Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER presents a distinct performance profile in Lockdown Protocol, a game that clearly scales with resolution and quality presets. The recorded data shows a system that can handle competitive play at 1080p and 1440p, but falls short of the 60 FPS threshold at 4K. The measurements across all twelve tested configurations reveal a consistent pattern: the GTX 1660 SUPER, which sits in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases. The i7-12700KF, ranking in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, provides ample headroom that the GPU cannot fully utilize at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination delivers its strongest results. The Low preset produces an average of 123.3 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure for this pairing. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 86.7 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The High preset maintains a solid 76.2 FPS average, while the Ultra preset is the only 1080p configuration that approaches the threshold, landing at 59.7 FPS. This represents a 51.6% reduction in average frame rate from Low to Ultra at this resolution, a substantial gap that indicates the GPU is handling most of the rendering workload.

At 2560x1440, the performance curve shifts downward. The Low preset averages 92.6 FPS, which is a 24.9% decrease compared to the same preset at 1080p. Medium follows at 63.9 FPS, barely clearing the 60 FPS bar. High drops to 58.8 FPS, just under the threshold, while Ultra falls to 45 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1440p shows a 51.4% performance loss, nearly identical to the 1080p scaling pattern, suggesting consistent GPU-bound behavior.

At 3840x2160, the data shows a system under significant strain. The Low preset averages 58.8 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration that comes close to playability. Medium drops to 43.4 FPS, High falls to 36.2 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 27.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 52.9%, the largest percentage spread across all resolutions. The 4K Low result is particularly telling: it is identical to the 1440p High result at 58.8 FPS, demonstrating how resolution scaling taxes the GTX 1660 SUPER.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the dominant factor in determining performance in Lockdown Protocol, particularly at higher resolutions. The CPU, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28838 and a single-core score of 4071, possesses far more compute capability than the GPU can exploit. The i7-12700KF scores 9282 in 3DMark 16-thread testing and 9983 at max threads, positioning it as a high-end processor that is not the bottleneck in this configuration.

At 1920x1080, the GPU is clearly the limiting component. The 123.3 FPS Low result versus the 59.7 FPS Ultra result shows that the graphics card is saturated by the increasing render load. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3984 and multithread score of 34092 confirm it has plenty of headroom. The scaling between 1080p Low and 1440p Low shows a 24.9% drop, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance, as resolution increases place more demand on the rasterizer and memory bandwidth.

At 2560x1440, the role distribution becomes more pronounced. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s, paired with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, begins to show limitations. The Medium preset at 63.9 FPS versus High at 58.8 FPS indicates that the GPU is struggling to maintain the 60 FPS target as texture and shader complexity increases. The CPU's contribution at this resolution is minimal; the 3DMark 2-thread score of 2065 and 4-thread score of 4011 demonstrate that the processor can feed frames far faster than the GPU can render them.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is overwhelmingly the bottleneck. The 58.8 FPS Low result at 4K matches the 58.8 FPS High result at 1440p, showing that the GTX 1660 SUPER is operating at its absolute limit. The FP32 compute throughput of 5.027 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s are simply insufficient for 4K rendering at high quality. The i7-12700KF, by contrast, shows no signs of strain; its Cinebench R20 multicore score of 12111 and Geekbench multicore score of 14367 indicate it could support a far more powerful GPU.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that maintains an average of at least 60 FPS is High, which delivers 76.2 FPS. This configuration clears the 60 FPS threshold by a comfortable margin of 16.2 FPS. The Ultra preset, at 59.7 FPS, falls just short of the playability bar, making High the optimal choice for visual quality without sacrificing smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the best playable preset is Medium, averaging 63.9 FPS. This is the only quality tier above Low that stays above 60 FPS at this resolution. The High preset drops to 58.8 FPS, which misses the threshold by 1.2 FPS. Medium represents the maximum visual fidelity that this combination can sustain at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset comes closest at 58.8 FPS, but it still falls short by 1.2 FPS. The recorded data shows no playable settings at 4K, making this resolution unsuitable for this hardware pairing.

The Verdict

The Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER can run Lockdown Protocol, but the playable range is limited. At 1920x1080, the system clears 60 FPS on Low, Medium, and High presets, with High being the best quality option at 76.2 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low and Medium presets are playable, with Medium as the best setting at 63.9 FPS. At 3840x2160, the combination cannot reach 60 FPS on any preset; the closest is Low at 58.8 FPS, which is below the playability threshold.

The verdict by resolution is clear: 1080p is fully playable across most settings, 1440p is playable at Medium and below, and 4K is not playable. The overall combo rank of 3120 out of 3714 tested combinations places this system in the lower half of the database, reflecting the GPU's age and performance tier. The GTX 1660 SUPER, with a PassMark G3D score of 12699, is a mid-range card from the Turing generation, and its 6 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but inadequate for 4K.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The GTX 1660 SUPER's nearest rivals in the database show that its performance level is closely matched by several other GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has an average score of 12940, which is 0.4% lower than the GTX 1660 SUPER's 12986. The AMD Radeon RX 580 scores 12928, also 0.4% lower. The NVIDIA Tesla M2090 scores 13075, which is 0.7% higher, and the AMD Radeon 740M scores 12870, 0.9% lower. These deltas are all within 1%, meaning any of these GPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Lockdown Protocol.

On the CPU side, the i7-12700KF's nearest rivals show similarly tight clustering. The Intel Core i7-13700T has an average score of 35403, which is 0.1% lower than the i7-12700KF's 35365. The Intel Core i5-13600T scores 35305, 0.2% higher, and the Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35428, 0.2% lower. The Intel Core i7-12700K scores 35287, 0.2% higher. These processors would all behave nearly identically in this game, as the GPU bottleneck masks any CPU differences.

The practical implication is that swapping the i7-12700KF for any of these rival CPUs, or swapping the GTX 1660 SUPER for any of its rival GPUs, would produce frame rates within 1% of the recorded results. The system's performance is defined by the GPU tier, not the specific CPU model, at all resolutions above 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 3120 out of 3714 tested combos in the database, placing it in the 16th percentile of all tested systems. This is a low ranking, driven almost entirely by the GPU. The GTX 1660 SUPER's 53rd percentile standing among all GPUs, combined with the i7-12700KF's 85th percentile standing among all CPUs, creates a significant imbalance. The CPU is powerful enough to support a GPU several tiers higher, but the pairing as configured is held back by the graphics card.

The rank reflects the system's inability to handle 4K gaming and its limited 1440p performance. At 1080p, the combo performs competently, but the database ranking weighs all tested configurations, including those at higher resolutions. The 27.7 FPS Ultra result at 4K and the 45 FPS Ultra result at 1440p pull the overall score down. The system's best case scenario is 1080p High at 76.2 FPS, which is a playable but not exceptional result. The data suggests that a more balanced pairing, such as a mid-range CPU with a stronger GPU, would rank higher in the database.