Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-14400F + AMD Radeon RX 570

The combination of Intel's Core i5-14400F and AMD's Radeon RX 570 in Lockdown Protocol presents a study in asymmetric performance. The CPU is a modern 10-core, 16-thread part with a 4.70 GHz boost clock, while the GPU is an end-of-life Polaris 20 chip from 2017 with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. The measured frame rates across resolutions tell a clear story of GPU limitation at higher settings, but the CPU's headroom becomes evident at 1080p Low where the system reaches 76.2 FPS. This pairing ranks 1565 out of 1637 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower 5% of all configurations, yet the data reveals specific conditions where the experience is acceptable.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and non-linear. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 47.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 32.6 FPS at 2560x1440, then plummets to 24.1 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 31% loss moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 26% loss from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern suggests the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at every resolution above 1080p, with the 4K Ultra result of 14.7 FPS confirming the RX 570's 4 GB frame buffer and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are overwhelmed by the pixel count and texture complexity.

At Low settings, the scaling curve steepens even more dramatically. The 1080p Low result of 76.2 FPS drops to 56.3 FPS at 1440p (a 26% reduction), then to 34.1 FPS at 4K (a 39% reduction from 1440p). The larger percentage drop at 4K Low compared to 4K High suggests that even with reduced shading work, the memory bandwidth ceiling of 224.0 GB/s is being hit hard. The medium settings row reinforces this: 57.6 FPS at 1080p, 39.6 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K. Each resolution step costs roughly 30-35% performance, which is characteristic of a GPU that is compute-limited rather than CPU-limited.

The data implies that playing at 4K with this combo is not viable for competitive play, regardless of settings. Even the best-case 4K scenario (Low, 34.1 FPS) falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most FPS players consider minimum. The 1440p results offer more hope, but only at Low settings (56.3 FPS) does the system approach playability. At 1080p, the full range of settings becomes available, though Ultra still only reaches 39 FPS.

GPU Role

The RX 570's specifications explain much of the observed behavior. With 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, the GPU has modest compute capacity, but its 4 GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus is the critical constraint. The 7 Gbps effective memory speed yields 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, which appears insufficient for Lockdown Protocol's texture streaming at higher resolutions. The 14 nm Polaris 20 chip, with 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, operates at a base clock of 1168 MHz and boost of 1244 MHz, delivering 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

The GPU's 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158, places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, deltaPct 0.2). This is surprising given the age difference, but the benchmark scores suggest the RX 570 still holds its own in synthetic tests. However, in Lockdown Protocol, the measured FPS tells a different story. The 1080p Ultra result of 39 FPS indicates that the GPU's 32 ROPs and 39.81 GPixel/s pixel fill rate are inadequate for the game's highest settings.

The VRAM limitation becomes apparent when comparing High (47.1 FPS at 1080p) to Ultra (39 FPS at 1080p). The 17% performance drop from High to Ultra at the same resolution suggests the 4 GB frame buffer is spilling over, causing texture thrashing. At 4K Ultra, the 14.7 FPS result is nearly unplayable, confirming that this GPU is not designed for 4K gaming in modern FPS titles. The PCIe 3.0 x16 interface is another potential bottleneck, though the data cannot isolate its impact.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a strong modern processor with 10 cores and 16 threads on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its 2.50 GHz base clock and 4.70 GHz boost clock provide substantial single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093 and Geekbench single-core score of 2333. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core give the CPU ample cache for game logic and physics calculations.

The CPU's 88th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32508, places it near the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513, deltaPct 0), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446, deltaPct 0.2), and AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584, deltaPct -0.2). The multi-core performance is excellent for a mid-range desktop chip, with Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and PassMark multi-thread score of 25783. This CPU is clearly not the limiting factor in this pairing.

The evidence for CPU headroom comes from the FPS scaling. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 76.2 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect similar FPS across different settings at the same resolution. Instead, we see 76.2 FPS at Low, 57.6 FPS at Medium, 47.1 FPS at High, and 39 FPS at Ultra at 1080p. This 49% spread between Low and Ultra at the same resolution indicates the GPU is the primary constraint, with the CPU having ample capacity to feed frames. The 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support suggest the CPU can sustain high frame rates without thermal throttling in most systems.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1565 out of 1637 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the bottom 5% of all configurations tested in Lockdown Protocol. This low ranking is primarily attributable to the GPU, given that the CPU alone ranks in the 88th percentile. The disconnect between the CPU's high percentile (88) and the combo's low rank (1565/1637) is striking — it suggests that the RX 570 is holding back the i5-14400F significantly.

The measured FPS data supports this interpretation. The best-case scenario (1080p Low, 76.2 FPS) is competitive, but the average across all settings and resolutions is roughly 40 FPS. For an FPS game like Lockdown Protocol, this places the combo in the territory of older budget gaming systems rather than modern mid-range setups. The GPU's nearest rivals by average benchmark score include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (deltaPct 0.2), yet in actual game performance, the RX 570's age and 4 GB VRAM likely cause it to underperform its synthetic benchmark ranking.

The rank also implies that most other tested combos achieve higher frame rates in this game. The 72 combos ranked below this one likely feature even older or weaker GPUs, possibly paired with less capable CPUs. For a user with this specific CPU-GPU combination, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield dramatic improvements, while upgrading the CPU would provide negligible gains in this title.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Lockdown Protocol at 60 FPS?

A: Only at 1080p Low settings, where the measured average is 76.2 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 57.6 FPS, and at 1080p High it falls to 47.1 FPS. At 1440p or 4K, no settings preset achieves 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the system exceeds 60 FPS in any configuration. The 1080p Low setting yields 76.2 FPS, while 1080p Ultra still manages 39 FPS. At 1440p, the best result is 56.3 FPS at Low settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F scores 32508 on average, compared to 32513 for the Intel Core i7-12800H (deltaPct 0), 32446 for the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (deltaPct 0.2), and 32584 for the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (deltaPct -0.2). It is effectively tied with these processors.

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

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. Evidence includes the large FPS spread between Low and Ultra at the same resolution (76.2 vs 39 FPS at 1080p) and the steep FPS drops as resolution increases. The CPU ranks in the 88th percentile, while the combo ranks in the bottom 5%.

Q: What is the worst performing setting in the dataset?

A: The 4K Ultra setting produces an average of 14.7 FPS, which is the lowest measured result. The 4K High setting is also poor at 24.1 FPS, while 4K Medium achieves 29 FPS and 4K Low reaches 34.1 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score compare to its rivals?

A: The RX 570 averages 30158, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 at 30109 (deltaPct 0.2), AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 30097 (deltaPct 0.2), and NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 29969 (deltaPct 0.6). The RX 570 is effectively tied with these GPUs in synthetic benchmarks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are 14.7 FPS (Ultra), 24.1 FPS (High), 29 FPS (Medium), and 34.1 FPS (Low). The spread between Ultra and Low is 19.4 FPS, indicating that settings adjustments have a significant impact but cannot overcome the resolution's demands.

At 2560x1440, the results improve substantially: 27.6 FPS (Ultra), 32.6 FPS (High), 39.6 FPS (Medium), and 56.3 FPS (Low). The jump from Ultra to Low here is 28.7 FPS, showing that Low settings nearly double the frame rate compared to Ultra.

At 1920x1080, the full range becomes playable: 39 FPS (Ultra), 47.1 FPS (High), 57.6 FPS (Medium), and 76.2 FPS (Low). The difference between Ultra and Low is 37.2 FPS, the largest spread in the dataset, which highlights the GPU's sensitivity to settings at this resolution.

The data reveals that the scaling from Low to Ultra at any given resolution is roughly 50-60% performance loss, regardless of resolution. This consistency suggests the GPU's compute and memory resources are being taxed proportionally across all settings levels.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS, the only viable configuration is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers 76.2 FPS. This provides comfortable headroom above the 60 FPS threshold and is the clear choice for competitive play on this hardware.

For players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, 1920x1080 Medium at 57.6 FPS offers a balanced experience, though it falls slightly below 60 FPS. The 1080p High setting at 47.1 FPS is acceptable for single-player or casual play, but the 39 FPS at 1080p Ultra is likely too choppy for an FPS title.

At 1440p, only Low settings (56.3 FPS) approach playability. The 1440p Medium result of 39.6 FPS and High result of 32.6 FPS are borderline, while 1440p Ultra at 27.6 FPS is not recommended. The 4K resolution should be avoided entirely, as even Low settings only reach 34.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 14.7 FPS.

The data suggests that users should select the 1080p Low preset for the best balance of frame rate and responsiveness. If visual fidelity is essential, Medium at 1080p provides the highest quality setting that remains above 50 FPS. The i5-14400F has ample headroom to support higher frame rates, but the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth cap the system's potential in Lockdown Protocol.