Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol, a 2024 FPS, presents a demanding workload that scales heavily with both resolution and graphical presets. For the combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, the measured data reveals a system capable of high refresh rate play at 1080p, but one that requires careful tuning at higher resolutions. The GTX 1080 Ti, while an older architecture, still demonstrates significant headroom, though its age shows in the most demanding scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset depends entirely on the target resolution and refresh rate, as the data shows a wide performance spread across the four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the system is never truly constrained. The High preset delivers an average of 111.7 FPS, which is an excellent balance for a 100Hz or 120Hz display. Pushing to Medium yields 128.8 FPS, a 15% improvement over High, while Low pushes the frame rate to 179.4 FPS, which is ideal for a 144Hz or 165Hz monitor but comes with a visual fidelity cost. The Ultra preset, at 86.5 FPS, still offers a smooth experience but sacrifices the headroom needed for a high-refresh panel.

At 2560x1440, the scaling becomes more pronounced. The High preset maintains a very playable 80.6 FPS. However, the Medium preset, at 96.3 FPS, provides a significant 19% performance boost over High, making it the recommended choice for 1440p gamers seeking a competitive edge without a major visual downgrade. The Low preset hits 129.7 FPS, but the graphical compromise may be too steep for a game that relies on visual clarity. Ultra at 1440p drops to 63.9 FPS, which is just below the 65 FPS threshold many consider the minimum for a smooth experience, making it a poor choice for this resolution.

The 4K resolution (3840x2160) is where the GTX 1080 Ti begins to struggle. The High preset only manages an average of 56.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to a less fluid 42.3 FPS. The Medium preset at 63 FPS is the only viable option for 4K gaming on this hardware, providing a frame rate that is just acceptable for slower-paced play. The Low preset reaches 86.4 FPS, but it is the only way to get close to a 90 FPS experience at this resolution. For most users, the best overall experience is the Medium preset at 1440p, as it offers a substantial frame rate advantage over High with a relatively minor visual impact.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the primary determinant of performance in Lockdown Protocol, especially as resolution increases. The data shows a clear pattern: reducing the graphical preset from Ultra to Low yields massive frame rate gains. At 1080p, the difference between Ultra (86.5 FPS) and Low (179.4 FPS) is over double the frame rate, highlighting that the GPU's shading units, texture mapping units, and raster output pipelines are being heavily taxed by the higher presets. The card's 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus provides 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth, which is likely sufficient for the texture loads at 4K, preventing memory capacity from being a bottleneck.

The GPU's clock behavior is also telling. With a base clock of 1481 MHz and a boost clock of 1582 MHz, the card has a modest overclocking headroom out of the box. However, the benchmark results suggest that the card is consistently hitting its boost limits in less demanding scenarios, as the frame rate scales almost linearly with the preset level. The card's compute capabilities, rated at 11.34 TFLOPS for FP32, are the limiting factor in the Ultra preset at 4K, where the average frame rate drops to 42.3 FPS. The card's percentile rank of 61 among all GPUs places it in the mid-range of modern hardware, and its average benchmark score of 19402 is almost identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780, which has a deltaPct of 0. This indicates that while the 1080 Ti was a flagship in its day, it now performs on par with significantly older, lower-tier cards in synthetic tests, though its real-world gaming performance in this title remains respectable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F plays a supporting role in Lockdown Protocol, but it is not the primary bottleneck for most of the measured configurations. With 6 cores and 12 threads, it provides enough parallelism for a modern FPS. Its multi-threaded performance, as measured by a Cinebench R23 score of 10297, is more than adequate for the game's logic and AI. Single-thread performance, a Cinebench R23 score of 1453, is also sufficient to keep up with the GPU, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates scale significantly with resolution and settings, which are GPU-bound workloads.

The CPU's performance profile is competitive with its direct rivals. Its average benchmark score of 14168 is nearly identical to the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115, deltaPct 0.4) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14277, deltaPct -0.8). This places the i5-10400F in a strong position for gaming, as it is not the weak link in this system. The data suggests that at 1080p with Low settings (179.4 FPS), the CPU is still able to feed the GPU, as there is no sign of a frame rate plateau that would indicate a CPU limit. However, at 4K Ultra, the frame rate is so low (42.3 FPS) that the CPU is likely idle most of the time, waiting on the GPU to render each frame. The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and DDR4 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) are more than sufficient for the game's data streaming needs.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for a 144Hz monitor with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with the Medium preset achieves 128.8 FPS, and the Low preset reaches 179.4 FPS. Both are suitable for a 144Hz display, with Medium offering a better visual experience at a still-very-high frame rate.

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

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset averages 63 FPS, which is playable, while High and Ultra drop to 56.1 FPS and 42.3 FPS, respectively. The Low preset is the only one that provides a high frame rate (86.4 FPS), but with significant visual compromises.

Q: How does the GTX 1080 Ti compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 19402, which is functionally identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780’s score of 19405, showing a deltaPct of 0. The AMD Radeon Pro 560X is also very close, with a score of 19426 (deltaPct -0.1).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with the High preset, the system averages 80.6 FPS. Since this is a lower frame rate than at 1080p High (111.7 FPS), the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the CPU workload does not change with resolution.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from Ultra to Low at 1080p?

A: The frame rate nearly doubles. The Ultra preset averages 86.5 FPS, while the Low preset averages 179.4 FPS, a gain of 92.9 FPS. This indicates the graphical settings have a massive impact on the GPU's workload.

Q: What is the expected frame rate for the "Medium" preset at 1440p?

A: The measured average frame rate for 2560x1440 with the Medium preset is 96.3 FPS, making it the best balance of visual quality and performance for that resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the GPU-bound nature of Lockdown Protocol. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 111.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 80.6 FPS at 2560x1440, a 28% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160, the frame rate falls to 56.1 FPS, which is a 50% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is classic GPU behavior: as the pixel count increases, the GPU's fill rate and shading units become the bottleneck.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend. The frame rate goes from 128.8 FPS at 1080p to 96.3 FPS at 1440p (a 25% drop), and then to 63 FPS at 4K (a 51% drop from 1080p). The Low preset is the most revealing, as it shows the maximum potential of the system. At 1080p, it hits 179.4 FPS, dropping to 129.7 FPS at 1440p and 86.4 FPS at 4K. The fact that the 4K Low setting still achieves 86.4 FPS demonstrates that the GTX 1080 Ti has raw processing power, but the higher presets introduce graphical features that disproportionately tax the card. This data suggests that the GTX 1080 Ti's 11 GB of VRAM and 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth are not the limiting factor; instead, the card's compute throughput and pixel fill rate are what cap performance as resolution and settings increase. The system is unequivocally GPU-limited across all tested configurations, with the CPU providing a stable foundation that never becomes the primary constraint.