Hitman 2

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB lands at rank 1634 out of 1795 tested combinations in Hitman 2. That places this system in the lower 9% of all tested combos, a position that reflects the GPU's modest 4 GB VRAM capacity more than the CPU's computational strength. The i3-12100F carries a 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13516, sitting a mere 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX and 0.4% above the Intel Core i7-1250U. This suggests the processor is not the primary bottleneck in this pairing.

The combo's low overall rank becomes understandable when examining the measured frame rates across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system delivers 99.3 FPS, which is respectable, but the frame rate collapses to 45.7 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The pattern continues at 1440p, where Low settings produce 64.1 FPS but Ultra drops to 27.9 FPS. At 4K, the situation deteriorates further, with Ultra settings yielding just 17.6 FPS. These numbers indicate a system that can handle lower settings at mainstream resolutions but struggles under heavier graphical loads.

The disparity between the CPU's solid benchmark standing and the combo's low game rank points to the GPU as the limiting factor. The RTX 3050 4 GB sits at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, and its 4 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration proves insufficient for Hitman 2's higher settings, particularly at higher resolutions where texture demands exceed the available VRAM.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves in Hitman 2?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 99.3 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 79.4 FPS at Medium, 55.6 FPS at High, and 45.7 FPS at Ultra for the same resolution.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, placing it 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% above the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462). It also edges out the Intel Core i3-10105 by 0.6% and the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%.

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: At 3840x2160, the system achieves 32.7 FPS on Low, 24.9 FPS on Medium, 21.4 FPS on High, and 17.6 FPS on Ultra. These figures fall below smooth playability thresholds for all settings at 4K.

Q: What resolution provides the most balanced experience?

A: At 2560x1440, the combo delivers 64.1 FPS on Low and 47.4 FPS on Medium. The 1920x1080 resolution offers the widest range of playable settings, with all four presets exceeding 45 FPS.

Q: How significant is the VRAM limitation for this game?

A: The RTX 3050 4 GB provides 4 GB of GDDR6 memory with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The measured FPS drops suggest that higher settings at higher resolutions are constrained by this memory capacity, as frame rates fall disproportionately when moving from Medium to Ultra.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB sits at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, indicating mid-pack performance. Its launch MSRP is 199 USD.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is built on the GA107 chip using Samsung's 8 nm process, with 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1545 MHz and boosts to 1740 MHz, with memory running at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective). The 4 GB GDDR6 memory sits on a 128-bit bus, yielding 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. With 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, the card delivers 7.127 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and texture rate of 111.4 GTexel/s.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role is decisive. The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: each step up in settings costs a significant fraction of performance. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium reduces the average FPS from 99.3 to 79.4, a drop of nearly 20%. The jump from Medium to High brings another reduction to 55.6 FPS, and Ultra further lowers it to 45.7 FPS. This scaling suggests the GPU is working near its limits even at 1080p when settings increase.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity is particularly relevant for Hitman 2's crowd-heavy environments and detailed textures. At 1440p Ultra, the combo manages only 27.9 FPS, while 4K Ultra falls to 17.6 FPS. These results indicate that the memory bus width and capacity become bottlenecks at higher resolutions, preventing the GPU from maintaining playable frame rates. The pixel rate of 55.68 GPixel/s, while respectable for the class, cannot compensate for the memory constraints at 4K.

The GPU's 90 W TDP and dual-slot design make it a compact solution, but the performance envelope is clearly limited. The 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores provide ray tracing and DLSS capabilities, though Hitman 2's traditional rasterization workload still exposes the card's fundamental limitations.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 99.3 FPS, which is the highest measured figure across all configurations. Medium settings yield 79.4 FPS, High drops to 55.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 45.7 FPS. This resolution offers the only fully playable experience across all settings, with even Ultra remaining above 45 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decline substantially. Low settings average 64.1 FPS, which remains playable, but Medium falls to 47.4 FPS. High settings produce 38.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 27.9 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 35% of performance at Low settings and 39% at Ultra, indicating a GPU-bound scenario where resolution scaling directly impacts output.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles across the board. Low settings average 32.7 FPS, Medium falls to 24.9 FPS, High manages 21.4 FPS, and Ultra produces just 17.6 FPS. None of these figures reach the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay, and even the 30 FPS console-like target is only achieved at Low settings. The data shows a consistent pattern: this combo is viable for 1080p gaming at all settings, borderline at 1440p with reduced settings, and unsuitable for 4K.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reveals the nature of the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS moves from 99.3 at 1080p to 64.1 at 1440p to 32.7 at 4K. This represents a 35.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 49% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is approximately linear with pixel count, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

At Ultra settings, the pattern is similar but more severe. The 45.7 FPS at 1080p falls to 27.9 FPS at 1440p (a 39% drop) and then to 17.6 FPS at 4K (a 37% drop). The consistency of these percentage reductions across settings indicates that the GPU's compute and memory resources are the primary constraint, rather than the CPU. The i3-12100F's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 893 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681, is sufficient to feed the GPU at these frame rates.

The CPU's 4 cores and 8 threads, with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, provide adequate processing power for Hitman 2's AI and physics systems. The 3dmark_4_threads score of 2859 and 3dmark_8_threads score of 4026 show that the processor scales well with thread count, and the 12 MB shared L3 cache helps maintain consistent performance. However, the benchmark results across resolutions clearly demonstrate that the RTX 3050 4 GB is the bottleneck, particularly at higher settings where the 4 GB VRAM capacity becomes insufficient. The GPU's 192.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot sustain the texture throughput required by Hitman 2's detailed environments at 1440p and above, leading to the steep FPS degradation observed in the measured data.