Lockdown Protocol

Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a playable but constrained experience in Lockdown Protocol, with performance heavily dependent on resolution and quality settings. The combo ranks 1449th out of 1637 tested combinations, placing it in the lower third of the database, yet the data reveals a system capable of smooth 1080p play at medium settings while struggling to maintain 4K at high details. This analysis breaks down the measured results, CPU and GPU contributions, and how this pairing stacks up against the field.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 at Low settings delivers the highest average FPS at 123, while 1920x1080 at Medium produces 87.5 FPS. For a balance of visual quality and performance, 2560x1440 at Medium achieves 67.9 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12600KF compare to its closest CPU rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27827, which is virtually identical to the Intel Core i9-10900K at 27829 (0% delta). It trails the Intel Core i5-12600K by only -0.1% (score of 27851) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H by -0.2% (score of 27872), while beating the Intel Core i7-13700H by 0.4% (score of 27716).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti sits at the 55th percentile of all GPUs, indicating it outperforms slightly more than half of the tested cards. Its average benchmark score is 13925.

Q: Which GPU rival is closest in performance to the GTX 1660 Ti?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570X is the nearest rival with an average score of 13871, representing a 0.4% difference. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 scores 14029 (-0.7%), while the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile scores 13821 (0.8%) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 scores 13812 (0.8%).

Q: How much of a performance drop occurs between 1920x1080 and 3840x2160 at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 78.8 at 1920x1080 to 35.7 at 3840x2160, representing a 54.7% reduction in frame rate. The 2560x1440 High setting yields 54.2 FPS as an intermediate step.

Q: Does the CPU's multi-threaded performance align with its single-threaded results?

A: The i5-12600KF shows strong scaling, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444 versus a single-core score of 3309. Similarly, Geekbench multicore reaches 12373 with single-core at 2529, confirming the processor maintains efficiency across both lightly and heavily threaded workloads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor built on the Alder Lake architecture using a 10 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, providing substantial headroom for gaming workloads that favor higher frequencies. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps reduce memory latency during gameplay.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is evident across different resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low settings, the system achieves 123 FPS, indicating the processor can feed the GPU efficiently at lower graphical loads. The single-thread performance, measured at 3309 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is critical for FPS titles where game logic and physics often rely on a few dominant threads. The 3.70 GHz base clock ensures consistent performance even when boost frequencies are not sustained.

The processor's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it well above the GPU's 55th percentile, suggesting the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. The i5-12600KF's nearest rivals include the i9-10900K with a nearly identical average score of 27829, and the i5-12600K at 27851. This parity means users upgrading from these older or sibling parts would see little difference in CPU-bound scenarios within Lockdown Protocol. The 16 threads (via 6 performance and 4 efficient cores) provide ample parallelism for background tasks without starving the game of resources.

The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 with dual-channel configuration offers flexibility, though the benchmark data does not specify which memory type was used during testing. The 20 MB shared L3 cache is particularly beneficial for game assets that are frequently accessed, reducing the need to fetch data from system memory. In this title, the CPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at 1080p Low (123 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (56.6 FPS) shows that as GPU load increases, the CPU remains capable but the graphics card becomes the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process from TSMC, featuring 1536 shading units and 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. The memory operates at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective speed, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is adequate for 1080p gaming but becomes a constraint at higher resolutions where larger frame buffers demand faster data transfer.

The GPU's base clock of 1500 MHz with a boost of 1770 MHz provides a solid foundation for the measured frame rates. At 1920x1080 Low, the card delivers 123 FPS, indicating it can handle less demanding settings with ease. However, at 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS drops to 25, showcasing the limits of the 6 GB VRAM and the card's compute capabilities (5.437 TFLOPS FP32). The pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s and texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s are the theoretical maximums, but real-world performance falls short at 4K due to memory and shader limitations.

The GTX 1660 Ti's 55th percentile ranking places it below the midpoint of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the RX 570X (0.4% higher) and Tesla K10 (-0.7% lower). The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 2560x1440 Medium (67.9 FPS) but struggles at 3840x2160 High (35.7 FPS), where the frame size exceeds comfortable VRAM capacity. The 6 GB memory capacity is a notable constraint in modern titles, and Lockdown Protocol at 4K High likely exceeds this, causing performance drops.

The GPU's DirectX 12 support (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure it can run the game's rendering features, but the lack of dedicated ray tracing cores means any RT effects would be handled via compute, further reducing frame rates. At 1920x1080 Ultra (56.6 FPS), the card shows it can manage high settings at mainstream resolutions, but the gap between Low and Ultra (123 vs 56.6 FPS) highlights the significant cost of quality enhancements on this hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers three resolutions (3840x2160, 2560x1440, 1920x1080) across four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). At 1920x1080, the performance ranges from 123 FPS at Low to 56.6 FPS at Ultra, with Medium at 87.5 and High at 78.8. This represents a 54% drop from Low to Ultra, indicating that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary limits at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS decreases across all settings: Low yields 89.7, Medium 67.9, High 54.2, and Ultra 41.5. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings costs about 27% performance (123 to 89.7 FPS), while at Ultra, the drop is 26.7% (56.6 to 41.5 FPS). This consistent percentage suggests the GPU scales linearly with pixel count, with the 6 GB VRAM not yet becoming a hard limit at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance falls sharply: Low provides 61.2 FPS, Medium 39.8, High 35.7, and Ultra 25.0. The jump from 1440p to 4K at Low settings reduces FPS by 31.8% (89.7 to 61.2), but at Ultra, the reduction is 39.8% (41.5 to 25.0). The 4K Ultra result of 25 FPS is below playable thresholds, while 4K Low at 61.2 FPS remains borderline acceptable for casual play.

The data reveals that the most efficient setting for this combo is 1080p Medium, offering 87.5 FPS with moderate visual quality. For users seeking 1440p, Medium settings at 67.9 FPS provide a smooth experience, but High and Ultra dip below 60 FPS. At 4K, only Low settings approach playability, and even then, the 61.2 FPS average may experience drops during intense scenes, though min and max FPS values were not recorded.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti combination ranks 1449th out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of the database. This low ranking is primarily driven by the GPU's 55th percentile position, as the CPU's 84th percentile would normally support higher-tier graphics cards. The pairing creates a significant bottleneck where the CPU's potential is underutilized at higher resolutions.

The combo's rank suggests that while the i5-12600KF is a capable processor for this generation, the GTX 1660 Ti's 6 GB VRAM and mid-range compute power hold back overall performance. In the database's context, this system would be considered entry-level for Lockdown Protocol at 1440p or 4K, but adequate for 1080p gaming. The GPU's nearest rival, the RX 570X, shows only a 0.4% difference, meaning users with that card would see nearly identical frame rates.

The CPU's nearest rivals, including the i9-10900K and i5-12600K, all have average scores within 0.4% of each other, indicating that the processor choice has minimal impact on the combo's ranking when paired with this GPU. The bottleneck is clearly the graphics card, as evidenced by the 123 FPS at 1080p Low versus 25 FPS at 4K Ultra. The combo rank of 1449 out of 1637 reflects this imbalance, where the system performs well below the median combo in the database.

For context, the 1637 total combos span a wide range of hardware, and this pairing sits near the lower quartile. The data suggests that users with this configuration should target 1080p or 1440p Medium settings for optimal playability, as higher settings at 4K produce unplayable frame rates. The rank also implies that upgrading the GPU would yield a more substantial performance improvement than upgrading the CPU, given the processor's strong relative standing.