPS. This represents a 57.0% reduction in performance when moving from the lightest to the heaviest preset.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at any resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck at all tested resolutions. The i5-12400’s performance is sufficient to feed the B580 even at 1080p Low where 141.2 FPS is achieved, and no CPU-bound behavior is evident in the scaling patterns.

Best Settings per Resolution

Based on the measured data and the 60 FPS playable threshold, the best settings for each resolution are determined by the highest preset that maintains at least 60 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset is the best choice, delivering an average of 60.7 FPS. This is the only resolution where the most demanding settings are playable. High settings at this resolution offer 80.2 FPS, providing a 32.1% performance buffer over Ultra if the user prefers smoother frame pacing.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the best playable option, averaging 68.7 FPS. This is 14.5% above the 60 FPS threshold. Low settings at this resolution achieve 90 FPS, which could be preferred for competitive play, but Medium offers the best visual quality while staying comfortably playable.

At 3840x2160, no settings preset is playable. The highest FPS is 45.3 on Low, which is 24.5% below the threshold. Users targeting 4K would need to reduce the resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this Intel Core i5-12400 + Intel Arc B580 combination ranks 2799 out of 3711 tested combos for Hitman 2. This places it in the 75.4th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 24.6% of tested combos perform worse. The rank reflects the combo’s strong 1080p performance balanced against its poor 4K showing. The combo’s average benchmark score for the CPU is 18683 (72nd percentile among all CPUs), and the GPU’s average score is 23021 (68th percentile among all GPUs). The fact that the combo ranks lower than either component’s individual percentile suggests that the game’s engine does not scale perfectly with this hardware pairing, likely due to the GPU’s architectural quirks at higher resolutions. Still, for a 1080p-focused gaming system, this combo delivers playable Ultra settings, which is a notable achievement given the GPU’s mid-range positioning in the performance hierarchy.