Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers a clear performance curve in Lockdown Protocol, with the measured data showing how the game scales across the three primary resolutions. At 1080p, the combination is firmly in high-refresh territory, but the frame rate drops become increasingly steep as pixel count rises. The transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Ultra settings shows a decline from 100.2 FPS to 74.9 FPS, a reduction of roughly 25%. Moving further to 3840x2160 at Ultra, the average falls to 49.9 FPS, which is exactly half of the 1080p Ultra result. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the dominant limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU has ample headroom to drive frame generation at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling behavior across the four settings presets reveals a consistent pattern: the performance gap between 1080p and 4K widens as graphical fidelity increases. At Low settings, the 1080p average of 217 FPS drops to 163 FPS at 1440p and then to 105.2 FPS at 4K. That represents a 51.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low, but the drop becomes more pronounced at Ultra, where the 1080p result of 100.2 FPS falls to 49.9 FPS at 4K, a 50.2% decrease. The fact that the percentage drop is similar across settings suggests the workload remains GPU-bound throughout, but the absolute margins tell a more nuanced story.

At 1080p Low, the system produces 217 FPS, which is more than double the 4K Ultra result of 49.9 FPS. The differential between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial: 116.8 FPS at 1080p, 88.1 FPS at 1440p, and 55.3 FPS at 4K. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's shading and memory subsystems are being saturated, reducing the impact of lowering settings. For a competitive FPS title, the 1440p results are particularly interesting because the High preset still manages 100.9 FPS, which is only 6 FPS below the 1080p High result of 134.7 FPS — wait, that is not correct based on the data. The 1440p High result is 100.9 FPS, and the 1080p High is 134.7 FPS, so the difference is 33.8 FPS. The pattern shows that 1440p High is closer to 1080p High than 4K High is to 1440p High, implying a non-linear scaling curve.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7700 XT sits at the center of this performance profile, and its specifications explain why the 4K results trail the lower resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. That memory capacity and bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at all tested settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 49.9 FPS suggests the memory subsystem is under stress when pixel count quadruples. The GPU's boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz provide the raw throughput, with a pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s. These figures align with the measured scaling: the GPU can push high frame rates at lower resolutions but loses steam as fill-rate demands increase.

The 7700 XT's position in the broader GPU landscape is notable. Its average benchmark score of 30097 places it at the 73rd percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with a deltaPct of 0. That means the two cards are statistically identical in aggregate performance. In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the 7700 XT's 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 54 ray-tracing cores are leveraged differently depending on the settings preset. At Low settings, the GPU is not the bottleneck — the 217 FPS at 1080p indicates the CPU is likely the limiting factor. However, at Ultra 4K, the GPU's 96 ROPs and 3456 shading units are fully engaged, producing the 49.9 FPS result. The data shows no frame time or minimum FPS metrics, so the analysis relies on averages alone.

FAQ

Q: How does the i5-14600KF compare to its nearest CPU rivals in overall benchmark performance?

A: The i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49367, which is 0.4% above the Intel Core i5-14600K and 0.6% above the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. It trails the AMD EPYC 4345P by 0.5% and leads the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 1.4%.

Q: What is the best resolution for maintaining high frame rates with this combo?

A: The 1080p Low preset delivers the highest measured average at 217 FPS. For a balance of quality and speed, 1440p High at 100.9 FPS is the highest resolution that still exceeds the 100 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the RX 7700 XT outperform its nearest GPU rival?

A: The RX 7700 XT and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 have identical average benchmark scores (30097 vs 30109), with a deltaPct of 0. The AMD card slightly edges out the RTX 5070 Mobile by 0.6% and trails the Radeon RX 570 by 0.2%.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to Medium?

A: At 1080p, Ultra averages 100.2 FPS versus Medium's 157.3 FPS, a drop of 57.1 FPS. At 1440p, the gap is 38.8 FPS (74.9 vs 113.7), and at 4K, the gap narrows to 21 FPS (49.9 vs 70.9).

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread score?

A: The i5-14600KF scores 4643 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 32889 in multi-core, giving a ratio of approximately 1:7. This indicates strong per-core performance, which supports high frame rates in FPS titles.

Q: Is the 4K Low setting playable on this hardware?

A: Yes, the 4K Low preset averages 105.2 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target for most displays. The 4K Medium result of 70.9 FPS also remains playable, but Ultra drops to 49.9 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ranks 707th out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. That places it in the upper-middle tier of the database, meaning it outperforms roughly 57% of all combinations tested. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking among all processors (with an average score of 49367) is substantially higher than the GPU's 73rd percentile (average 30097), indicating that the processor is not the weak link. In fact, the CPU's nearest rival, the i5-14600K, is only 0.4% slower on average, which is within measurement noise. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 5060, is effectively tied with a 0% deltaPct.

Given the combo's rank, the system is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming but falls short of the top-tier combinations that would push 4K Ultra past 60 FPS. The 707th position out of 1637 suggests that while many cheaper or older combos exist, this pairing consistently delivers above-average results. The rank does not account for price or efficiency, only raw measured performance, so the data reflects pure capability in this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend on the target display refresh rate. For 1080p displays running at 144 Hz, the Medium preset (157.3 FPS) offers the best balance, as it exceeds the refresh rate while providing higher fidelity than Low (217 FPS). The High preset at 134.7 FPS also clears 120 Hz, making it viable for high-refresh panels. For 1440p monitors, the High preset (100.9 FPS) is the recommended choice because it maintains a triple-digit average, while the Medium preset (113.7 FPS) is the safer bet for a 120 Hz display. At 4K, the Low preset (105.2 FPS) is the only setting that exceeds 100 FPS, making it the default recommendation for 4K gaming. The Medium preset at 4K (70.9 FPS) is acceptable for 60 Hz panels, but the Ultra preset (49.9 FPS) falls below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided for competitive play. The data indicates that the High preset at 1440p is the sweet spot, delivering 100.9 FPS while retaining most visual features over Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a detailed view of the combo's performance across all three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 217 FPS, Medium reaches 157.3 FPS, High produces 134.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 100.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 116.8 FPS, showing that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 163 FPS, Medium hits 113.7 FPS, High reaches 100.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 74.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 88.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU is becoming more constrained. At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 105.2 FPS, Medium drops to 70.9 FPS, High produces 64.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 49.9 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 55.3 FPS, confirming that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The data also shows that the step from Low to Medium at each resolution is larger than the step from Medium to High: at 1080p, the Low-to-Medium gap is 59.7 FPS, while Medium-to-High is 22.6 FPS. This suggests that the Low preset removes a substantial rendering load, while the High preset is a more modest incremental increase over Medium. The Ultra preset consistently costs the most in absolute terms, with a 34.5 FPS penalty over High at 1080p, a 26 FPS penalty at 1440p, and a 15 FPS penalty at 4K.