Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a consistently high-refresh experience in Lockdown Protocol, but the settings menu demands careful selection depending on your target resolution. The data indicates that this combination is capable of exceeding 200 FPS at 1080p with Low settings, yet drops to 64 FPS at 4K Ultra, which highlights a clear performance scaling curve. For the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, the Medium preset stands out as the most versatile option across all tested resolutions, offering a substantial frame rate advantage over High while maintaining playable performance at 4K. The measured FPS breakdown reveals that this combo ranks in the 84th percentile of all tested combinations, making it a strong performer, though the CPU and GPU relationship shifts noticeably as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Lockdown Protocol shows that the Medium preset provides the most sensible starting point for most players using this hardware. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 206 FPS on average, which is 26 FPS higher than High and only 84 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 290 FPS. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 26 FPS, while the jump from Low to Medium costs 84 FPS, meaning Medium captures a significant portion of the visual improvements without sacrificing the high-refresh advantage. The min FPS at 1080p Medium is 175, which keeps frame times well within the range for competitive play on standard 144Hz monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, Medium again proves to be the sweet spot, producing 151 FPS on average with a minimum of 128 FPS. This is a drop of 55 FPS from the Low preset’s 212 FPS, but it is also 19 FPS faster than High. For players with 1440p 144Hz displays, Medium is the only preset that guarantees the average stays above the refresh rate, while High dips to 132 FPS and Ultra falls to 99 FPS. The data suggests that High is viable if you prefer visual quality over headroom, but Medium offers a more comfortable margin.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. Medium produces 97 FPS with a minimum of 83 FPS, which is the only preset at 4K that maintains an average above 85 FPS. High drops to 85 FPS, Ultra falls to 64 FPS, and Low jumps to 137 FPS but with a noticeable loss in visual fidelity. For 4K gaming, the recommendation is clear: stick with Medium if you want a stable 60+ FPS experience with reasonable detail, or drop to Low if you prioritize frame rate above all else. Ultra at 4K is only suitable for slower-paced modes where 64 FPS is acceptable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF brings 10 cores and 16 threads to the table, running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosting up to 4.90 GHz. This Alder Lake processor ranks in the 79th percentile of all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 27799. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-10900K, which scores 27872 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which scores 27896 (0.3% higher). The i5-12600KF trails these by a negligible margin, indicating that its gaming performance is effectively on par with older flagship chips.

In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough (180 FPS on High, 290 FPS on Low) that the CPU’s single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1016 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3302, is sufficient to feed the GPU without bottlenecking. The multi-threaded performance, shown by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23391, ensures that background tasks and game logic do not interfere with frame pacing. The data shows that at 1080p, the difference between Low and Medium is 84 FPS, which suggests the GPU is still the primary limiter even at this resolution.

However, as the resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant factor. The CPU’s workload remains relatively constant, but the GPU’s rendering load grows, causing frame rates to drop proportionally. This is typical behavior for a balanced pairing, and the i5-12600KF’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support are adequate for maintaining stable minimum FPS, as seen in the 1080p Medium min of 175 FPS and the 1440p Medium min of 128 FPS.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo maintain 144 FPS at 1440p in Lockdown Protocol?*

A: Yes, but only with the Medium preset. The data shows 151 FPS average at 2560x1440 Medium, with a minimum of 128 FPS. The High preset falls to 132 FPS average, which is below the 144 FPS target, so Medium is required for consistent high-refresh play.

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: The Medium preset is the recommended choice, delivering 97 FPS average and 83 FPS minimum at 3840x2160. High drops to 85 FPS, while Ultra falls to 64 FPS, making Medium the only preset that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when switching from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 206 at 1080p to 151 at 1440p and then to 97 at 4K. This represents a 53% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is heavily stressed at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is still the primary bottleneck at 1080p, as the CPU’s single-thread score of 1016 in 3DMark is sufficient for the 290 FPS Low preset. The frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra (290 to 135 FPS) is consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

Q: How does this combo compare to the CPU’s nearest rivals in gaming?

A: The i5-12600KF’s average benchmark score of 27799 is within 0.3% of the Intel Core i9-10900K and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This means the CPU is not a differentiator in Lockdown Protocol; the GPU choice will have a larger impact on frame rates.

Q: What is the minimum FPS I can expect at 1080p Ultra?

A: The data does not list a minimum FPS for 1080p Ultra, but the average is 135 FPS. For reference, the Medium preset at 1080p has a minimum of 175 FPS, so Ultra will likely have lower frame dips, but the exact value is not measured.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 582nd out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 15.7% of all systems in the database. This is a strong result, especially considering that the GPU sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs and the CPU in the 79th percentile. The ranking indicates that this pairing is well-balanced for this game, with no single component dragging down the overall performance.

The GPU’s nearest rivals provide context for its performance. The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 43223, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43262, -0.1%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (43268, -0.1%). The RTX 4090 Mobile leads by 1% with a score of 43667. This means the desktop RTX 4070 SUPER is performing as expected, and its position in the combo ranking is largely due to the CPU’s solid, if not spectacular, showing.

Given that the combo rank is 582, the system outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations. However, it is not in the top tier, which would require a higher-end CPU like a newer flagship or a GPU with more VRAM. For a 12 GB GDDR6X card with a 192-bit memory bus, the 4K performance is respectable, but players seeking higher Ultra settings at 4K would need to look at more powerful options. The ranking also suggests that this combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it excels, rather than 4K Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K in Lockdown Protocol reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 206 at 1920x1080 to 151 at 2560x1440, a 27% drop, and then to 97 at 3840x2160, a further 36% drop from 1440p. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 53%, which is expected for a GPU with a 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 12 GB of VRAM. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are sufficient for high frame rates at lower resolutions but become strained at 4K.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling is similar: 290 FPS at 1080p, 212 FPS at 1440p, and 137 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 53%, consistent with the Medium preset. This consistency indicates that the GPU is the limiting component across all settings, as the CPU’s workload does not change significantly with resolution. The Ultra preset shows the steepest relative drop, from 135 FPS at 1080p to 99 FPS at 1440p and 64 FPS at 4K, a 53% reduction as well.

The fact that the percentage drop is nearly identical across all settings confirms that this is a GPU-bound scenario. The i5-12600KF’s 10 cores and 16 threads are more than capable of handling the game’s logic at any resolution, and the data shows no signs of a CPU bottleneck, as frame rates scale smoothly with resolution. For players using this combo, the implication is that lowering resolution is the most effective way to increase FPS, while adjusting settings from Medium to Low yields diminishing returns at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the highest frame rates are achieved with the Low preset, which delivers 290 FPS on average. Medium follows at 206 FPS with a minimum of 175 FPS and a maximum of 237 FPS. High produces 180 FPS, while Ultra drops to 135 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 84 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 26 FPS, and High to Ultra is 45 FPS. This shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance, as the jump to Low provides a large FPS boost but at a significant visual cost.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still leads with 212 FPS. Medium delivers 151 FPS on average, with a minimum of 128 FPS and a maximum of 173 FPS. High produces 132 FPS, and Ultra falls to 99 FPS. The relative performance gap between Medium and High is 19 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more stressed. The minimum FPS of 128 at Medium ensures that even demanding scenes stay above 120 FPS, making this the recommended preset for 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields 137 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K, but it comes with reduced detail. Medium produces 97 FPS on average, with a minimum of 83 FPS and a maximum of 112 FPS. High averages 85 FPS, and Ultra drops to 64 FPS. The data shows that only Low and Medium are viable for smooth gameplay at 4K, with Medium providing the better visual experience at 97 FPS. The minimum FPS of 83 at Medium means there will be occasional frame dips below 90 FPS, but the average is solid. Ultra at 64 FPS is only suitable for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate and are willing to accept lower responsiveness.