Hitman 2

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Hitman 2 with the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 reveals a clear pattern: the game becomes progressively more GPU-bound as resolution increases, but the CPU still plays a substantial role at lower settings. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 305.1 FPS, which is exceptionally high. Moving to 2560x1440 Low, the average drops to 220.9 FPS — a reduction of 84.2 FPS. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 121.1 FPS. This scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings represents a 60.3% drop in frame rate, indicating that the RTX 5090's rendering load is scaling heavily with pixel count.

However, the story changes when looking at Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the combo delivers 142.6 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 91.8 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 48.7 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 65.8%, which is slightly steeper than at Low settings. This suggests that at higher settings, the GPU is doing more per-pixel work, amplifying the resolution penalty. The data indicates that at 1080p Low, the i5-12400's six cores and twelve threads are likely limiting the frame rate, as the RTX 5090 is capable of far more. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the dominant constraint, with the RTX 5090 struggling to maintain 60 FPS.

The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory is not a bottleneck at any resolution, but the 4K Ultra result of 48.7 FPS shows that even with massive memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, the raw compute demand of Hitman 2 at maximum settings overwhelms the GPU. Benchmark results indicate that the transition from Medium to Ultra settings at 4K costs 40.4 FPS (from 89.1 to 48.7), a 45% performance hit. This is substantial and points to Ultra settings being disproportionately heavy on the GPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 305.1 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is far above any display refresh rate commonly in use, indicating the combo is heavily CPU-limited at this configuration.

Q: Can this system run Hitman 2 at 4K Ultra smoothly?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 48.7, which is below the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth. The data shows that 4K Ultra is the only tested configuration that fails to reach 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's memory capacity affect Hitman 2 performance?

A: The RTX 5090 has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory with a 512-bit bus width. In Hitman 2, this capacity is more than sufficient; the measured FPS drops across resolutions are consistent with compute and bandwidth limits rather than memory capacity limits.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Medium settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings yield 220.9 FPS, while Medium settings produce 166.3 FPS. This is a 54.6 FPS difference, or a 24.7% reduction, showing that Medium adds significant GPU workload.

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

A: At 1920x1080 High, the combo achieves 194.3 FPS. Given that the RTX 5090 is a top-tier GPU (94th percentile among all GPUs), this frame rate is likely constrained by the i5-12400's CPU performance rather than the GPU.

Q: How does the combo rank against other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 26th out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 1.5% of all tested combinations, indicating excellent overall performance despite the 4K Ultra shortfall.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the primary driver of high frame rates in Hitman 2, but its role becomes more dominant as resolution and settings increase. The GPU has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with 21760 shading units. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory operates at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed, delivering 1.79 TB/s bandwidth over a 512-bit bus. These specifications place the RTX 5090 in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84306.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role is most evident in the settings scaling. At 4K, the RTX 5090 delivers 121.1 FPS on Low, 89.1 FPS on Medium, 66 FPS on High, and 48.7 FPS on Ultra. This progression shows a consistent 25-30% drop per settings tier, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 5090's 176 ROPs and 680 TMUs handle the game's texture and pixel work efficiently, but the Ultra preset's additional effects push the GPU to its limits. Notably, the RTX 5090's performance is so high that at 1080p Low (305.1 FPS) and 1080p Medium (261.7 FPS), the GPU is likely idling, waiting for the CPU to feed it data.

The GPU's VRAM capacity of 32 GB is not stressed by Hitman 2, as even the highest settings do not approach this limit. The 28 Gbps effective memory speed ensures that texture streaming is never a bottleneck, allowing the measured FPS to reflect pure compute and shader performance. The RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute is sufficient for 4K High (66 FPS) but falls short for 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops below 60.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 305.1 FPS on Low, 261.7 FPS on Medium, 194.3 FPS on High, and 142.6 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 162.5 FPS, showing that settings have a massive impact at this resolution. The 1080p Low result is the highest measured across all configurations, reinforcing that the CPU is the bottleneck at this setting.

Moving to 2560x1440, the FPS values are 220.9 (Low), 166.3 (Medium), 129 (High), and 91.8 (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is 84.2 FPS (Low), 95.4 FPS (Medium), 65.3 FPS (High), and 50.8 FPS (Ultra). The absolute reductions are larger at lower settings, but the percentage reductions are more uniform. At 1440p Ultra, the combo still exceeds 90 FPS, indicating playable performance.

At 3840x2160, the results are 121.1 FPS (Low), 89.1 FPS (Medium), 66 FPS (High), and 48.7 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result of 121.1 FPS is notable because it suggests the GPU can still push high frame rates at this resolution when settings are reduced. However, the 4K Ultra result of 48.7 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS measurement in the entire dataset. The scaling from 4K Medium to 4K High costs 23.1 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 17.3 FPS, showing diminishing returns on settings investment at the highest resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 26th out of 1795 tested combos in Hitman 2. This places it in the top 1.4% of all configurations, which is a strong result given the CPU's mid-range positioning. The i5-12400's average benchmark score is 19850, putting it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-9700 (avg score 19831, deltaPct 0.1%), Intel Core i7-8700 (avg score 19894, deltaPct -0.2%), AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (avg score 19928, deltaPct -0.4%), and Intel Core i5-11600K (avg score 19771, deltaPct 0.4%).

The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 84306, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D (deltaPct 0.1%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (deltaPct 0.2%), AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (deltaPct 1.3%), and NVIDIA CMP 40HX (deltaPct -1.6%). The combo's rank of 26 out of 1795 indicates that despite the CPU being only 77th percentile, the GPU's 94th percentile performance dominates the overall result. This suggests that in Hitman 2, the RTX 5090 compensates for the i5-12400's relative weakness, allowing the combo to outperform many configurations with stronger CPUs but weaker GPUs.

Settings Recommendations

For 3840x2160, the data shows that Ultra settings are not viable, as the 48.7 FPS average will produce noticeable stutter on standard 60 Hz displays. High settings at 66 FPS are borderline but acceptable, while Medium settings at 89.1 FPS provide a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. For 4K gaming, Medium is the recommended preset, as it offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability.

At 2560x1440, all settings are playable, with Ultra delivering 91.8 FPS and High delivering 129 FPS. Given that High provides a 37.2 FPS advantage over Ultra, the visual difference may not justify the performance cost. Medium at 166.3 FPS is overkill for most displays. For 1440p, High is the recommended settings tier, as it exceeds 120 FPS while retaining high visual fidelity.

At 1920x1080, even Ultra delivers 142.6 FPS, which is sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors. High at 194.3 FPS is optimal for 144Hz displays, while Medium at 261.7 FPS is suited for 240Hz panels. Low at 305.1 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all consumer monitors. For 1080p, the recommendation is High settings, as it provides an excellent frame rate without sacrificing visual quality. The data indicates that the i5-12400 becomes the limiting factor at 1080p Low, so users seeking maximum frame rates should consider upgrading the CPU rather than the GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 18 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Its benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249. The CPU's average benchmark score is 19850, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 305.1 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability. The i5-12400's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-9700 (deltaPct 0.1%), Intel Core i7-8700 (deltaPct -0.2%), and Intel Core i5-11600K (deltaPct 0.4%) — all have similar average benchmark scores, indicating that this CPU is competitive with older i7 models. The 3dmark single-thread score of 910 and 2-thread score of 1692 suggest that single-core performance is adequate for Hitman 2's game logic, which is typically single-threaded.

However, as resolution increases, the CPU's influence diminishes. At 4K Ultra, the 48.7 FPS result is clearly GPU-bound, as the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them. The CPU's 12 threads are sufficient for Hitman 2's multithreaded rendering tasks, but the 6-core design may limit performance in scenes with heavy AI or physics calculations. The benchmark results indicate that the i5-12400 is not a bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, but at 1080p Low, it prevents the RTX 5090 from reaching its full potential. The CPU's 65W TDP and 10nm process node ensure efficient operation, but the data shows that for maximum frame rates at 1080p, a higher-core-count CPU would be beneficial.