Hitman 2

# Hitman 2 with Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The combination of Intel's 12th-generation Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090 D produces a fascinating benchmark profile in Hitman 2, a stealth title from 2018 that still demands serious hardware at its highest settings. The measured data reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions, with frame rates ranging from a modest 52 FPS at 4K Ultra to an extraordinary 354 FPS at 1080p Low, placing this specific combo at rank 24 out of 3,001 tested configurations. The RTX 5090 D, with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, pairs with a 12-core, 20-thread CPU that boosts to 5.00 GHz to create a balanced platform, though the data suggests the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions while the CPU holds sway at lower settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The highest measured average is 354 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the ceiling of what this configuration can deliver in the game, and notably, this is nearly seven times the frame rate of the lowest measured score.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Hitman 2?

A: The combo ranks 24th out of 3,001 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations. This is a strong result that reflects the high-end nature of both the CPU and GPU, though the ranking also suggests that some other combos—presumably with even more specialized hardware—manage to edge out this pairing.

Q: What is the performance difference between the RTX 5090 D and its closest GPU rival?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) but 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). Interestingly, the closest rivals are all mobile or data-center parts, which suggests the desktop 5090 D sits in a unique performance tier.

Q: How does the i7-12700K compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-12700K has an average benchmark score of 35,287, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i5-13600T (35,305, delta -0.1%), the i7-12700KF (35,365, delta -0.2%), and the i7-13700T (35,403, delta -0.3%). The deltas are all under half a percent, indicating these CPUs are effectively identical in average performance.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the combo achieves 207 FPS, while at 4K High it drops to 71 FPS, representing a 65.7% reduction in frame rate. This steep decline points to the GPU becoming the limiting factor as pixel count quadruples, despite the RTX 5090 D's massive 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D have enough VRAM for Hitman 2 at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, which is far more than any game from 2018 would require. The 4K Ultra setting yields 52 FPS, so the constraint is clearly raw compute power rather than memory capacity, as VRAM usage for this title would be well under the available 32 GB.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this configuration for Hitman 2, and the data reflects a GPU that is simultaneously overkill and constrained depending on the settings. The card operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective), delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth across a 512-bit bus. These specifications place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712.

The GPU's memory subsystem is particularly noteworthy for Hitman 2, a game that loads large, detailed environments with many interactive objects. The 32 GB frame buffer is vastly larger than anything the game would need, even at 4K Ultra, so memory capacity is never a bottleneck. Instead, the data shows that the GPU's compute throughput—104.8 TFLOPS of FP32, 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate, and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate—determines performance at higher resolutions. The 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs work together to produce the measured frame rates, and the gap between Low and Ultra settings at 4K (124 vs 52 FPS) illustrates how much headroom the GPU has when settings are reduced.

Interestingly, the RTX 5090 D's nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database are not other high-end desktops but rather the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904, +1.1% delta) and the RX 6850M XT (78,940, -1.6% delta), along with NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants. This suggests that the 5090 D's benchmark profile, which includes DirectX 10, 11, and 12 tests, may be weighted in a way that doesn't fully capture its real-world gaming superiority. In Hitman 2 specifically, the GPU's performance at 1080p Low (354 FPS) versus 4K Ultra (52 FPS) shows a 6.8x range, which is a wider spread than many games would exhibit, indicating that Hitman 2's rendering pipeline scales heavily with resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Hitman 2 reveals a clear and consistent pattern of degradation as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that degradation varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the combo delivers 354 FPS at 1080p, 234 FPS at 1440p, and 124 FPS at 4K—a drop of 33.9% from 1080p to 1440p and another 47.0% from 1440p to 4K. This suggests that at Low settings, the system is partially CPU-bound at 1080p, and the GPU has enough headroom that even 4K still produces over 120 FPS.

At Medium settings, the pattern shifts: 274 FPS at 1080p, 175 FPS at 1440p, and 93 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are similar (36.1% from 1080p to 1440p, 46.9% from 1440p to 4K), but the absolute numbers are lower, indicating that the additional graphical effects at Medium are consuming GPU resources across all resolutions. The High settings preset shows 207 FPS at 1080p, 132 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K, with drops of 36.2% and 46.2% respectively—a remarkably consistent scaling pattern.

Ultra settings produce the most dramatic scaling: 153 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K, representing drops of 35.9% and 46.9%. The consistency of these percentage drops across all four settings presets is striking; regardless of whether the system is producing 354 FPS or 52 FPS, moving from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 34-36% of frame rate, and moving from 1440p to 4K costs roughly 46-47%. This uniformity strongly implies that the scaling is driven by pixel count rather than by any specific setting's complexity, and it suggests that the rendering pipeline in Hitman 2 is well-optimized for resolution scaling. The limiting component shifts from CPU at low resolutions to GPU at higher ones, but the transition is smooth and predictable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest frame rates, with Low settings reaching 354 FPS average, Medium at 274 FPS (with a minimum of 233 and maximum of 315), High at 207 FPS, and Ultra at 153 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 201 FPS, which represents a 56.8% reduction in performance when cranking all settings to maximum. The Medium preset's min/max range of 233-315 FPS shows a variance of 82 FPS, indicating that even at this resolution, frame times can fluctuate significantly during intense scenes.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected decline: Low produces 234 FPS, Medium at 175 FPS (min 149, max 201), High at 132 FPS, and Ultra at 98 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 136 FPS, a 58.1% reduction. The Medium preset's min/max range of 149-201 FPS (52 FPS variance) is proportionally smaller than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more consistently utilized at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops are most pronounced: Low yields 124 FPS, Medium at 93 FPS (min 79, max 107), High at 71 FPS, and Ultra at 52 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 72 FPS, a 58.1% reduction that mirrors the 1440p pattern almost exactly. The Medium preset's min/max range of 79-107 FPS (28 FPS variance) shows that even at 4K, the system maintains relatively stable frame delivery, with no catastrophic frame time spikes.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset is the only one that includes min/max data, and the pattern is consistent: at 1080p, the average sits at 274 with a 233-315 range; at 1440p, it's 175 with 149-201; and at 4K, it's 93 with 79-107. The ratio of min to average is roughly 85% in all three cases, indicating that the game's frame pacing remains stable regardless of resolution. This is a positive sign for playability, as it means the average FPS numbers are representative of the actual experience rather than being inflated by occasional high-frame bursts.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It features 25 MB of shared L3 cache, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 80 KB of L1 per core, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration. The CPU sits in the 84th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35,287, and its nearest rivals are all within 0.4% of its average score.

In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the combo achieves 354 FPS. This extremely high frame rate suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the RTX 5090 D with enough draw calls to maintain such output, and the 20 threads are likely sufficient for the game's AI, physics, and game logic. The CPU's single-thread performance, as indicated by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1,043 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2,308, is critical for a game like Hitman 2 that relies heavily on simulation and NPC behavior.

However, the data also suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The consistent percentage drops in frame rate as resolution increases—roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 47% from 1440p to 4K, regardless of settings—indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor once pixel counts rise. At 4K Ultra, the 52 FPS figure is far below what the CPU could theoretically support, as evidenced by the 354 FPS at 1080p Low. This means that in most real-world scenarios with this combo, the RTX 5090 D will be the component determining performance, with the i7-12700K providing ample headroom.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, shown in benchmarks like Cinebench R23 multicore at 19,784 and PassMark multithread at 34,404, ensure that Hitman 2's background tasks—such as streaming in level data and managing the game's complex systems—don't introduce stutter. The 25 MB of L3 cache is likely beneficial for the game's working set, and the 10 nm process node allows for the high boost clock that single-threaded game logic benefits from. Overall, the CPU is a strong partner for the GPU, and the ranking of 24th out of 3,001 combos suggests that this pairing is well-balanced for Hitman 2.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and the user's preference for frame rate versus visual fidelity. At 1080p, all four presets produce playable frame rates, with even Ultra achieving 153 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the jump from High (207 FPS) to Ultra (153 FPS) costs 54 FPS, or 26.1%, which may not justify the visual improvements for competitive play. Low at 354 FPS is excessive for most displays, but it demonstrates the system's capability for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 1440p, the data shows that High (132 FPS) and Ultra (98 FPS) both provide excellent experiences, with Ultra remaining above 90 FPS. Medium at 175 FPS is a strong choice for users who prioritize frame rate over visual quality, while Low at 234 FPS is likely unnecessary unless using a very high refresh rate display. The 4K resolution presents a more interesting trade-off: Ultra at 52 FPS is technically playable but sits below the 60 FPS threshold, while High at 71 FPS provides a smoother experience. Medium at 93 FPS is arguably the sweet spot for 4K, offering a 78.8% improvement over Ultra while still maintaining high visual quality.

For the best overall experience, the data suggests that High settings at 1440p (132 FPS) or Medium at 4K (93 FPS) represent the most balanced choices, depending on whether the user prioritizes resolution or frame rate. The Medium preset's min/max data (e.g., 149-201 FPS at 1440p, 79-107 FPS at 4K) shows that it maintains stable frame delivery, making it a reliable choice. Ultra at any resolution offers diminishing returns: the jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 26.1% performance, at 1440p it costs 25.8%, and at 4K it costs 26.8%—a remarkably consistent penalty that suggests the Ultra preset adds effects that are disproportionately expensive relative to their visual impact.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 24th out of 3,001 tested combos in Hitman 2, placing it in the top 0.8% of all configurations. This is an exceptional ranking that reflects the high-end nature of both components, but it's worth examining what the ranking implies. The RTX 5090 D is in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and the i7-12700K is in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, so the combo ranking of 24th suggests that the pairing is more effective than either component's individual percentile would predict.

The nearest CPU rivals to the i7-12700K—the i5-13600T, i7-12700KF, i7-13700T, and Core 5 213PE—all have average benchmark scores within 0.4% of the 12700K, yet the specific combination with the RTX 5090 D achieves a top-25 ranking. This indicates that the CPU's performance in Hitman 2 is not solely determined by its average benchmark score, and factors like cache layout, memory latency, or specific instruction set support may play a role. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are not necessarily its nearest rivals in gaming performance, as the synthetic benchmarks may not capture Hitman 2's specific rendering characteristics.

The ranking of 24th out of 3,001 means there are 23 other combos that outperform this pairing in Hitman 2, likely featuring newer or more specialized hardware. However, the fact that this combo—with a CPU released in late 2021 and a GPU released in early 2025—achieves such a high ranking speaks to the longevity of the i7-12700K and the raw power of the RTX 5090 D. The data shows that the combo is not bottlenecked in any meaningful way at any resolution, and the consistent scaling pattern across settings suggests that users can tailor the experience to their preferences without worrying about hitting a performance wall. For a game released in 2018, this hardware combination provides an exceptionally smooth and flexible experience, with the top-25 ranking confirming that it's one of the best configurations available for Hitman 2.