Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a wide spread of frame rates in Lockdown Protocol, ranging from a highly playable 55.7 FPS at 4K Ultra to a blistering 238.8 FPS at 1080p Low. This data indicates a system whose performance ceiling is heavily dictated by the resolution and preset selected, with the GPU becoming the primary constraint at higher settings and the CPU’s four cores potentially limiting the absolute maximum frame rate at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher settings. At 1080p High, the combo produces 147.8 FPS, which drops to 111.3 FPS at 1440p High—a 24.7% reduction—and further to 74 FPS at 4K High, a 33.5% reduction from the 1440p figure. This pattern confirms that the Radeon RX 6800 XT’s rendering workload is scaling with pixel count, and the GPU is the limiting component at these settings.

The Low preset tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 238.8 FPS, but the scaling to 1440p Low (178 FPS) and 4K Low (113.7 FPS) shows a more gradual decline, with the 1440p result being 25.5% lower than 1080p and the 4K result being 36.1% lower than 1440p. The gap between 1080p Low and 1080p High is 91 FPS, whereas the gap between 4K Low and 4K High is only 39.7 FPS. This compression at higher resolutions indicates that even with the Low preset, the GPU is still doing significant work at 4K, but at 1080p, the CPU’s four cores and eight threads become more relevant, preventing the frame rate from scaling linearly with the reduced graphical load.

Ultra settings amplify the GPU’s role. The 4K Ultra result of 55.7 FPS is 24.7% lower than the 4K High result, and the 1080p Ultra result of 111.8 FPS is 24.4% lower than the 1080p High result. The consistent percentage drops across resolutions at Ultra suggest that the RX 6800 XT is fully saturated, and the Core i3-12100F is not the bottleneck at this preset. The data shows that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p Low to the GPU at 4K Ultra, with the crossover occurring somewhere in the Medium to High preset range at 1440p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 551st out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the upper third of all configurations. This percentile position is respectable, but it reflects the CPU’s modest standing relative to the GPU’s high performance. The RX 6800 XT alone sits in the 87th percentile against all GPUs, while the Core i3-12100F sits in the 72nd percentile against all CPUs, creating a pairing where the GPU outclasses the processor in overall benchmark strength.

The CPU’s nearest rivals provide context for its contribution to this combo’s rank. The i3-12100F’s average benchmark score of 13516 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX’s 13534, a delta of -0.1%, and slightly ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U’s 13462, a delta of 0.4%. The Intel Core i3-10105 trails by 0.6%, and the Intel Core i7-7700K is 1.8% behind. These rivals are all older or lower-tier parts, yet they score similarly, suggesting that the i3-12100F’s four cores are competitive in synthetic benchmarks but may not hold up as well in a real-time FPS like Lockdown Protocol where thread scaling is less predictable.

For the GPU, the RX 6800 XT’s average benchmark score of 49982 places it just above the Intel Arc A550M (49737, a delta of 0.5%) and the NVIDIA CMP 50HX (49071, a delta of 1.9%), while sitting below the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (50826, a delta of -1.7%) and slightly ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (48704, a delta of 2.6%). The RX 6800 XT is clearly a high-tier GPU, and its 87th percentile ranking is well above the CPU’s 72nd percentile, which explains why the combo rank of 551 is not higher—the CPU is holding back the system’s potential in a game that is not heavily multi-threaded.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT’s memory subsystem is a defining feature for Lockdown Protocol’s performance. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card offers a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for the game’s texture streaming at 4K Ultra. The memory clock runs at 2000 MHz, translating to 16 Gbps effective, and the card’s base clock of 1825 MHz boosts to 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz. These clocks are reflected in the measured frame rates, where the GPU maintains over 55 FPS at 4K Ultra and exceeds 110 FPS at 1080p Ultra.

The GPU’s raw compute resources—4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs—are backed by 72 ray tracing cores, though Lockdown Protocol’s benchmark data does not indicate any ray tracing workload. The card’s FP32 performance of 20.74 TFLOPS and texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s suggest it can handle the game’s effects at high settings without issue. The 2x 8-pin power connectors and 300 W TDP are standard for this class, and the suggested 700 W PSU indicates the system requires substantial power delivery.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU scaling from 4K Low (113.7 FPS) to 4K Ultra (55.7 FPS), a 50.9% drop, while the 1080p range only drops 53.2% from Low to Ultra (238.8 to 111.8 FPS). This asymmetry is due to the CPU’s involvement at lower resolutions, where the GPU’s frame output is not the only constraint. The RX 6800 XT’s 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs is consistent with its performance in this title, where it delivers playable frame rates at all tested settings except the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 238.8 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: Is the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, the data shows a 24.7% drop from 4K High (74 FPS) to 4K Ultra (55.7 FPS), indicating the GPU is fully saturated at this resolution and preset.

Q: How does the Core i3-12100F compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i3-12100F scores 13516 on average, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p High and 1440p High?

A: The 1080p High result is 147.8 FPS, while the 1440p High result is 111.3 FPS, a reduction of 36.5 FPS or 24.7%.

Q: Does the RX 6800 XT outperform the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER?

A: Yes, the RX 6800 XT’s average benchmark score of 49982 is 2.6% higher than the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 48704.

Q: How many cores does the CPU have, and what is its boost clock?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F has 4 cores and 8 threads, with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz and a base clock of 3.30 GHz.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a four-core, eight-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz allow it to maintain competitive single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3dmark single-thread score of 893 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. These scores are relevant to Lockdown Protocol, which is an FPS title that often relies on a few primary threads for game logic and physics.

The CPU’s multi-threaded performance is more modest. Its 3dmark max-thread score of 4023 and Cinebench R20 multicore score of 5003 indicate that the four cores are not able to scale as well as higher-core-count parts, but the game’s benchmark results show that this is not a major limitation until the GPU is underutilized. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 238.8 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this game, as the frame rate does not increase proportionally with the GPU’s capabilities. The CPU’s L3 cache of 12 MB shared across all cores is modest, but the 1.25 MB L2 cache per core helps reduce latency in single-threaded scenarios.

The CPU’s 72nd percentile ranking against all CPUs places it below the GPU’s 87th percentile, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-7700K (1.8% lower score) and Intel Core i3-10105 (0.6% lower). These rivals are all older or lower-tier parts, which suggests the i3-12100F is a solid budget-oriented choice, but its four cores may limit performance in games that are not well-optimized for low thread counts. The measured FPS data supports this, as the gap between 1080p Low (238.8 FPS) and 1080p Medium (175.1 FPS) is 63.7 FPS, while the gap between 1440p Low (178 FPS) and 1440p Medium (127.4 FPS) is 50.6 FPS—the smaller gap at higher resolution indicates the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, reducing the CPU’s influence.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p High, the system delivers 147.8 FPS, which is smooth for competitive play, while 1440p High still maintains 111.3 FPS. The 4K High result of 74 FPS is playable for most users, and it is a 32.8% improvement over the 4K Ultra result of 55.7 FPS, making High the recommended preset for 4K displays.

The Medium preset provides a slight performance boost over High, with 175.1 FPS at 1080p, 127.4 FPS at 1440p, and 82 FPS at 4K. This preset is a reasonable choice for users who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, but the gains over High are modest—18.5% at 1080p and 14.5% at 1440p—while the visual trade-off may be noticeable in a fast-paced FPS. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates (238.8 FPS at 1080p, 178 FPS at 1440p, 113.7 FPS at 4K), but it is best reserved for esports-style play where maximum responsiveness is paramount, as the visual quality is significantly reduced.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combo. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 111.8 FPS, which is still playable, but at 1440p Ultra the frame rate drops to 84.5 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 55.7 FPS, which may be below the threshold for competitive play. The data indicates that the Ultra preset’s additional graphical effects disproportionately tax the RX 6800 XT without providing a commensurate frame rate benefit over High. For most users, the High preset at 1440p provides the best combination of visual detail and performance, while 1080p High is the safe choice for high-refresh-rate monitors.