Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol’s measured performance data for the Intel Core i7-12700K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher settings, but the data also shows a clear CPU ceiling emerging at lower settings. The most balanced experience, according to the measured rows, is found at High settings, which provides a strong frame rate across all resolutions without the sharp performance penalties seen at Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data makes a decisive case for High settings as the optimal preset for this combination. At 1920x1080, High delivers 161 FPS, which is 42 frames higher than Ultra’s 119 FPS. The gap widens further at 2560x1440, where High produces 120.3 FPS compared to Ultra’s 90.1 FPS, and at 3840x2160, High achieves 78.8 FPS versus Ultra’s 57.3 FPS. Across all three resolutions, High maintains a lead over Ultra of roughly 35-42%, making it the clear choice for competitive play that prioritizes fluidity.

Ultra settings, while giving the best visual fidelity, push average frame rates below 60 FPS at 4K (57.3 FPS), which is suboptimal for a fast-paced FPS title. Medium settings offer a moderate improvement over High—at 1080p, Medium hits 181.3 FPS and at 1440p it reaches 133.6 FPS—but the jump from High to Medium is smaller than the jump from Ultra to High, suggesting diminishing returns. Low settings are the outlier: they produce the highest frame rates (258.2 FPS at 1080p, 191.5 FPS at 1440p, and 123.9 FPS at 4K), but the visual downgrade in a game where spotting enemies is critical makes this preset less practical. For the best balance of visual clarity and performance, High is the recommended preset, offering over 120 FPS at 1440p and nearly 80 FPS at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and the data shows its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus width are more than sufficient for Lockdown Protocol’s demands. The GPU’s 4096 shading units and 128 ROPs, combined with a boost clock of 2970 MHz, drive the majority of performance scaling. The measured FPS drops as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 161 FPS at 1080p to 120.3 FPS at 1440p (a 25.3% reduction) and then to 78.8 FPS at 4K (a further 34.5% reduction). This consistent degradation pattern indicates that the RX 9070 XT’s compute throughput, rated at 48.66 TFLOPS FP32, is the primary bottleneck at these settings.

The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s ensures that the 16 GB frame buffer does not become a limiting factor, even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS is 57.3. The performance difference between Low and High settings at 4K is substantial—123.9 FPS versus 78.8 FPS—showing that the GPU has significant headroom when visual effects are reduced. The RX 9070 XT ranks in the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 575, is essentially tied with a deltaPct of -0.1. However, in gaming workloads like Lockdown Protocol, the RX 9070 XT’s 64 RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support position it well above older workstation parts, as the measured frame rates demonstrate a capable 4K performer at mid-to-high presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K provides a solid foundation, but its role is secondary to the GPU in most measured scenarios. With 12 cores (8 performance and 4 efficiency) and 20 threads, the CPU has ample parallel throughput, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29241. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance, reflected in a Geekbench single-core score of 2561. However, the game’s frame rates reveal that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the system produces 57.3 FPS, which is far below the CPU’s potential ceiling; the bottleneck is clearly the GPU’s rasterization workload.

The CPU’s influence becomes apparent only at Low settings and lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 258.2 FPS, a figure that approaches the practical limits of the 12700K’s single-thread capabilities. The jump from 1440p Low (191.5 FPS) to 1080p Low (258.2 FPS) is a 34.8% increase, which is larger than the corresponding jump at High settings (25.3%). This suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is beginning to constrain performance, as the GPU has excess capacity. The 12700K’s 25 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory help maintain high frame rates, but the data shows that pairing this CPU with the RX 9070 XT creates a system where the GPU is the star at 1440p and 4K, while the CPU only becomes relevant at 1080p with minimal graphical load.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination to maintain above 120 FPS?

A: At High settings, the system achieves 161 FPS at 1920x1080 and 120.3 FPS at 2560x1440. For 4K gaming, High settings drop to 78.8 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when switching from High to Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS drops by 42 frames at 1080p (161 to 119), by 30.2 frames at 1440p (120.3 to 90.1), and by 21.5 frames at 4K (78.8 to 57.3).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck; the 57.3 FPS at 4K Ultra is far below the CPU’s capability, which can produce 258.2 FPS at 1080p Low.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM of the RX 9070 XT hold up at 4K?

A: Yes, the 16 GB frame buffer, paired with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth, supports all settings at 4K, from 123.9 FPS at Low to 57.3 FPS at Ultra.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core i7-12700K has an average benchmark score of 35684, which is 0.3% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 and 0.6% above the Intel Core i7-13700T.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Medium settings at 1440p?

A: Low settings produce 191.5 FPS, while Medium settings yield 133.6 FPS, a difference of 57.9 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a predictable and steep performance decline as resolution increases, which confirms the GPU-bound nature of this system. At High settings, the frame rate progression is 161 FPS at 1080p, 120.3 FPS at 1440p, and 78.8 FPS at 4K. This represents a 25.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 34.5% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is consistent across all presets, though the percentage drops vary slightly. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 25.9% (258.2 to 191.5 FPS), and from 1440p to 4K it is 35.3% (191.5 to 123.9 FPS). At Ultra, the drops are 24.3% (119 to 90.1 FPS) and 36.4% (90.1 to 57.3 FPS), respectively.

The fact that the relative drop from 1440p to 4K is larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p indicates that the RX 9070 XT’s pixel throughput is being stretched thinner at higher resolutions. The GPU’s pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s are the key specs driving this behavior. At 4K, the system is clearly GPU-limited, as the CPU’s performance at 1080p Low (258.2 FPS) is nearly double the 4K High result (78.8 FPS), showing that the GPU cannot keep up with the CPU’s output at higher pixel counts. For players targeting 4K, High settings provide the best compromise, while 1440p High offers a near-ideal balance for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average frame rates shows a clear hierarchy across presets and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 258.2 FPS at Low, 181.3 FPS at Medium, 161 FPS at High, and 119 FPS at Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium is 76.9 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 20.3 FPS, and the drop from High to Ultra is 42 FPS. At 2560x1440, the results are 191.5 FPS at Low, 133.6 FPS at Medium, 120.3 FPS at High, and 90.1 FPS at Ultra. The 1440p data shows a 57.9 FPS difference between Low and Medium, a 13.3 FPS difference between Medium and High, and a 30.2 FPS difference between High and Ultra. At 3840x2160, the system produces 123.9 FPS at Low, 88.5 FPS at Medium, 78.8 FPS at High, and 57.3 FPS at Ultra.

The 4K results are particularly telling: even at Low settings, the frame rate exceeds 120 FPS, which is impressive for a 4K resolution. However, the gap between Medium and High at 4K is only 9.7 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is becoming saturated as settings increase. The Ultra preset at 4K falls below 60 FPS, which is the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay in a competitive FPS. Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low and Medium offer the highest headroom, High offers the best balance, and Ultra sacrifices too much performance for the visual gain in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination ranks 435th out of 1637 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 26.6% of all configurations. This is a strong result, particularly considering that the GPU is positioned in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. The combo’s ranking is driven by the GPU’s high performance, as the measured frame rates at 1440p High (120.3 FPS) and 4K High (78.8 FPS) are well above the averages for most systems.

The ranking indicates that this pairing is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming and capable 4K play, but it is not at the very top tier, which would require a more powerful CPU to avoid the slight bottleneck seen at 1080p Low. The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, is virtually identical in average benchmark score (35802 vs. 35684, a deltaPct of -0.3), while the Intel Core i7-13700T is 0.6% behind. The GPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 575, is also nearly identical (39703 vs. 39647, a deltaPct of -0.1). This suggests that the combo’s 435th rank is not due to any single weak component, but rather the inherent balance of a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. For Lockdown Protocol specifically, the data shows this combo is a solid choice for 1440p competitive play, with 4K as a viable secondary option at High settings.