Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is a demanding modern FPS released in March 2024, and pairing it with an Intel Core i5-12400 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 creates one of the most lopsided CPU/GPU combinations you can build — a mid-range six-core Alder Lake chip sitting alongside a flagship Blackwell GPU. The measured data in this database shows the pairing clears every quality preset at every tested resolution, but the way the frame rates scale between 1080p and 4K reveals exactly where each component's limits lie.

How This Combo Ranks

Across 3,714 tested hardware combinations in Lockdown Protocol, this pairing ranks 129th. That places it in the top few percent of all combos recorded for this game — but the ranking deserves context. The RTX 5090 sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 79,842. Its nearest rivals by aggregate score are an eclectic mix: the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avgScore 79,605, just 0.3 percent behind), the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (0.6 percent behind), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1 percent behind), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X, which actually edges ahead by 1.4 percent.

The Core i5-12400, by contrast, lands in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 18,683. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7643 (avgScore 18,697, a 0.1 percent gap), the Intel Core i7-1355U (18,730, 0.3 percent ahead), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 (18,811, 0.7 percent ahead), and the Intel Core i3-14100F (18,519, 0.9 percent behind). In other words, the CPU competes in a cluster where laptop chips and entry-level desktop parts are statistical peers, while the GPU is elite-tier hardware.

The combo's rank of 129 out of 3,714 reflects that imbalance: the RTX 5090 pulls the pairing far up the leaderboard, but the i5-12400 caps how high it can climb against combinations that pair top-tier GPUs with stronger processors. For this specific game, as the resolution data shows, that cap barely matters.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data tells a clear story about which component is the bottleneck at each resolution — and the answer flips depending on where you play.

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5090 is massively underutilized. Moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p only drops the average from 271.6 FPS to 178 FPS. A GPU with this much headroom — 21,760 shading units, 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, and 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth on a 512-bit GDDR7 bus — would barely break a sweat at this resolution in most titles. The fact that Low settings at 1080p top out at 271.6 FPS, rather than something far higher, points to the CPU limiting the frame rate ceiling. That is consistent with what the i5-12400 brings to the table: a single-thread Passmark score of 3,456, a Geekbench single-core score of 1,848, and a Cinebench R23 single-core result of 2,257. In an FPS title where frame pacing and draw-call throughput matter, the 6-core, 12-thread Alder Lake chip with a 4.40 GHz boost clock is the gatekeeper at 1080p.

Step up to 2560x1440 and the GPU starts earning its keep. Low settings deliver 248.2 FPS and Ultra delivers 132.5 FPS — the spread between presets widens as resolution climbs, which is the signature of the GPU taking over the workload.

At 3840x2160, the game is almost entirely GPU-bound. Ultra averages 85 FPS and Low averages 181.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (96.1 FPS) is far larger than at 1080p (93.6 FPS between Low and Ultra in absolute terms, but proportionally the 4K Low result is barely two-thirds of the 1080p Low result). The CPU's role at 4K is reduced to feeding a renderer that the RTX 5090 dominates.

The cross-resolution comparison makes the handoff explicit: at Ultra settings, going from 1080p (178 FPS) to 1440p (132.5 FPS) costs 25.6 percent of the frame rate, and going from 1440p to 4K (85 FPS) costs another 35.8 percent. If the CPU were the bottleneck at 4K, that second drop would be smaller. It isn't — the GPU is absorbing nearly all of the additional pixel load.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured average frame rates from this database's testing. Minimum and maximum frame rate figures were not recorded for this combination, so averages are the reference point.

1920x1080:

• Low: 271.6 FPS
• Medium: 238.9 FPS
• High: 227.2 FPS
• Ultra: 178 FPS

At 1080p the presets cluster tightly at the top of the range. The step from High to Ultra is the costliest, costing 49.2 FPS, while Low to Medium costs only 32.7 FPS. Even the heaviest preset nearly triples the 60 FPS playability threshold.

2560x1440:

• Low: 248.2 FPS
• Medium: 200.8 FPS
• High: 171.5 FPS
• Ultra: 132.5 FPS

The 1440p results show a more even stair-step: each preset tier costs roughly 30 to 47 FPS relative to the one below it. Ultra at 132.5 FPS is more than double the playability threshold.

3840x2160:

• Low: 181.1 FPS
• Medium: 126.5 FPS
• High: 113.6 FPS
• Ultra: 85 FPS

At 4K, Medium to High is a comparatively cheap step (12.9 FPS), but High to Ultra costs 28.6 FPS. Even so, Ultra at 85 FPS clears the 60 FPS threshold by 25 frames — native 4K at maximum settings is fully playable without upscaling according to this data.

Comparing extremes across the entire test matrix: the fastest configuration (1080p Low, 271.6 FPS) is 3.2 times faster than the slowest (4K Ultra, 85 FPS). Every single data point in the matrix sits above the 60 FPS playability line — there is no combination of tested resolution and preset that this build cannot handle.

FAQ

Q: Can the Core i5-12400 + RTX 5090 run Lockdown Protocol at 4K on Ultra settings?

A: Yes. The measured average at 3840x2160 on Ultra is 85 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold. Every other preset at 4K is faster still, topping out at 181.1 FPS on Low.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck in this game?

A: It depends on resolution. At 1920x1080, the data indicates a CPU limit — Low settings only reach 271.6 FPS despite the RTX 5090's 92nd-percentile standing among GPUs, consistent with the i5-12400's 72nd-percentile CPU ranking. At 1440p and especially 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor as frame rates scale down with resolution.

Q: How much FPS do you lose going from 1080p to 4K on Ultra?

A: Ultra drops from 178 FPS at 1080p to 132.5 FPS at 1440p and 85 FPS at 4K. That is a cumulative reduction of just over half the 1080p frame rate when moving to native 4K — still well above 60 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU hold this GPU back?

A: At lower resolutions, yes, in relative terms. The i5-12400's average benchmark score of 18,683 puts it in the same statistical cluster as the Intel Core i3-14100F (only 0.9 percent apart), while the RTX 5090 is elite-tier hardware. However, since even 1080p Ultra runs at 178 FPS, the practical impact in Lockdown Protocol is negligible.

Q: What is the single highest frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: 271.6 FPS, at 1920x1080 on Low settings.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested combinations for this game?

A: It ranks 129th out of 3,714 tested combinations — a strong placement driven by the GPU, with the CPU preventing an even higher rank.

Best Settings per Resolution

Based on the measured data, the most demanding preset that holds at or above 60 FPS at each resolution:

• 1920x1080 — Ultra: 178 FPS average. The heaviest preset still delivers nearly triple the playability threshold. There is no reason to drop settings at this resolution.
• 2560x1440 — Ultra: 132.5 FPS average. Maximum settings remain more than double the 60 FPS line at native 1440p.
• 3840x2160 — Ultra: 85 FPS average. Even at native 4K, the top preset clears 60 FPS with room to spare, making it the best settings choice at every tested resolution.

In short, Ultra is the optimal preset at all three resolutions. The data shows no scenario in this game where lowering quality is necessary for playability on this hardware.

The Verdict

Yes — this PC runs Lockdown Protocol without compromise. The verdict data confirms that every tested preset (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra) is playable at all three resolutions, with Ultra as the best-settings choice across the board: 178 FPS at 1920x1080, 132.5 FPS at 2560x1440, and 85 FPS at 3840x2160.

The interesting takeaway is not whether the game runs, but how the two components divide the work. The RTX 5090 — 32 GB of GDDR7, 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput, and a Passmark G3D score of 39,650 — carries the rendering load at higher resolutions, while the i5-12400 with its 6 cores, 12 threads, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache sets the ceiling at 1080p. That ceiling is 271.6 FPS on Low settings, which is far beyond what any display requires for a smooth experience in a fast-paced FPS.

For players targeting high-refresh 1080p or 1440p gameplay, the CPU is the component that will eventually limit peak frame rates, but at no point in the measured data does that limit approach the 60 FPS threshold. For 4K players, Ultra at 85 FPS native means the game is fully playable at maximum fidelity. This is a lopsided pairing on paper — a 72nd-percentile CPU with a 92nd-percentile GPU — but for Lockdown Protocol, the data shows the imbalance costs nothing in practical playability.