Hitman 2

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers a playable experience in Hitman 2, but the data shows that achieving smooth frame rates requires careful attention to the graphics preset. The measured results indicate that the "High" preset offers the most balanced experience across common resolutions, providing a significant jump in visual quality over "Medium" without the steep performance penalty seen at "Ultra." At 1920x1080, the "High" preset produces an average of 89.2 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays. The "Ultra" preset, while visually more demanding, drops the average to 61.3 FPS at the same resolution, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. For users prioritizing frame rate, the "Low" preset at 1920x1080 yields an average of 149.2 FPS, but this comes with a substantial reduction in visual fidelity. The "Medium" preset sits in between, offering 111.9 FPS at 1920x1080, making it a viable alternative for those who want higher frame rates than "High" while still retaining some graphical enhancements. Ultimately, the "High" preset appears to be the sweet spot for this combo, as it provides a strong frame rate at 1920x1080 and remains playable at 2560x1440.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT ranks 1133 out of 1795 tested combos for Hitman 2. This places it in the 37th percentile of all tested combinations, indicating that while it is not an elite-tier setup, it sits comfortably in the middle of the pack. This ranking reflects a balanced pairing where neither component is drastically over- or under-powered for the other. The CPU itself is a strong performer, with a benchmark percentile of 89 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 89% of tested processors. The GPU, however, is more mid-range, with a percentile of 72 against all GPUs. The data suggests that the RX 6650 XT is the limiting factor in this pairing, as the CPU's raw capability is significantly higher than the GPU's. In terms of average benchmark scores, the CPU's score of 35355 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14400, which has an average score of 35336, representing a negligible 0.1% difference. This indicates that the i7-12700KF is not the bottleneck; rather, the GPU's performance is what determines the final ranking in this specific game.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is the primary driver of frame rate in Hitman 2, and its specifications clarify why it performs as it does. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is adequate for the game's demands at 1920x1080 and 2560x1440, but it becomes a limiting factor at 3840x2160, where the "High" preset averages only 30.7 FPS. The card's boost clock is rated at 2635 MHz, with a game clock of 2410 MHz, which contributes to its compute capability of 10.79 TFLOPS FP32. The benchmark results show that the GPU is well-suited for 1080p gaming, as evidenced by the 149.2 FPS average at "Low" settings, but the frame rate drops sharply as resolution and settings increase. The GPU's memory allocation of 8 GB is a key factor at 4K, where the "Ultra" preset averages just 24.4 FPS, indicating that the card is struggling to maintain playable performance at that resolution. Its performance is comparable to the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, with a deltaPct of 0%, and it sits slightly above the AMD Radeon RX 470, which has a deltaPct of 0.1%.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals clear scaling patterns across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the "Low" preset achieves the highest average at 149.2 FPS, followed by "Medium" at 111.9 FPS, "High" at 89.2 FPS, and "Ultra" at 61.3 FPS. This resolution is where the combo performs best, with even the most demanding "Ultra" preset remaining above the 60 FPS threshold. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop noticeably: "Low" produces 95.8 FPS, "Medium" 74.6 FPS, "High" 55.9 FPS, and "Ultra" 41.5 FPS. At this resolution, the "High" and "Ultra" presets fall below the ideal 60 FPS mark, making "Medium" the highest preset that maintains a smooth experience. The gap between "Medium" and "High" at 1440p is significant, a difference of 18.7 FPS, suggesting that the GPU's resource limits are being reached. At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal: "Low" averages 51.3 FPS, "Medium" 39.9 FPS, "High" 30.7 FPS, and "Ultra" 24.4 FPS. None of the presets at 4K achieve a consistent 60 FPS, and even the "Low" preset struggles to stay above 50 FPS. The data clearly shows that this combo is intended for 1080p gaming, with 1440p being playable only at lower settings.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Hitman 2 with this combo?*

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution, as even the "Ultra" preset averages 61.3 FPS, while lower presets exceed 89 FPS. At 2560x1440, only "Low" and "Medium" presets remain above 60 FPS.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Hitman 2?*

A: No, the measured results show that at 3840x2160, even the "Low" preset averages only 51.3 FPS, and the "Ultra" preset drops to 24.4 FPS. This resolution is not suitable for a consistent 60 FPS experience.

Q: How does the "High" preset perform at 1440p?

A: The "High" preset at 2560x1440 averages 55.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. Users seeking 60 FPS at this resolution would need to use the "Medium" preset, which averages 74.6 FPS.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between "Low" and "Ultra" at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the "Low" preset averages 149.2 FPS, while the "Ultra" preset averages 61.3 FPS. This represents a difference of 87.9 FPS between the two extreme settings.

*Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor for this combo in Hitman 2?*

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Intel Core i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35355, which is nearly identical to its nearest rival, while the RX 6650 XT has a lower percentile of 72. The frame rates scale heavily with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the highest preset that maintains over 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: The "Medium" preset at 2560x1440 averages 74.6 FPS. The "High" preset drops to 55.9 FPS, so "Medium" is the highest setting that consistently exceeds the 60 FPS threshold.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF plays a supporting role in this combo, providing ample processing power that does not bottleneck the GPU in Hitman 2. The CPU features 12 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, based on the Alder Lake architecture. Its benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28979 and a single-core score of 4091. The CPU's percentile of 89 against all CPUs indicates it is a high-end processor, and its average benchmark score of 35355 is essentially tied with its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14400, which scores 35336 with a deltaPct of 0.1%. In Hitman 2, the game's engine is not particularly demanding on the CPU, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates are heavily influenced by resolution and graphics settings. At 1920x1080 with "Low" settings, the average FPS is 149.2, which suggests the CPU can easily feed the GPU at high frame rates. However, the CPU's capabilities are underutilized at higher resolutions, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The i7-12700KF's 25 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory ensure that it can handle the game's logic and AI without issue, but the data shows that the RX 6650 XT is the component that determines the final frame rate output.