Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol presents an interesting pairing challenge: the Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread Comet Lake processor from 2020, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a flagship Ada Lovelace GPU from 2022. The measured frames per second (FPS) data reveals a system that is heavily skewed toward GPU performance, but with clear points where the older CPU architecture asserts its influence. This analysis breaks down how this specific combination behaves across resolutions and settings, using only the measured data provided.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates where the bottleneck lies. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 200 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 180 FPS (a 10% reduction), and at 3840x2160 Low it falls to 156 FPS (a 22% reduction from 1440p). This steady decline as pixel count increases is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario; the RTX 4080 is working progressively harder to fill those extra pixels.

However, the scaling pattern changes dramatically when we look at the High preset. At 1080p High, the system produces 168 FPS. At 1440p High, it only drops to 151 FPS (a 10% decline). But at 4K High, it falls to 98 FPS — a massive 35% drop from 1440p. This steeper cliff at 4K High suggests that while the GPU is still the primary limiter, the CPU's single-thread performance (a 3dmark_single_thread score of 688) is starting to struggle with the game's logic at higher resolutions where the GPU can no longer hide its latency.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story with an even sharper drop. At 1080p Ultra, the combo hits 151 FPS; at 1440p Ultra, it falls to 113 FPS (a 25% drop); and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 73 FPS (a 35% drop from 1440p). The gap between 1080p and 4K Ultra is a 78 FPS difference. This indicates that at Ultra settings, the RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and its 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are being pushed to their limits, while the i5-10400F's 12 MB of shared L3 cache is insufficient to keep up with the increased draw calls.

The data shows that resolution scaling is not linear. The 1080p to 1440p transition is relatively mild across all settings (a 10-25% FPS drop), but the 1440p to 4K transition is harsh, especially at High and Ultra (a 35% drop in both cases). This suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot for this pairing; at 4K, the GPU begins to run out of headroom, and the CPU cannot compensate for the added pixel workload.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 4080 bottlenecked by the i5-10400F in Lockdown Protocol?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo hits 200 FPS, which is a clear sign of CPU limitation — the GPU could likely push higher, but the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads (with a 3dmark_max_threads score of 4735) cap the frame rate. At 4K Ultra, the 73 FPS result shows the GPU is the primary limiter. The bottleneck shifts from CPU to GPU as resolution increases.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in this game?

A: The data suggests 2560x1440 is optimal. At 1440p High, the system maintains 151 FPS, which is only 10% lower than 1080p High (168 FPS), but the visual quality jump is substantial. At 1440p Ultra, it still holds 113 FPS, which is playable, while 4K Ultra drops to 73 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-10400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14185, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Xeon 6756E (14163) and 0.5% higher than the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115). It is 0.3% lower than the Intel Core 7 160UL (14232) and 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14277). These are all within a 1% margin, indicating the i5-10400F is near the middle of its performance tier.

Q: Does the RTX 4080's performance match its rivals?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209) and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828). It is 2.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698) and 2.7% lower than the AMD Radeon 8060S (55757). The 4080 sits slightly below these rivals in raw compute but still ranks in the 86th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low settings yield 200 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 151 FPS. This is a 49 FPS difference (a 24.5% reduction). The gap shows that Ultra settings demand significantly more from both the GPU and CPU, with the CPU's single-thread score (688) being a limiting factor for maintaining higher frame rates.

Q: Is this combo better suited for high-refresh 1440p or smooth 4K?

A: Based on the measured rows, 1440p is the clear choice for high refresh rates. At 1440p Medium, the combo achieves 158 FPS with a minimum of 135 FPS, which is well above 144Hz. For 4K, the best result is 156 FPS at Low settings, but at High (98 FPS) or Ultra (73 FPS), it falls below 100 FPS, making 4K viable only for less demanding visual presets.

How This Combo Ranks

In Lockdown Protocol, this specific combination of Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 663rd out of 3714 tested combos. This places it in the top 17.8% of all configurations in the database for this game. The rank reflects a balanced but not top-tier pairing; the GPU is in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 68th percentile of all CPUs.

The combo's rank is likely held back by the CPU's synthetic performance. The i5-10400F's cinebench_r23_multicore score of 10283 and single-core score of 1451 are modest by modern standards, especially when paired with a GPU that has a passmark_g3d score of 34457. The gap between the CPU's 68th percentile and the GPU's 86th percentile suggests that the CPU is the weaker link in this pairing.

Compared to the nearest rival GPUs, the RTX 4080's performance is nearly identical to the RTX 4080 SUPER (a 0.1% delta), which means the combo's rank would likely be similar if that GPU were substituted. However, the CPU's position near rivals like the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher) and AMD EPYC 7552 (0.5% higher) shows that small CPU differences do not significantly alter the overall game performance rank.

The 663rd rank out of 3714 combos indicates that while this system is above average, there are many configurations that achieve higher frame rates in Lockdown Protocol, likely those with newer CPUs that can better feed the RTX 4080 at lower resolutions. At 4K, however, the rank would likely be higher, as the GPU becomes the dominant factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a clear picture of performance.

At 1920x1080:

• Low: 200 FPS average
• Medium: 176 FPS average (minimum 149 FPS, maximum 202 FPS)
• High: 168 FPS average
• Ultra: 151 FPS average

The jump from Low to Medium costs 24 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs 8 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 17 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 149 FPS shows that even at 1080p, there are occasional dips, likely due to CPU thread scheduling on the 6-core i5-10400F.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 180 FPS average
• Medium: 158 FPS average (minimum 135 FPS, maximum 182 FPS)
• High: 151 FPS average
• Ultra: 113 FPS average

The 1440p results show a tighter spread between Low and High (a 29 FPS difference) compared to 1080p (a 49 FPS difference). The Ultra preset drops significantly to 113 FPS, which is a 25% reduction from High. The Medium preset's minimum of 135 FPS is still above 120 FPS, making it suitable for high-refresh displays.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 156 FPS average
• Medium: 112 FPS average (minimum 95 FPS, maximum 129 FPS)
• High: 98 FPS average
• Ultra: 73 FPS average

The 4K results exhibit the most dramatic scaling. Low settings achieve 156 FPS, but Medium drops to 112 FPS (a 28% reduction), and High falls to 98 FPS (a 12.5% further reduction). Ultra at 73 FPS is the lowest result across all configurations, showing that 4K Ultra is simply too demanding for this combo to maintain smooth gameplay.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset's minimum FPS values (149 at 1080p, 135 at 1440p, 95 at 4K) provide a useful reference for frame time consistency. The 4K Medium minimum of 95 FPS indicates that even mid-range settings at 4K can cause noticeable stutters.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Lockdown Protocol's high-resolution textures. The GPU's boost clock of 2505 MHz and base clock of 2205 MHz, combined with 9728 shading units, deliver the raw compute necessary for this FPS title.

The GPU's memory clock is listed as 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective, which translates to the high bandwidth required for 4K rendering. The 4K Low result of 156 FPS shows that the GPU can handle the pixel throughput when the CPU is not the bottleneck. However, the 4K Ultra result of 73 FPS suggests that the RTX 4080's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient for maxed-out settings at this resolution.

The RTX 4080's position relative to its rivals is telling. It scores 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER in average benchmarks, and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X. However, it trails the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6% and the AMD Radeon 8060S by 2.7%. This indicates that while the 4080 is a strong performer, it is not the absolute fastest in its class, which explains why 4K Ultra results are lower than what a higher-tier GPU might achieve.

The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, combined with its 16 GB VRAM, means that VRAM capacity is not the limiting factor in this game. The bottleneck at 4K Ultra is more likely the GPU's raw shading power (9728 shading units) and the CPU's inability to feed it efficiently at lower resolutions. The GPU's roll in this combo is to provide a high baseline of performance, but the CPU's 14 nm Comet Lake architecture (with a passmark_single_thread score of 2541) prevents it from reaching its full potential at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the data points to 2560x1440 with High settings. This configuration yields 151 FPS average, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common in gaming monitors. The 1440p High result is only 10% lower than 1080p High, but the resolution increase provides a much sharper image. The 1440p Medium preset (158 FPS) is also excellent, with a minimum of 135 FPS ensuring smooth gameplay.

If you prefer maximum visual fidelity, 1440p Ultra at 113 FPS is still viable for 60 Hz displays, but the 25% drop from High suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely shadows and reflections) tax the GPU heavily. At 1080p, High settings at 168 FPS is the sweet spot for competitive play, as it offers a significant FPS boost over Ultra (151 FPS) without a major visual penalty.

For 4K, the only playable option is Low settings at 156 FPS, which sacrifices almost all visual enhancements for smoothness. The 4K Medium preset (112 FPS) is acceptable for 60 Hz monitors, but its 95 FPS minimum could cause noticeable hitches in fast-paced scenes. The 4K High (98 FPS) and Ultra (73 FPS) presets are not recommended, as they fall below the 100 FPS threshold that many FPS players consider the minimum for responsive gameplay.

In summary, the ideal experience is 1440p High, which leverages the RTX 4080's GPU power while keeping the i5-10400F from becoming a severe bottleneck. For players with 1080p monitors, High settings provide the best mix of performance and quality, while 4K should be reserved for Low settings unless you prioritize visuals over frame rate. The measured data consistently shows that the Medium preset offers the best frame time stability (with minimum FPS values that are closest to the average), making it a safe fallback if you experience stutters at higher presets.