Hitman 2

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT presents a fascinating study in bottleneck behavior within Hitman 2. The data shows a processor that ranks in the 72nd percentile overall against the Intel Core i7-7700K, and a graphics card that sits in the 73rd percentile, nearly identical in average benchmark score to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060. This pairing lands at rank 797 out of 1795 tested combos for this specific game, suggesting a mid-pack performance tier that is heavily influenced by resolution and settings. The measured frames per second reveal a system that can dominate at 1080p but struggles to maintain playable rates at 4K Ultra, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about system balance. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 199.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 69.8 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of approximately 65 percent. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where the RX 7700 XT's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated by the sheer pixel throughput. The scaling becomes even more pronounced at higher quality presets, with Ultra settings dropping from 80.2 FPS at 1080p to just 27.5 FPS at 4K, a 66 percent loss.

The pattern suggests that at 1080p, the Intel Core i3-12100F's four cores and eight threads are capable of feeding the GPU adequately, allowing the Radeon card to stretch its legs. However, as resolution increases to 2560x1440 and then 3840x2160, the workload shifts overwhelmingly to the graphics processor. The gap between Low and Ultra settings at 4K is 42.3 FPS, while the same delta at 1080p is 119.4 FPS, indicating that the CPU has more headroom at lower resolutions to push higher frame rates, but the GPU's rendering limits become the wall at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 1795 tested combinations for Hitman 2, this specific pairing achieves a rank of 797, placing it in the 44th percentile of all combos. This is a surprisingly modest position given that both components individually sit near the 73rd percentile in their respective benchmark pools. The discrepancy suggests that Hitman 2's engine does not scale perfectly with this hardware pairing, possibly due to the game's reliance on single-thread performance where the i3-12100F's 3.30 GHz base clock and 4.30 GHz boost clock are strong but not exceptional.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-7700K, trails by only 1.8 percent in average benchmark score, yet the older chip has four cores and eight threads just like the i3-12100F. This near-parity in compute benchmarks does not translate to a top-tier gaming rank, as the combo's position in the middle of the pack indicates that many other processor and graphics card pairings outperform it. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, is essentially tied with a 0 percent delta, meaning the Radeon card is not the differentiator here; the overall combo rank reflects a balance that is competent but not exceptional for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The maximum recorded average FPS is 199.6, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings, which demonstrates that the combination can push well beyond standard 60 FPS displays when visual quality is sacrificed.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 27.5 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay and indicates that this resolution and preset combination is not viable for this hardware.

Q: Which resolution provides the best balance of quality and performance?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo delivers 73.3 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target while maintaining decent visual fidelity, making it the sweet spot among the measured configurations.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 199.6 FPS, suggesting the GPU is the primary limiter since the CPU's four cores are sufficient to drive such high frame rates in this scenario.

Q: How does the combo's rank compare to its individual component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 797 out of 1795, while the CPU is in the 72nd percentile and the GPU is in the 73rd percentile, indicating that the pairing underperforms relative to what each component's standalone benchmarks might suggest.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings yield 95.6 FPS while High settings yield 73.3 FPS, a difference of 22.3 FPS, showing that the preset has a significant impact on performance at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's capabilities across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 199.6 FPS on Low, 148 FPS on Medium, 111.7 FPS on High, and 80.2 FPS on Ultra. These numbers demonstrate that the RX 7700 XT has substantial headroom at this resolution, with even the most demanding preset maintaining a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 59.8 percent reduction in average FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops to 126.7 FPS on Low, 95.6 FPS on Medium, 73.3 FPS on High, and 52.5 FPS on Ultra. The Ultra preset at this resolution falls below the 60 FPS mark, indicating that users seeking smooth gameplay should avoid the highest quality settings. At 3840x2160, the numbers become 69.8 FPS on Low, 50.1 FPS on Medium, 36.3 FPS on High, and 27.5 FPS on Ultra, with only the Low preset achieving a playable frame rate. The progression shows that each resolution step roughly halves the performance at equivalent settings, which is consistent with the increased pixel count.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a quad-core processor with eight threads, based on the Alder Lake architecture and manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache contribute to the processor's ability to handle the game's logic and AI calculations, which are typically not heavily multithreaded in Hitman 2.

The CPU's 3DMark scores show a significant scaling pattern: 1659 for 2 threads, 2859 for 4 threads, and 4026 for 8 threads. This indicates that the processor's performance nearly doubles when moving from 2 to 4 threads, but only gains 25 percent more when moving from 4 to 8 threads, suggesting diminishing returns in multithreaded workloads. For Hitman 2, which is not known for heavy thread utilization, the quad-core design with Hyper-Threading appears sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions, as shown by the 199.6 FPS result at 1080p Low.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1920x1080 displays, the High preset at 111.7 FPS offers an excellent balance, providing smooth gameplay with only a 44 percent performance penalty compared to Low settings. The Ultra preset at 80.2 FPS is also viable for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, as it remains above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, the High preset at 73.3 FPS is the recommended choice, as it maintains playability while offering better visual fidelity than Medium at 95.6 FPS, which may have noticeable graphical compromises.

For 4K resolution, the options are severely limited. The Low preset at 69.8 FPS is the only configuration that achieves a playable frame rate, while Medium at 50.1 FPS dips below the 60 FPS target. Users with 4K displays should consider lowering the resolution to 2560x1440 with High settings for a better overall experience, as the 73.3 FPS result at that configuration provides both higher frame rates and better visual quality than 4K Low. The Ultra preset at any resolution above 1080p results in frame rates below 60 FPS, making it unsuitable for competitive or fast-paced gameplay.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process node. It features 3456 shading units, 216 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, which collectively deliver a pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which becomes the critical resource at higher resolutions where the GPU must process larger textures and framebuffers.

The GPU's boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz enable it to achieve 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, making it a capable mid-range card. However, the measured FPS data reveals that this GPU struggles at 4K, particularly at higher quality presets. The 27.5 FPS result at 4K Ultra indicates that the 12 GB memory capacity is not the limiting factor; rather, the raw compute throughput and memory bandwidth are insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering with high-quality effects. The GPU's percentile ranking of 73 places it in the upper quarter of all graphics cards, but Hitman 2's specific engine demands expose its limitations at extreme resolutions.