Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

This combination places near the bottom of the hardware pool for Lockdown Protocol, ranking 3580 out of 3714 tested configurations. The Intel Core i5-11400F, a 6-core/12-thread Rocket Lake part with a 2.60 GHz base and 4.40 GHz boost clock, sits at the 71st percentile among all CPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, however, is the limiting factor, ranking at the 40th percentile among GPUs with an average benchmark score of 7472. The measured frame rates confirm this imbalance, with the system struggling to maintain smooth gameplay even at 1080p on higher presets.

Settings Recommendations

The data paints a clear picture: this system is not built for high-fidelity Lockdown Protocol sessions. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 76 FPS, which is the only setting in the entire measured set that clears the 60 FPS threshold comfortably. The Medium preset drops to 54 FPS on average, with a minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS, indicating playable but inconsistent performance. High settings at 1080p yield 47 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 35 FPS.

For the best experience, the Low preset at 1920x1080 is the clear recommendation. It provides a 40.7% improvement over Medium (76 vs. 54 FPS) and more than doubles the Ultra preset's 35 FPS average. The jump from Low to Medium costs 22 FPS, a significant 29% performance penalty that does not justify the visual upgrade on this hardware.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. Low settings produce 56 FPS average, which is borderline acceptable for a competitive FPS. Medium drops to 40 FPS average with a 34 FPS minimum, and High falls to 35 FPS. Users with 1440p monitors should stick to Low settings to maintain responsiveness.

The 4K resolution is effectively unplayable across all presets. Even Low settings only manage 36 FPS average, and the Ultra preset limps along at 17 FPS. There is no scenario where 3840x2160 makes sense for this configuration.

The optimal balance of visual quality and playability is the Low preset at 1080p. If a user insists on Medium, they must accept the 46 FPS minimum frame rate, which will produce noticeable stutter in fast-paced firefights. The data does not support any preset above Medium at any resolution for consistent competitive play.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Lockdown Protocol at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p with Low settings, where the average FPS is 76. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 56 FPS, and no other resolution or setting combination reaches 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware?

A: 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the system achieves playable frame rates across multiple presets. At 1440p, only the Low preset approaches playability at 56 FPS, while 4K remains below 40 FPS even on Low.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1650 has an average benchmark score of 7472, placing it just 0.3% above the AMD Radeon HD 8850M (7447) and 0.4% above the Intel UHD Graphics 750 (7441). It trails the Intel Arc A310 (7550) by 1%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck. The GTX 1650 ranks at the 40th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-11400F ranks at the 71st percentile among CPUs. The frame rate scaling across resolutions confirms this, as performance drops dramatically as resolution increases.

Q: What is the minimum FPS on Medium settings at 1080p?

A: The minimum frame rate on Medium at 1920x1080 is 46 FPS, with an average of 54 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS. This indicates occasional dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the i5-11400F's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-11400F averages 17177 in benchmark scores, sitting 0.3% above the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120) and 0.6% above the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074). It trails the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239) by 0.4% and the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278) by 0.6%.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the decisive component in this system's Lockdown Protocol performance. With 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus delivering 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth, the card is severely constrained for modern FPS titles. Its 896 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 32 ROPs operate at a 1485 MHz base clock and 1665 MHz boost clock, producing 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical limitation. At 4K resolution, the card cannot maintain playable frame rates regardless of settings, with the best case being 36 FPS on Low. Even at 1080p, the memory bandwidth and capacity constraints manifest in the steep performance drops between presets. The GTX 1650's 40th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the bottom half of the hardware spectrum, and its nearest rivals are integrated graphics solutions like the Intel UHD Graphics 750 and low-end discrete parts like the AMD Radeon R7 350.

The synthetic benchmark data reflects this positioning. The GTX 1650 scores 7880 in Passmark G3D, 58 in DirectX 11 tests, and 35 in DirectX 12 tests. The DirectX 12 score is particularly telling for Lockdown Protocol, as modern FPS titles increasingly rely on DX12 features. The card's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 305 confirms its weak DX12 performance envelope.

The GPU's 75W TDP and lack of power connectors indicate a power-efficient design, but this efficiency comes at the cost of raw performance headroom. The card's 229mm length and dual-slot form factor are standard, but the underlying TU117 chip with 4,700 million transistors on a 12nm process simply does not have the compute resources for demanding titles at high settings. In Lockdown Protocol, the GTX 1650's limitations are exposed clearly: the gap between Low and Ultra presets at 1080p is 41 FPS (76 vs. 35), demonstrating that the GPU cannot handle increased graphical complexity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates reveal a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution and settings increase. At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best results: Low settings average 76 FPS, Medium averages 54 FPS with a range of 46-62 FPS, High averages 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 41 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly across all presets. Low settings average 56 FPS, a 26.3% decrease from 1080p. Medium averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and maximum of 46 FPS, while High averages 35 FPS and Ultra drops to 26 FPS. The 1440p results show that even Low settings struggle to maintain smooth gameplay, and the minimum frame rates suggest noticeable hitches during intense scenes.

At 3840x2160, the system is overwhelmed. Low settings average 36 FPS, Medium averages 26 FPS with a range of 22-29 FPS, High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. No 4K preset achieves a playable frame rate, and the differences between presets shrink because the GPU is saturated at every quality level.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the 46 FPS minimum represents a 14.8% drop from the 54 FPS average. At 1440p, the minimum drops to 34 FPS, a 15% deviation from the 40 FPS average. At 4K, the minimum is 22 FPS against a 26 FPS average, a 15.4% variance. This consistency suggests the frame time spikes are related to GPU workload rather than CPU bottlenecks.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, falling from 35 FPS at 1080p to 26 FPS at 1440p (a 25.7% drop) and then to 17 FPS at 4K (a 34.6% drop from 1440p). This accelerating degradation indicates that the GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are exhausted at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 76 at 1080p to 56 at 1440p (a 26.3% decrease) and then to 36 at 4K (a 35.7% decrease from 1440p). This pattern shows that the GTX 1650's rendering throughput declines faster than the pixel count increase would suggest, indicating memory bandwidth limitations.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar but with slightly different percentages: 54 FPS at 1080p drops to 40 FPS at 1440p (25.9% decrease) and then to 26 FPS at 4K (35% decrease). The consistency between Low and Medium scaling suggests the GPU is the limiting component regardless of settings.

High settings show a steeper decline: 47 FPS at 1080p falls to 35 FPS at 1440p (25.5% decrease) and then to 22 FPS at 4K (37.1% decrease from 1440p). Ultra settings exhibit the most severe scaling: 35 FPS at 1080p to 26 FPS at 1440p (25.7% decrease) and then to 17 FPS at 4K (34.6% decrease).

The consistent 25-26% drop from 1080p to 1440p across all presets indicates a uniform GPU workload increase. The 1440p to 4K transition shows a larger percentage drop (34.6-37.1%), which aligns with the 2.25x pixel count increase from 1440p to 4K versus the 1.78x increase from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests the GPU is rendering pixels at a rate proportional to its fill rate capabilities, with no evidence of CPU limitation.

The CPU's role in this scaling is minimal. The i5-11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads, coupled with a 4.40 GHz boost clock, provide ample processing power for a game at these frame rates. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the data throughput required at 76 FPS maximum. The resolution scaling pattern confirms that upgrading the GPU would yield the most significant performance improvement for this system.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F plays a supporting role in this configuration, and the data suggests it is not the limiting factor in Lockdown Protocol. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Rocket Lake architecture, the CPU operates at a 2.60 GHz base clock and boosts to 4.40 GHz. This 14nm part from Intel's 11th generation delivers strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its 2024 score in Cinebench R23 single-core and 2981 in Passmark single-thread tests.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are equally robust. The 14340 Cinebench R23 multi-core score and 16908 Passmark multithread score place the i5-11400F at the 71st percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7H12 (0.3% higher average score), Intel Core i5-12450H (0.4% lower), and AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (0.6% lower), indicating the CPU performs competitively in its class.

For Lockdown Protocol, an FPS title that typically relies on a few high-performance cores, the i5-11400F's single-thread performance is adequate. The 868 3DMark single-thread score and 204 Cinebench R15 single-core score indicate solid per-core capability. The 2.60 GHz base clock ensures consistent performance under sustained loads, while the 4.40 GHz boost clock provides headroom for bursty workloads.

The 65W TDP and Intel Socket 1200 compatibility make this an efficient, accessible platform. The CPU's 276 mm² die size with 14nm process and 12 MB shared L3 cache provide adequate data locality for game workloads. Memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s via dual-channel DDR4 is sufficient, as the GPU bottleneck means the CPU rarely waits for data.

The evidence for CPU adequacy lies in the frame rate scaling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively constant across resolutions. Instead, the 41 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p, and the consistent 25-37% drops when moving to higher resolutions, point squarely at the GPU as the performance limiter. The CPU maintains frame delivery even at the lowest settings where the GPU is least stressed, achieving 76 FPS at 1080p Low without issue.

In summary, the i5-11400F provides more than enough processing power for the GTX 1650 to reach its performance ceiling in Lockdown Protocol. Users looking to improve frame rates should focus on GPU upgrades, as the CPU has headroom to support a faster graphics card without becoming a bottleneck.