Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination delivers a firmly playable experience in Lockdown Protocol, though its standing is modest. The data shows this pairing ranks 1462nd out of 1637 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower tier of systems. This is not a high-refresh-rate powerhouse; instead, the benchmark results indicate a configuration that can handle the game comfortably at standard settings, with clear limitations at the highest visual demands and resolutions.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary driver of frame rate in Lockdown Protocol, and its specifications explain the observed performance ceiling. The card operates with a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz, built on the Turing architecture using a 12 nm process. The 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for the game's data streaming at most settings but becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU's 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s, figures that correlate with the frame rates seen in the measured data.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's workload scales predictably with the quality preset. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra settings shifts the average frame rate from 125.2 FPS down to 54.3 FPS, a drop of over half. The card's FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS suggests it is well-suited for the game's rendering tasks at lower presets, but the Ultra setting at 4K (28.9 FPS) shows the hardware being pushed far beyond its comfort zone. The GPU's average benchmark score of 14286 places it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics, both of which have average scores within 0.2% to 0.5% of this card. This proximity in synthetic scores, however, does not translate to identical in-game behavior, as the GTX 1660 SUPER's dedicated GDDR6 memory and higher bandwidth prove more effective in a real-time FPS scenario.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for selecting the optimal preset. At 1080p, the Medium setting delivers an average of 86.9 FPS, which is a strong balance between visual fidelity and smoothness. The Low preset offers a substantial headroom at 125.2 FPS, but the jump to High (74.3 FPS) costs over 13% performance while providing marginal visual gains over Medium. The Ultra preset at 1080p falls to 54.3 FPS, which is playable but does not maintain a consistent 60 FPS threshold and introduces unnecessary GPU load. For the best experience on this hardware, Medium at 1080p is the recommended starting point.

At 1440p, the Medium preset yields 64.9 FPS, which remains acceptable for most players, while High drops to 57 FPS and Ultra plummets to 40.4 FPS. The data suggests that 1440p Medium is the ceiling for this combo if the goal is to stay above 60 FPS. At 4K, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset at 4K produces 57.3 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that approaches smoothness, while Medium (41.8 FPS), High (37.8 FPS), and Ultra (28.9 FPS) all fall below the playable threshold. For 4K users, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, the frame rate is borderline. The recommendation is to prioritize 1080p Medium for a consistent experience or 1440p Medium if the display requires higher resolution, avoiding Ultra entirely due to the severe performance penalty.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a capable partner for this GPU, providing enough processing power to avoid bottlenecking the GTX 1660 SUPER in most scenarios. The CPU features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This configuration, based on the Raptor Lake architecture, delivers strong multi-threaded performance that is relevant for the game's background tasks and physics calculations. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain data locality, reducing the need for slower memory accesses during intense action sequences.

Benchmark results show the i5-14400F achieving a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and a single-core score of 3093, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 32508 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446), with a delta of 0% and 0.2% respectively. This CPU strength is evident in the measured FPS data: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 125.2 FPS, which indicates the CPU can feed frames rapidly enough to keep the GPU busy. However, the CPU is not the primary constraint in this pairing. The frame rate drops from 125.2 FPS at 1080p Low to 54.3 FPS at 1080p Ultra, a change driven entirely by GPU load, not CPU capability. The i5-14400F's single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 score of 3093) ensures that even at lower presets, the game's simulation thread is not a bottleneck, allowing the GPU to reach its maximum output.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling behavior in Lockdown Protocol clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 125.2 FPS at 1080p to 88.1 FPS at 1440p, a decline of 30%, and then to 57.3 FPS at 4K, a further 35% drop. This pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where increasing pixel count directly increases the rendering workload. The GTX 1660 SUPER's memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s becomes a critical factor at 4K, as the 6 GB VRAM capacity is likely saturated by the higher resolution textures, explaining the steep performance cliff.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 86.9 FPS at 1080p, 64.9 FPS at 1440p, and 41.8 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 25% and 36%, respectively, indicating that the GPU is consistently the bottleneck. High settings show the same trend: 74.3 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and 37.8 FPS at 4K. The uniformity of these drops across different presets reinforces that the CPU, with its high single-core and multi-core scores, is not the limiting factor. If the CPU were the constraint, the frame rate would plateau at lower resolutions and not scale so dramatically with resolution changes. The data shows a linear relationship between pixel count and frame time, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited system. The 4K Ultra result of 28.9 FPS is particularly telling, as it represents a 77% reduction from the 1080p Low result, a gap that only a GPU with more shading units and memory bandwidth could close.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo's rank of 1462 out of 1637 tested combinations places it in the bottom 11% of systems tested in Lockdown Protocol. This is a low standing, but it does not tell the full story. The rank reflects the absolute performance ceiling of the pairing, which is limited by the GTX 1660 SUPER's position as a mid-range GPU from a previous generation. The GPU's percentile of 55 versus all GPUs, with an average score of 14286, is close to the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (14389, delta -0.7%) and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14352, delta -0.5%). This means the GPU is competitive with other entry-level to mid-range cards, but it is far from the top of the performance stack.

The CPU's high percentile (88th) does not boost the combo's rank because the game is GPU-bound. The i5-14400F's nearest rivals, the Intel Core i7-12800H and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645, have nearly identical average scores, but this CPU performance is underutilized in Lockdown Protocol due to the GPU's limitations. The rank of 1462 is therefore a reflection of the GPU's capability rather than the CPU's. For context, the combo achieves 125.2 FPS at 1080p Low, which is respectable, but the rank is dragged down by the inability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra (28.9 FPS). The data suggests that this combo is suited for 1080p gaming at medium settings, where it can deliver frame rates above 85 FPS, but it will not compete with higher-tier systems in the benchmark rankings. The combination is functional and consistent, but its overall standing in the database is firmly in the lower quartile, making it a choice for players who prioritize affordability over maximum performance.