Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER pairing delivers a solid 1080p experience in Hitman 2, but the data reveals a sharp performance cliff as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 81.5 FPS, which is smooth for a stealth title. However, this score is only part of the story; the benchmark results show a clear transition from a CPU-bound state at lower resolutions to a heavily GPU-limited one at 4K.

The most striking evidence of this shift is the scaling from 1440p to 4K. At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average frame rate is 54 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160 at the same High preset, the average drops to 29.7 FPS. This represents a 45% reduction in performance for a resolution increase of 2.25 times the pixel count, indicating that the RTX 2060 SUPER's rendering capabilities are being saturated. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus, paired with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, are likely the primary constraints at this point.

Interestingly, the Low preset shows a different bottleneck dynamic. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 145.2 FPS, and at 1440p Low it hits 95.2 FPS. Even at 4K Low, it manages 51.5 FPS. The massive jump from the High preset at 4K (29.7 FPS) to the Low preset at 4K (51.5 FPS) suggests that the game's graphical load, particularly on the GPU's shading units and texture units, is the limiting factor. The 2176 shading units and 136 TMUs on the TU106 chip are being pushed hard by the higher presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play this game with this hardware combination?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 1920x1080 is the sweet spot. The combo delivers 81.5 FPS on High and 60.8 FPS on Ultra, both of which are playable. At 1440p, the High preset drops to 54 FPS, which is still acceptable, but the Ultra preset falls to 40.5 FPS, making it less ideal for consistent smoothness.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 4K?

A: The 4K Ultra preset is the most demanding configuration tested, producing an average of only 19.1 FPS. This is a 35.6% drop from the 4K High preset’s 29.7 FPS. The data indicates that the game is largely unplayable at 4K Ultra with this hardware.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system reaches 145.2 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. The Intel Core i5-12400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, has enough headroom to feed the GPU. The bottleneck shifts to the GPU as settings increase, as evidenced by the drop to 81.5 FPS on High and 60.8 FPS on Ultra.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER's performance in Hitman 2 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 19774. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, scores 19706, which is a 0.3% difference. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 is also close, with a score of 19680, putting the 2060 SUPER 0.5% ahead in this synthetic metric.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 95.2 FPS, while the Medium preset yields 70.2 FPS. This 25 FPS difference shows that even a modest increase in graphical fidelity has a significant impact on the GPU’s workload, confirming its role as the limiting component at this resolution.

Q: Does the game run better at 1080p High or 1440p Low?

A: The 1080p High preset produces 81.5 FPS, while the 1440p Low preset produces 95.2 FPS. The higher resolution at Low settings is faster, suggesting that the game’s visual effects at the High preset are more taxing on the GPU than the extra pixel count, which is typical for this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark results show a strong single-threaded performance, with a 3dmark_single_thread score of 909 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332. This is critical for a game like Hitman 2, where the AI and physics calculations often rely on a few high-frequency cores.

The processor’s multi-threaded capabilities are also well-represented, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518 and a Geekbench multicore score of 9138. In this game, the CPU’s role is to maintain a stable frame delivery pipeline. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU allows the system to hit 145.2 FPS. The data shows that the i5-12400F ranks in the 77th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19221. This places it in a competitive position, just 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-8700K and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-1335U.

However, the CPU’s influence wanes as resolution increases. The frame rate drop from 1080p High (81.5 FPS) to 1440p High (54 FPS) is not caused by a lack of CPU processing power but by the GPU’s inability to render frames fast enough. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache help ensure that the game’s assets are quickly accessible, but the data suggests that the i5-12400F is not the primary constraint in this specific title at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER holds the 1213th position out of 1795 tested combos for Hitman 2. This places the pairing in the lower-middle tier of the database, indicating that while it can run the game, it is not among the top-performing configurations. The rank is a measure of overall capability across all tested settings and resolutions.

The combo’s rank is influenced by its performance at extreme settings. While it handles 1080p and 1440p reasonably well, the 4K Ultra result of 19.1 FPS drags down its aggregate standing. Many other combos in the database will have higher scores at 4K. The ranking reflects the system’s balance; it is a mid-range setup that excels at mainstream resolutions but struggles with the highest graphical demands. The data suggests that for a user prioritizing 1080p or 1440p gameplay, this combo is adequate, but it is far from the top-tier options available.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications dictate the performance envelope. Built on the Turing architecture with the TU106 chip, it features 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. Its base clock is 1470 MHz, boosting to 1650 MHz. The GPU also includes 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, although these are not heavily utilized in a traditional rasterization benchmark like Hitman 2.

The GPU’s memory configuration is a key asset: 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows it becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The measured FPS at 4K High (29.7 FPS) and 4K Ultra (19.1 FPS) are low, indicating that the memory bandwidth and the GPU’s raw compute (7.181 TFLOPS FP32) are not enough to handle the increased pixel fill rate and texture loads. The pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s are being overwhelmed.

The GPU’s overall standing in the database is reflected in its 63rd percentile rank and an average benchmark score of 19774. It sits just 0.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN and 0.5% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. In Hitman 2, the GPU’s role is clear: it determines the frame rate at all settings. The transition from 1080p Low (145.2 FPS) to 1080p Ultra (60.8 FPS) is a direct result of the GPU’s workload increasing. The RTX 2060 SUPER is a capable 1080p and entry-level 1440p card, but the data confirms it is not designed for 4K gaming in this title.