Lockdown Protocol

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

The Intel Core i5-14600KF brings a 14-core, 20-thread configuration to Lockdown Protocol, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This Raptor Lake-R architecture part, built on Intel's 10 nm process, sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 49,367. The CPU's 20 threads and 24 MB of shared L3 cache provide substantial headroom for the game's multi-threaded FPS workloads, though the measured frame rates suggest the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

Looking at the benchmark data, the i5-14600KF's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600K (0.4% higher average score), AMD EPYC 4345P (0.5% lower), AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (0.6% higher), and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (1.4% higher). These deltas are remarkably tight, indicating that the CPU's performance envelope is well-established among high-end desktop parts. The single-core Cinebench R23 score of 4,643 and multi-core score of 32,889 suggest strong per-thread performance, which matters for game logic and physics in Lockdown Protocol.

However, the measured FPS data tells a more nuanced story. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 197.8 FPS average, which is 2.1 times higher than the 4K Low result of 95.2 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU's 14 cores are feeding the GPU efficiently, but the frame rate ceiling is still being approached. The 1080p Ultra result of 91.7 FPS versus 4K Ultra at 46.1 FPS shows a 2.0x drop, suggesting that the GPU's rendering load dominates at higher settings. The CPU's 125 W TDP and Gen 5 PCIe support with 16 lanes provide a solid foundation, but the data implies that the i5-14600KF is rarely the limiting factor in this configuration.

# FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested configurations in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT ranks 812th out of 1,637 tested combos, placing it in the middle of the database. This percentile position reflects the measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K?

A: The i5-14600KF's average benchmark score of 49,367 is 0.4% lower than the i5-14600K's 49,166, a negligible difference that falls within measurement variance. Both CPUs share the same core and thread configuration, so game performance should be nearly identical.

Q: What is the best frame rate achieved at 1440p across all settings?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 148.8, followed by Medium at 105.7, High at 93.2, and Ultra at 65.6. This shows a 2.3x range between Low and Ultra at this resolution.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark percentile compare to its nearest rival, the RX 5600M?

A: The RX 6750 XT's average benchmark score of 35,327 is 0.2% higher than the RX 5600M's 35,264, making them statistically equivalent. The 6750 XT sits in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, which is notably lower than the CPU's 93rd percentile.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo first exceed 100 FPS average?

A: The 1080p Medium preset achieves 145.1 FPS, while 1080p Low hits 197.8 FPS. At 1440p, only the Low preset exceeds 100 FPS at 148.8, and at 4K, no preset reaches 100 FPS, with Low topping out at 95.2 FPS.

Q: What is the FPS difference between the Ultra and Low presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 91.7 FPS while Low averages 197.8 FPS, a 2.2x difference. This indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a significant rendering cost, likely from shadows, reflections, and post-processing effects.

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

The measured data reveals a clear pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases, but the magnitude varies by settings preset. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 197.8 at 1080p to 148.8 at 1440p (a 24.8% reduction) and then to 95.2 at 4K (a 36.0% reduction from 1440p). This 2.1x total drop from 1080p to 4K suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU's rendering pipeline is becoming saturated at higher pixel counts.

The High preset shows a similar trend: 125.8 FPS at 1080p, 93.2 at 1440p, and 58.4 at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 37.3%, which is slightly larger than the Low preset's 36.0% drop. This increasing percentage drop at higher settings points to the GPU's 12 GB GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth being pushed harder when texture quality and shading complexity increase. The RX 6750 XT's 2,560 shading units and 64 ROPs are tasked with more pixel work at 4K, which explains why the frame rate nearly halves between 1440p and 4K at Ultra settings (65.6 to 46.1 FPS).

The CPU's role in this scaling is less prominent. Since the i5-14600KF's 14 cores and 5.30 GHz boost clock can handle the game's logic at all resolutions, the limiting component is clearly the GPU. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 197.8 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's frame rate ceiling for this game. However, at 4K Ultra, the 46.1 FPS result indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput is the bottleneck. The benchmark results suggest that users seeking higher frame rates at 4K would need a more powerful GPU, while the CPU has headroom to spare.

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

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the most balanced experience for this combo. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average FPS is 105.7, which comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay while still providing visual quality improvements over the Low preset. The 1440p High preset at 93.2 FPS is also viable, but the 12.5 FPS drop from Medium to High may not justify the visual gains for competitive players.

At 1080p, the Medium preset at 145.1 FPS is the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate monitors, as it stays above 144 Hz while delivering better visuals than Low. The High preset at 125.8 FPS is suitable for 120 Hz displays, but the Ultra preset drops to 91.7 FPS, which may cause noticeable stuttering on 144 Hz panels. For 4K, the Low preset at 95.2 FPS is the only option that approaches 60+ FPS territory, but the Medium preset at 64.7 FPS is the highest quality setting that maintains a playable frame rate. Ultra at 4K is not recommended, as the 46.1 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS standard.

The data indicates that the Low preset at any resolution provides the highest frame rates, but the visual compromises are significant. The Medium preset appears to hit the performance-to-quality inflection point, offering 64.7 FPS at 4K, 105.7 FPS at 1440p, and 145.1 FPS at 1080p. These numbers suggest that players should prioritize Medium settings unless they have a specific need for maximum visual fidelity at the cost of frame rate.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo ranks 812th out of 1,637 tested configurations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it squarely in the middle of the database. This ranking is notable because the individual components perform well in their respective benchmarks: the i5-14600KF sits in the 93rd percentile of CPUs, and the RX 6750 XT sits in the 79th percentile of GPUs. The discrepancy between component rankings and the combo's median position suggests that the game's performance characteristics do not favor this pairing as strongly as synthetic benchmarks would indicate.

One possible explanation is that Lockdown Protocol is sensitive to GPU memory bandwidth or specific rendering features. The RX 6750 XT's 12 GB GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are competitive, but the GPU's 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs is modest compared to the CPU's 93rd percentile. This imbalance means the GPU is likely the limiting factor in most scenarios, which could drag the combo's overall rank down relative to pairings with more powerful GPUs.

The nearest GPU rivals show tight clustering: the RX 5600M is 0.2% faster, the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is 0.3% faster, the Radeon 880M is 0.9% faster, and the RTX 3080 is 1.3% faster. This suggests that the RX 6750 XT's performance tier is well-populated, and the combo's rank reflects the GPU's mid-pack position. For users considering this pairing, the data implies that the CPU has significant headroom for future GPU upgrades without becoming the bottleneck.

# Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings achieve 197.8 FPS, Medium settings achieve 145.1 FPS, High settings achieve 125.8 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 91.7 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 2.2x reduction, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (52.7 FPS). The gap between Medium and High is 19.3 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 34.1 FPS, indicating that Ultra imposes a disproportionately heavy load.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 148.8 FPS, Medium at 105.7 FPS, High at 93.2 FPS, and Ultra at 65.6 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 24.8% for Low to 28.5% for Ultra, showing consistent scaling across settings. The Medium preset remains above 100 FPS, but High falls below that threshold, making Medium the highest setting that maintains triple-digit frame rates at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 95.2 FPS, Medium at 64.7 FPS, High at 58.4 FPS, and Ultra at 46.1 FPS. Only the Low preset exceeds 60 FPS, and the Medium preset is just barely above it. The drop from 1440p to 4K ranges from 36.0% for Low to 29.7% for Ultra, which is interesting because the Ultra preset shows a smaller relative drop. This suggests that at Ultra settings, the game's rendering workload is already so heavy at 1440p that the additional pixel count at 4K has a smaller marginal impact.

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

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 22 chip, brings 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 2150 MHz, with a game clock of 2495 MHz and a boost clock of 2600 MHz. The 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs deliver a peak FP32 performance of 13.31 TFLOPS, which is the raw compute resource available for Lockdown Protocol's rendering tasks.

The GPU's 12 GB VRAM is a critical factor at higher resolutions. The measured data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 46.1 FPS, which is the lowest result across all tested configurations. This suggests that the game's textures and geometry at Ultra settings may be approaching the VRAM capacity or bandwidth limits of the 6750 XT. The drop from Medium to High at 4K (64.7 to 58.4 FPS, a 9.7% reduction) is smaller than the drop from High to Ultra (58.4 to 46.1 FPS, a 21.1% reduction), indicating that Ultra presets at 4K push the GPU into a performance cliff.

The GPU's 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,327, places it slightly ahead of the RX 5600M (0.2%) and behind the RTX 3080 (1.3%). The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,548 and Passmark G3D score of 20,700 provide additional context for its raw rendering capability. The data shows that the GPU's 250 W TDP and dual-slot design are sufficient for the measured performance, but the suggested 600 W PSU indicates that the power delivery requirements are modest for this performance tier.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure that Lockdown Protocol can leverage modern rendering APIs. The 40 ray tracing cores suggest that ray-traced effects are possible, but the measured FPS data in this test does not include RT-specific benchmarks. The 13.31 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 416.0 GTexel/s texture rate are the key metrics for understanding how the GPU handles the game's shading and texturing workload, which the resolution scaling data confirms is the primary bottleneck at 4K.