Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i3-12100F + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but not exceptional experience in Lockdown Protocol, landing at rank 2264 out of 2828 tested combos. This places the pairing in the bottom 20% of the database, which is a direct reflection of the CPU's modest 4-core/8-thread configuration and the GPU's mid-range positioning. The measured data shows this combo can hit 60+ FPS at 1080p on High settings, but demanding 4K Ultra pushes it down to 30 FPS, making resolution and preset choices critical for a smooth session.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Lockdown Protocol at 60 FPS on a 1080p monitor?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 the combo averages 84 FPS on High settings and 96 FPS on Medium settings. The Low preset reaches 136 FPS, so 60 FPS is comfortably achievable at 1080p across all tested presets.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: The data suggests 1920x1080 is the sweet spot. At 2560x1440, High settings drop to 62 FPS average, which is still playable but leaves less headroom. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only produce 64 FPS, and High drops to 40 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, placing it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750. It also sits 0.4% above the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M and 0.5% below the AMD Radeon R9 M390X.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for the Arc B570 in this game?

A: The CPU's 3DMark scores (4051 in 16-thread, 4023 in max-thread tests) indicate it handles multi-threaded loads adequately, but its 4-core design limits peak performance. The combo rank of 2264 out of 2828 suggests the CPU constrains higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where GPU load is lighter.

Q: What preset should I use for a competitive advantage?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset yields 136 FPS average, which is 52 FPS higher than High. The Medium preset offers 96 FPS with presumably better visuals. For maximum responsiveness in an FPS, Low at 1080p is the data-backed choice.

Q: Does the 10 GB VRAM on the Arc B570 matter for this game?

A: The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth. While the game's specific VRAM usage isn't listed in the measured data, the capacity is sufficient for the tested settings, as frame rates scale predictably across presets.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with the BMG-G21 chip, operates at a fixed 2500 MHz base and boost clock. This consistent clocking means the GPU's performance is predictable across workloads, and the measured FPS data reflects that stability. The 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s, which are the raw throughput numbers that determine how quickly the card can fill frames in an FPS title like Lockdown Protocol.

The 10 GB GDDR6 memory pool at 19 Gbps effective provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In the measured results, this bandwidth proves sufficient even at 4K, where the GPU still manages 40 FPS on High settings. The 160-bit bus width is narrower than higher-tier cards, but the data shows it doesn't cripple performance in this game. The FP32 compute of 11.52 TFLOPS and FP16 of 23.04 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) place the card in a mid-range bracket, which aligns with its 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The Arc B570's nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, scores a nearly identical 20582 average benchmark (0.1% higher), and the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol should be comparable to that card. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile is 0.1% behind in average score, meaning desktop users of that mobile chip would see similar frame rates. This GPU is clearly capable of 1080p gaming at high refresh rates in this title, as evidenced by the 136 FPS Low preset result, but it struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra, where the average drops to 30 FPS.

The GPU's memory clock of 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective) and the 272 mm² die size with 19,600 million transistors indicate a modern mid-range part. The 65th percentile ranking versus all GPUs places it above average, but the measured game data shows it's not a high-end performer in Lockdown Protocol specifically. The 4K results—30 FPS on Ultra, 40 FPS on High—suggest the card is compute-bound at high resolutions, which is consistent with its 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 rating.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S generation, running at a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boosting to 4.30 GHz. This is a budget-oriented chip with a 58 W TDP, and its benchmark scores reflect its positioning: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11860 and a single-core score of 1674. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4051 and max-thread score of 4023 show that the CPU's performance plateaus quickly beyond 4 threads, which is a limitation in modern games that can utilize more cores.

The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core provide decent memory locality, but the 4-core design means the CPU can become a limiting factor when the GPU is not fully utilized. In Lockdown Protocol, this is evident in the scaling pattern: at 1080p, the difference between Low (136 FPS) and Ultra (63 FPS) is 73 FPS, which is primarily GPU-driven. However, the CPU's PassMark multithread score of 14015 and single-thread score of 3444 indicate it can keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions without causing frame drops.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68th versus all CPUs places it slightly above average, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core 5 120UL (0.7% higher average score) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% higher). The 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and 2-thread score of 1659 show that the chip has reasonable single-core performance for an FPS game, which often relies on one or two threads for game logic. The Cinebench R20 single-core score of 703 reinforces this strength.

At 4K resolutions, the CPU's role diminishes as the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The 4K Low result of 64 FPS compared to 1080p Low at 136 FPS shows a 72 FPS drop, which is almost entirely due to GPU load. The CPU's 8 threads are sufficient for Lockdown Protocol's threading model, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rates at 4K are consistent with what the GPU can deliver. However, the CPU's 68th percentile ranking and the combo's 2264th rank out of 2828 suggest that a stronger CPU could push higher frame rates at 1080p, where the 136 FPS Low result might be CPU-limited in certain scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 136 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play. Medium settings drop to 96 FPS average with a minimum of 82 and maximum of 111, providing a smooth experience with better visuals. High settings yield 84 FPS average, still above the 60 FPS threshold for most monitors. Ultra settings produce 63 FPS average, which is playable but noticeably lower than the other presets. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 73 FPS drop, indicating that the GPU is the primary driver of performance at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease across the board. Low settings average 100 FPS, which remains excellent for a 1440p panel. Medium settings average 71 FPS with a range of 60 to 81, staying above the 60 FPS minimum. High settings average 62 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay but acceptable. Ultra settings drop to 46 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS target and may cause noticeable stuttering in fast-paced scenes. The 1440p results show a 54 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, reflecting the increased GPU load at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings average 64 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for an FPS where higher refresh rates matter. Medium settings average 46 FPS with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 52, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. High settings average 40 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 30 FPS, making the game feel sluggish at 4K. The 4K results show a 34 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, with the GPU clearly being the limiting factor.

The data reveals that the combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can comfortably exceed 60 FPS on all presets. At 1440p, it can handle Medium or High settings for a good balance of visuals and performance. At 4K, only Low settings are viable for a playable experience, and even then, the 64 FPS average is close to the edge of smoothness. The Medium presets at each resolution show the minimum and maximum FPS values, providing a range that indicates frame pacing stability; at 1080p Medium, the range is 82-111, which is a tight 29 FPS spread, while at 1440p Medium, the range is 60-81, a 21 FPS spread, and at 4K Medium, the range is 39-52, a 13 FPS spread. This tightening range at higher resolutions suggests the GPU becomes more consistently loaded as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2264th out of 2828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the bottom 20% of the database. This is a low ranking that reflects the CPU's budget positioning and the GPU's mid-range performance. For context, the CPU alone ranks in the 68th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU ranks in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, so the combined result is worse than either component's individual percentile. This indicates a suboptimal pairing for this specific game, likely due to the CPU's 4-core limitation in an FPS title that may benefit from more cores.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta), Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% higher), Intel Core 5 120UL (0.7% lower), and Intel Core i7-1250U (1.1% higher). These are all similarly performing CPUs, meaning the i3-12100F is not uniquely weak but rather average for its class. The GPU's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher), Intel Arc A750 (0.1% lower), NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (0.4% higher), and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (0.5% lower). The Arc B570 is essentially tied with these cards in raw compute, so the combo's low rank is not due to the GPU being exceptionally weak.

The rank of 2264 out of 2828 suggests that many other CPU-GPU pairings deliver better results in Lockdown Protocol. This could be because the game is CPU-sensitive, and the i3-12100F's 4 cores are insufficient to fully drive the Arc B570 at lower resolutions. Alternatively, the game might favor NVIDIA or AMD GPUs due to driver optimizations, which the data cannot directly confirm but is a plausible explanation given the Arc B570's relatively new architecture. The measured FPS data shows that the combo can achieve playable frame rates, but the low rank indicates that most other tested combos perform better.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in Lockdown Protocol, the data clearly points to 1920x1080 as the resolution of choice. At this resolution, the Low preset delivers 136 FPS average, which is ideal for competitive FPS play where responsiveness matters more than visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 96 FPS average offers a good compromise between visuals and smoothness, with a minimum of 82 FPS ensuring the frame rate rarely dips below the 60 FPS threshold. For players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, the High preset at 84 FPS is still perfectly playable, while the Ultra preset at 63 FPS is the most demanding option but remains above 60 FPS.

If playing at 2560x1440, the Low preset at 100 FPS is the recommended choice for competitive play, as it maintains a high frame rate while providing a sharper image than 1080p. The Medium preset at 71 FPS is a solid alternative for those who want better visuals without sacrificing too much performance, though the minimum of 60 FPS means some scenes will hover right at the edge of smoothness. The High preset at 62 FPS is playable but leaves little headroom, and the Ultra preset at 46 FPS is not recommended for an FPS game where frame rate consistency is crucial.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset at 64 FPS is the only viable option for a reasonably smooth experience. The Medium preset at 46 FPS and High preset at 40 FPS are too low for competitive play, and the Ultra preset at 30 FPS is borderline unplayable. Given that the game is an FPS, the 1080p Low or Medium presets provide the best balance of performance and visual quality, with the 136 FPS Low result being the standout choice for maximizing responsiveness. The data suggests that users should avoid 4K entirely unless they are willing to accept significantly reduced frame rates, as the GPU cannot maintain high performance at that resolution in this title.