Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a playable but sharply tiered experience in Lockdown Protocol, with performance dictated far more by graphics settings than by resolution. The data indicates a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, yet the CPU’s strong multi-threaded foundation prevents it from becoming a liability at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound profile. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 74.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 58.9 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 21%. Pushing to 3840x2160 yields 37.8 FPS, a further 36% decline from the 1440p figure. This steep, compounding loss is the signature of a graphics card hitting its fill-rate and memory bandwidth ceiling, not a CPU struggling with draw calls.

The scaling pattern shifts when settings are lowered. At Low settings, the gap between 1080p and 1440p is 121.5 FPS versus 92.1 FPS, a 24% drop, but the jump to 4K only brings it down to 60.6 FPS. This is a smaller relative penalty than at High settings, suggesting that at Low, the system begins to lean more on the CPU’s ability to feed frames, though the GPU still limits the absolute maximum.

The most telling contrast is between the Ultra preset’s 4K result of 30.2 FPS and the Low preset’s 4K result of 60.6 FPS. That is a 100% performance swing purely from settings, independent of resolution. At 1080p, the same settings change moves from 56.3 FPS to 121.5 FPS, a 116% increase. The consistency of this pattern across resolutions confirms that the GTX 1660 Ti’s pixel throughput, not the i5-14400F’s core count, is the limiting factor in this configuration. The data shows that users seeking higher frame rates should first reduce quality presets before touching resolution, as the former yields larger gains.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F brings a substantial amount of processing headroom to this pairing. With 10 cores, 16 threads, a 2.50 GHz base clock, and a 4.70 GHz boost clock, it is a modern desktop part that sits in the 88th percentile of all CPUs tested. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and single-core score of 3093 indicate a balanced design capable of handling both game logic and background tasks.

In Lockdown Protocol, an FPS title, the CPU’s role is to maintain a stable frame delivery pipeline. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 121.5 FPS, which is high enough to suggest the CPU is not capping performance. However, the fact that this same CPU/GPU combo only reaches 56.3 FPS at 1080p Ultra points to the GPU being the wall. The i5-14400F’s performance is effectively masked by the GTX 1660 Ti’s limitations in this game.

The CPU’s closest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores are the Intel Core i7-12800H (deltaPct: 0) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (deltaPct: 0.2). These are mobile and professional parts, respectively, yet they land within a fraction of a percent of the i5-14400F’s overall computing power. This indicates that the i5-14400F’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and Raptor Lake architecture provide competitive throughput, even if that headroom is not fully utilized in this specific game test due to GPU constraints.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1412th out of 1637 combos. This places it in the bottom 15% of all configurations, which is a low position driven almost entirely by the GPU’s age and tier.

The GTX 1660 Ti’s aggregate benchmark score of 13925 puts it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, with rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 570X (deltaPct: 0.4) and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (deltaPct: 0.8) showing nearly identical overall compute scores. This means the graphics card is a mid-pack performer, but in a modern FPS title, that mid-pack position translates to a poor showing relative to newer hardware.

The CPU’s strong 88th percentile ranking does little to boost the combo rank because the game’s frame rate is so heavily dependent on the graphics card. A combo ranking of 1412 suggests that the vast majority of tested systems, even those with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs, will outperform this build in Lockdown Protocol. The data implies that this pairing is only suitable for 1080p gaming at medium-to-high settings, and even then, it will struggle to hold high refresh rates in demanding scenes.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Lockdown Protocol with this hardware?*

A: The data suggests 1920x1080 is the only viable resolution for consistent play. At High settings, it delivers 74.9 FPS, while 2560x1440 drops to 58.9 FPS and 3840x2160 falls to 37.8 FPS.

Q: How much performance is gained by lowering settings from Ultra to Low?

A: At 1080p, the gain is substantial: 56.3 FPS on Ultra versus 121.5 FPS on Low, a 115.8% increase. At 4K, the gain is 30.2 FPS to 60.6 FPS, a 100.7% increase.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this system?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The i5-14400F scores in the 88th percentile of CPUs, while the GTX 1660 Ti sits in the 55th percentile of GPUs. The steep FPS drops at higher resolutions and settings confirm the graphics card is maxed out.

Q: How does this combo compare to other system configurations?

A: It ranks 1412th out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the lower tier of systems. This low rank is due to the GPU’s modest performance relative to modern graphics cards.

Q: What is the maximum frame rate achievable with this setup?

A: The highest recorded average is 121.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. No other configuration of resolution and settings in the data exceeds this value.

Q: Does the GTX 1660 Ti have enough memory for this game?

A: The card features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The data shows playable frame rates at 1080p, but the significant drops at 4K suggest memory capacity and bandwidth are stressed at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the decisive component in this build’s Lockdown Protocol performance. Built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip, it operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory is rated at 12 Gbps effective across a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. These specifications place it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13925.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are modest by modern standards, featuring 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. Its FP32 performance of 5.437 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s are the metrics that directly impact rasterization in an FPS title. The benchmark data shows that these figures are insufficient for high-refresh-rate 1440p or 4K gaming, as the card falls below 60 FPS at 2560x1440 on High settings.

The GTX 1660 Ti’s nearest rivals in aggregate score are the AMD Radeon RX 570X (deltaPct: 0.4) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (deltaPct: 0.8), both of which are significantly older architectures. This indicates that the GTX 1660 Ti performs roughly at the level of a high-end card from a previous generation, which explains its inability to maintain high frame rates in a 2024 title like Lockdown Protocol. The card’s production status is End-of-life, and its performance ceiling is clearly visible in the measured FPS data.