Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is a fast-paced FPS that scales heavily with both CPU and GPU, and the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers a solid 1080p experience, though 4K gaming requires significant settings compromises. The measured data reveals a system that is well-balanced at lower resolutions but becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution climbs, with the CPU's six cores and twelve threads providing a stable foundation for high frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data clearly indicates that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 117 FPS with a minimum of 100 FPS and a maximum of 135 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay while maintaining a playable floor even during intense firefights. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 14 FPS (117 to 103), while the jump from Low to Medium costs 48 FPS (165 to 117), making Medium the sweet spot where the visual quality per frame cost is most efficient.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset remains the recommended choice, delivering 86 FPS average with a 73 FPS minimum and 99 FPS maximum. This keeps the experience fluid on 1440p displays without dipping into the sub-60 territory seen on High (75 FPS) or the 56 FPS average on Ultra. The performance gap between Medium and High at 1440p is only 11 FPS, but the minimum frame rate difference is more significant, with Medium's 73 FPS floor providing better consistency than High's unrecorded minimum, which is likely lower given the average is only 75 FPS.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves a locked 60 FPS experience. The Low preset manages 78 FPS, but Medium drops to 56 FPS average with a 47 FPS minimum, which falls below the smoothness threshold. For 4K, users should either select Low for playable performance or consider the Medium preset only if they can tolerate frame rates dipping into the 40s during heavy scenes. The data suggests that this hardware is not well-suited for 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol beyond the Low preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide the raw single-thread performance needed for an FPS title like Lockdown Protocol, which typically relies on a few heavily loaded threads for game logic and physics. The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate to feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck at 1080p, where the measured 165 FPS on Low settings shows the processor can keep up with high frame rates.

Benchmark results show the i5-11400F scores 14,340 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,024 in single-core, placing it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 17,177 puts it within 0.6% of the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17,120) and 0.4% behind the Intel Core i5-12450H (17,239), indicating competitive performance with those processors. The CPU's 3DMark scores are revealing: 5,652 with max threads versus 868 single-thread, showing that while the processor scales well with additional threads, its single-thread performance is the limiting factor for games that don't utilize all 12 threads.

In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the CPU appears to be sufficient for 1080p gaming, as the GPU becomes the primary constraint when moving from Low (165 FPS) to Ultra (77 FPS) at that resolution. However, the CPU's influence becomes more apparent at 1440p and 4K, where the frame rates scale more predictably with GPU load, suggesting that the i5-11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads are not the limiting factor in this game, even at higher resolutions where the GPU takes over the performance ceiling.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process with 11,060 million transistors. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 280.3 GB/s bandwidth, along with 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. Its clock speeds are notable: a base of 2055 MHz, a game clock of 2410 MHz, and a boost of 2635 MHz, with memory running at 17.5 Gbps effective. This configuration delivers 10.79 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 337.3 GTexel/s of texture fill rate.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it sitting in the 65th percentile of all GPUs with an average score of 19,765. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (19,885, 0.6% faster), AMD FirePro D300 (19,637, 0.7% slower), AMD FirePro W7000 (19,905, 0.7% faster), and NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19,602, 0.8% slower), placing the RX 6650 XT in a tight performance band around the 19,700-19,900 mark. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1,859, while its Vulkan score of 81,306 in Geekbench indicates strong API support for modern game engines.

The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Lockdown Protocol at 1080p and 1440p, where the measured frame rates suggest no memory-related stuttering. However, at 4K, the VRAM capacity may become a factor, as the GPU's raw compute power appears to be the primary constraint—the 78 FPS on Low versus 36 FPS on Ultra at 3840x2160 represents a 54% performance drop from just settings changes, indicating the GPU is heavily loaded at this resolution. The RDNA 2 architecture's 32 ray accelerators are present but likely underutilized in this title, as the game's performance scaling follows traditional rasterization patterns.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Lockdown Protocol with this hardware?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the optimal resolution, with the Medium preset achieving 117 FPS average. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset still manages 86 FPS, but 3840x2160 drops to 56 FPS on Medium, which falls below the 60 FPS smoothness threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in overall performance?

A: The i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17,177 is 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17,120) and 0.6% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17,074), but 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i5-12450H (17,239) and 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17,278).

Q: Is the GPU's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 8 GB appears sufficient at 1080p and 1440p where frame rates remain stable across settings. At 4K, the performance drop from Low to Ultra suggests the GPU's compute capability, not just VRAM, is the limiting factor.

Q: What settings provide the highest minimum frame rate at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 records a 100 FPS minimum, which is the only configuration with a recorded minimum above 100 FPS. The Low preset averages 165 FPS but has no recorded minimum, while High averages 103 FPS without a recorded minimum.

Q: How does the GPU perform relative to its closest competitors?

A: The RX 6650 XT's average score of 19,765 is 0.7% faster than the AMD FirePro D300 (19,637) and 0.8% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19,602), but 0.6% slower than the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (19,885) and 0.7% slower than the AMD FirePro W7000 (19,905).

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1440p on High settings?

A: The measured data shows 75 FPS average at 2560x1440 on High settings. This is 28 FPS lower than the 103 FPS at 1080p on the same settings, representing a 27% performance drop when moving to 1440p.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear resolution scaling pattern that reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 165 FPS, while at 1440p it drops to 121 FPS (a 27% reduction), and at 4K it falls to 78 FPS (a 53% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound system, as the CPU can maintain high frame rates at 1080p but the GPU's workload increases dramatically with pixel count.

The Medium preset tells a similar story: 117 FPS at 1080p, 86 FPS at 1440p (26% drop), and 56 FPS at 4K (52% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of visual quality, which indicates the GPU is the primary constraint at all resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rate to plateau at higher resolutions rather than continue dropping.

The Ultra preset demonstrates the most severe scaling: 77 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p (27% drop), and 36 FPS at 4K (53% drop). This mirrors the pattern seen in other presets. The High preset follows suit with 103 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p (27% drop), and 49 FPS at 4K (52% drop). The near-constant 26-27% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 52-53% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings strongly indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is the limiting component, with the i5-11400F providing enough headroom to feed the GPU at all tested resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance. The Low preset averages 165 FPS, which is the highest recorded value across all configurations. Medium averages 117 FPS with a minimum of 100 FPS and maximum of 135 FPS, providing the most complete data set. High averages 103 FPS, while Ultra averages 77 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 88 FPS, representing a 53% performance penalty for maxing out settings at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, performance remains playable but with clear reductions. Low averages 121 FPS, Medium averages 86 FPS with a 73 FPS minimum and 99 FPS maximum, High averages 75 FPS, and Ultra averages 56 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 65 FPS, a 54% drop. The Medium preset's 73 FPS minimum is notable as it represents the only recorded minimum above 70 FPS at this resolution, making it the safest choice for consistent 1440p gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain smooth frame rates except on the lowest settings. Low averages 78 FPS, Medium averages 56 FPS with a 47 FPS minimum and 64 FPS maximum, High averages 49 FPS, and Ultra averages 36 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 22 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 7 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 13 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that the Medium preset at 4K is the maximum viable configuration, with its 47 FPS minimum being borderline for competitive play.

The complete dataset shows a system that excels at 1080p, remains capable at 1440p with settings compromises, and is only viable at 4K on the Low preset. The combo rank of 2,439 out of 3,714 combinations indicates this is a mid-tier pairing, with the measured data confirming that the RX 6650 XT's 8 GB VRAM and 10.79 TFLOPS compute are the primary determinants of performance in Lockdown Protocol. The i5-11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, provide sufficient single-thread performance to avoid becoming a bottleneck at any resolution, as evidenced by the consistent GPU-bound scaling pattern across all presets.