Hitman 2

This benchmark page analyzes the measured performance of the Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT specifically in Hitman 2. The data provided includes 12 distinct frame rate measurements across three resolutions and four quality presets. This analysis will focus on interpreting these results to guide settings, understand hardware bottlenecks, and answer common questions about this combination for this stealth title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the most balanced experience for this CPU/GPU combo in Hitman 2 is the High preset at 2560x1440 resolution. At this setting, the system produces an average of 72 FPS, which is well above the smooth-playability threshold for a stealth game where precise timing matters. Dropping to Medium at the same resolution only yields a 24 FPS gain (96 FPS average) but sacrifices visual quality that enhances the game's detailed environments and lighting.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity at high refresh rates, the High preset at 1920x1080 is the clear choice, delivering 113 FPS average. This is a substantial 30 FPS improvement over Ultra at the same resolution (83 FPS), while the visual difference between High and Ultra in Hitman 2 is often subtle in real-world gameplay. The data shows that Ultra settings introduce a significant performance penalty—at 1080p, Ultra is 26% slower than High, and at 4K, Ultra drops to just 28 FPS average, making it unplayable.

The Medium preset deserves attention for its consistency. At 1080p, it produces 149 FPS average with a minimum of 127 FPS and maximum of 172 FPS, indicating smooth frame pacing. At 1440p, Medium maintains a 96 FPS average with a minimum of 81 FPS, offering a comfortable buffer above 60 FPS. This makes Medium the safest choice for players with 144Hz monitors who want to ensure the frame rate never dips below refresh rate thresholds.

Avoid Low settings unless chasing absolute maximum frame rates, as the visual downgrade is severe for only marginal gains over Medium. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 50 FPS (199 to 149) but provides significantly better shadows, textures, and draw distances. The 4K resolution with any setting above Low is not recommended for this pair; even Medium at 4K only achieves 51 FPS average with a minimum of 43 FPS, which is below the ideal range for responsive stealth gameplay.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT with its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration proves adequate for Hitman 2's level streaming, but the card's compute capabilities—35.17 TFLOPS FP32 performance from 3456 shading units—are the primary driver of the frame rates observed. The GPU's boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz allow it to maintain high throughput in this DirectX 12 title.

The GPU's performance percentile of 67 indicates it sits above the median of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (0.5% faster) and RTX 4060 Mobile (0.8% slower). However, in Hitman 2 specifically, the measured frame rates show the card scaling predictably with resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the GPU pushes 199 FPS, demonstrating its raw fill-rate capability. The pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are sufficient for this game's moderate geometric complexity.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is never a limiting factor in these measurements, as Hitman 2's highest texture settings at 4K would still fit comfortably within this allocation. The memory clock of 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) ensures that texture streaming keeps pace with the GPU's shading units, particularly visible in the 4K Medium result of 51 FPS where bandwidth demands are highest. The card's 96 ROPs handle the final pixel output efficiently, but the data suggests that at 4K, the GPU's compute units become the bottleneck rather than memory bandwidth.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a strong GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 72 FPS (199 to 127, a 36% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K is 59 FPS (127 to 68, a 46% reduction). This steep decline indicates that the RX 7700 XT's compute units are fully saturated as pixel count increases, with the 4K resolution requiring 4x the pixel throughput of 1080p.

At High settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: 113 FPS at 1080p drops to 72 FPS at 1440p (36% loss) and then to 38 FPS at 4K (47% loss from 1440p). The gap between 1440p and 4K widens as settings increase, suggesting that the GPU's shading units are overwhelmed by the combination of higher resolution and more complex pixel shaders. This pattern confirms that the RX 7700 XT is not a 4K-capable card for this game at High or Ultra presets.

The Medium preset shows the most linear scaling: 149 FPS at 1080p, 96 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The minimum frame rates at Medium (127 at 1080p, 81 at 1440p, 43 at 4K) indicate that even with occasional dips, the experience remains fluid at 1080p and 1440p. The 4K Medium result of 51 FPS average with a 43 FPS minimum approaches playability but falls short of the 60 FPS target. This data suggests that the limiting component at 4K is solely the GPU—the CPU has ample headroom, as evidenced by the 199 FPS Low preset result at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Hitman 2 at 4K 60 FPS?

A: No. The measured data shows that even at Low settings, 4K produces 68 FPS average, but this drops to 51 FPS at Medium and 38 FPS at High. The Ultra preset at 4K achieves only 28 FPS. For a stable 60 FPS, you would need to play at 1440p with High settings (72 FPS average) or Medium settings (96 FPS average).

Q: What is the best setting for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1080p, the Medium preset achieves 149 FPS average with a 127 FPS minimum, which stays close to 144Hz. The High preset at 1080p delivers 113 FPS average, which is below 144Hz but still smooth. For 1440p 144Hz, even the Low preset at 127 FPS average cannot consistently hit 144 Hz, so Medium at 96 FPS is the practical ceiling.

Q: How does the RX 7700 XT compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: While synthetic benchmarks show the RTX 5060 Mobile is 0.5% faster and the RTX 4060 Mobile is 0.8% slower than the RX 7700 XT, the measured Hitman 2 frame rates are specific to this card. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 22547 places it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms the RTX 2080 by 1.5% in general benchmarks but the game-specific results will vary.

Q: Is the 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Hitman 2?

A: Yes. The game's highest settings at 4K do not exceed 12 GB of video memory, as evidenced by the playable 4K Medium result of 51 FPS. The 432.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is also sufficient, as the frame rate drops at 4K are more consistent with compute limitations than memory bottlenecks.

Q: What causes the performance drop from High to Ultra settings?

A: The Ultra preset in Hitman 2 introduces significant additional GPU work. At 1080p, Ultra yields 83 FPS compared to High's 113 FPS (a 27% reduction), and at 1440p the gap widens to 53 FPS vs. 72 FPS (a 26% reduction). The 4K Ultra result of 28 FPS is less than half of High's 38 FPS, indicating that Ultra's extra effects are disproportionately expensive at high resolutions.

Q: Should I use Medium or High settings for a balanced experience?

A: At 1440p, High provides 72 FPS average, which is the recommended balance of visual quality and performance. Medium at 1440p offers 96 FPS but with noticeably reduced shadow quality and texture filtering. At 1080p, High at 113 FPS is the best choice, as the 36 FPS gain from Medium does not justify the visual downgrade.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF with 12 cores (8 performance + 4 efficiency) and 20 threads operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its 25 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support for DDR4/DDR5 provide ample bandwidth for Hitman 2's CPU demands. The CPU's benchmark scores—Cinebench R23 multicore of 28838 and single-core of 4071—indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities, both relevant for a stealth game with AI-driven NPCs and physics.

The CPU's percentile rank of 85 against all CPUs places it well above average, and its nearest rival is the Intel Core i7-13700T with a negligible 0.1% performance difference. In Hitman 2, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and process game logic. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 199 FPS, which approaches the practical limit of the game engine's CPU-bound path. At this point, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as further GPU headroom would not translate to higher frame rates.

The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 34092 and single-thread score of 3984 suggest it can handle the game's simulation thread without bottlenecking the GPU at most settings. The 4K results, where the GPU is clearly the constraint, show the CPU has spare capacity—the frame rate scales primarily with resolution and settings, not CPU load. This is confirmed by the 3DMark 16-thread score of 9282, which demonstrates that the CPU can sustain high throughput across multiple cores, beneficial for Hitman 2's complex level simulation.

For players using this CPU with a higher-end GPU, the i7-12700KF would likely not become a bottleneck until frame rates exceed 200 FPS, which the current RX 7700 XT cannot produce at 1080p High or above. The 5.00 GHz boost clock ensures that the game's primary thread, which handles player interactions and AI decisions, runs with minimal latency.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table presents the exact measured frame rates for this specific CPU/GPU combination in Hitman 2:

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 68 FPS average
• Medium: 51 FPS average, 43 FPS minimum, 59 FPS maximum
• High: 38 FPS average
• Ultra: 28 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: 127 FPS average
• Medium: 96 FPS average, 81 FPS minimum, 110 FPS maximum
• High: 72 FPS average
• Ultra: 53 FPS average

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: 199 FPS average
• Medium: 149 FPS average, 127 FPS minimum, 172 FPS maximum
• High: 113 FPS average
• Ultra: 83 FPS average

The 1080p Low result of 199 FPS represents the absolute ceiling for this system, likely limited by the CPU or engine. The Medium preset at each resolution shows the most consistent minimum-to-maximum frame time, with a 45 FPS spread at 1080p and 29 FPS spread at 1440p. The High preset at 1440p (72 FPS) is the highest quality setting that maintains a stable 60+ FPS average. The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p (83 FPS) and becomes progressively less playable at higher resolutions. The data overall indicates that for this game, the RX 7700 XT is a solid 1080p high-refresh card and a capable 1440p 60-100 FPS card, but not suited for 4K gaming beyond Low settings.