Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The pairing of a four-core Intel Core i3-12100F with the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces a striking split in Lockdown Protocol: at 1080p the CPU becomes the bottleneck, while at 4K the GPU takes over, yet the combo still delivers playable frame rates across all tested presets. The measured data shows a system that is heavily lopsided on paper but surprisingly functional in practice, with average FPS ranging from 88 at 4K Ultra to 270 at 1080p Low.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a classic CPU-bound scenario at lower pixel counts. At 1080p High, the combo produces 227 average FPS, which climbs to 270 at Low settings. Moving to 1440p High drops the average to 183 FPS, a 19.4% reduction from the 1080p High figure. At 4K High, the average falls to 118 FPS, representing a 48% decline from the 1080p High result. This pattern indicates that the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p, with the i3-12100F's four cores limiting the frame rate before the RTX 5090 D can stretch its legs.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling. At Medium settings, 1440p delivers 209 FPS average, while 4K Medium drops to 135 FPS — a 35.4% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 137 FPS at 1440p to 88 FPS at 4K, a 35.8% reduction. These consistent percentage drops across settings suggest that the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as resolution increases, which is expected given the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB GDDR7 memory and 512-bit bus width. The 4K Ultra result of 88 FPS average is still well above playable thresholds, indicating the GPU has enough raw power to push through even the heaviest settings.

The Low preset shows the most extreme scaling behavior. At 1080p Low, the system hits 270 FPS average, but at 4K Low it drops to 190 FPS. This 29.6% reduction is actually smaller than the percentage drops seen at higher settings, which suggests that at Low settings the CPU bottleneck persists even at 4K. The i3-12100F's 4.30 GHz boost clock helps maintain high frame rates, but the four cores and eight threads create a ceiling that the GPU cannot overcome regardless of resolution.

The Medium preset provides the only complete data with min FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers 238 FPS average with a 202 FPS minimum and 273 FPS maximum. At 1440p Medium, the average is 209 FPS with a 178 FPS minimum and 241 FPS maximum. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 135 FPS with a 115 FPS minimum and 155 FPS maximum. The narrowing delta between average and minimum FPS at higher resolutions — from 36 FPS at 1080p to 31 FPS at 1440p to 20 FPS at 4K — suggests that frame pacing becomes more consistent as the GPU takes on more of the workload.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D sits at the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at 76,904 (1.1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78,940 (1.6% higher), and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB at 79,605 (2.4% higher). This places the 5090 D in a tight performance cluster, though it is worth remembering the delta percentages to these rivals are all within 2.5%, indicating that synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture the card's capabilities in real gaming workloads.

The GPU's memory configuration is substantial: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective transfer rate. This memory subsystem is likely why the 4K Ultra preset still manages 88 FPS average — the card has enough bandwidth to feed its 21,760 shading units without stalling. The boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz provide the computational throughput needed for Lockdown Protocol's FPS mechanics, and the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance is more than sufficient for this title.

In the benchmark results, the GPU shows strong compute performance with a Geekbench OpenCL score of 310,674 and a Vulkan score of 376,915. The PassMark G3D score of 44,065 and GPU compute score of 28,396 further demonstrate the card's capabilities. However, the PassMark DirectX scores are relatively low — 231 for DirectX 10, 371 for DirectX 11, and 219 for DirectX 12 — which may reflect driver overhead or benchmark methodology rather than actual gaming performance, given that the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol are consistently high.

The RTX 5090 D's role in this combo becomes more pronounced at 4K. The 48% FPS drop from 1080p High to 4K High aligns with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The card's 176 ROPs and 680 texture mapping units ensure that pixel fill rate (423.6 GPixel/s) and texture rate (1,636.8 GTexel/s) are not limiting factors. The 170 RT cores also provide ray tracing capability, though Lockdown Protocol's benchmark data does not specify whether ray tracing is enabled in any of the tested presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a four-core, eight-thread processor based on Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz boosts to 4.30 GHz, and it carries 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU sits at the 68th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 13,494. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core 3 N355 at 13,492 (0% delta), the Intel Core i5-9500 at 13,452 (0.3% higher), and the Intel Core 5 120UL at 13,594 (0.7% lower). This places the i3-12100F in a performance tier well below what one would typically pair with a flagship GPU.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread capabilities. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,674 and multi-core score of 11,860 indicate a processor that handles lightly-threaded workloads well but struggles to scale beyond four physical cores. The 3DMark results show similar patterns: 893 single-thread score, 2,859 for 4 threads, and 4,023 for max threads. The Geekbench scores of 1,932 single-core and 7,252 multi-core confirm this profile.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's four cores become the limiting factor at 1080p. The 270 FPS average at 1080p Low represents the ceiling the i3-12100F can sustain when the GPU is not under heavy load. The fact that 1080p Ultra still achieves 187 FPS average — only 31% lower than Low — suggests that even at Ultra settings, the CPU can maintain high frame rates because the GPU is still not fully saturated at this resolution. The PassMark single-thread score of 3,444 and physics score of 985 indicate reasonable per-core performance for a budget processor.

The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5, with dual-channel configuration, means the system can be configured flexibly, though the benchmark data does not specify which memory type was used in the Lockdown Protocol testing. The PCIe Gen 5 support with 16 lanes (CPU only) provides sufficient bandwidth for the RTX 5090 D's PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, though the CPU's 58 W TDP suggests it was not designed for sustained high-performance workloads.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 83rd out of 2,828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 3% of all tested systems. This ranking is remarkable given the CPU's modest specifications — a four-core processor from the budget segment paired with the most powerful consumer GPU available. The ranking suggests that Lockdown Protocol is not heavily CPU-threaded, allowing the i3-12100F to keep up better than it would in more demanding titles.

The rank of 83 out of 2,828 means there are 82 combos that perform better, but also 2,745 that perform worse. Given that the RTX 5090 D sits at the 92nd GPU percentile, the combo's top-3% ranking indicates that the CPU is not dragging performance down as much as one might expect. The data suggests that many other combinations with more balanced CPU-GPU pairings still cannot match this combo's raw frame rates, purely because the GPU's power dominates in this game.

The discrepancy between the CPU's 68th percentile and the combo's top-3% ranking highlights how game-specific performance can be. The i3-12100F's 4.30 GHz boost clock and strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core 1,674) are likely the key attributes that keep this combo competitive. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and PassMark single-thread score of 3,444 suggest it can keep up with the GPU's frame generation in games that do not heavily utilize multiple threads.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 238 FPS average with a 202 FPS minimum, which is only 12% lower than the Low preset's 270 FPS average but offers substantially better visual quality. The High preset at 1080p still achieves 227 FPS average, making it a viable option for players with 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 187 FPS average, which remains smooth but offers diminishing returns over High.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 209 FPS average with a 178 FPS minimum, making it the recommended choice for high-refresh-rate 1440p displays. The High preset at 183 FPS average is also excellent, and even Ultra at 137 FPS average remains above 120 FPS. For 4K, the Medium preset at 135 FPS average with a 115 FPS minimum is the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, as it stays above the 115 FPS minimum threshold. The High preset at 118 FPS average is acceptable for 60 Hz displays, while Ultra at 88 FPS average is playable but approaches the lower bounds of smooth gameplay.

The Low preset provides the highest frame rates at every resolution — 270 FPS at 1080p, 244 FPS at 1440p, and 190 FPS at 4K — but sacrifices visual fidelity. Given that the Medium preset at 4K delivers 135 FPS average, which is 71% of the Low preset's 190 FPS, the visual quality gains from Medium over Low are likely worth the frame rate trade-off. The data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot across all resolutions, offering the best combination of high average FPS and consistent minimum FPS.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo achieve 4K 120 FPS in Lockdown Protocol?

A: Yes, at Medium settings with 4K resolution, the combo delivers 135 FPS average with a 115 FPS minimum. This exceeds the 120 FPS threshold, though the minimum FPS of 115 means there may be occasional dips below 120 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 D at 1080p?

A: The data suggests yes. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 270 FPS average, but at 1440p Low it only drops to 244 FPS. This relatively small drop indicates that the CPU is limiting performance at 1080p, as the GPU should be capable of much higher frame rates at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the best settings preset for competitive play?

A: At 1080p, the Medium preset provides 238 FPS average with a 202 FPS minimum, which is only slightly lower than Low's 270 FPS but offers better visuals. For players prioritizing frame rate above all else, Low at 270 FPS is the maximum achievable.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 83rd out of 2,828 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3% of all systems tested in Lockdown Protocol. This is high given the CPU's modest specifications.

Q: Is 32 GB of VRAM necessary for Lockdown Protocol?

A: The benchmark data does not specify VRAM usage, but the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that memory capacity is never a limiting factor at any tested resolution or preset.

Q: What is the maximum FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured result is 270 FPS average at 1080p Low settings. The maximum FPS observed in any test was 273 FPS at 1080p Medium, though this is likely a peak value rather than a sustained average.