Hitman 2

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rate data for Hitman 2 with the Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 214.9 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 160.7 FPS, High at 121.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 86.5 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a performance reduction of roughly 60%, but even the Ultra preset remains comfortably above 60 FPS, indicating that the combination handles this game's maximum settings at this resolution without issue.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Low produces 133.9 FPS, Medium 101.5 FPS, High 77.1 FPS, and Ultra 55.1 FPS. The Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold, which is a notable consideration for users who prioritize smoothness over visual fidelity. At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained: Low averages 74 FPS, Medium 52.7 FPS, High 41 FPS, and Ultra 29.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is substantial, with Ultra delivering less than half the frame rate of Low.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the High preset at 1440p stands out as the optimal balance. It provides 77.1 FPS, which is above the standard 60 FPS target, while the visual quality improvement over Medium is meaningful in a stealth game where environmental detail aids gameplay. At 1080p, High at 121.8 FPS is the recommended choice for users with high-refresh-rate displays, as it leaves ample headroom above 100 FPS without the performance cost of Ultra. The Ultra preset at 1080p offers 86.5 FPS, which is still smooth, but the additional visual settings do not justify the 29% frame rate loss compared to High. For 4K users, the Low preset at 74 FPS is the only option that maintains fluid gameplay, though Medium at 52.7 FPS may be acceptable for those who prioritize image quality over frame pacing.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. The memory operates at 2438 MHz, which translates to 19.5 Gbps effective. These specifications are directly relevant to Hitman 2's results because the game's large, detailed environments and crowd simulations place significant demands on memory throughput.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base clock of 1295 MHz, a game clock of 2124 MHz, and a boost clock of 2430 MHz. The difference between the game clock and boost clock is notable — the game clock represents sustained performance during typical gaming workloads, while the boost clock is the maximum achievable under ideal conditions. In Hitman 2, the measured frame rates suggest the GPU is operating near its game clock in most scenarios, as the benchmark results are consistent with a card that is being fully utilized rather than thermally or power-limited.

The 16 GB memory capacity is particularly relevant at 3840x2160. The 4K results show that the RX 7800 XT can handle the game's memory footprint without issue, as the Low preset at 4K achieves 74 FPS. However, the dramatic drop to 29.5 FPS at Ultra 4K indicates that the GPU's computational resources, rather than memory capacity, are the limiting factor at higher settings. The 624.1 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the game's asset streaming at all tested resolutions, so the performance scaling is primarily driven by shading and rasterization throughput rather than memory constraints. The GPU's 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 583.2 GTexel/s texture rate are the specifications that dictate how quickly the game can render its complex scenes, and the data shows that these resources are exhausted at Ultra 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation that is characteristic of GPU-bound workloads. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 121.8 FPS at 1080p to 77.1 FPS at 1440p, and then to 41 FPS at 4K. This represents a 37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 66%, which aligns closely with the pixel count increase from 2.07 million to 8.29 million pixels — a 4x increase that would theoretically demand 4x the pixel throughput if the GPU were perfectly scaling.

The Low preset shows a different scaling characteristic. At 1080p, Low averages 214.9 FPS, which drops to 133.9 FPS at 1440p and 74 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p reduction is 38%, nearly identical to the High preset's scaling, suggesting that the GPU is still the primary bottleneck even at low settings. However, the 1440p to 4K reduction at Low is 45%, slightly less than the 47% seen at High. This indicates that at Low settings, the CPU begins to play a more significant role at lower resolutions, as the i5-12400F with its 6 cores and 12 threads can keep up with the GPU's output more effectively at 1080p but becomes less of a factor as resolution increases and the GPU takes longer to render each frame.

The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest scaling curve. From 86.5 FPS at 1080p to 55.1 FPS at 1440p is a 36% drop, and then to 29.5 FPS at 4K is a 46% further reduction. The total 1080p to 4K drop of 66% mirrors the High preset, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component across all settings. The data suggests that for users targeting 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, while 1440p High provides a balanced experience, and 1080p High or Ultra offers the best frame rates for competitive or high-refresh-rate play.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this CPU and GPU combination for Hitman 2?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings provides 77.1 FPS, which is the sweet spot for visual quality and smooth gameplay. At 1920x1080, High delivers 121.8 FPS for high-refresh-rate displays, while 3840x2160 only achieves 41 FPS at High, making it less suitable for consistent 60 FPS gameplay.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of frame rate?

A: At 1080p, Ultra averages 86.5 FPS versus 121.8 FPS for High, a 29% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 55.1 FPS compared to 77.1 FPS for High, a 28% reduction. At 4K, Ultra falls to 29.5 FPS versus 41 FPS for High, a 28% reduction. The consistent ~28-29% penalty suggests the Ultra preset adds significant rendering complexity across all resolutions.

Q: Is the RX 7800 XT's 16 GB of VRAM sufficient for Hitman 2 at 4K?

A: The benchmark results show that the GPU's memory capacity is not a limiting factor in this game. At 4K Low, the card achieves 74 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 29.5 FPS. The performance difference is driven by computational load rather than memory capacity, as the 16 GB allocation is more than adequate for the game's requirements at all tested settings.

Q: How does the i5-12400F perform relative to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19221, which places it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, scores 19210 with a deltaPct of 0.1%, making them essentially equivalent. The AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS scores 19364 with a deltaPct of -0.7%, meaning it is slightly faster, while the AMD EPYC 7773X scores 18979 with a deltaPct of 1.3%, indicating the i5 is slightly faster.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows that 3840x2160 at Medium settings averages 52.7 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS threshold but may be acceptable for users who prefer higher visual quality over maximum frame rate. The Low preset at 4K achieves 74 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 7800 XT compare to its nearest rivals in overall GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 7800 XT has an average benchmark score of 32619, placing it in the 76th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival, the AMD FirePro S9300 X2, scores 32540 with a deltaPct of 0.2%, making them nearly identical. The NVIDIA P104-100 scores 32747 with a deltaPct of -0.4%, indicating it is slightly faster, while the AMD FirePro S10000 scores 32388 with a deltaPct of 0.7%, meaning the RX 7800 XT holds a small advantage.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Core 12th Gen series, built on the Alder Lake architecture using Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 watts. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration places the i5-12400F in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19221.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU can render frames quickly. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 214.9 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that would stress the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. The i5-12400F's 12 threads are sufficient to handle this load, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate continues to scale with resolution changes. However, the CPU's single-thread performance, measured at 909 in 3dmark_single_thread and 2332 in cinebench_r23_singlecore, is the more critical factor for a game like Hitman 2, which has complex AI and physics simulations that rely on single-threaded performance.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, shown in cinebench_r23_multicore at 16518 and geekbench_multicore at 9138, provide headroom for background tasks and ensure that the 12 threads can handle the game's parallel workloads without becoming a bottleneck. The nearest rival comparison shows the i5-12400F is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-8700K (deltaPct of 0.1%), which is notable because the 8700K has a higher boost clock but the i5-12400F's newer architecture compensates. This parity suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, such as 1080p gameplay with lower graphics settings, the i5-12400F will deliver performance comparable to a previous-generation flagship.

The data indicates that at 4K, the CPU becomes less of a factor because the GPU is the limiting component. The frame rate differences between settings at 4K (74 FPS Low, 52.7 FPS Medium, 41 FPS High, 29.5 FPS Ultra) are entirely attributable to GPU load. At 1080p, the gap between Low (214.9 FPS) and Ultra (86.5 FPS) is 148%, which shows that the CPU can sustain high frame rates but the GPU's rendering workload dominates the overall performance. The i5-12400F's 4.40 GHz boost clock and 18 MB L3 cache are sufficient to prevent CPU bottlenecks in Hitman 2, as the measured frame rates scale consistently with GPU load across all resolutions and settings.