Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 presents a study in contrast for Hitman 2, a 2018 stealth title. The data shows a combination that is heavily constrained by its graphics card at higher resolutions, yet the processor demonstrates clear headroom. This analysis examines the measured FPS rows to determine where this combo excels, where it struggles, and what the numbers imply about the underlying hardware balance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are dramatic and tell a clear story about the system’s bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 68.6 FPS, but this falls to 43.8 FPS at 1440p and further to 24.3 FPS at 4K. This represents a 36% performance loss when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and another 44% loss from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where the RX 570’s memory bandwidth and pixel throughput are being saturated.

The pattern intensifies at higher settings. With Ultra settings, the average FPS at 1080p is 28.2, which drops to 21.3 at 1440p and a near-unplayable 8.4 at 4K. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is stark: 24.3 FPS versus 8.4 FPS, showing that the GPU is completely overwhelmed when both resolution and quality settings increase. The data suggests that the limiting component at 1440p and above is unequivocally the graphics card, as the CPU’s influence on frame rate diminishes when the GPU is struggling to render frames.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a 65% performance drop, from 39.8 FPS to 13.8 FPS. This is not a linear decline; it is a steep cliff that indicates the RX 570’s 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are inadequate for 4K rendering in Hitman 2. The game’s environments, which are dense with NPCs and interactive objects, demand more from the GPU than this Polaris-based card can deliver at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average is 68.6 FPS, achieved with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured rows that exceeds 60 FPS.

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

A: The measured average FPS is 8.4, which is the lowest score across all tested resolutions and settings. This indicates that 4K Ultra is not a viable configuration for this hardware.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in any scenario?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck at any resolution. The FPS scales consistently with resolution changes, which suggests the GPU is the primary constraint across all measured settings.

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

A: At 1440p, Medium settings yield 35.8 FPS, while High settings yield 27.5 FPS. This is a difference of 8.3 FPS in favor of Medium.

Q: Does the combo achieve playable frame rates at 1440p?

A: At Low settings, it reaches 43.8 FPS, which is playable but not smooth. At Medium, it drops to 35.8 FPS, and at High it falls to 27.5 FPS, indicating that 1440p is only viable with the lowest quality settings.

Q: How does the 1080p Ultra performance compare to 1080p Low?

A: The measured data shows 28.2 FPS for Ultra versus 68.6 FPS for Low. This represents a 59% performance reduction when using the highest quality preset.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570’s specifications directly explain its measured performance in Hitman 2. With 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card offers a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This is sufficient for 1080p gaming but becomes a severe limitation at higher resolutions where texture data exceeds the available VRAM capacity. The card’s base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz, while modest by modern standards, drive 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs.

The GPU’s pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are the theoretical limits that the measured FPS reflects. At 4K Ultra, the 8.4 FPS average suggests the card is spending most of its time swapping textures and computing pixel shaders without any headroom. Interestingly, the RX 570’s average benchmark score of 30158 places it at the 74th percentile of all GPUs, yet its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which have deltaPct values of 0.2% and 0.2% respectively. This indicates that in synthetic benchmarks, the RX 570 performs comparably to far newer cards, but the Hitman 2 data shows that real-world gaming at high resolutions is a different story.

The GPU’s FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS is a measure of its compute capability, but Hitman 2’s engine appears to be more sensitive to memory bandwidth and ROP throughput. The 1080p Low result of 68.6 FPS shows that when the GPU is not stressed by high-quality textures, it can deliver acceptable frame rates. However, the rapid decline at 1440p and 4K demonstrates that the card is not designed for resolutions beyond 1080p in this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user’s resolution priority. At 1080p, Low settings provide the only experience above 60 FPS, with an average of 68.6 FPS. This is the recommended preset for players who demand smooth gameplay, as the jump to Medium drops the average to 50.1 FPS, which is still playable but introduces noticeable frame pacing issues. High settings at 1080p yield 39.8 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for acceptable action sequences.

For 1440p, the data shows that Low settings are the only viable option, with an average of 43.8 FPS. Medium settings at 35.8 FPS and High at 27.5 FPS are too low for a stealth game that requires quick reactions and precise aiming. At 4K, no settings preset is viable, as even Low only achieves 24.3 FPS, which is below the playability threshold.

The data suggests that the best experience is achieved by using Low settings at 1080p, which maximizes frame rate and minimizes input lag. The performance gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 18.5 FPS, indicating that the visual quality improvement from Medium does not justify the significant FPS loss. For players who prioritize visual fidelity, Medium at 1080p offers a compromise, but the 50.1 FPS average is a risky trade-off.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combos for Hitman 2, this pairing of Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1722 out of 1795 combinations. This places it in the bottom 4% of all tested configurations, which aligns with the measured FPS data showing severe limitations at higher resolutions. The rank of 1722 indicates that most other hardware combinations outperform this pairing in Hitman 2.

The CPU’s percentile of 77 versus all CPUs is strong, but the GPU’s percentile of 74 is misleading in this context. The RX 570’s average benchmark score of 30158 is nearly identical to the RTX 5060’s 30109, but this does not translate to gaming performance in Hitman 2. The combo rank of 1722 is a more accurate reflection of the real-world experience, as it accounts for the specific demands of this game engine.

The low rank suggests that users with this hardware would benefit from reducing resolution or settings to achieve playable frame rates. The data does not indicate that this combo is competitive with even mid-range modern systems, as the 4K Ultra result of 8.4 FPS is a clear outlier in the benchmark database. The rank serves as a warning that this hardware is not suited for high-fidelity gaming in Hitman 2.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across settings is 39.8 for High, 68.6 for Low, 50.1 for Medium, and 28.2 for Ultra. The spread between the lowest and highest settings is 40.4 FPS, showing that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution when settings are reduced. The Low setting is the only one that approaches the 60 FPS target, while Ultra falls below 30 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 27.5 for High, 43.8 for Low, 35.8 for Medium, and 21.3 for Ultra. The relative performance gap between settings narrows, with a spread of 22.5 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck, as even Low settings cannot maintain high frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the data shows 13.8 for High, 24.3 for Low, 16.9 for Medium, and 8.4 for Ultra. The performance collapse is evident, with the spread between Low and Ultra narrowing to 15.9 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly poor, confirming that the RX 570’s memory subsystem is insufficient for this resolution. The scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low shows a 64.6% drop in FPS, while the same comparison for Ultra shows a 70.2% drop, highlighting the GPU’s inability to handle increased pixel counts regardless of settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Alder Lake processor has an L3 cache of 18 MB shared and supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory. The CPU’s benchmark scores are robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249, placing it at the 77th percentile of all CPUs.

However, the measured FPS data in Hitman 2 shows no evidence of CPU limitation. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound system. At 1080p Low, the 68.6 FPS result is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame delivery, but at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the constraint. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, has an average benchmark score of 19831 with a deltaPct of 0.1%, indicating that the i5-12400 is competitive with older i7 processors.

The CPU’s 3DMark scores show strong multi-threaded performance, with a 16-thread score of 5873 and a max-thread score of 5890. This suggests that the processor has ample capacity to handle Hitman 2’s AI and physics calculations. The data implies that if the GPU were upgraded, the i5-12400 would likely not become a bottleneck, as its single-thread performance of 910 in 3DMark is sufficient for this game’s engine. The CPU’s role in this combo is to provide a stable foundation, but the gaming experience is entirely dictated by the RX 570’s capabilities.