Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol shows a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling across resolutions for the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT combination. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 219 FPS, but this drops to 159.2 FPS at 1440p and 105.9 FPS at 4K. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is roughly 52%, which indicates that the rendering load is scaling heavily with pixel count. The High preset tells a similar story: 137.7 FPS at 1080p falls to 97.8 FPS at 1440p and then to 61.7 FPS at 4K, a drop of about 55% from the lowest resolution tested to the highest.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (219 FPS) and Ultra (99.7 FPS) is roughly 119 FPS, but at 4K that gap narrows to about 59.8 FPS (105.9 vs 46.1). This compression suggests that at lower resolutions the CPU can feed frames quickly enough for the GPU to become the limiting factor, while at 4K the GPU's pixel throughput is the dominant constraint regardless of quality settings. The medium preset produces 157.1 FPS at 1080p, 111.4 FPS at 1440p, and 71.7 FPS at 4K, placing it consistently between Low and High in performance impact.

The data reveals that this combo is not CPU-limited in most scenarios. At 1080p Low, the 219 FPS figure likely approaches the practical ceiling for this CPU in Lockdown Protocol, but the 137.7 FPS at High settings leaves headroom for more demanding quality options. The 4K Ultra result of 46.1 FPS is the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that users targeting 4K will need to compromise on quality settings to maintain smooth gameplay.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7700 XT is the primary performance driver in this configuration, and its specifications explain the observed scaling behavior. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for Lockdown Protocol at all tested resolutions and settings, as there are no signs of texture thrashing or sudden frame drops that would indicate VRAM capacity issues. The card's boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz provide the raw compute throughput needed to sustain high frame rates, with the FP32 performance of 35.17 TFLOPS handling the game's shader workload efficiently.

The GPU's architecture, RDNA 3.0 on a 5 nm process, includes 3456 shading units and 96 ROPs. The pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s directly influence how well the card handles increasing resolution. At 4K, the 46.1 FPS Ultra result suggests that the ROP throughput and memory bandwidth become limiting factors, while at 1080p the card has ample resources to push beyond 200 FPS on lower presets. The 54 ray tracing cores are present but Lockdown Protocol's benchmark results do not show a ray tracing-specific workload, so their impact is indirect at best.

Comparing the GPU to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RX 7700 XT scores 30097 on average, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 at 30109 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 570 at 30158 (-0.2% delta). This places the card in a tight competitive band where performance differences are within measurement noise. The GPU's percentile ranking of 73 among all GPUs indicates it sits in the upper quarter of tested hardware, which aligns with its ability to deliver 137.7 FPS at 1080p High. The CPU's role is secondary but not negligible; the Core i5-11400F with 6 cores and 12 threads can feed the GPU adequately, as evidenced by the 219 FPS Low result at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ranks 741st out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the pairing in the 45th percentile of all configurations, which is lower than either component's individual percentile ranking (the CPU is at 75, the GPU at 73). This discrepancy suggests that the combo is not optimally balanced for this specific game, or that many other combinations in the database feature more capable CPUs paired with similar GPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals show how close the performance envelope is. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700U scores 17189 (0% delta), the Intel Core i7-1260P scores 17212 (-0.2% delta), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U scores 17215 (-0.2% delta). The i5-11400F's avgBenchmarkScore of 17181 is statistically indistinguishable from these alternatives, meaning that swapping in any of these processors would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in Lockdown Protocol. This reinforces the notion that the GPU is the bottleneck in most scenarios, as CPU differences of less than 1% would not manifest as meaningful FPS changes.

The combo rank of 741 suggests that while this pairing delivers solid performance, many other configurations achieve higher frame rates in Lockdown Protocol. The data shows that the GPU is capable of 219 FPS at 1080p Low, but the overall rank indicates that other combos push even higher. The gap between the combo's rank (45th percentile) and the GPU's individual rank (73rd percentile) implies that the CPU may be holding back the GPU in some scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes more significant.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use for competitive play with this combo?

A: Based on the benchmark data, 1080p with Low settings produces the highest average FPS at 219, followed by 1080p Medium at 157.1 FPS. For a balance of visual quality and performance, 1440p High at 97.8 FPS offers a playable experience, while 4K Ultra at 46.1 FPS is not recommended for competitive scenarios.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to Low?

A: At 1080p, Ultra (99.7 FPS) is roughly 54% slower than Low (219 FPS). At 1440p, the drop is about 55% (71.6 vs 159.2), and at 4K, Ultra is about 56% slower than Low (46.1 vs 105.9). The relative cost of Ultra stays consistent across resolutions, indicating that quality settings scale uniformly with pixel count.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RX 7700 XT?

A: The combo ranks 741st out of 1637, while the GPU alone ranks in the 73rd percentile. The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 0.2% of its average, suggesting that the processor is not a significant differentiator. However, the 219 FPS result at 1080p Low may approach the CPU's frame delivery limit, making it a potential constraint at very high frame rates.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, the combo produces 61.7 FPS, which is playable. At 4K Medium, it reaches 71.7 FPS, offering a comfortable margin above 60. However, 4K Ultra drops to 46.1 FPS, which may feel sluggish for a fast-paced FPS. Users targeting 4K should stick to Medium or High settings.

Q: How does the RX 7700 XT compare to its closest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RX 7700 XT's average benchmark score is 30097. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 scores 30109 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 570 scores 30158 (-0.2% delta), and the NVIDIA Tesla M60 scores 29969 (0.4% delta). These differences are within measurement error, meaning the cards are effectively equivalent in raw compute.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the combo delivers 137.7 FPS, while at 1440p High, it delivers 97.8 FPS. This represents a 29% reduction in frame rate when moving to the higher resolution, which is consistent with the increased pixel count and demonstrates GPU-bound scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark data provides average FPS for all combinations of resolution and settings, with no minimum or maximum frame rate data available. The results are as follows:

At 1920x1080:

• Low: 219 FPS
• Medium: 157.1 FPS
• High: 137.7 FPS
• Ultra: 99.7 FPS

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 159.2 FPS
• Medium: 111.4 FPS
• High: 97.8 FPS
• Ultra: 71.6 FPS

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 105.9 FPS
• Medium: 71.7 FPS
• High: 61.7 FPS
• Ultra: 46.1 FPS

These numbers show a consistent pattern where each increase in resolution reduces performance by roughly 25-30% for the same settings. The Low preset is the only configuration that stays above 100 FPS at all resolutions, while Ultra drops below 60 FPS only at 4K. The Medium preset offers the best balance across all resolutions, staying above 70 FPS even at 4K.

The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows the GPU's headroom. At 1080p, the 119.3 FPS difference between Low and Ultra (219 vs 99.7) indicates that the GPU has significant spare capacity even at the highest settings. At 4K, the 59.8 FPS difference (105.9 vs 46.1) reveals that the card is more constrained, with the Ultra preset pushing the GPU to its limits. The 1440p results sit in between, with a 87.6 FPS difference (159.2 vs 71.6) that maintains playability across all settings.

The data confirms that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with the 4K experience requiring careful settings management. The RX 7700 XT's 12 GB memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth handle the game's asset streaming without issue, allowing the GPU to focus on pixel throughput. The CPU's 12 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 51.2 GB/s provide adequate feeding bandwidth for the GPU, as evidenced by the consistently high frame rates at lower resolutions.