Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers playable frame rates across most resolution and settings combinations in Lockdown Protocol, though the data reveals a clear performance ceiling at 4K Ultra. With a combo rank of 1647 out of 2828 tested configurations, this pairing sits in the lower-middle portion of the database, indicating that while it handles 1080p and 1440p gaming well, it struggles to maintain high refresh rates at maximum settings on 4K displays.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable performance drop as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 175 FPS at 1080p to 128 FPS at 1440p, a 27% reduction, and then to 83 FPS at 4K, another 35% reduction from 1440p. This scaling pattern suggests the GPU becomes progressively more stressed as pixel count rises, with the 4K Low result still representing a 53% drop from the 1080p Low figure.

For Medium settings, the progression is 124 FPS at 1080p, 91 FPS at 1440p, and 59 FPS at 4K. The step from 1080p to 1440p costs 27% of performance, while the step from 1440p to 4K costs another 35%. Interestingly, the Medium preset shows the same proportional drops as Low, indicating that the resolution scaling behavior is consistent regardless of the quality level, at least for these two presets.

High settings follow a similar trajectory: 109 FPS at 1080p, 80 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p transition reduces performance by 27%, and the 1440p to 4K transition reduces it by 36%. These nearly identical percentage drops across Low, Medium, and High suggest that Lockdown Protocol's rendering load scales almost linearly with pixel count, with no sudden bottlenecks appearing at any particular resolution.

Ultra settings show the steepest absolute decline: 81 FPS at 1080p, 60 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 26%, but the 1440p to 4K drop is 35%. While these percentages are consistent with other presets, the 4K Ultra result of 39 FPS falls below the 50 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay, indicating that this combo cannot handle maximum settings at 4K.

The scaling pattern reveals that the GPU is the limiting component across all resolutions. The consistent 26-36% performance penalties for each resolution step up indicate that the RX 9060's rendering throughput, rather than CPU limitations, determines frame rates. At 1080p, even the most demanding preset produces 81 FPS, which is well above what would expose CPU bottlenecks. The data shows no evidence of CPU-bound behavior, as frame rates continue to scale with resolution rather than plateauing at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance of visual quality and performance depends heavily on the target display resolution. For 1080p displays, the High preset delivers 109 FPS, which comfortably exceeds the 100 FPS mark for competitive play in a fast-paced FPS. The Ultra preset at 81 FPS still provides smooth gameplay, but the 26% performance cost over High yields diminishing returns for most players. Medium at 124 FPS offers a substantial frame rate advantage for those prioritizing responsiveness, though the visual downgrade from High is noticeable.

At 1440p, the High preset produces 80 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. The Medium preset at 91 FPS provides a better experience for most users, offering a 14% improvement over High while maintaining reasonable visual quality. The Ultra preset drops to 60 FPS, which is exactly at the threshold for smooth gameplay but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes. Low at 128 FPS is the best option for players who prioritize maximum frame rates over visual fidelity, and in a competitive FPS, this setting may be the most practical choice.

For 4K resolution, the data shows that High is the highest playable preset at 51 FPS, though this hovers near the 50 FPS minimum threshold. The Medium preset at 59 FPS is the better choice, providing a 16% improvement over High while staying above the 50 FPS floor. The Low preset at 83 FPS offers the smoothest experience but sacrifices significant visual quality. The Ultra preset at 39 FPS is not recommended for 4K gaming, as it falls well below the 50 FPS threshold and would likely result in noticeable stuttering during intense combat sequences.

The Medium preset emerges as the most versatile recommendation across all three resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 124 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS, ensuring consistent performance. At 1440p, it produces 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS, which maintains smoothness even in demanding scenes. At 4K, it achieves 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS, just barely clearing the playability threshold. This consistency makes Medium the safest choice for users who may switch between displays or who want a single settings profile that works across multiple resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, with 28 ray tracing cores. Its base clock is 1700 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. The pixel rate is 191.4 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 334.9 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 21.43 TFLOPS.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity appears sufficient for Lockdown Protocol at the tested settings, as no resolution or preset combination shows signs of memory-related performance degradation. The gradual FPS scaling with resolution, rather than sudden drops when exceeding VRAM capacity, confirms that the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB capacity are not limiting factors in this game. The GPU's 59th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014, places it in the mid-range segment.

In benchmark comparisons, the RX 9060 sits within 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which has an average score of 16129 and a deltaPct of -0.7%. It also performs within 1% of the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862, deltaPct 1%) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852, deltaPct 1%). The closest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro W5500, trails by 2.1% with a score of 15679. These results indicate that the RX 9060's raw compute performance is competitive with these cards, though the measured game performance will vary based on driver optimizations and game-specific rendering requirements.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a substantial gap between base and boost clocks, with the boost clock 76% higher than the base. This wide range suggests that the card can significantly increase performance when thermal headroom allows, which is typical for modern graphics cards. The game clock of 2400 MHz represents the expected sustained clock during gaming workloads, and the boost clock of 2990 MHz is the maximum achievable under favorable conditions.

FAQ

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

A: At 1080p, all settings presets produce playable frame rates, with Ultra at 81 FPS being the minimum. At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 91 FPS with a 77 FPS minimum, making it the sweet spot for visual quality and performance. At 4K, only Low (83 FPS), Medium (59 FPS), and High (51 FPS) achieve playable frame rates, with Ultra falling to 39 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to other GPUs in terms of raw performance?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, placing it within 0.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129). It is 1% faster than the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852), and 2.1% faster than the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679).

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The measured data shows no evidence of VRAM limitations. Frame rates scale consistently with resolution, with no sudden drops that would indicate memory capacity or bandwidth constraints. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for all tested settings and resolutions.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but only at reduced settings. The Medium preset achieves 59 FPS at 4K with a 50 FPS minimum, while High drops to 51 FPS. Ultra at 39 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the 50 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the CPU's performance ranking compared to other processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19039. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19047, 0% delta), Intel Core 3 201E (19056, -0.1% delta), Intel Core i5-1335U (18982, 0.3% delta), and AMD EPYC 7773X (18979, 0.3% delta).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to bottleneck this system in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting component. Frame rates continue to scale with resolution, showing no signs of CPU saturation even at 1080p Low where 175 FPS is achieved. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, appear sufficient for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination ranks 1647 out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 42nd percentile of all tested configurations. This means approximately 58% of tested combos perform better in this game, positioning this pairing in the lower-middle tier of the database.

This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning, as the RX 9060 sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs. The CPU, however, is more capable, ranking in the 73rd percentile among all processors. The combination of a strong CPU with a mid-range GPU means that the system's gaming performance is largely dictated by the graphics card, which aligns with the resolution scaling analysis showing GPU-bound behavior.

The combo's rank of 1647 indicates that while this system is perfectly capable of running Lockdown Protocol at playable frame rates across most settings, it is not positioned for high-refresh-rate competitive play at higher resolutions. For players with 1080p monitors, the system performs well, with the High preset delivering 109 FPS and Low delivering 175 FPS. For 1440p users, the Medium preset at 91 FPS provides a good experience, but those seeking 144 Hz refresh rates would need to use the Low preset at 128 FPS.

The gap between this combo's rank and the top configurations suggests that more powerful GPUs would provide significant improvements, particularly at 4K resolution where this system struggles to maintain frame rates above 60 FPS. The CPU's strong performance means that upgrading the GPU would yield immediate benefits without introducing a CPU bottleneck, as the i5-12400F's 6 cores and 12 threads can support higher frame rates than the RX 9060 can deliver.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration and has a TDP of 65 W. It was released in January 2022 with a launch MSRP of $174.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12400F demonstrates strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 1680 for single-core and 12380 for multi-core, while Geekbench scores reach 1964 single-core and 9472 multi-core. The PassMark multi-thread score is 19433, with a single-thread score of 3481. These results place the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 19039.

The CPU's performance in Lockdown Protocol, as inferred from the measured FPS data, shows that it is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 175 FPS, which would require substantial CPU throughput to maintain. The consistent frame rate scaling across resolutions indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU at all tested settings, with no evidence of CPU bottlenecking even at the highest frame rates.

The i5-12400F's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for Lockdown Protocol's threading model. The 3DMark benchmark scores show good scaling from 2 threads (1699) to 8 threads (4779), with diminishing returns beyond that point (5912 at max threads). This pattern suggests that the game can utilize multiple cores effectively, and the CPU's 12 threads provide ample headroom for both the game and background tasks.

The CPU's boost clock of 4.40 GHz is competitive for gaming workloads, and its single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1680) ensures strong responsiveness in games that rely on a few heavily-threaded tasks. The 18 MB L3 cache provides adequate capacity for game data, and the dual-channel memory support with DDR4 and DDR5 compatibility offers flexibility for system builders.

The 65 W TDP indicates efficient power consumption, which is beneficial for system thermals and overall build cost. The processor's performance relative to its nearest rivals shows it is well-positioned: the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 19047 (0% delta), the Intel Core 3 201E scores 19056 (-0.1% delta), and the Intel Core i5-1335U scores 18982 (0.3% delta). These near-identical scores suggest that the i5-12400F is competitively positioned within its performance class, though the exact gaming performance will vary based on game-specific optimization and system configuration.