Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol scales almost linearly with resolution on this Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT combination, but the curve reveals a system that is firmly GPU-bound at every tested setting. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 174 FPS at 1920x1080 to 127 FPS at 2560x1440, a 27% reduction, and then further to 82 FPS at 3840x2160, a 35% drop from 1440p. That steep decline from 1440p to 4K indicates the GPU is carrying the load; a CPU-limited system would show a much smaller delta as pixel count rises.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (272 FPS) and Ultra (130 FPS) is 142 FPS. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 110 FPS (206 vs 96). At 4K, the spread is 71 FPS (133 vs 62). This compression at 4K is classic GPU saturation: the RX 7900 XT cannot generate enough frames to expose the CPU's limits, so the settings' impact on pixel shading dominates. The data suggests that for competitive play at high refresh rates, 1080p is the sweet spot, while 4K Ultra is only for cinematic pacing, not fast-twitch response.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the undisputed performance driver in this pairing, and its 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth proves more than sufficient for Lockdown Protocol at any resolution. No measured frame rate appears constrained by memory capacity; even at 4K Ultra, the average of 62 FPS suggests the GPU's compute and rasterization limits, not a VRAM spillover. The card's 51.48 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 459.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the raw resources that scale with resolution, and the benchmark results reflect that.

Clock behavior reinforces the GPU-bound conclusion. The card's game clock is listed at 2025 MHz with a boost of 2394 MHz, and the 300 W TDP is the power envelope for that performance. At 1080p Low, the 272 FPS average is near the ceiling for what the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface can feed, but the GPU still has headroom—the card is not the bottleneck at lower settings. Instead, the CPU's frame generation becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the fact that 1080p Medium (199 FPS) and Ultra (130 FPS) are still far below the GPU's theoretical pixel throughput. The RX 7900 XT's 84 ray accelerators do not appear to create a bottleneck in this game, as no ray tracing data is present, but the raw shader count of 5376 units drives the observed scaling.

The GPU's benchmark percentile of 55 versus all GPUs is modest, but its nearest rivals in the database paint a strange picture: the integrated AMD Radeon 660M scores 13812 (0.5% higher), and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile scores 13821 (0.5% higher). These are not comparable gaming parts, and the RX 7900 XT's Passmark G3D score of 29009 confirms its actual rasterization strength. The delta to the RX 9070 XT at 1.5% is negligible, meaning the 7900 XT is essentially a peer of the newer card in synthetic terms, though Lockdown Protocol's measured results show no sign of driver or architecture limitations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides a solid but not spectacular foundation for this GPU. With 6 cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost of 4.40 GHz, the CPU's 18 MB of shared L3 cache is the key resource for game logic and draw calls. The benchmark data shows the CPU's single-thread strength: the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257 and Geekbench single-core score of 1848 are respectable for a 2022 part, and Lockdown Protocol's frame pacing at 1080p Low (272 FPS) demonstrates that single-core performance is adequate to push well beyond 240 FPS.

However, the CPU's multicore throughput is where it falls behind. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15989 and Passmark multithread score of 18747 are mid-range, and this becomes apparent at 1080p Ultra, where the average drops to 130 FPS. That 130 FPS ceiling at 1080p Ultra, compared to 174 FPS at High, suggests that the CPU's thread scheduling is the limiting factor when more draw calls and physics objects are active. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5873 versus the single-thread score of 910 shows a scaling efficiency of about 6.4x across 12 threads, which is typical for Alder Lake without efficiency cores, but not enough to prevent CPU bottlenecks in CPU-heavy scenes.

The CPU's 72nd percentile versus all CPUs is a fair ranking, and its nearest rivals confirm its position. The AMD EPYC 7643 scores 18697 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core i7-1355U scores 18730 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 scores 18811 (0.7% higher). The i3-14100F is 0.9% lower. These deltas are within noise, meaning the i5-12400 is not a performance outlier for its class. In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU at lower resolutions; at 4K, the GPU's 82 FPS at High is the bottleneck, not the CPU's 12 threads. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 support are adequate, but the lack of a memory bandwidth specification in the data means the CPU's memory subsystem is not a highlighted strength.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 at Low settings delivers an average of 272 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate. At High settings, 1080p still reaches 174 FPS, making either setting ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 62 FPS. This is playable for a single-player experience but not competitive for an FPS, as the GPU is fully saturated at that resolution and preset.

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

A: At 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, as shown by the 272 FPS ceiling at Low settings versus the GPU's raw throughput. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, with frame rates dropping by 35% from 1440p to 4K at High settings.

Q: Does the 20 GB VRAM ever run out in this game?

A: No measured frame rate indicates VRAM exhaustion. Even at 4K Ultra, the average of 62 FPS is consistent with GPU compute limits, not memory swapping, given the card's 800.0 GB/s bandwidth and 20 GB capacity.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 719th out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it in the 19th percentile of all tested combos. This is a high ranking, indicating that this pairing is better than roughly 80% of all systems in the database.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the measured minimum and maximum frame rates are recorded. At 1080p, the range is 169 to 229 FPS (average 199), at 1440p it is 124 to 168 FPS (average 146), and at 4K it is 80 to 108 FPS (average 94). The narrowing range at higher resolutions reflects the GPU's increasing load.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT combination ranks 719th out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 19.4% of all systems. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU, but the rank is not higher because the i5-12400's 6-core/12-thread configuration limits frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU could otherwise push further. The data shows that this combo outperforms the median system by a significant margin, but it is not in the top tier of combos that would feature a stronger CPU like a 12-core part to match the RX 7900 XT's capabilities at 1080p.

The rank of 719 is driven by the GPU's dominance at 1440p and 4K, where the CPU's limitations are masked. At 1080p, the combo's average FPS across all settings (198 FPS) is high, but the Ultra preset's 130 FPS reveals the CPU's ceiling. If the CPU were stronger, the 1080p Ultra score would likely be closer to the Low score, narrowing the gap. The GPU's percentile of 55 versus all GPUs is lower than its gaming performance suggests, but the combo rank reflects real-world gaming, not synthetic averages. This pairing is best suited for 1440p High (127 FPS) or 4K Medium (94 FPS), where the GPU's 20 GB VRAM and 51.48 TFLOPS are fully utilized without being hamstrung by the CPU's thread count.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings depend on the target resolution and refresh rate, but the measured data points to a clear hierarchy. For 1080p, the Low preset's 272 FPS average is the highest, but the Medium preset at 199 FPS offers a better balance of visual quality and speed, with a minimum of 169 FPS ensuring no drops below 144 Hz. For 1440p, High at 127 FPS is the best choice for a 120 Hz display, while Medium at 146 FPS is superior for a 144 Hz panel; the Ultra preset's 96 FPS is too low for competitive play but acceptable for slower modes. At 4K, Medium is the recommended ceiling, with an average of 94 FPS and a minimum of 80 FPS; High drops to 82 FPS average, which is marginal, and Ultra at 62 FPS is only for visual fidelity over performance.

The data suggests that the "High" preset is the most consistent for general use: it delivers 174 FPS at 1080p, 127 FPS at 1440p, and 82 FPS at 4K, all without recorded minimums below the average. The Medium preset provides the best frame time consistency at every resolution, as it is the only setting with recorded min/max values, showing a tight 60 FPS spread at 1080p (169-229) and 28 FPS spread at 4K (80-108). For players prioritizing smoothness over raw averages, Medium is the safest bet; for maximum frame rates, Low at 1080p is the clear winner. The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution, as its performance penalty of 40-50% over High does not proportionally increase visual quality in the benchmark data.