Hitman 2

Hitman 2 is an older title, but it remains demanding at higher settings and resolutions. For the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination, the measured data provides a clear picture of how to balance visual fidelity and frame rate. This analysis focuses on the 12 measured configurations to identify the optimal experience and the role each component plays.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, High delivers 144.9 FPS, which is well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors. Moving to 2560x1440, High still maintains a strong 93.2 FPS, making it the sweet spot for competitive and immersive play. Even at 3840x2160, High produces a playable 47.9 FPS, which is acceptable for a stealth game where precise timing matters more than twitch reflexes.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this pairing. The jump from High to Ultra incurs a massive performance penalty across the board: at 1080p, it drops from 144.9 FPS to 105 FPS (a 39.9 FPS loss); at 1440p, it falls from 93.2 FPS to 68.4 FPS; and at 4K, it plummets to 36.8 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The visual uplift from High to Ultra is rarely worth such a significant frame rate cost, especially in a game like Hitman 2 where the art direction is already strong.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset is the clear choice. At 1080p, it delivers 257.6 FPS, which is ideal for 240Hz displays. At 1440p, it still produces 161.6 FPS, and even at 4K, it reaches 84.3 FPS. However, Low settings compromise visual clarity and environmental detail, which are important for scouting enemy positions and identifying escape routes. The Medium preset serves as a middle ground, offering 191.5 FPS at 1080p and 121.6 FPS at 1440p, but it does not provide the same visual quality as High.

The data shows that High is the optimal preset for this hardware. It provides a 93.2 FPS experience at 1440p, which is the resolution where this GPU and CPU combination performs best relative to visual quality. At 4K, if the player owns a VRR display, High is still viable, but those seeking a locked 60 FPS should consider Medium, which delivers 67.9 FPS at 4K.

FAQ

Q: Is this CPU-GPU combo capable of 4K gaming in Hitman 2?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, the average frame rate is 47.9 FPS. For a smooth experience, players should either use the Medium preset (67.9 FPS) or be prepared for frame rates below 60 FPS on High. The Low preset achieves 84.3 FPS at 4K, which is more than playable.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 1440p on High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the system produces 144.9 FPS. At 1440p High, it produces 93.2 FPS. This represents a 51.7 FPS drop, indicating that the GPU is still the primary limiter at these settings, but the CPU has enough headroom to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: The Low preset at 1440p delivers 161.6 FPS, while Ultra delivers 68.4 FPS. This is a difference of 93.2 FPS, meaning Low is approximately 2.36 times faster than Ultra. The gap is significant, but it comes at the cost of visual fidelity.

Q: Does the RTX 5070 bottleneck the i7-12700KF in this game?

A: The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 257.6 FPS, which is extremely high. This indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU effectively at lower settings. However, at higher settings and resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as seen in the 4K Ultra result of 36.8 FPS.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 121.6 FPS. This is a good option for players who want higher frame rates than High (93.2 FPS) but do not want to sacrifice as much visual quality as Low (161.6 FPS).

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever worth using with this hardware?

A: Only at 1080p, where it achieves 105 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 68.4 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 36.8 FPS. For most players, the visual difference between High and Ultra does not justify the substantial frame rate loss, especially at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the dominant factor in Hitman 2's performance at higher settings. It features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game's textures at 4K, as the data shows playable frame rates at 4K High (47.9 FPS) and Medium (67.9 FPS).

The GPU's clock speeds are listed with a base of 2325 MHz and a boost of 2512 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 6144 shading units, produce a FP32 performance of 30.87 TFLOPS. This raw compute power is what drives the high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p. The benchmark results show that the GPU scales well with resolution: at 1080p High, it achieves 144.9 FPS, and at 1440p High, it still manages 93.2 FPS.

However, the GPU's limits become clear at 4K Ultra. The 36.8 FPS result indicates that the RTX 5070 is heavily taxed by the combination of high resolution and maximum settings. The 12 GB VRAM is not the bottleneck here, as even the smaller memory footprint of the Low preset (84.3 FPS at 4K) shows a significant performance improvement. The bottleneck is the raw shading and rasterization throughput required for Ultra settings at 4K.

The GPU's benchmark scores reflect its strong position. It holds a percentile rank of 83 among all GPUs, with an average score of 41687. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, has a score of 41441, placing the RTX 5070 0.6% ahead. This confirms that the RTX 5070 is a high-end card capable of handling modern titles, but Hitman 2's Ultra preset at 4K is beyond its comfortable reach.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data set includes 12 distinct configurations spanning three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low produces 257.6 FPS, Medium produces 191.5 FPS, High produces 144.9 FPS, and Ultra produces 105 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each step up in settings costs roughly 40-50 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally: Low delivers 161.6 FPS, Medium delivers 121.6 FPS, High delivers 93.2 FPS, and Ultra delivers 68.4 FPS. The relative gap between Low and Ultra is consistent with the 1080p results, indicating that the GPU is handling the increased pixel count without introducing a new bottleneck.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low achieves 84.3 FPS, Medium achieves 67.9 FPS, High achieves 47.9 FPS, and Ultra achieves 36.8 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra at 4K is particularly steep, with an 11.1 FPS difference, which is the largest absolute gap between any two adjacent presets in the entire data set.

The combo's overall rank in this game is 409 out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 23% of all hardware pairings. This is a strong result, confirming that the i7-12700KF and RTX 5070 are well-matched for Hitman 2.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows how performance scales as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the frame rates are 144.9 FPS at 1080p, 93.2 FPS at 1440p, and 47.9 FPS at 4K. Moving from 1080p to 1440p results in a 51.7 FPS drop, while moving from 1440p to 4K results in a 45.3 FPS drop. This near-linear scaling suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting component, as the workload increases proportionally with pixel count.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: 257.6 FPS at 1080p, 161.6 FPS at 1440p, and 84.3 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 96 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 77.3 FPS. This indicates that at Low settings, the CPU has enough headroom to push the GPU to its absolute limits, and the GPU's performance ceiling is what dictates the frame rate.

The Ultra preset shows a different pattern: 105 FPS at 1080p, 68.4 FPS at 1440p, and 36.8 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36.6 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 31.6 FPS. The relatively smaller absolute drops at Ultra suggest that the GPU is already saturated at 1080p, and the additional resolution has a diminishing impact on the frame rate.

Overall, the resolution scaling data points to the GPU as the bottleneck. The CPU, with its 12 cores and 20 threads, is capable of maintaining high frame rates at 1080p Low (257.6 FPS), which is well above what most displays can show. The limiting factor is the RTX 5070's ability to render the scene at higher resolutions and settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF plays a supporting role in Hitman 2, but it is not idle. With 12 cores (8 performance and 4 efficiency) and 20 threads, it provides ample processing power for the game's AI and simulation systems. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensure that single-threaded performance is strong, which is critical for a stealth game where enemy AI and physics calculations are frequent.

The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce its capability. It achieves a Cinebench R23 multithread score of 28979 and a single-thread score of 4091. In the 3DMark 16-thread test, it scores 9282, and in the single-thread test, it scores 1043. These numbers indicate that the CPU has substantial headroom for gaming workloads.

The data from Hitman 2 shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in most configurations. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 257.6 FPS, which reflects the CPU's ability to feed the GPU quickly. However, at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 105 FPS, which is likely due to the GPU's rendering load rather than CPU limitation.

The CPU's percentile rank is 89 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35355. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14400, has a score of 35336, placing the i7-12700KF just 0.1% ahead. This indicates that the CPU is competitive with newer mid-range parts, and its performance is more than sufficient for Hitman 2.

In this game, the CPU's role is to maintain a high minimum frame rate and avoid stuttering during complex scenes. The 20 threads allow for efficient multitasking, and the 25 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce latency when accessing game data. The measured results show that the CPU does not become a limiting factor until frame rates exceed 200 FPS, which is only achievable at 1080p Low. For all other settings, the GPU is the primary determinant of performance.