Hitman 2

# FAQ

Q: What is the measured performance of this combo in Hitman 2 at 1080p Ultra?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT delivers an average of 63 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. At 1080p Medium, the average rises to 114 FPS, while Low settings reach 152 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark scores?

A: The RX 7600 XT has an average benchmark score of 17083, placing it 0.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037) and 0.4% above the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17019). It sits 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (17208).

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all tested processors?

A: The Core i7-12700K ranks in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 35287 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-13600T (35305, -0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i7-12700KF (35365, -0.2% delta).

Q: At which resolution does this combo achieve the highest average FPS in Hitman 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 152, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 114 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 97 FPS at 2560x1440 Low settings.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among all tested system combinations in Hitman 2?

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 2357 out of 3711 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field. Its percentile position reflects the game's demanding nature at higher settings.

Q: Does the RX 7600 XT have enough VRAM for Hitman 2 at 4K?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the combo achieves 39 FPS average (min 33, max 45), suggesting VRAM capacity is adequate, though performance at Ultra drops to 22 FPS.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 6 nm process. It contains 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, with 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz, a game clock of 2470 MHz, and a boost clock of 2755 MHz. Memory runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed, delivering 288.0 GB/s bandwidth through a 128-bit interface.

In Hitman 2, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p Low, the average FPS reaches 152, but this drops to 86 at High and 63 at Ultra. The scaling pattern suggests that at lower settings, the CPU can feed frames quickly, while at Ultra the GPU's shading and memory throughput become the limiting factors. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is unusual for this class, and the measured data shows that at 4K Medium, the combo still manages 39 FPS average, indicating memory capacity is not the bottleneck at that preset.

The GPU's nearest rival comparisons show a narrow competitive band. The RX 7600 XT's average benchmark score of 17083 is within 0.7% of the RTX 3070's 17208, yet the measured Hitman 2 results at 4K Ultra (22 FPS) suggest that raw compute benchmarks do not fully translate to this game's rendering workload. The 32 ray accelerators (RT cores) and 22.57 TFLOPS FP32 performance are notable, but Hitman 2's engine appears to favor fill rate and memory bandwidth more than raw compute.

At 1440p, the GPU's performance profile shows clear scaling with settings: Low yields 97 FPS, Medium 73 FPS, High 55 FPS, and Ultra drops to 41 FPS. This pattern indicates that the RX 7600 XT has sufficient headroom at 1440p for medium-to-high settings, but Ultra pushes the GPU hard. The pixel rate of 176.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 352.6 GTexel/s provide context for these results, though the measured FPS values remain the most direct evidence of real-world performance.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K features 12 cores and 20 threads based on the Alder Lake-S architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. The 10 nm processor supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory via a dual-channel memory bus, and its integrated UHD Graphics 770 provides a fallback display option.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's contribution is most evident at lower resolutions and settings where frame rates are high. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 152 FPS, and at 1440p Low it reaches 97 FPS. These numbers suggest that the i7-12700K can feed the GPU effectively at lower graphics loads. The CPU's single-thread performance, reflected in benchmarks like 3DMark single-thread (1043) and Cinebench R23 single-core (1850.5), is crucial for Hitman 2's simulation and AI logic.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 35287 places it at the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Core i5-13600T (35305, -0.1%), Core i7-12700KF (35365, -0.2%), and Core i7-13700T (35403, -0.3%). The extremely small deltas (all within 0.4%) indicate that the i7-12700K sits in a tightly packed performance tier where no meaningful difference exists among these processors in general benchmarks.

At 4K resolutions, the CPU's role diminishes. The measured FPS at 4K High (29) and 4K Ultra (22) are far below the 1080p results, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary constraint. However, at 4K Low (52 FPS), the CPU still demonstrates its ability to drive higher frame rates when the GPU workload is reduced. The 3DMark multi-threaded scores (9979 max threads, 9276 at 16 threads) show strong parallel capability, though Hitman 2 does not appear to scale perfectly with all 20 threads.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 152 FPS. Medium settings yield 114 FPS average with a minimum of 97 and maximum of 131. High settings drop to 86 FPS average. Ultra settings are the most demanding, with 63 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra (152 to 63 FPS) represents a 58.6% reduction in frame rate, demonstrating that Hitman 2's Ultra preset substantially increases GPU load.

At 2560x1440, performance scales down predictably. Low settings average 97 FPS. Medium settings average 73 FPS with a range of 62 to 84 FPS. High settings average 55 FPS. Ultra settings average 41 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low (152 FPS) to 1440p Low (97 FPS) shows a 36.2% decrease, which is consistent with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes clearly overburdened at higher settings. Low settings average 52 FPS. Medium settings average 39 FPS (min 33, max 45). High settings average 29 FPS. Ultra settings average 22 FPS. This resolution shows the steepest scaling penalties, with Ultra delivering only 14.5% of the 1080p Low frame rate.

The data reveals that this combo is capable of smooth gameplay at 1080p across all settings and at 1440p for Low through High. At 4K, only Low settings approach playable frame rates, while Medium and above fall below the 40 FPS threshold.

# Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows consistent drops across all settings. Low settings fall from 152 to 97 FPS (a 36.2% reduction). Medium falls from 114 to 73 FPS (35.9% reduction). High falls from 86 to 55 FPS (36.0% reduction). Ultra falls from 63 to 41 FPS (34.9% reduction). These near-uniform percentages suggest that the scaling is primarily driven by pixel count rather than any specific setting interaction.

Moving from 1440p to 4K produces larger relative drops. Low settings fall from 97 to 52 FPS (46.4% reduction). Medium falls from 73 to 39 FPS (46.6% reduction). High falls from 55 to 29 FPS (47.3% reduction). Ultra falls from 41 to 22 FPS (46.3% reduction). The steeper drop at 4K compared to 1440p indicates that the GPU hits a bandwidth or fill-rate wall as resolution increases.

The scaling pattern reveals that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the relatively high frame rates (63-152 FPS) suggest the CPU has enough headroom to keep the GPU busy, but the GPU's performance span across settings (63 to 152 FPS) shows it is still the primary constraint. At 4K, the GPU is unequivocally the bottleneck, as evidenced by the 22 FPS Ultra result. The CPU's role is more visible at 1080p Low where 152 FPS demonstrates the i7-12700K can support high frame rates when GPU load is minimal.

# Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080 displays, the measured data supports High settings as the best balance. The 86 FPS average is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the step up to Ultra costs 23 FPS (to 63 FPS) for what is typically a marginal visual improvement. Medium at 114 FPS offers extra headroom for competitive play, but High provides a better visual experience while maintaining smooth performance.

At 2560x1440, High settings (55 FPS average) are playable but close to the 60 FPS target. Medium settings (73 FPS) offer a safer margin with a minimum of 62 FPS, ensuring consistent frame delivery. For users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, High remains viable, but Medium is the recommended preset for sustained play.

At 3840x2160, the data clearly shows that only Low settings (52 FPS) provide acceptable performance. Medium (39 FPS) falls below the 40 FPS playability threshold for many users, and High (29 FPS) and Ultra (22 FPS) are not recommended for smooth gameplay. The 16 GB VRAM does not compensate for the GPU's limited 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 128-bit bus at this resolution.

The overall recommendation is to use Medium settings at 1440p for the best combination of visual quality and frame rate stability, as evidenced by the 73 FPS average with a 62 FPS minimum. For 1080p users, High settings provide an excellent experience without the performance penalty of Ultra.

# How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested system combinations for Hitman 2, this pairing of Intel Core i7-12700K and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT ranks 2357 out of 3711 combos. This places it in the 36th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly two-thirds of tested combos perform better in this game.

The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all processors contrasts sharply with the GPU's 60th percentile ranking. This mismatch indicates that the RX 7600 XT is the limiting component in this pairing for Hitman 2. The i7-12700K's robust multi-threaded performance (Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19784, Geekbench multicore of 15790) is more than sufficient for this game's demands, but the GPU cannot fully translate that CPU capability into high frame rates at demanding settings.

The combo's rank of 2357 reflects the GPU's mid-tier positioning. The RX 7600 XT's nearest rivals include the GTX 690 (0.3% higher score) and RTX 3070 (0.7% higher score), both of which are older architectures. This suggests that while the RX 7600 XT is competitive in synthetic benchmarks, its real-world Hitman 2 performance places it below many other GPU options that have been tested in this database.

For context, the CPU's nearest rivals (i5-13600T, i7-12700KF, i7-13700T) all have average scores within 0.4% of the i7-12700K, indicating that swapping the CPU for any of these would produce negligible changes in Hitman 2 performance. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, so users seeking better frame rates in this game would need a more powerful graphics card rather than a different processor.