Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks at position 514 out of 1,637 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol. This places the combo in the 69th percentile of all tested systems, indicating a setup that sits comfortably above the median but not at the top tier. The ranking reflects a system that is well-balanced for this FPS title, though it is not among the elite configurations that dominate the leaderboard.

How This Combo Ranks

The 514th rank out of 1,637 combos places this pairing in the upper-middle tier of tested hardware configurations for Lockdown Protocol. This position suggests the system delivers a competitive experience for most players, landing ahead of roughly 69% of all tested setups. The combination of a quad-core CPU with a high-end GPU creates a pairing that leverages the GPU’s strength while the CPU keeps pace sufficiently to avoid severe bottlenecking.

Benchmark data shows the CPU holds a 72nd percentile ranking among all processors, while the GPU sits at the 79th percentile among all graphics cards. Both components perform above average in their respective categories, and the combo ranking reflects this synergy. However, the CPU’s lower standing relative to the GPU indicates that the i3-12100F is the weaker link in this pairing, a factor that becomes more pronounced at lower resolutions where the processor must feed frames faster.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 58W TDP. The CPU features a 12 MB shared L3 cache, with 80 KB of L1 and 1.25 MB of L2 per core. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s single-thread performance is critical, and the i3-12100F delivers a 3DMark single-thread score of 893. Multi-threaded results show a 3DMark 4-thread score of 2859 and an 8-thread score of 4026, with the max-thread score nearly identical at 4023. This indicates the processor scales well up to its physical core count but plateaus beyond that, as seen in the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 versus a single-core score of 1681. The PassMark single-thread score of 3444 further confirms strong per-core performance.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i3-12100F’s average benchmark score of 13516 sits just 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% above the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462). The processor also edges out the Intel Core i3-10105 by 0.6% and leads the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%. These tight margins show that the i3-12100F holds its own against both older high-end parts and newer efficient mobile chips, making it a capable foundation for gaming.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, manufactured on TSMC’s 4 nm process. It houses 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die, with a transistor density of 151.0M per mm². The GPU operates with a base clock of 1330 MHz, a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and a game clock of 2070 MHz. Memory runs at 2518 MHz with an effective speed of 20.1 Gbps, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth through a 256-bit bus and 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

With 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and 56 RT cores, the RX 9070 provides substantial compute power. Its FP32 performance is rated at 36.13 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 72.25 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio). The GPU achieves a pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 6290 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 133741 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 165532 in Geekbench Vulkan. The PassMark G3D score of 25381 underscores its DirectX 11 and 12 capabilities, with scores of 281 and 74 respectively.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 34780 places it 0.2% below the NVIDIA A2 (34866) and 0.3% above the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (34677). It also leads the AMD Radeon HD 7970 by 0.7% and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 by 0.8%. These comparisons show that while the RX 9070 is a modern, powerful card, its closest rivals in this database are a mix of professional and older gaming parts, indicating the scoring reflects a broad spectrum of workloads beyond just gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals how this combo performs across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the system delivers 248.2 FPS on Low, 177.1 FPS on Medium, 149.9 FPS on High, and 115.7 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p Low result of 248.2 FPS is the highest across all tested configurations, showing the GPU can push well beyond typical refresh rates when settings are reduced. The Ultra setting at 1080p drops to 115.7 FPS, still above 100 FPS for smooth gameplay.

Moving to 1440p, the results remain strong. Low settings produce 182.1 FPS, Medium yields 130.4 FPS, High delivers 111.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 82.5 FPS. The 1440p High result of 111.6 FPS provides a comfortable margin for high-refresh monitors, while Ultra still maintains playable frame rates above 80 FPS.

At 4K, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings achieve 117.8 FPS, Medium hits 81.9 FPS, High manages 70.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 55.5 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 55.5 FPS approaches the threshold where some players might prefer lowered settings for smoother motion, but the Low setting at 117.8 FPS shows the system can handle 4K well when visual fidelity is reduced.

The data shows a clear gradient where FPS decreases as both resolution and settings increase. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 132.5 FPS, while at 4K the same gap is 62.3 FPS. This compression at higher resolutions suggests the GPU becomes the primary limiter, whereas at 1080p the CPU’s frame delivery capacity starts to cap performance.

Resolution Scaling

Analyzing the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component. At High settings, the system produces 149.9 FPS at 1080p and 70.1 FPS at 4K, representing a 53.2% reduction. For Low settings, the drop is from 248.2 FPS at 1080p to 117.8 FPS at 4K, a 52.5% decrease. The Medium setting falls from 177.1 FPS to 81.9 FPS, a 53.7% reduction, while Ultra drops from 115.7 FPS to 55.5 FPS, a 52.0% decrease.

These percentage reductions are nearly uniform across settings, hovering around 52-54%. This consistency indicates that the performance scaling with resolution is primarily driven by the GPU’s rendering load, as the FPS halves when pixel count roughly quadruples. The RX 9070’s 16 GB of VRAM and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the increased memory pressure at 4K, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates.

The CPU’s role becomes clearer when comparing the FPS at 1080p Low (248.2 FPS) against the 4K Low (117.8 FPS). At 1080p, the i3-12100F’s 4 cores and 8 threads must deliver frames at a rate that approaches the GPU’s maximum output. The fact that 1080p Low reaches nearly 250 FPS shows the CPU can keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions, but the frame rate ceiling at higher settings and resolutions is governed by the GPU’s pixel throughput.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the system is more balanced, with the CPU able to feed the GPU adequately. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes the dominant constraint, with the FPS dropping proportionally to the pixel count increase. This pattern indicates that for players targeting high refresh rates at 1080p, the pairing works well, while 4K gaming will rely heavily on the RX 9070’s capabilities. The 4K Ultra result of 55.5 FPS shows that the GPU can handle demanding settings, but players seeking higher frame rates at 4K would need to reduce settings to Low, where the 117.8 FPS result remains fluid.