Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol, a 2024 FPS title, demonstrates demanding scaling characteristics when paired with the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. The measured frame rates reveal a configuration that is well-balanced at lower resolutions but becomes increasingly GPU-bound as pixel count rises. This analysis breaks down the data to show exactly where this combo excels and where its limitations surface.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a predictable but steep performance curve. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo delivers 100.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Ultra drops that figure to 74 FPS, a 26.3% reduction. The jump to 4K Ultra is far more punishing, with average FPS falling to 47.3, which represents a further 36.1% decline from the 1440p result and a total loss of 52.9% compared to 1080p. This pattern indicates that the RTX 4060 Ti’s 8 GB frame buffer and 128-bit memory interface become the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

The scaling behavior differs markedly at lower settings. With Low presets, the combo achieves 221.6 FPS at 1080p, 161.8 FPS at 1440p, and 105.4 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 52.4%, which is nearly identical to the Ultra preset’s 52.9% loss. This consistency across presets suggests that while the GPU is the bottleneck, the game’s engine maintains a similar workload profile regardless of visual fidelity. The RTX 4060 Ti, with its boost clock of 2535 MHz and 22.06 TFLOPS FP32 performance, has enough raw compute to push high frame rates at 1080p but runs out of memory bandwidth as resolution increases.

Medium settings show an interesting middle ground. At 1080p, the combo hits 155.7 FPS, which is 55.3 FPS higher than High settings at the same resolution. However, at 4K Medium, the average drops to 77 FPS, which is only 15.3 FPS higher than the High preset’s 61.7. This narrowing gap at 4K reinforces that the limiting factor is not compute power but the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM capacity. For users targeting 4K, the data suggests that even reducing settings from High to Medium yields diminishing returns, as the GPU is already saturating its memory subsystem.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that the High preset at 1440p offers the most balanced experience for this hardware. At 101.2 FPS, it provides smooth gameplay while maintaining visual quality. Pushing to Ultra at the same resolution yields 74 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices 26.9% of the frame rate for marginal visual gains. Conversely, dropping to Medium at 1440p increases performance to 112.3 FPS, but the 11.1 FPS improvement over High may not justify the reduction in texture quality and effects.

For 1080p users, the High preset at 139.1 FPS is the recommended starting point. The Ultra preset at 100.4 FPS remains above the 100 FPS threshold and could be preferred for users with high-refresh-rate displays who prioritize image quality. The Low preset at 221.6 FPS is excessive for most displays and would only be useful for competitive play where maximum frame rate trumps visuals.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The High preset’s 61.7 FPS is just above the 60 FPS baseline, but the Medium preset’s 77 FPS provides a more comfortable margin. The Ultra preset’s 47.3 FPS falls below the 60 FPS target and should be avoided unless the user accepts a sub-60 experience. Based on the data, the best experience at 4K is the Medium preset, which balances the GPU’s limited bandwidth against the need for visual clarity.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14400F and RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB combination ranks 690th out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the configuration in the 57.9th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 58% of all tested systems. The ranking is respectable but not exceptional, reflecting the GPU’s mid-range positioning.

The CPU component of this combo is notably strong. The i5-14400F achieves an avgBenchmarkScore of 32508, which places it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-12800H, scores 32513 with a deltaPct of 0, making them effectively identical in synthetic performance. The AMD Ryzen 7 250 scores 32584 with a deltaPct of -0.2, indicating the i5-14400F is 0.2% behind that part. The gap to the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645, which scores 32446 with a deltaPct of 0.2, is similarly negligible. This CPU is clearly not the bottleneck in Lockdown Protocol.

The GPU, however, tells a different story. The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB has an avgBenchmarkScore of 2913, placing it in the 17th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M, scores 2913 with a deltaPct of 0, which is a surprising match given the generational gap. The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB scores 2907 with a deltaPct of 0.2, meaning the 8 GB variant is 0.2% faster in this specific benchmark. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M scores 2959 with a deltaPct of -1.5, indicating the 8 GB card is 1.5% slower. This combination of a high-ranking CPU with a low-ranking GPU explains why the combo lands near the middle of the overall rankings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. The Low preset achieves 221.6 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all configurations. Medium hits 155.7 FPS, High reaches 139.1 FPS, and Ultra settles at 100.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 121.2 FPS, representing a 54.7% reduction in performance when maxing out settings. This wide range indicates that Lockdown Protocol is highly sensitive to settings at 1080p, and users can significantly boost frame rates by lowering quality.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates compress. Low delivers 161.8 FPS, Medium 112.3 FPS, High 101.2 FPS, and Ultra 74 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 87.8 FPS, a 54.3% reduction. The percentage drop is nearly identical to 1080p, which suggests that the GPU’s compute capacity is scaling linearly with resolution. The absolute numbers remain playable across all presets, with even Ultra staying above 70 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve flattens further. Low produces 105.4 FPS, Medium 77 FPS, High 61.7 FPS, and Ultra 47.3 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra delta is 58.1 FPS, a 55.1% reduction. This consistency in percentage loss across all three resolutions is a key finding: the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB delivers a uniform performance degradation as settings increase, regardless of resolution. The absolute numbers, however, show that 4K Ultra is the only configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is the defining component in this combo’s Lockdown Protocol performance. Its 8 GB GDDR6 memory, running at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed, provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth over a 128-bit bus. This bandwidth is the primary constraint at 4K, where the game’s texture-heavy scenes saturate the memory subsystem. The card’s boost clock of 2535 MHz and base clock of 2310 MHz are respectable for the Ada Lovelace architecture, but the 22.06 TFLOPS FP32 compute is underutilized at higher resolutions due to memory limitations.

The GPU’s 4352 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 48 ROPs are configured for 1080p and 1440p dominance. At 1080p, the card’s pixel rate of 121.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 344.8 GTexel/s are more than sufficient to maintain high frame rates. The 34 RT cores and 136 tensor cores provide hardware support for ray tracing and DLSS, though the measured data does not include ray-traced workloads. The 160 W TDP and 1x 16-pin power connector are modest, and the 450 W suggested PSU is easily accommodated by most systems.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2913 places this GPU in the 17th percentile of all GPUs, which is low for a 40-series part. This low percentile is partially due to the benchmark’s inclusion of much more powerful cards, but it also reflects the 8 GB VRAM limitation in modern games. The nearest rival, the GT 555M, is a much older and weaker part, yet it scores identically, which suggests the benchmark is not fully utilizing the RTX 4060 Ti’s capabilities. In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the GPU’s role is clear: it provides excellent 1080p performance, solid 1440p performance, and playable 4K performance only at reduced settings.