Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers a solid 1080p experience in Hitman 2, but the data shows a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs. This combination lands in the 69.7th percentile of tested combos for this game, indicating it is a capable mid-range pairing that handles high refresh rates at 1080p but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K with higher presets.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the measured data clearly points to High as the optimal preset for this combo. At 1920x1080, the High preset produces an average of 81.3 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Dropping to Medium increases performance to 111.7 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss is not justified when High already delivers a smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 61.9 FPS, which is still playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes or background tasks. Given that the High preset at 1080p offers a 31.4% improvement over Ultra while maintaining a high frame rate, it is the recommended choice for most users.

At 1440p, the situation changes. The Medium preset, yielding 67.9 FPS, becomes the sensible pick if you insist on playing at this resolution. High drops to 52 FPS, which is noticeably less smooth, while Ultra falls to 41.2 FPS. The Low preset hits 93.1 FPS, but the visual compromise is severe. The data indicates that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo, and even then, only with Medium settings. At 4K, none of the presets are truly playable. High produces 27.6 FPS, Medium 40 FPS, and Low 47.7 FPS, all of which are below acceptable thresholds for an action-stealth game. The Low preset at 4K is the only one approaching playability, and even then, it is a stretch.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1252nd out of 1795 tested combinations for Hitman 2. This places it in the upper-middle tier of the database, which aligns with its component specifications. The CPU is an Intel Core i5-12400F with 6 cores and 12 threads, boosting up to 4.40 GHz. Its average benchmark score of 19221 places it at the 77th percentile of all CPUs, sitting within 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS and 1.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7773X. The GPU, an AMD Radeon RX 7600 with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, has an average benchmark score of 20258, putting it at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. It is within 1.5% of the Intel Arc B570 and 1.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile.

The ranking suggests that while neither component is a top-tier performer in raw benchmark terms, their combination is well-balanced for the game’s engine. The CPU’s strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 909, helps maintain frame pacing, while the GPU’s 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs handle the game’s geometry. The 0.1% difference between this CPU and the Intel Core i7-8700K in average benchmark score shows that the 12400F is not leaving obvious performance on the table in CPU-bound scenarios.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the primary determinant of frame rates in Hitman 2 at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The GPU’s boost clock of 2655 MHz and game clock of 2250 MHz are high for its class, and the 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 compute throughput is substantial. However, the data shows that the GPU’s performance drops sharply as resolution increases, indicating that its memory bandwidth and 8 GB capacity are not sufficient for 4K textures in this title.

The GPU’s percentile ranking at 63% of all GPUs suggests it is a mid-tier part. In Hitman 2, the difference between the 1080p High preset (81.3 FPS) and the 4K High preset (27.6 FPS) is a 66% reduction, which is a steeper drop than what a higher-end GPU with more memory bandwidth would exhibit. The RX 7600’s 64 ROPs and 128 texture mapping units are well-suited for the game’s rendering needs at lower resolutions, but the 4K data points to a hard limit imposed by the memory subsystem. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 16634 supports this, as it is a moderate score that does not indicate 4K-class performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a full spectrum of playable results. Low settings produce an average of 146 FPS, Medium 111.7 FPS, High 81.3 FPS, and Ultra 61.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 34.3 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 30.4 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is 19.4 FPS, which is proportionally smaller, indicating diminishing returns from the Ultra preset’s additional effects.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are halved relative to 1080p in many cases. Low produces 93.1 FPS, Medium 67.9 FPS, High 52 FPS, and Ultra 41.2 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly a 36% reduction in frame rate across all presets, which is consistent with the increase in pixel count. The 1440p High preset at 52 FPS is borderline, while Medium at 67.9 FPS is the sweet spot for this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are mostly unplayable. Low produces 47.7 FPS, Medium 40 FPS, High 27.6 FPS, and Ultra 21.1 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is severe, with the High preset falling from 52 FPS to 27.6 FPS, a 47% reduction. The Ultra preset at 21.1 FPS is effectively a slideshow, and even Low at 47.7 FPS would be a poor experience for a game requiring precise timing. The data shows that 4K is not viable for this combo, regardless of settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions. Moving from 1080p High (81.3 FPS) to 1440p High (52 FPS) results in a 36% performance drop. Moving from 1440p High to 4K High (27.6 FPS) results in a 47% drop. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated at 4K, while the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

At 1080p, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent. The 12400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, are sufficient to drive the GPU to 146 FPS at Low settings. The fact that the frame rate at 1080p Low (146 FPS) is more than double the 4K Low (47.7 FPS) suggests that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K, while the CPU can keep up at 1080p. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1699 and single-thread score of 909 confirm that the CPU has strong per-core performance, which is critical for Hitman 2’s game logic. The scaling pattern is typical for a mid-range GPU: excellent at 1080p, acceptable at 1440p, and insufficient at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide a wide operating range. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache is generous for a mid-range part. In Hitman 2, the CPU’s role is to maintain consistent frame pacing and handle the game’s AI and physics calculations. The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any resolution, as the frame rate scales predictably with resolution changes.

The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518 and single-core score of 2332 indicate strong all-around performance. The PassMark multithread score of 19433 places it at the 77th percentile of all CPUs. In the context of this game, the CPU’s single-thread performance is more important than its multicore capabilities. The 3DMark single-thread score of 909 is within 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-8700K’s average score, meaning this CPU will not hold back the GPU in CPU-bound scenes. The 0.3% difference with the Intel Core i5-1335U and 0.7% difference with the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS are negligible in real-world gaming. The data suggests that the CPU is well-matched to the GPU, providing enough processing power to keep the RX 7600 fed at 1080p and 1440p, while the GPU’s limits become the defining factor at 4K.