Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT delivers a robust 1080p and 1440p experience in Lockdown Protocol, with the data showing a clear shift toward GPU limitation at higher resolutions and settings. The measured results indicate that this combination is well-balanced for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1440p, while 4K Ultra pushes the GPU to its limits.

FAQ

Q: How does this CPU compare to its closest rivals in overall benchmark performance?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F posts an average benchmark score of 25236, placing it essentially at par with the Intel Core i7-13620H (25201, 0.1% ahead) and the AMD EPYC 9474F (25103, 0.5% ahead). It sits marginally behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which scores 25365, a difference of 0.5%.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other cards in the database?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT holds an average benchmark score of 32619 and ranks in the 76th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD FirePro S9300 X2, scores 32540, putting the RX 7800 XT 0.2% ahead, while the NVIDIA P104-100 trails by 0.4% with a score of 32747.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 144 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and matches the refresh rate of many common monitors, indicating a smooth gameplay experience.

Q: Is the i5-13400F a capable processor for multi-threaded workloads?

A: The data shows strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21279 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 10971. Its PassMark multithread score of 25032 supports this, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs.

Q: How does the RX 7800 XT handle the jump from 1440p to 4K resolution?

A: The performance drop is significant. At 1440p with High settings, the card achieves 108.4 FPS, but at 4K with the same settings, it drops to 70.7 FPS. This represents a roughly 35% reduction in frame rate, highlighting the increased demand on the GPU at 4K.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a balance of quality and performance at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers an average of 123.2 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over the High preset's 108.4 FPS while still offering a significant visual upgrade over the Low preset's 168.9 FPS. This makes Medium the most balanced choice for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the primary driver of frame rates in Lockdown Protocol, and its specifications within the FACT PACK explain the observed performance scaling. The card features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This generous memory allocation and bandwidth are crucial for feeding the GPU's 3840 shading units and 96 ROPs at higher resolutions and detail levels, preventing memory bottlenecks that could limit performance.

The GPU's clock speeds are also a key factor. Its base clock is 1295 MHz, with a game clock of 2124 MHz and a boost clock of 2430 MHz. The higher boost clock is particularly relevant when the thermal and power headroom allows, enabling the card to sustain higher performance in less demanding scenes. The pixel rate of 233.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 583.2 GTexel/s indicate the card's raw fill-rate capabilities, which are tested more heavily at 4K resolution.

When comparing to its nearest rivals, the RX 7800 XT's average benchmark score of 32619 puts it a hair ahead of the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 (32540) by 0.2% and behind the NVIDIA P104-100 (32747) by 0.4%. This data suggests the card is positioned in a tight performance band. In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings increase. At 1080p Low, the CPU has more headroom, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as evidenced by the frame rate dropping to 50.9 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling across resolutions, indicating a shift in the system's bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 234 FPS. This high frame rate suggests that the CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to reach very high frame rates, but the GPU is still the primary constraint.

Moving to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average FPS drops to 168.9, a reduction of 65.1 FPS (about 28%). This drop is expected as the number of pixels increases from roughly 2.1 million to 3.7 million. The trend continues at 3840x2160 (4K) with Low settings, where the average FPS falls further to 108.6. This indicates that even at the lowest settings, the GPU's rendering workload scales significantly with resolution.

The scaling is more pronounced at higher settings. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 144 FPS at 1080p to 108.4 FPS at 1440p (a 25% decrease) and then to 70.7 FPS at 4K (a 35% decrease from 1440p). This larger drop at 4K suggests that the RX 7800 XT's compute and memory resources are being heavily taxed. At 1080p High, the system is likely more balanced, but by 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component. The 4K Ultra result of 50.9 FPS reinforces this, showing that the most demanding scenario is heavily GPU-bound.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience in Lockdown Protocol with this hardware combination. For players targeting 4K, the choice is a trade-off between visual fidelity and fluidity. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 yields an average of 50.9 FPS, which is playable but may not be ideal for a fast-paced FPS. Dropping to High at 4K raises the average to 70.7 FPS, a significant improvement of nearly 20 FPS, making it the recommended preset for 4K displays. The Medium preset at 4K offers 79.8 FPS, but the jump from High to Medium is smaller than the jump from Ultra to High.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset stands out as the sweet spot. It delivers an average of 123.2 FPS, which is well above the 100 FPS mark and provides a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors. While the High preset at 1440p offers 108.4 FPS, the Medium preset provides a 14.8 FPS advantage. For those with 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, the Low preset's 168.9 FPS is the only one that fully saturates the display, but it comes with a significant visual quality reduction.

For 1920x1080, the High preset at 144 FPS is an excellent choice, as it matches the refresh rate of standard 144Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 164.4 FPS is also a strong option for those seeking higher frame rates without dropping to Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p, yielding 106.5 FPS, is viable but offers diminishing returns over High given the performance cost. Overall, the data suggests that Medium or High presets at 1440p provide the best balance of performance and visual quality for this system.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average FPS data for the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination in Lockdown Protocol is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its highest performance ceiling. The Low preset achieves an average of 234 FPS. The Medium preset delivers 164.4 FPS, while the High preset yields 144 FPS. The most demanding Ultra preset at this resolution produces an average of 106.5 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. The Low preset remains the fastest, with an average of 168.9 FPS. The Medium preset achieves 123.2 FPS, and the High preset follows closely with 108.4 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to an average of 82.3 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is pushed hardest. The Low preset manages an average of 108.6 FPS, which is still a playable frame rate. The Medium preset yields 79.8 FPS, and the High preset delivers 70.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding scenario tested, with an average of 50.9 FPS.

This data set shows a consistent pattern: lower settings and resolutions favor the CPU's ability to push high frame rates, while higher settings and resolutions increasingly bottleneck the GPU. The combination ranks 628th out of 1637 tested combos in this game, placing it in the upper-middle tier of performance.