Lockdown Protocol

Similar Performance Alternatives

The Intel Core i7-14700K sits in a tightly contested performance band. Its average benchmark score of 69355 places it within 1% of several competing processors. The AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69288, a delta of 0.1% behind the i7-14700K, meaning the two are effectively interchangeable in mixed workloads. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X posts 69515, which is 0.2% ahead, while the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX reaches 69875, a 0.7% advantage. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F leads this group with 69996, sitting 0.9% higher. For Lockdown Protocol, any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical frame pacing, since the game's engine rarely stresses a 20-core, 28-thread processor to its limit. The i7-14700K also carries a 94th percentile ranking against all CPUs in the database, indicating that only a small fraction of tested processors outperform it in general compute tasks.

The Intel Arc B370 is a far more constrained piece of hardware. Its average benchmark score of 1184 comes solely from the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, and it ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs. The nearest rivals are all older discrete and mobile parts. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 scores 1186, a 0.2% difference, while the ATI Radeon HD 5770 reaches 1190, 0.5% higher. The AMD Radeon HD 7650M posts 1192, 0.7% ahead, and the AMD FirePro M2000 trails at 1168, which is 1.4% behind the Arc B370. These deltas are all within a couple of percent, so a user moving from any of those legacy GPUs to the Arc B370 should expect a similar frame rate ceiling in Lockdown Protocol. The Arc B370's integrated nature, with system-shared memory and a 25 W TDP, explains why its compute output lands so close to decade-old parts. For this game, the GPU is the decisive bottleneck, and the CPU's headroom will go largely unused.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded data shows a clear division of labor in Lockdown Protocol. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo reaches an average of 80 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire measurement set. This indicates that at lower resolutions and reduced settings, the GPU is still able to push frames quickly, but the ceiling is modest. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops the average to 58 FPS, a 27.5% reduction from the 1080p result. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 38 FPS, another 34.5% drop from 1440p. This steep scaling curve points to a GPU-bound scenario: as pixel count rises, the Arc B370's limited shading units and memory bandwidth become the limiting factor.

The CPU's role is minimal across all tested configurations. The i7-14700K, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5 and a single-core score of 2160, has far more compute capacity than Lockdown Protocol requires. Even at 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is typically highest, the frame rate is capped by the GPU rather than the processor. The scaling between presets reinforces this. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium drops the average from 80 to 57 FPS, a 28.8% reduction. High settings yield 49 FPS, and Ultra drops to 37 FPS. These large preset penalties are characteristic of a GPU that is saturated by increased shading and texture work, not a CPU that is struggling to feed the renderer. The same pattern holds at 1440p and 4K, where each preset step reduces the average by roughly 10 to 20 FPS.

Resolution scaling further confirms the GPU bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 57 at 1080p to 42 at 1440p to 27 at 4K. That is a 52.6% total drop from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the averages are 49, 36, and 23 FPS respectively, a 53.1% drop. The consistency of these percentages across presets suggests that the Arc B370's performance scales predictably with pixel throughput, and that no single setting overburdens the CPU or exposes a driver-level anomaly. Users considering this combo for Lockdown Protocol should treat the GPU as the primary performance arbiter; the i7-14700K will not meaningfully change results at any resolution or preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the Arc B370 and i7-14700K combination produces its weakest results. Low settings average 38 FPS, with no recorded minimum or maximum. Medium settings average 27 FPS, with a minimum of 23 and a maximum of 31. High settings average 23 FPS, and Ultra drops to 18 FPS. None of these averages approach the 60 FPS playability threshold, and even the best case, Low at 38 FPS, is well below a smooth experience. The minimum at Medium, 23 FPS, indicates that frame times can become quite irregular under load.

At 2560x1440, the picture improves but remains below playable standards. Low settings average 58 FPS, just 2 FPS shy of the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings average 42 FPS, with a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 48. High settings average 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. The Low preset is tantalizingly close to playable, but the data does not record it as crossing the line. The Medium preset's minimum of 35 FPS suggests that even mid-range settings will produce noticeable stutter during intense scenes.

At 1920x1080, the combo finally finds a playable configuration. Low settings average 80 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings average 57 FPS, with a minimum of 48 and a maximum of 65. The minimum here falls below 60, so Medium is not consistently smooth even though the average is close. High settings average 49 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p, 80 down to 37 FPS, demonstrates how heavily the Arc B370 depends on reduced settings to maintain tolerable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The database places this combination at rank 3427 out of 3714 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol. That puts it in the bottom 7.7% of all systems evaluated for this game. The ranking reflects the Arc B370's severe GPU limitation rather than any deficiency in the i7-14700K. The CPU alone ranks in the 94th percentile of all processors, but the GPU sits in the 5th percentile of all graphics cards. When paired together in a game that is heavily GPU-bound, the result is a system that performs far below what the processor alone would suggest.

This rank implies that the vast majority of tested combos, including those with mid-range GPUs and older CPUs, deliver higher frame rates in Lockdown Protocol. The 3427th position means there are 3426 other combinations with better measured performance, and only 287 combos rank lower. For a user building around a flagship-class CPU, this is an unusually large gap between CPU capability and overall gaming outcome. The data does not indicate any driver or thermal anomaly; it simply shows that the Arc B370's 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 20 ROPs cannot sustain the rendering load of this game at higher settings.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Lockdown Protocol at 1920x1080?

A: Yes, but only on the Low preset. The measured average at 1080p Low is 80 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playability threshold. Medium settings average 57 FPS, below the threshold, and High and Ultra average 49 and 37 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 2560x1440?

A: There is no playable setting at 1440p. The closest result is Low, which averages 58 FPS, just under the 60 FPS threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra average 42, 36, and 27 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in the database's Steel Nomad test. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 is 0.2% behind at 1186, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 is 0.5% ahead at 1190, the AMD Radeon HD 7650M is 0.7% ahead at 1192, and the AMD FirePro M2000 is 1.4% behind at 1168. All five GPUs are effectively in the same performance class.

Q: Does the i7-14700K bottleneck the Arc B370?

A: No. The i7-14700K has a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 0.2% delta, are all within 1% of its average score. The frame rate scaling in Lockdown Protocol follows resolution and preset changes, which indicates the GPU is the limiting component.

Q: What is the best FPS this combo can achieve?

A: The highest recorded average is 80 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. No other configuration in the measured data reaches 60 FPS or higher.

Q: Is the Arc B370 a discrete graphics card?

A: No. The Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor with a 25 W TDP, system-shared memory, and no power connectors. It uses the Xe3-LPG architecture on a 3 nm process and is based on the Panther Lake chip.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches the 60 FPS playability threshold. The best measured result is Low at 38 FPS average, followed by Medium at 27 FPS, High at 23 FPS, and Ultra at 18 FPS. There is no recommended setting for this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the best result is also Low, averaging 58 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS threshold, so no setting can be recommended as playable. Medium averages 42 FPS, High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only playable option, with an average of 80 FPS. Medium averages 57 FPS, below the threshold, and its minimum of 48 FPS confirms that frame drops will occur. High and Ultra average 49 and 37 FPS respectively. For users who must play at 1080p, Low is the only setting that reliably clears 60 FPS.

The Verdict

The data shows that this PC can run Lockdown Protocol, but only under a narrow set of conditions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the measured average of 80 FPS clears the 60 FPS playability threshold, and this is the only configuration in the entire dataset that does so. At 2560x1440, the best result is Low at 58 FPS, which misses the threshold by 2 FPS. At 3840x2160, no preset comes close, with the best average being 38 FPS on Low.

The verdict by resolution is clear: 1080p Low is playable, while 1440p and 4K are not playable at any setting. The i7-14700K provides ample CPU headroom, but the Arc B370's integrated-class performance, ranked in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, holds the system back. For a user targeting 1080p gaming with modest expectations, this combo can deliver a playable experience. For higher resolutions or more demanding presets, the data indicates that this system will fall short of the 60 FPS threshold. The overall combo rank of 3427 out of 3714 confirms that this is a low-performing gaming configuration, despite the strength of the processor.