Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

The pairing of Intel's Core i5-10400F with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1070 represents a familiar mid-range configuration from two distinct hardware generations, and in Lockdown Protocol the measured frame rates reveal a system that is clearly capable of playable performance at most settings, yet one that shows its age when pushed to the extremes. The data set covers twelve distinct resolution and quality combinations, ranging from 1080p Low at 132.9 FPS average down to 4K Ultra at 28.2 FPS average, and the pattern across these results tells a consistent story about where this combo's strengths and limitations lie. With a combo rank of 1375 out of 1637 tested configurations, this system sits firmly in the lower half of the database's tested pool, which is worth keeping in mind when interpreting the raw FPS numbers.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, but the magnitude of that drop varies meaningfully depending on the quality preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 132.9 FPS at 1080p to 97.5 FPS at 1440p, then to 61.2 FPS at 4K — that is a 54% reduction from the baseline 1080p figure when moving all the way to 4K. At Ultra settings, the same resolution progression yields 62.2 FPS at 1080p, 48.1 FPS at 1440p, and 28.2 FPS at 4K, representing a 55% drop. The fact that the percentage reduction is nearly identical between Low and Ultra presets suggests that resolution scaling in Lockdown Protocol is dominated by the GPU's rendering workload rather than by CPU-side bottlenecks or settings-specific effects.

Looking more closely at the intermediate steps, the scaling behavior is roughly linear. From 1080p to 1440p, the FPS reduction at High settings goes from 82.4 to 57.9, a 30% decrease. From 1440p to 4K at High, the drop is from 57.9 to 37.7, another 35% decrease. This consistent pattern across each resolution step indicates that the GTX 1070 is the primary limiting component at all tested resolutions — if the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS gap between 1080p and 1440p to be much smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K, since a CPU bottleneck would cap performance regardless of resolution. The data does not show that pattern; instead, every resolution step costs a similar proportion of performance, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario throughout.

What is curious is how the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low produces 132.9 FPS versus Ultra's 62.2 FPS, a factor of 2.14. At 4K, Low produces 61.2 FPS versus Ultra's 28.2 FPS, a factor of 2.17. The settings gap remains proportionally constant even as absolute FPS collapses, reinforcing the interpretation that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting at every quality level and that the 6-core, 12-thread i5-10400F is not imposing a meaningful ceiling on this game's performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the best frame rate this combo achieves in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 132.9, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest is 28.2 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol?

A: At 4K, the combo averages 61.2 FPS on Low settings, 44.6 FPS on Medium, 37.7 FPS on High, and 28.2 FPS on Ultra. Only the Low preset crosses the 60 FPS threshold, so 4K is playable only with significant quality compromises.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 12331, which places it 0.7% above the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, 1.3% below the GeForce GTX 880M, 1.4% below the GTX 1650 SUPER, and 1.7% below the Tesla K20Xm.

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile relative to all tested processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F sits in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14168. Its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 7552, scores 14115, a difference of 0.4%.

Q: Is the i5-10400F a bottleneck in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data suggests no — FPS drops proportionally with each resolution increase, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads appear sufficient for Lockdown Protocol's demands.

Q: What is the GTX 1070's memory configuration?

A: The card has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clock runs at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective).

GPU Role

The GTX 1070's Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm process at TSMC with 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, provides the rendering muscle for this combo. Its 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs deliver a theoretical peak of 6.463 TFLOPS FP32 performance, with pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s. The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory is a notable asset for a 2016-era card, and the 256.3 GB/s bandwidth means that texture-heavy scenes in Lockdown Protocol should not be starved for data throughput at 1080p or 1440p.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a balanced performer: a PassMark G3D score of 13498 places it in the 51st percentile among all GPUs. Its closest rival, the Quadro K4200, scores 12241, which is 0.7% lower, while the GTX 1650 SUPER beats it by 1.4% with a score of 12504. In Vulkan compute, the card scores 47395 on Geekbench, and OpenCL comes in at 47490 — nearly identical numbers that suggest the architecture's compute capabilities are consistent across APIs.

In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the GPU's role as the limiting factor is evident from the settings scaling. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium adds a 28% performance penalty (132.9 to 95.5 FPS), Medium to High costs another 14% (95.5 to 82.4 FPS), and High to Ultra costs 24% (82.4 to 62.2 FPS). These are substantial per-tier penalties that reflect the GTX 1070's compute and fillrate limits being taxed by increasing visual complexity. The card's 150 W TDP and dual-slot form factor are modest by modern standards, but the architecture's age shows in the 4K results, where even Medium settings only achieve 44.6 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers playable frame rates across all settings. Low averages 132.9 FPS, Medium 95.5 FPS, High 82.4 FPS, and Ultra 62.2 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is the largest single-tier penalty at 37.4 FPS, suggesting that Medium introduces significant visual effects that tax the GPU. High to Ultra costs 20.2 FPS, which is substantial but still leaves the system above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low averages 97.5 FPS, Medium 67.5 FPS, High 57.9 FPS, and Ultra 48.1 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the first configuration that falls below the 60 FPS mark, and it does so by a narrow margin. High and Ultra at this resolution are both below 60 FPS, with Ultra approaching the territory where competitive play would be compromised.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal. Low averages 61.2 FPS, Medium 44.6 FPS, High 37.7 FPS, and Ultra 28.2 FPS. Only the Low preset achieves a frame rate that would be considered smooth for a fast-paced FPS. The progression from Low to Medium at 4K costs 16.6 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the cost at lower resolutions, but the absolute numbers are low enough that any quality improvement is immediately noticeable in gameplay smoothness.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 1637 tested combos in the database, this configuration ranks 1375th, placing it in the bottom 16% of all tested systems for Lockdown Protocol. This ranking is notably worse than the individual component percentiles would suggest — the CPU sits in the 73rd percentile and the GPU in the 51st percentile, but the combined system performs below what either component's standalone position implies. This suggests that Lockdown Protocol is demanding enough that even a mid-pack GPU like the GTX 1070, paired with a solid 6-core CPU, lands well down the overall leaderboard.

The rank discrepancy invites a closer look at what the data implies. The GTX 1070's 51st percentile GPU ranking means half of all tested GPUs are slower, yet the combo ranks in the bottom 16% of all combos. This could indicate that the game is particularly sensitive to certain GPU features that the Pascal architecture lacks, or that the database's tested combos are skewed toward higher-end configurations. The nearest rival GPUs — the Quadro K4200, GTX 880M, GTX 1650 SUPER, and Tesla K20Xm — all score within 1.7% of the GTX 1070 in average benchmarks, yet their in-game performance could diverge substantially based on driver optimization and feature support.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads from the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz boosts to 4.30 GHz, and it draws 65 W TDP. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) provide adequate feeding for the GTX 1070 in most scenarios. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 10297 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1453 in single-core, while its 3DMark 16-thread score is 4748 and single-thread is 688.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are interesting comparisons. The AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115, just 0.4% below the i5-10400F's 14168 average. The Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, which is 0.8% higher. These are all extremely tight margins, indicating that the i5-10400F's compute performance is well within a narrow band of its peers. The 73rd percentile ranking confirms that this CPU is not a weak link in the system.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The resolution scaling data shows no evidence of a CPU bottleneck — if the i5-10400F were limiting frame rates, we would expect to see diminishing returns as resolution decreases, since the CPU would struggle to feed frames faster than its thread scheduling allows. Instead, the FPS scales consistently with resolution, indicating that the CPU has headroom to spare. The 12 threads are likely sufficient for Lockdown Protocol's multi-threaded game logic, and the 4.30 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance for physics and AI calculations.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data suggests specific settings presets per resolution. At 1080p, all four presets exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra at 62.2 FPS being the only one that comes close to the threshold. For maximum visual quality while maintaining smooth gameplay, High at 1080p (82.4 FPS) offers the best balance — it provides a 20 FPS buffer over Ultra while still delivering a substantial visual upgrade over Medium.

At 1440p, the choice narrows. Medium averages 67.5 FPS and Low averages 97.5 FPS, while High drops to 57.9 FPS and Ultra to 48.1 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the only quality level that stays above 60 FPS while offering more than minimal settings, making it the recommended configuration for this resolution. Players who prioritize frame rate above all else could use Low for a 97.5 FPS experience, but the visual compromise is significant.

At 4K, the recommendation is straightforward: Low settings at 61.2 FPS is the only playable option. Medium at 44.6 FPS is borderline for a single-player experience but will feel sluggish in competitive multiplayer, and High at 37.7 FPS or Ultra at 28.2 FPS are not recommended for any scenario. The data indicates that the GTX 1070 simply does not have the fillrate to handle Lockdown Protocol at 4K with meaningful quality settings, and players with 4K displays should consider dropping to 1440p for a substantially better experience. Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: the GTX 1070 has enough raw performance for 1080p gaming at any preset, but 1440p and 4K require progressively more aggressive settings reductions to maintain playable frame rates.