Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol, a first-person shooter released in March 2024, is well within reach of the Intel Core i9-14900K + AMD Radeon RX 9070 pairing. Measured benchmark data shows this combination delivering frame rates comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold at every tested resolution, with only one preset across the entire matrix falling short. The RX 9070, a 4 nm RDNA 4.0 part based on the Navi 48 die with 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, does the heavy lifting at higher pixel counts, while the i9-14900K — 24 cores and 32 threads with a 6.00 GHz boost clock and a 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs in the database — ensures the CPU side is never the constraint.

Best Settings per Resolution

The data defines the "best" preset as the most demanding setting that still averages at or above 60 FPS. At 1920x1080, that is Ultra, where the combo averages 116.8 FPS — nearly double the threshold. At 2560x1440, Ultra again qualifies, delivering 82.8 FPS on average. The step up to 3840x2160 pushes Ultra below the line at 57 FPS, so High becomes the ceiling there, at 71.4 FPS. In other words, players on a 4K display sacrifice exactly one preset tier to stay above 60 FPS, and even that sacrifice leaves more than eleven frames of headroom.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data indicates Lockdown Protocol is GPU-bound on this configuration at every resolution. From 1080p Ultra to 1440p Ultra, average frame rate falls from 116.8 to 82.8 FPS; from 1440p to 4K Ultra it drops further to 57 FPS. That steady decline as pixel count quadruples — roughly 29 percent from 1080p to 1440p, then another 31 percent from 1440p to 4K — is the signature of a rendering workload dominated by the GPU rather than the processor. If the i9-14900K were the limiting factor, higher resolutions would show flatter scaling, since the CPU workload does not change with resolution.

The 1080p numbers reinforce this. Even at 246 FPS on Low and 175.4 FPS on Medium at 1920x1080, the frame rate never plateaus at a fixed CPU ceiling across presets — it continues to climb as settings drop, which means the GPU remains the bottleneck even at the least demanding configuration tested. That said, the i9-14900K is far from stretched: its single-thread performance (2262.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 4697 in PassMark single-thread) places it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, so any engine-side overhead — draw calls, physics, networked player counts in an FPS context — has ample headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the Lockdown Protocol results table, this pairing ranks 1073rd out of 3714 tested combinations. That places it in roughly the top 29 percent of configurations benchmarked for this game — above the median, but not among the elite leaderboard entries. The position is consistent with the hardware mix: the CPU sits in the 95th percentile of all processors, while the GPU sits in the 69th percentile of all graphics cards. The RX 9070 is the softer half of the equation, which matches the GPU-bound scaling behavior observed above. For a fast-paced FPS, a top-30-percent combo translates to high, stable frame rates rather than borderline playability.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Lockdown Protocol at 4K?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160, High averages 71.4 FPS, Medium averages 85.3 FPS, and Low averages 119.2 FPS — all above the 60 FPS threshold. Only Ultra, at 57 FPS, falls short.

Q: What is the single fastest result this combo recorded?

A: 246 FPS average at 1920x1080 on the Low preset.

**Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

**

A: The GPU. Frame rates fall consistently as resolution rises at a fixed preset (116.8 to 82.8 to 57 FPS on Ultra across the three resolutions), showing the RX 9070 is the limiting component. The i9-14900K has ample headroom in every scenario.

Q: Does the game run at 60 FPS on Ultra at any resolution?

A: Yes, at two of them: 1920x1080 (116.8 FPS) and 2560x1440 (82.8 FPS). At 3840x2160, Ultra averages 57 FPS and misses the threshold.

Q: How does this combination compare to other tested setups for the game?

A: It ranks 1073rd of 3714 combinations, placing it in the top 29 percent of results recorded for Lockdown Protocol.

Q: What GPU memory does the RX 9070 bring, and does it matter here?

A: 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth — more than sufficient, given that even 4K Ultra runs without any memory-related shortfall appearing in the measured averages.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full preset ladder is measured:

| Preset | Avg FPS |

|---|---|

| Low | 246 |

| Medium | 175.4 |

| High | 153.6 |

| Ultra | 116.8 |

Every preset clears 60 FPS with large margins — Ultra alone nearly doubles the threshold, and Low sits above 240 FPS.

At 2560x1440:

| Preset | Avg FPS |

|---|---|

| Low | 177.6 |

| Medium | 126.3 |

| High | 112.1 |

| Ultra | 82.8 |

The drop from 1080p is meaningful but never threatens playability. Even Ultra retains nearly 23 frames of headroom over the threshold, and Low remains above 170 FPS.

At 3840x2160:

| Preset | Avg FPS |

|---|---|

| Low | 119.2 |

| Medium | 85.3 |

| High | 71.4 |

| Ultra | 57 |

This is the only resolution where the ladder breaks: three presets pass, one fails. Ultra at 57 FPS is just three frames short of 60, so the gap to playability is narrow — but by the database's threshold definition, High at 71.4 FPS is the recommended ceiling. Minimum and maximum frame rates were not recorded for these runs, so the averages are the definitive figures here.

A useful cross-check: the ratio between consecutive presets stays within a consistent band at each resolution. At 4K, moving from Ultra to High recovers 14.4 FPS, High to Medium recovers 13.9, and Medium to Low recovers 33.9. The larger Medium-to-Low jump suggests the Low preset offloads the most expensive visual features, making it the efficiency sweet spot for competitive play at any resolution.

The Verdict

Yes — this PC runs Lockdown Protocol well at every resolution tested. At 1920x1080 and 2560x1440, all four presets from Low through Ultra average above 60 FPS, with Ultra delivering 116.8 and 82.8 FPS respectively. At 3840x2160, three of four presets clear the bar — High at 71.4, Medium at 85.3, and Low at 119.2 — while Ultra at 57 FPS is the sole miss, falling three frames short. The practical recommendation from the data: play Ultra at 1080p or 1440p, and High at 4K. With Low exceeding 119 FPS even at 4K, competitive players chasing maximum frame rates have room to spare at any resolution.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database, several nearby configurations would behave similarly in Lockdown Protocol. On the CPU side, the Intel Core i9-14900KF sits essentially level with the i9-14900K (within 0.3 percent on average benchmark score), as does the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at a 0.6 percent delta — either would produce comparable results given the GPU-bound nature of this game. The AMD EPYC 7413 (a 1.2 percent delta) and AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (1.7 percent) also score within a narrow band of the i9-14900K's average of 79097.

On the GPU side, where the choice matters more for this title, the closest alternatives cluster tightly: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z at a 0.6 percent delta from the RX 9070's average score of 23877, the AMD Radeon RX 6800S at 0.8 percent, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile at 1.1 percent, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER at 1.2 percent. Since Lockdown Protocol on this combo is GPU-limited, pairing the i9-14900K with any of these similarly ranked cards should produce frame rates in the same neighborhood at each resolution and preset — with the caveat that none would materially change the one failing data point, 4K Ultra at 57 FPS, without stepping further up the GPU performance ladder.