Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT pairing in Hitman 2 demonstrates a clear GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, but reveals a more balanced relationship at 1080p. The data shows that the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings incurs a substantial 37.3% performance drop, moving from 84.2 FPS to 52.8 FPS. This trend intensifies at 3840x2160, where the average frame rate plummets to 26.8 FPS, representing a 68.2% reduction from the 1080p baseline. The scaling pattern is characteristic of a system where the Radeon RX 6600 XT becomes the limiting component as pixel count rises, with the Core i5-12400 providing ample headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep and consistent performance decline as resolution increases, confirming that the RX 6600 XT is the primary bottleneck in this configuration for Hitman 2. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 146.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 96.1 FPS at 2560x1440, a 34.3% decrease, and further to 50.5 FPS at 4K, a 65.5% decline from the 1080p result. This pattern is not linear; the penalty for moving from 1440p to 4K is proportionally larger than the step from 1080p to 1440p, which indicates that the GPU's rendering throughput is being exhausted well before the CPU becomes a factor.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story with more severe consequences. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 59.0 FPS, which is still playable, but at 1440p Ultra it falls to 36.9 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it bottoms out at 18.4 FPS. The 68.8% drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings underscores the GPU's limitations with high-fidelity effects. In contrast, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings (109.5 FPS to 71.0 FPS) results in a 35.2% reduction, nearly identical to the Low preset's drop, suggesting that the GPU is consistently the limiting factor across all quality levels once the resolution increases.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT's specifications explain the observed performance ceiling in Hitman 2. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has sufficient memory capacity for this game's textures but the bandwidth becomes a constraint at higher resolutions. The GPU's boost clock of 2589 MHz and game clock of 2359 MHz are relatively high, yet the 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs determine the raw fill rate, which is reflected in the measured pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s. The card's average benchmark score of 27985 places it in the 71st percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti with a score of 27956, a mere 0.1% difference.

The architectural efficiency of RDNA 2.0, built on a 7 nm process, allows the RX 6600 XT to sustain competitive performance, but the data shows it trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 by 0.9% in aggregate benchmarks. In Hitman 2 specifically, the GPU's 10.60 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is adequate for 1080p gaming but insufficient for 4K Ultra, where the 18.4 FPS result clearly demonstrates the card's limits. The 32 ray accelerators provide some future-proofing, but they have minimal impact on this title's rasterization-heavy workload. The 160 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a mid-range power envelope, consistent with the card's positioning relative to the 450 W suggested PSU.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results point to Medium settings as the optimal balance for this combo, particularly at 1920x1080 where it delivers 109.5 FPS. This represents a 30.0% improvement over High settings (84.2 FPS) while maintaining a 25.1% advantage over Low (146.3 FPS) in visual quality terms—the frame rate penalty for enabling Medium over Low is manageable, making it the sweet spot. At 2560x1440, Medium yields 71.0 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, whereas High drops to 52.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 36.9 FPS. The data suggests that users with 1440p monitors should prioritize Medium settings to maintain fluidity.

For 4K resolution, the situation is more constrained. Medium at 3840x2160 produces 35.0 FPS, which is borderline playable but not ideal, while Low at 4K achieves 50.5 FPS, making it the only viable preset for a consistent experience above 30 FPS. Ultra at 4K is effectively unplayable at 18.4 FPS. The 1080p Ultra result of 59.0 FPS indicates that even at the lowest resolution, the highest preset pushes the GPU to its limits, so users seeking maximum fidelity should accept this as the ceiling. Overall, Medium at 1080p or 1440p provides the best measured experience, with Low reserved for 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration of Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 1292 out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the 28th percentile of all systems. This relatively low ranking is surprising given the individual component scores—the CPU ranks in the 77th percentile and the GPU in the 71st percentile—suggesting that this game is particularly demanding on the combination's weaker link. The ranking indicates that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates, likely due to either more powerful GPUs or better CPU-GPU balance for this specific title.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, has an average score of 19831, which is 0.1% lower than the i5-12400's 19850, indicating that the Alder Lake chip slightly outperforms the older Coffee Lake part. The GPU's comparison is tighter, with the GTX 980 Ti at 27956 being 0.1% below the RX 6600 XT's 27985, showing near-parity in aggregate benchmarks. However, in Hitman 2's measured results, the combo's overall rank of 1292 out of 1795 suggests that the pairing struggles relative to its synthetic benchmark scores, possibly due to specific game engine optimizations or driver interactions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The data indicates 1920x1080 is the most suitable, as all settings except Ultra exceed 84 FPS, with Low reaching 146.3 FPS and Medium at 109.5 FPS, providing smooth gameplay across the board.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: The RX 6600 XT's average benchmark score is 27985, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti's 27956, but 0.9% lower than the RTX 3070's 28238.

Q: Is the Core i5-12400 a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The CPU's single-thread score of 910 in 3DMark and 3456 in PassMark suggests it is not a bottleneck, as the GPU is clearly limiting performance given the steep FPS drops at higher resolutions.

Q: What FPS can be expected at 1440p High settings?

A: The measured average at 2560x1440 High is 52.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that Medium settings at 71.0 FPS would be preferable for smoother play.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance in Hitman 2?

A: At 4K Ultra, the 18.4 FPS result and the significant drop from 1080p suggest that memory bandwidth and capacity are stressed, though the exact VRAM usage is not provided in the data.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: It ranks 1292 out of 1795 combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the lower third of tested configurations for this specific game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 146.3 FPS on Low, 109.5 FPS on Medium, 84.2 FPS on High, and 59.0 FPS on Ultra. The progression shows a 25.1% drop from Low to Medium, a 23.1% drop from Medium to High, and a 29.9% drop from High to Ultra. At 2560x1440, the results are 96.1 FPS on Low, 71.0 FPS on Medium, 52.8 FPS on High, and 36.9 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p results represent a 34.3% reduction from 1080p at Low, 35.2% at Medium, 37.3% at High, and 37.5% at Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 50.5 FPS on Low, 35.0 FPS on Medium, 26.8 FPS on High, and 18.4 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results show a 65.5% reduction from 1080p at Low, 68.0% at Medium, 68.2% at High, and 68.8% at Ultra. The consistency of the percentage drops across settings at each resolution confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the relative performance penalty scales uniformly with pixel count. The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases: at 1080p, Ultra is 59.7% slower than Low, but at 4K, Ultra is 63.6% slower.

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, which are sufficient for Hitman 2's engine. The CPU's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core help with game data throughput, while its 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249 indicate strong per-core performance. The CPU's average benchmark score of 19850 places it in the 77th percentile, and it outperforms the Intel Core i7-9700 by 0.1% and the Intel Core i5-11600K by 0.4%, while trailing the Intel Core i7-8700 by 0.2%.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary constraint in Hitman 2, as evidenced by the consistent GPU-bound scaling patterns across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 146.3 FPS result shows that the CPU can drive high frame rates, but as resolution increases, the GPU's rendering load dominates. The CPU's 12 threads are likely sufficient for this game's AI and physics calculations, as the measured frame rates at lower resolutions are high enough to rule out CPU bottlenecks. The Alder Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process, provides efficient power delivery with a 65 W TDP, allowing sustained boost clocks without thermal throttling, which supports consistent performance across the benchmark runs.