Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a robust 1080p and 1440p experience in Lockdown Protocol, but 4K Ultra demands compromises. The measured data shows a clear hierarchy: Low settings provide the highest frame rates at every resolution, while Ultra settings consistently produce the lowest. For a balanced experience that prioritizes visual fidelity without sacrificing responsiveness, the High preset is the recommended starting point. At 1920x1080, High yields an average of 132.2 FPS, which is comfortably above the 100 FPS threshold for competitive play. At 2560x1440, High still maintains an average of 100.7 FPS, making it viable for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset offers a marginal improvement over High (155.2 FPS at 1080p, 112.1 FPS at 1440p) but the visual difference is often negligible compared to the performance gain. Ultra, while visually impressive, drops to 100.2 FPS at 1080p and 75 FPS at 1440p, which may introduce noticeable input lag in a fast-paced FPS. At 3840x2160, High is the only preset that remains playable, averaging 65.9 FPS, though users targeting 60 FPS should consider Medium (70.7 FPS) as a safer option.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 748th out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the middle of the distribution, indicating a solid but not top-tier pairing for this specific title. The CPU itself sits at the 72nd percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 13516. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (scoring 13534, a delta of -0.1%) and the Intel Core i7-1250U (scoring 13462, a delta of 0.4%). This proximity suggests the i3-12100F's performance is tightly grouped with these very different chips, highlighting that its 4-core, 8-thread configuration is sufficient for the game's demands. The GPU also rests at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 28238. Its nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro S7150 (scoring 28409, a delta of -0.6%) and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (scoring 27985, a delta of 0.9%). The close margins between these scores indicate that the RTX 3070 is well-matched to its peers, and the overall combo rank reflects a balanced system where neither component is a severe bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost clock of 1725 MHz, and its memory operates at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective. These specifications are directly relevant to Lockdown Protocol's performance scaling. The 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at all settings, but at 4K Ultra, the data shows a significant drop to 45.8 FPS, suggesting that memory capacity or bandwidth becomes a limiting factor as texture detail increases. The GPU's 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units allow it to handle the game's geometry and effects efficiently, as evidenced by the strong 1080p Low result of 213.3 FPS. The 96 ROPs contribute to pixel fill rate, which is critical at higher resolutions. The 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores provide hardware support for ray tracing and DLSS, though the measured data does not indicate whether these features were enabled. The GPU's FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS indicates substantial compute headroom, which is likely why the GPU maintains high frame rates even when the CPU is stressed at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 213.3 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 155.2 FPS, High at 132.2 FPS, and Ultra at 100.2 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is substantial, a 53% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces significant graphical overhead. Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern repeats: Low averages 159.5 FPS, Medium 112.1 FPS, High 100.7 FPS, and Ultra 75 FPS. The relative scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent reduction of roughly 25% across all presets, suggesting that the GPU is the primary driver of performance at these resolutions. At 3840x2160, the impact is more pronounced. Low still manages 103.6 FPS, but Medium drops to 70.7 FPS, High to 65.9 FPS, and Ultra to 45.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, which is a critical threshold for smooth gameplay. The data indicates that the RTX 3070 is capable of delivering playable frame rates at 4K only when settings are reduced to Low or Medium. For users with 1440p monitors, the High preset offers the best balance, while 1080p users can comfortably run Ultra if they prioritize visuals over maximum frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 213.3 at 1080p to 159.5 at 1440p, a 25.2% reduction, and then to 103.6 at 4K, a further 35.0% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline at 4K indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being heavily taxed. The data shows that the RTX 3070's 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K with the Ultra preset, which averages only 45.8 FPS. In contrast, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 213.3 FPS approaches the practical limit for a 4-core, 8-thread processor, suggesting that the i3-12100F's 3.30 GHz base and 4.30 GHz boost clocks are adequate but not overkill. The 3dmark single-thread score of 893 and the passmark single-thread score of 3444 indicate strong per-core performance, which is essential for a game like Lockdown Protocol that may not fully utilize all threads. However, the 3dmark 16-thread score of 4051 versus the 8-thread score of 4026 shows that the CPU's performance plateaus beyond 8 threads, confirming that additional cores would not provide a meaningful benefit in this title. The combination of a strong single-core CPU and a mid-range GPU means that the system is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra results clearly show the GPU becoming the limiting factor. The scaling data suggests that users should prioritize GPU settings over CPU settings when targeting higher resolutions, as the RTX 3070's 8 GB frame buffer and 256-bit bus are the primary constraints at 4K.