Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is a fast-paced FPS where frame pacing matters more than pixel count, and the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers a very wide operating envelope across all three measured resolutions. The data set contains measured FPS at 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 for four quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). The resulting picture is of a combo that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, but which still holds together at 1080p for high refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

Looking at the High preset first: at 1920x1080 the combo averages 189 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 it drops to 139, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 90. The trend is consistent across every preset. At Low settings, the game runs at 305 FPS at 1080p, then 224 at 1440p, then 144 at 4K. The jumps between steps are substantial: each resolution step removes a meaningful share of the frame rate, even at Low where the GPU is far less taxed. That tells us the engine is not hitting a hard CPU wall at 1080p Low; the scaling remains even across the steps, which points to the frame rate being governed by the GPU pixel throughput power across all three resolutions.

The relative steepness of the drop becomes clearer when you compare presets. At 1920p, Medium yields 217 FPS. At 1440p it yields 159, and at 4K it yields 103. Those are smaller absolute drops than the Low sequence, but still the ratio of 4K to 1080p holds at roughly one-third of the 1080p value. Ultra is the most punishing curve: 1920p Ultra is 142 FPS, 1440p Ultra is 104, and 2160p Ultra is 67. The scaling from 1080 to 1440 (from 142 to 104) is a moderate step, but the 1440-to-2160 step (from 104 to 67) is proportionally larger, showing that the 4K pixel weight grows more than your average from 1440p to 4K.

A key takeaway: This system can deliver playable 4K on the High preset, but with a 90 FPS average at High—you stay comfortably above 60. The Low, Medium, and Ultra numbers at 4K bracket it nicely. The 1080p results, however, are exceptional for esports-style play: 30% higher frame rates than what a typical 144 Hz display needs. Medium breaks the 200 FPS barrier at 1080p, and even High manages 189. This points to the resolution scaling being primarily a GPU-bound relationship; the CPU’s role is secondary here except on the lowest CPU loads.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti comes with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, giving it 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Those specifications are sufficient for this title’s texture and geometry loads, and the measured numbers show no signs of VRAM latrine or bus starvation holding back the frame rate. The GPU’s architectural features—Ada Lovelace, with 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, 80 raster operations, 60 ray tracing cores, and 240 tensor cores—deliver 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The base clock sits at 2310 MHz and boosts to 2610 MHz, with memory clocked at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective).

In the context of the game’s results, these FEATURE translate into exactly the kind of raw raster throughput that an online FPS often demands. The 4K High average of 90 FPS and 1440p High average of 139 both show the GPU is delivering substantial pixel rate. The 4K Low result of 144 FPS is notable because it shows the GPU headroom when load is reduced. In the wider GPU bench, this card scored 31624 in Passmark G3D, 18396 in Passmark GPU compute, and 5024 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. It sits at the 84th percentile of all tested GPUs. Comparing it to the nearest synthetic rivals, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile is −0.8% behind, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is −1.3% behind, the RTX A6000 is +1.6% ahead, and the Intel Arc A730M is −1.7% behind, placing this GPU in a tightly packed bracket.

What this means for Lockdown Protocol: the GPU’s 12 GB frame buffer and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are more than enough. We do not see the low-settings pitfall—4K Low still yields 144 FPS—or any signs of a memory wall when moving from High to Ultra. The largest GPU limitation appears only at 4K Ultra, where the average drops to 67, showing that the Ultra preset’s demands on shading begin to tax the card near its limits for high-refresh SID.

How This Combo Ranks

With this exact CPU and GPU pair, the benchmark database ranks the combination as 428th out of 3714 tested setups. That Places it in the 89.1st percentile of all compile, meaning roughly 89% of tested configurations deliver lower frame rates in this game. While not a top-100 echelon result, the rank implies this is a consistently strong combo. The overall measurement of 12 FPS points at all settings shows a balanced system, rather of pure CPU or GPU push.

The rank of 428 is a result of the GPU’s high efficiency at 1440p and the CPU’s ability to feed it at 1080p. Only 428 combinations out of 3714 exceed this in Lockdown Protocol—those would be dominated by flagship CPUs and 4090-level cards. Importantly, the ranking is an aggregate of all tested settings, so the moderate 90 FPS at 4K Ultra drags the overall percentile slightly, while the 4K High number at 90 FPS and 4K Low at 144 are very respectable. If you play this game at 1440p High where the average lands near a 145, the experience should place the combo far higher than 428 in a substrings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Here are the measured results, resolution by resolution.

At 1920x1080:

• Low – 305 FPS average
• Medium – 217 FPS average (min 184, max 249)
• High – 189 FPS average
• Ultra – 142 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low – 224 FPS average
• Medium – 159 FPS average (min 135, max 183)
• High – 139 FPS average
• Ultra – 104 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low – 144 FPS average
• Medium – 103 FPS average (min 87, max 118)
• High – 90 FPS average
• Ultra – 67 FPS average

The Medium settings have the only min/max data points available. At 4K Medium, the frame time fluctuates between 87 and 118, which is a 31-FPS spread—a noticeable but not jarring variance. At 1440p Medium the spread is 135–183, a 48-FPS range, and at 1080p Medium it is 184–249. The table makes scaling linear: each 6 preset step takes about 40–60% of the prior step’s average, for example, 305 to 224 (a /79 1-drop) and 224 to 144 (a /80 drop), or 189 to 139 to 90 for High. It indicates that the GPU is being pushed progressively to its limits as resolution rises.

The greatest inventory value: the Low preset at 1080p gives 305 FPS—that is 106 frames per second over the 241216 (the 1440p High number). This is more than any average you might want for a 240Hz display. The Medium preset at 1080p gives 217, with min 184, which still keeps the VRR inside a wide window. The Ultra preset at 1080p gives 142—still above 144 for most monitors. At 1440p, only the Low 224 and Medium 159 truly break beyond a 144Hz threshold. 1440p High at 139 is marginal for a 144Hz output. At 4K, only Low, Medium, and High maintain above 60, with Ultra dropping below.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-series Raptor Lake chip with 14 cores and 20 threads. It bases at 3.50 GHz, boosts to 5.30 GHz, and carries 24 MB of shared L3 cache. Its large core count and high boost clock yield a 90th percentile score among all tested CPUs. In Cinebench R23, it scored 24491 multi-core and 2064 single-core; Geekbench 6 gives it 16673 multi-core and 2491 single-core. Passmark shows 4270 single-thread and 38682 multi-thread. In the nearest CPU rivals, it sits within a tight cluster: the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H is measured at a −0.2% delta, AMD EPYC 4345P is +0.3%, Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX is +0.7%, and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is −0.8%.

What this means for Lockdown Protocol is that the CPU is not the bottleneck in nearly any setting. At 1080p Low, the 305 FPS requirement could still be reached because the processor can keep up with the GPU’s view of submission. The CPU’s single-thread strength, shown by the 24491 in Cinebench R23 single core (note: that’s actually the multi-core figure – the single-core is 2064; correction careful). The measured data at 1080p Low, which comes in at 305 FPS, is double the 1080p High number—the game’s response to quickly to CPU feeds when the GPU load is plow. At 1080p Ultra the GPU is at 142, showing it’s slammed—but the CPU still feeds above 140.

The CPU’s L3 size and core count leave room for running background apps while in matches, but the fundamental constraint shifts to the GPU at 1440p or 4K. In low settings 1080p, the 14600K’s potential 5.3 GHz is both still behind the 305 FPS, but it is not visibly wrong. In a game with this simulator, CPU performance only matters at frame rates beyond 300. The rank suggests that this particular CPU tier is sufficient for top-end GPUs, confirming its placement in the database’s 90th percentile.

Settings Recommendations

For the highest smoothness per frame-rate, the Medium preset at 1080p is the sweet spot. 217 FPS with a min of 184 means you never fall below a comfortable refresh rate, and it only costs 42 frames over High (267 FPS). If you prioritize visual clarity over raw frame rate, High at 1080p gives 189 FPS, which is above any 144 Hz display. Ultra at 1080p is 142—still playable, but you give up 47 FPS over Medium to the press.

On a 1440p monitor, the trade-off is more significant. Medium yields 159 FPS, with a minimum of 135, which is an acceptable floor for most sync solutions. High gives 139 FPS, placing it just above the 144 Hz threshold only if you’re not frame capping. Ultra at 1440p drops to 104, which starts to show in busy scenes. The recommended preset for 1440 would be Medium, because it has the recorded min/max data: the min is 135 vs 144, so although the average is high, the floor stays above 120.

At 4K, the best choice is Medium. It delivers 103 FPS average, with a min 87 and max 118. That keeps most moments above 90 FPS. High at 4K is 90 average and no min/max, so it presumably lands at or slightly below Medium’s minimum. Ultra at 4K at 67 is beneath a 60 FPS min requirement. Low at 4K is 144, which is so high you could easily cap to reduce variance. But Medium gives you the best visual quality while remaining well above 60. If you prioritize frame rate consistency, Medium at 4K is the best experience based on the measured averages and the single combo that includes 4€$ min/max.

This system is uniquely suited for a 2160 Hz 1440p dropdown: it hits 139–159 FPS on Medium–High at 1440p, and 189–305 at 1080p. At 4K, you’re doing a pleasure cruise over 90 on almost every preset. The data suggests you could lock Medium at 1440p for a clean 144–160 FPS experience and never worry about input lag or screen tearing. The combo is ranked, the GPU rank affirms, and the measured numbers are deep—it’s a well-balanced pair in every resolution, though pushing Ultra beyond 1080p will cost you a noticeable frame-rate dividend.