Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a strong 1080p and 1440p experience in Lockdown Protocol, with 4K playability available if you are willing to dial settings down from the absolute maximum. The data shows this combo sits at rank 1297 out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all systems evaluated. At 1080p, the system pushes past 100 FPS even at the highest preset, while 1440p remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold at Ultra. For 4K, the Ultra preset dips below playable, but High settings hold the line. This is a balanced pairing where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU keeps up well at lower settings.

Best Settings per Resolution

The measured data provides clear guidance for the most demanding preset that maintains at least 60 FPS average at each resolution.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the best playable setting is High, which delivers an average of 67.2 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium runs at 77.5 FPS and Low at 105.3 FPS, but High is the optimal choice because it offers the highest visual quality while still clearing the 60 FPS bar. You gain about 16 FPS by dropping from High to Medium, but the visual trade-off is significant for a fast-paced FPS where clarity matters.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the best setting is Ultra, producing an average of 77 FPS. This is a substantial margin above the 60 FPS threshold, giving you headroom for demanding scenes. High runs at 104.2 FPS, Medium at 117 FPS, and Low at 167.7 FPS. Since Ultra maintains a healthy cushion above 60 FPS, there is no reason to compromise on quality at this resolution unless you are chasing very high refresh rates.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the best setting is also Ultra, with an average of 104.1 FPS. This is well above the playable threshold and leaves room for drops during intense firefights. High reaches 142.8 FPS, Medium hits 162.8 FPS, and Low tops out at 225.3 FPS. The 1080p Ultra result is more than 35% higher than the 1440p Ultra figure, showing how resolution scaling affects performance.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Lockdown Protocol at 4K with maximum settings?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 51, which falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold. You must drop to High settings, which yields 67.2 FPS average, to maintain playable performance at 4K.

Q: What is the best resolution-to-settings balance for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1080p, Ultra settings produce 104.1 FPS average, which is below 144 FPS. However, Medium settings reach 162.8 FPS and Low settings hit 225.3 FPS, so dropping to Medium or Low would better match a 144Hz display. At 1440p, even Low settings only reach 167.7 FPS, so 144Hz is only achievable at lower presets.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the drop from 104.1 FPS at 1080p to 77 FPS at 1440p represents a reduction of about 26%. At High settings, the drop is from 142.8 FPS to 104.2 FPS, roughly 27% lower. This indicates the GPU is the limiting factor when resolution increases.

Q: Is the Ultra preset at 1440p a safe choice for competitive play?

A: Yes. The 77 FPS average at 1440p Ultra is well above the 60 FPS threshold. The margin of 17 FPS provides reasonable headroom for scenes with multiple players or effects, though it will not sustain high refresh rates above 100 FPS.

Q: Does this combo rank well compared to all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1297 out of 3714 tested combinations, which places it in the 65th percentile of all systems. This suggests it outperforms roughly two-thirds of tested configurations in Lockdown Protocol.

Q: How does the 4K Low preset compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Low, the average FPS is 105.3, which is nearly identical to the 104.1 FPS at 1080p Ultra. This shows that the resolution increase at Low settings costs roughly the same performance as the quality increase at 1080p, highlighting the significant impact of resolution on this GPU.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals a clear shift in workload balance depending on resolution and settings. At 1080p, the CPU plays a more substantial role because the GPU has spare capacity at lower resolutions. The i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, maintains high frame rates across all presets, from 225.3 FPS at Low to 104.1 FPS at Ultra. The fact that even the Low preset at 1080p does not exceed the CPU's capability—the frame rate scales inversely with settings—suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at this resolution.

When moving to 1440p, the GPU becomes the more dominant factor. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each preset shows a consistent performance drop of roughly 25-30%, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios. At 1440p Ultra, the system produces 77 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it reaches 104.1 FPS. This 27 FPS difference is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's pixel throughput, as the CPU workload does not change significantly with resolution.

At 4K, the GPU is overwhelmingly the limiting component. The Ultra preset drops to 51 FPS, a 34% reduction from the 1440p Ultra figure of 77 FPS. This steep decline indicates the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated. The CPU's role diminishes further at this resolution, as the frame rate is constrained by the GPU's rendering capabilities rather than any processor limitation. The fact that 4K High ( 67.2 FPS ) still clears the playable threshold while 4K Ultra does not underscores that the GPU's compute and memory resources dictate performance at this resolution.

The data also shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck even at the lowest settings. At 1080p Low, the system hits 225.3 FPS, which is well beyond what most displays can show. This indicates the i5-12400 has sufficient single-thread and multi-thread performance to keep up with the RTX 3070 Ti in this title. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3456 and multi-thread score of 18747 support this conclusion, as Lockdown Protocol likely benefits from strong per-core performance.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals for both components, several configurations would behave similarly in Lockdown Protocol. On the CPU side, the AMD EPYC 7643 scores an average of 18697, which is just 0.1% lower than the i5-12400's 18683 average benchmark score. Despite being a server-class processor, its performance profile is nearly identical in synthetic benchmarks, though real-world gaming behavior may differ due to architecture. The Intel Core i7-1355U scores 18730, 0.3% higher, and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 scores 18811, 0.7% higher. These CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in Lockdown Protocol, with differences well within run-to-run variance. The Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519, which is 0.9% lower, meaning it would deliver performance within a few FPS of the i5-12400 in this game.

On the GPU side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile scores 29928, just 0.1% above the RTX 3070 Ti's 29945 average. This mobile part would perform almost identically, though thermal and power constraints in a laptop could affect sustained performance. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 scores 30095, 0.5% higher, which translates to roughly 1-2 FPS difference in practice. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti scores 29783, 0.5% lower, making it a close match for the RTX 3070 Ti. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 30433, 1.6% higher, which would give it a slight edge in GPU-bound scenarios like 4K Ultra. Any of these GPU alternatives paired with a similar-performing CPU would produce results within a few FPS of the i5-12400 + RTX 3070 Ti combination across all tested resolutions and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full measured dataset provides a complete picture of performance across all resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 225.3 FPS on Low, 162.8 FPS on Medium, 142.8 FPS on High, and 104.1 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 54% reduction in frame rate, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario at 1080p with this class of hardware.

At 2560x1440, the results are 167.7 FPS on Low, 117 FPS on Medium, 104.2 FPS on High, and 77 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 54%, mirroring the 1080p pattern. Notably, the difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is 27.2 FPS, which is larger than the 38.7 FPS gap between Medium and High, suggesting that Ultra settings impose a significant additional load.

At 3840x2160, the results are 105.3 FPS on Low, 77.5 FPS on Medium, 67.2 FPS on High, and 51 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 52% reduction overall. The critical threshold crossing occurs between High and Ultra, where the frame rate falls from 67.2 FPS to 51 FPS, dropping below the 60 FPS playable mark. This makes High the highest playable setting at 4K, with a 16.2 FPS margin above the threshold.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings, the performance cost of resolution scaling is consistent. At Ultra, 1080p runs at 104.1 FPS, 1440p at 77 FPS, and 4K at 51 FPS. At High, the figures are 142.8 FPS, 104.2 FPS, and 67.2 FPS respectively. The gap between 1440p and 4K is consistently larger than the gap between 1080p and 1440p, indicating that the RTX 3070 Ti's memory bandwidth and compute resources are progressively strained as pixel count increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination ranks 1297 out of 3714 tested systems in Lockdown Protocol. This places the combo in the 65th percentile, meaning it outperforms approximately 65% of all tested configurations. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 72nd percentile standing among all CPUs and the GPU's 75th percentile among all GPUs. The system's performance is consistent with its component-level percentiles, suggesting no significant bottleneck in either direction.

The rank of 1297 out of 3714 indicates that while this combo is above average, there are still over 1200 tested systems that deliver higher frame rates in this game. These would likely include configurations with higher-end GPUs like the RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT, or CPUs with more cores and higher clock speeds. However, the rank also shows that the i5-12400 + RTX 3070 Ti outperforms the majority of systems, including many with newer components. The data confirms this is a capable mid-range to upper-mid-range pairing for Lockdown Protocol, particularly for 1080p and 1440p gaming where it maintains high frame rates at maximum settings. The 4K Ultra limitation is the primary constraint, but the system handles 4K High without issue.