Lockdown Protocol

FAQ

Q: What is the highest graphical preset this combination can run at 1920x1080 while staying above 60 FPS?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination can run Ultra settings at 1920x1080 with an average of 73.2 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: At 2560x1440, which presets are playable?

A: The database records High, Low, and Medium as playable at 2560x1440. The High preset delivers 69.6 FPS average, Medium delivers 81.3 FPS, and Low delivers 120 FPS. Ultra falls short at 56.7 FPS.

Q: Is 3840x2160 viable for this PC?

A: Only the Low preset is playable at 3840x2160, with an average of 77 FPS. Medium drops to 56.6 FPS, High to 49.1 FPS, and Ultra to 34.4 FPS, all below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14185. It sits 0.2% above the Intel Xeon 6756E, 0.5% above the AMD EPYC 7552, 0.3% below the Intel Core 7 160UL, and 0.6% below the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 16129. It is 0.7% above the AMD Radeon RX 9060, 1.4% below the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 1.4% below the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and 1.7% above the AMD Radeon R9 370X.

Q: What is the overall rank of this combination among tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 2521 out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database's measured configurations.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS data for Lockdown Protocol reveals a clear pattern in how the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti share the workload across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the GPU is the dominant factor, as evidenced by the large spread between presets. The Low preset produces 158 FPS average, Medium drops to 115.4 FPS, High falls to 101.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 73.2 FPS. This 84.8 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p indicates that the rendering load scales heavily with graphical features, and the RTX 3060 Ti is the primary constraint as settings are raised.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts noticeably. The Low preset yields 120 FPS average, Medium 81.3 FPS, High 69.6 FPS, and Ultra 56.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 63.3 FPS, but more importantly, the absolute values drop across every preset compared to 1080p. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is still heavily involved, but the CPU begins to exert more influence, particularly at lower settings where the framerate ceiling is higher. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, become more relevant as the GPU has fewer pixels to fill and can push frames faster.

At 3840x2160, the GPU takes back the dominant role with a vengeance. The Low preset drops to 77 FPS average, Medium to 56.6 FPS, High to 49.1 FPS, and Ultra to 34.4 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 42.6 FPS, smaller in absolute terms than at lower resolutions, but every preset except Low falls below the 60 FPS threshold. This is a classic sign of pixel-bound rendering: at 4K, the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are saturated, and the CPU's role diminishes because the GPU cannot maintain high framerates regardless of CPU headroom.

The preset scaling also tells a story about where the bottleneck lives. At 1080p, going from Low to Medium costs 42.6 FPS, but going from High to Ultra costs only 28.5 FPS. At 1440p, Low to Medium costs 38.7 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 12.9 FPS. At 4K, Low to Medium costs 20.4 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 14.7 FPS. The diminishing returns at higher settings and resolutions indicate that the GPU's shading units, texture units, and raster operations are progressively more loaded, while the CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by its 688 single-thread score in 3dmark, becomes less of a limiting factor.

Overall, the data shows a balanced pairing that becomes GPU-limited at 4K and increasingly CPU-sensitive at 1080p with lower presets. The i5-10400F's 3dmark 16-thread score of 4748 and max-thread score of 4735 suggest it can feed the GPU adequately at most settings, but the RTX 3060 Ti is the component that determines the playability ceiling at higher resolutions.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 73.2 FPS. This is the highest quality setting available, and it clears the threshold by 13.2 FPS, providing a comfortable margin for typical framerate fluctuations.

At 2560x1440, the best playable preset is High, delivering an average of 69.6 FPS. This is 9.6 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium is also playable at 81.3 FPS, and Low at 120 FPS, but High offers the best visual quality while maintaining playability.

At 3840x2160, the only playable preset is Low, with an average of 77 FPS. This is 17 FPS above the threshold, but the next step up, Medium, falls to 56.6 FPS, which is below the playable line. Users seeking 4K must accept the Low preset or consider alternative hardware.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals in the database are the Intel Xeon 6756E, Intel Core 7 160UL, AMD EPYC 7552, and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C. The Intel Xeon 6756E has an average score of 14163, which is 0.2% lower than the i5-10400F's 14185, meaning it would behave almost identically in CPU-bound scenarios. The Intel Core 7 160UL scores 14232, 0.3% higher, a negligible difference. The AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115, 0.5% lower, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, 0.6% higher. All four rivals fall within a 0.6% band of the i5-10400F, so swapping to any of them would produce nearly indistinguishable framerates in Lockdown Protocol, assuming the GPU remains constant.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 9060, AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon R9 370X. The AMD Radeon RX 9060 scores 16014, 0.7% below the RTX 3060 Ti's 16129. The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M scores 16351, 1.4% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT scores 16361, also 1.4% higher. The AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862, 1.7% lower. These deltas are small enough that any of these GPUs would produce similar average FPS in the game, though the exact preset performance could vary slightly. The RX 5700 XT and Pro 5600M would be marginally faster, while the RX 9060 and R9 370X would be marginally slower.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 2521 out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the 32nd percentile of all measured systems, meaning roughly two-thirds of the combinations tested in the database outperform it. The rank reflects the mid-range nature of both components: the CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, but their combined performance in this specific title is dragged down by the demanding 4K results.

The rank is driven primarily by the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the combo performs well, with Ultra clearing 60 FPS and Low reaching 158 FPS. At 1440p, it remains competitive, with High at 69.6 FPS. But at 4K, only Low is playable, and the Ultra average of 34.4 FPS is far below the threshold. This uneven profile contributes to the lower overall rank, as many other combos in the database likely handle 4K better.

The Verdict

This PC can run Lockdown Protocol, but the playable envelope depends heavily on resolution. At 1920x1080, all four presets clear the 60 FPS threshold, with Ultra at 73.2 FPS, High at 101.7 FPS, Medium at 115.4 FPS, and Low at 158 FPS. This is a fully playable configuration for 1080p gaming, with headroom to spare at every setting.

At 2560x1440, High, Medium, and Low are playable, with High at 69.6 FPS being the best visual option that stays above 60 FPS. Ultra falls short at 56.7 FPS, so users must drop to High for a smooth experience. At 3840x2160, only Low is playable, at 77 FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below the threshold, with Ultra at 34.4 FPS being particularly weak. The verdict is clear: this combo is a strong 1080p performer, a capable 1440p performer with settings compromises, and a 4K system only for those willing to use Low presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database provides average FPS values for each resolution and preset combination, with no minimum or maximum values recorded. The full breakdown is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 158 FPS, the Medium preset achieves 115.4 FPS, the High preset achieves 101.7 FPS, and the Ultra preset achieves 73.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 84.8 FPS, with each step down in quality providing a significant increase in framerate. The Ultra preset is the only one below 100 FPS, but it still clears the 60 FPS threshold comfortably.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers an average of 120 FPS, the Medium preset delivers 81.3 FPS, the High preset delivers 69.6 FPS, and the Ultra preset delivers 56.7 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most pronounced at Low, where the framerate falls by 38 FPS, but the relative ordering remains the same. The Ultra preset falls just 3.3 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold, which is a narrow miss.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields an average of 77 FPS, the Medium preset yields 56.6 FPS, the High preset yields 49.1 FPS, and the Ultra preset yields 34.4 FPS. The 4K results show a steep decline across all presets, with even the Low preset barely clearing the threshold. The difference between Low and Medium is 20.4 FPS, and between Medium and High is 7.5 FPS, while the gap from High to Ultra is 14.7 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are exhausted at this resolution, making the RTX 3060 Ti the clear limiting factor.

Across all resolutions, the data shows consistent scaling: lower presets always produce higher framerates, and lower resolutions always produce higher framerates. The only anomaly is that the 1080p Low preset at 158 FPS is the single highest recorded value, while the 4K Ultra preset at 34.4 FPS is the lowest. The combination's playable range, defined by the 60 FPS threshold, extends to all presets at 1080p, to three presets at 1440p, and to only one preset at 4K.