Lockdown Protocol

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Lockdown Protocol shows a clear pattern: the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination scales predictably as resolution increases, but the degree of scaling varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the combo delivers 236.1 FPS at 1920x1080, dropping to 168.9 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 112.2 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 52.5% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical load, the system is still largely GPU-bound.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 166.6 FPS at 1080p, 121 FPS at 1440p, and 78.5 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 52.9%, nearly identical to Low settings. This consistency suggests that the GPU remains the primary limiting factor across these two presets, with the CPU providing enough headroom to keep feeding frames.

High settings tell a slightly different story. The combo produces 147 FPS at 1080p, 107.6 FPS at 1440p, and 69.3 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 52.9% again, but the absolute values are lower across the board. This indicates that the added graphical complexity at High settings increases GPU load proportionally, while the CPU's 4 cores and 8 threads are still sufficient to avoid becoming the bottleneck at these frame rates.

Ultra settings reveal the most dramatic scaling curve. At 1080p, the combo manages 111.4 FPS, which is already well below the Low preset's 236.1 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 79.9 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to exactly 50 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 55.1%, the steepest of any preset. This steepening curve suggests that at Ultra, the game's most demanding effects (likely ray tracing or heavy post-processing) are pushing the RX 7800 XT to its limits, and the GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily.

The data shows that resolution scaling is more pronounced at Ultra settings, which tells us that the limiting component shifts from the CPU to the GPU as graphical fidelity increases. At 1080p Low, the CPU's single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 893) is likely the ceiling, while at 4K Ultra, the GPU's raw compute (37.32 TFLOPS FP32) becomes the bottleneck. For 1440p gaming, the combo hits a sweet spot where both components are well-balanced.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show a clear hierarchy of performance across presets. For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the Ultra preset at 4K delivers exactly 50 FPS, which falls short. Dropping to High at 4K yields 69.3 FPS, which clears that threshold comfortably. Therefore, for 4K displays, High settings are the recommended choice, as they provide a 38.6% improvement over Ultra while still maintaining visual quality.

At 1440p, the situation is more flexible. Ultra delivers 79.9 FPS, which is playable for most FPS titles, but High settings at 107.6 FPS offer a 34.7% improvement with only a modest visual downgrade. For competitive play where frame rate matters more than fidelity, Medium at 121 FPS is also viable. The data indicates that Medium or High at 1440p is the optimal balance, as both stay well above 100 FPS.

At 1080p, the combo is extraordinarily capable. Even Ultra delivers 111.4 FPS, which is above the 100 FPS mark. High settings push this to 147 FPS, and Medium reaches 166.6 FPS. For high-refresh-rate monitors (144Hz or above), Medium at 166.6 FPS is the best choice, as it stays above the refresh threshold while still providing solid visual quality. Low at 236.1 FPS is excessive for most displays but demonstrates the CPU-GPU pairing's raw headroom.

The best experience per the measured rows is High settings at 1440p, which delivers 107.6 FPS. This combination offers the strongest balance of visual fidelity and smoothness, with the frame rate comfortably above 100 FPS and the resolution providing sharpness over 1080p. For 4K users, High is also the pick, as Ultra's 50 FPS is too close to the edge for consistent gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination ranks 609 out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the top 37.2% of all configurations, which is a strong showing for a CPU that sits at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs and a GPU at the 76th percentile among all GPUs. The rank indicates that this pairing is well above average for this specific game, though not at the top tier.

The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, scores 13534 on average, a mere 0.1% above the i3-12100F's 13516. This is a remarkable result for a 4-core part against a high-end workstation processor, highlighting that Lockdown Protocol does not heavily utilize many threads. The i3-12100F actually outperforms the Intel Core i7-1250U by 0.4% and the Intel Core i3-10105 by 0.6%, showing that its Alder Lake architecture provides a meaningful uplift over older designs.

On the GPU side, the RX 7800 XT's average benchmark score of 32619 places it 0.4% behind the NVIDIA P104-100 and 0.7% behind the NVIDIA T600 Mobile, while being 0.2% ahead of the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 and 0.7% ahead of the AMD FirePro S10000. These deltas are negligible in real-world gaming, confirming that the RX 7800 XT is a well-positioned mid-to-high-end card for this title.

The combo's rank of 609 out of 1637 suggests that while the pairing is capable, there are many configurations with higher-end CPUs that achieve better results. The 4-core i3-12100F, despite its strong single-thread performance, likely holds back the RX 7800 XT in CPU-bound scenarios, particularly at 1080p Low where the FPS ceiling appears constrained.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest frame rates across all presets. Low settings yield 236.1 FPS, Medium drops to 166.6 FPS, High falls to 147 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 111.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 69.5 FPS (29.4%), while the gap between High and Ultra is 35.6 FPS (24.2%). This suggests that the Medium preset introduces significant graphical effects that cost performance, while the step from High to Ultra is comparatively less punishing.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are still strong but show the expected reduction. Low delivers 168.9 FPS, Medium hits 121 FPS, High achieves 107.6 FPS, and Ultra manages 79.9 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low is 67.2 FPS (28.5%), at Medium it is 45.6 FPS (27.4%), at High it is 39.4 FPS (26.8%), and at Ultra it is 31.5 FPS (28.3%). The consistency of these percentage drops indicates that the scaling is uniform across presets.

At 3840x2160, the combo delivers 112.2 FPS at Low, 78.5 FPS at Medium, 69.3 FPS at High, and 50 FPS at Ultra. The drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper: 56.7 FPS (33.6%) at Low, 42.5 FPS (35.1%) at Medium, 38.3 FPS (35.6%) at High, and 29.9 FPS (37.4%) at Ultra. This increasing percentage drop as settings rise confirms that the GPU is being pushed harder at 4K, with the RX 7800 XT's 16 GB memory and 256-bit bus becoming more critical.

The lowest measured FPS is 50 at 4K Ultra, and the highest is 236.1 at 1080p Low. The data shows no min or max FPS values, so only averages are available for analysis. Across all 12 measured configurations, the combo averages 120.7 FPS, which is a strong overall figure for a mid-range pairing.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is built on the Navi 32 chip using the RDNA 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines, along with 60 ray tracing cores. The GPU's boost clock is 2430 MHz, with a game clock of 2124 MHz and a base clock of 1295 MHz. The memory operates at 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth.

The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is a significant asset for Lockdown Protocol. At 4K Ultra, the game is clearly memory-hungry, as evidenced by the 50 FPS result. The GPU's pixel rate of 233.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 583.2 GTexel/s indicate that it can handle high-resolution textures and complex geometry, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra suggests that ray tracing or other advanced effects are limiting factors.

The RX 7800 XT's average benchmark score of 32619 places it at the 76th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals all score within 0.7% of its average, showing that it is firmly in a competitive performance tier. The GPU's FP32 compute of 37.32 TFLOPS is substantial, but Lockdown Protocol's performance at 4K Ultra (50 FPS) indicates that the game is not purely compute-bound, or that the CPU is unable to feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions.

The GPU's 2x 8-pin power connectors and 600 W suggested PSU indicate a power-hungry design, but the TDP of 263 W is modest for its performance class. The dual-slot design and 267 mm length make it compatible with most mid-tower cases. In this combo, the GPU is clearly the dominant component for graphical performance, but the CPU's 4 cores can become a constraint at 1080p Low where 236.1 FPS is achieved.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 10 nm Alder Lake-S part with 4 cores and 8 threads. Its base clock is 3.30 GHz, boosting to 4.30 GHz. It has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with PCIe Gen 5 providing 16 lanes for the GPU.

The CPU's benchmark scores reveal its strengths and weaknesses. Its single-thread performance is strong, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. Multi-threaded performance is more modest, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 7413. The PassMark multithread score of 14015 and single-thread score of 3444 confirm this pattern.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the combo achieves 236.1 FPS. This is a very high frame rate, but it is likely limited by the CPU's 4 cores rather than the GPU. The 3DMark 4-thread score of 2859 and 8-thread score of 4026 suggest that the CPU can handle moderate thread counts, but the game may not scale well beyond 8 threads.

The CPU's percentile rank of 72 among all CPUs is respectable, but its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (0.1% higher score), Intel Core i7-1250U (0.4% lower), and Intel Core i3-10105 (0.6% lower). This places the i3-12100F in a performance tier that is competitive with much more expensive parts, but the 4-core limit is a potential bottleneck in CPU-intensive scenarios.

The i3-12100F has a TDP of 58 W, which is very low, and a launch MSRP of $97. Its 12 MB of L3 cache is shared across all cores, which helps with latency-sensitive workloads. The CPU's memory bandwidth is not listed, but dual-channel DDR4 or DDR5 support should provide adequate bandwidth for the GPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 4K, only Low (112.2 FPS) and Medium (78.5 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, with High at 69.3 FPS also clearing that mark. Ultra at 4K delivers exactly 50 FPS, which is below 60. At 1440p, all presets exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra at 79.9 FPS being the lowest.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in overall benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F scores 13516 on average, which is 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% above the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462). It also outperforms the Intel Core i3-10105 by 0.6% and the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%.

Q: Does the GPU have enough memory for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The RX 7800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 50 FPS suggests the memory capacity is sufficient, but the performance drop from High (69.3 FPS) to Ultra (50 FPS) indicates that the game's Ultra preset places heavy demands on the GPU's compute and memory subsystems.

Q: What settings give the highest frame rates at 1080p?

A: The Low preset delivers 236.1 FPS at 1080p, which is the highest measured. Medium follows at 166.6 FPS, High at 147 FPS, and Ultra at 111.4 FPS. All presets exceed 100 FPS at this resolution.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 609 out of 1637 tested combos, placing it in the top 37.2% of all configurations for Lockdown Protocol. The GPU sits at the 76th percentile and the CPU at the 72nd percentile, indicating both components are above average.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The data shows a 55.1% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings, which is the steepest of any preset. This indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor at this resolution. The GPU's 50 FPS at 4K Ultra, despite a strong average benchmark score, suggests the game's Ultra preset is very demanding on the GPU's resources.