Lockdown Protocol

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-12700K compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-12700K posts an average benchmark score of 35287, placing it within 0.4% of its nearest competitors. It trails the Intel Core i7-13700T and Intel Core 5 213PE by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively, while sitting just 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-13600T and 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-12700KF. This puts the CPU in the 84th percentile of all processors.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile and how does it rank against its nearest rivals?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB sits in the 19th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2913. It outperforms the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF by 0.1% and the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB by 0.2%, while trailing the NVIDIA Quadro P600 by 0.3% and beating the RTX 4010 by 0.7%.

Q: What are the core and clock specifications of the CPU in this combo?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K features 12 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It uses the Alder Lake-S architecture on a 10 nm process, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache.

Q: What memory specifications does the GPU bring to this combo?

A: The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a memory clock of 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) and a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 2310 MHz with a boost clock of 2535 MHz.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol?

A: This configuration ranks 1436th out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the field. The data is measured, not estimated.

Q: What is the best average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 219 average FPS, which is the highest measured result across all resolutions and settings. Medium settings deliver 155 FPS, High settings 136 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 102 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, featuring 4352 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. Its 34 ray tracing cores and 136 tensor cores handle the FPS genre's lighting and AI-enhanced features, while the 22.06 TFLOPS FP32 throughput provides the raw compute headroom for Lockdown Protocol's visual effects.

Memory configuration is critical here. The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 128-bit bus delivers 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with 18 Gbps effective memory speed. This is a modest bandwidth figure for a 40-series card, and the data shows its impact: at 4K Ultra, average FPS drops to 48, indicating the memory subsystem struggles when texture and geometry demands scale up. The 128-bit bus width means the GPU must constantly fetch data from VRAM, and 8 GB can become a constraint in high-resolution scenarios where the game's assets exceed that capacity.

The GPU's boost clock of 2535 MHz is relatively high, and the 121.7 GPixel/s pixel rate and 344.8 GTexel/s texture rate suggest strong fill-rate capabilities. In Lockdown Protocol's measured results, the GPU demonstrates clear scaling with settings: at 1440p, dropping from High to Low increases average FPS from 99 to 160, a 61.6% uplift. This sensitivity to settings indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher quality presets, particularly as resolution increases.

The GPU's 19th percentile ranking among all GPUs is low, but in this specific game, the measured FPS shows it handles 1080p and 1440p comfortably. The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB's nearest rival, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, scores nearly identically (2907 vs 2913, a 0.2% difference), suggesting that VRAM capacity alone doesn't drive performance in synthetic tests — but the 8 GB variant's limitations may surface in extended 4K sessions where memory pressure builds.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear resolution scaling pattern. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 219 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 160 FPS, a 26.9% reduction. At 4K Low, average FPS falls further to 104, representing a 52.5% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This scaling is steeper than what would be expected if the CPU were the primary constraint, pointing to the GPU as the limiting factor.

At Medium settings, the progression is similar: 155 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p (26.5% lower), and 74 FPS at 4K (52.3% lower). High settings show 136 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p (27.2% lower), and 64 FPS at 4K (52.9% lower). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings — hovering around 27% from 1080p to 1440p and 52% from 1080p to 4K — indicates that resolution scaling is governed by pixel throughput rather than settings complexity.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic degradation: 102 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p (26.5% lower), and 48 FPS at 4K (52.9% lower). The 4K Ultra result of 48 FPS is barely playable for a competitive FPS title, and the consistent 52% reduction suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth is saturated at 4K regardless of preset. The 8 GB VRAM capacity likely causes texture thrashing at 4K Ultra, where the game's highest-quality textures exceed available memory.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect diminishing FPS drops as resolution increases, because higher resolutions offload work to the GPU while CPU workload stays constant. Instead, the near-linear scaling in FPS reduction with pixel count indicates the RTX 4060 Ti's 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 128-bit bus are the constraining factors at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce 219 average FPS, which is the highest measured figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 155 average FPS with a minimum of 132 and maximum of 179. High settings drop to 136 average FPS, while Ultra settings still maintain a playable 102 average FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 117 FPS, showing significant headroom for competitive play on lower presets.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains solid but shows the GPU beginning to strain. Low settings achieve 160 average FPS, a 26.9% reduction from 1080p. Medium settings produce 114 average FPS with a range of 97 to 131. High settings deliver 99 average FPS, while Ultra settings fall to 75 average FPS. The 1440p results indicate that competitive 144Hz+ gameplay is achievable only on Low settings, with Medium and High falling below that threshold.

At 3840x2160, the combo's limitations become pronounced. Low settings still manage 104 average FPS, which is respectable for 4K. Medium settings drop to 74 average FPS with a range of 62 to 85, indicating noticeable frame pacing issues at the lower end. High settings produce 64 average FPS, barely above the 60 FPS standard. Ultra settings yield just 48 average FPS, which is below the playability threshold for a fast-paced FPS title.

The Medium settings rows are the only ones with complete min/max data, providing insight into frame consistency. At 4K Medium, the 62 FPS minimum versus 85 maximum shows a 27% variance, which can cause perceptible stutter. At 1440p Medium, the range is 97 to 131 (a 26% spread), and at 1080p Medium, 132 to 179 (a 26% spread). This consistent 26-27% variance across resolutions suggests the GPU's frame pacing is uniform, but the absolute minimums at 4K are concerning for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB ranks 1436th out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the 61.3rd percentile of all configurations, meaning roughly 38.7% of tested combos perform worse. The rank reflects a balanced mid-range setup that can handle the game at 1080p and 1440p with high frame rates, but falls behind more powerful GPU pairings at 4K.

The CPU's contribution to this rank is substantial. The i7-12700K's 84th percentile standing among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35287, ensures the processor is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. Its nearest rivals — the i5-13600T, i7-12700KF, i7-13700T, and Core 5 213PE — all score within 0.4% of each other, indicating that any of these CPUs would yield similar results in Lockdown Protocol when paired with the same GPU.

The GPU's 19th percentile rank is the weaker link. The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB's average benchmark score of 2913 places it in the lower fifth of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (0.2% faster) and the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF (0.1% faster). The fact that the 16 GB version scores nearly identically suggests that in synthetic tests, the 8 GB capacity isn't penalized — but the game's 4K Ultra results (48 FPS) indicate real-world VRAM pressure that synthetic benchmarks may not capture.

The combo's rank of 1436 out of 3714 suggests it sits in the upper-middle tier of tested configurations. For a 1080p-focused gamer, this rank likely understates the experience, as the measured 219 FPS at Low settings exceeds any display's refresh rate. For 4K enthusiasts, the rank accurately reflects the GPU's inability to maintain high frame rates at that resolution with this particular title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K brings substantial processing power to this combo. With 12 cores and 20 threads, it provides ample parallelism for Lockdown Protocol's game logic, physics calculations, and AI routines. The Alder Lake architecture's hybrid design, while not explicitly detailed in the data, benefits from the 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 80 KB of L1 cache per core, which reduces memory latency for frequently accessed game data.

The CPU's clock speeds are a key asset. With a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, the i7-12700K can deliver high single-thread performance when needed. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1850.5 and multi-core score of 19784 indicate strong performance across both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 and 16-thread score of 9276 further confirm balanced capability.

In Lockdown Protocol, an FPS title, single-thread performance often matters more than raw core counts for frame generation. The i7-12700K's 3DMark 2-thread score of 2065 and 4-thread score of 4011 show it can handle lightly-threaded game loops efficiently. The Geekbench single-core score of 2308 and multi-core score of 15790 reinforce this picture, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU with draw calls and physics updates without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35287, places it well above the GPU's 19th percentile. This asymmetry means that in most Lockdown Protocol scenarios, the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU's nearest rivals — all scoring within 0.4% — are similarly capable, so any CPU in this performance class would likely produce comparable FPS when paired with the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB.

The 125W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform support DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with dual-channel memory bus. The 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes provide sufficient bandwidth for the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. This CPU-GPU pairing is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the GPU's capability aligns with the CPU's ability to keep up with frame generation demands.

Settings Recommendations

For competitive play at 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 219 average FPS, which is the best measured performance in this dataset. This preset maximizes frame rate and minimizes input latency, making it ideal for fast-paced FPS action where reaction time matters more than visual fidelity. The 219 FPS figure exceeds all common high-refresh displays (144Hz, 165Hz, 240Hz), so players can fully utilize their monitor's capabilities.

At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 160 average FPS, which still supports high-refresh gameplay. Medium settings drop to 114 average FPS, which is suitable for 120Hz displays but may feel less responsive for competitive play. High settings at 99 average FPS are acceptable for casual play on 60-100Hz displays, while Ultra at 75 FPS offers a visual upgrade but sacrifices the frame rate headroom needed for competitive advantage.

For players prioritizing visual quality over frame rate, Medium settings at 1080p provide the best balance, with 155 average FPS and a minimum of 132. This preset maintains high frame rates while improving visual fidelity over Low. The 132 FPS minimum ensures that even demanding scenes stay above 120 FPS, providing consistent gameplay without noticeable hitches.

At 4K, the recommendations depend heavily on the player's tolerance for frame rate. Low settings at 104 average FPS are the only 4K preset that maintains triple-digit performance, making it the recommended choice for 4K competitive play. Medium settings at 74 average FPS are playable for casual gamers, but the 62 FPS minimum indicates potential frame drops during intense action sequences. High settings at 64 average FPS and Ultra at 48 average FPS are not recommended for this FPS title, as the frame rates fall below the smoothness threshold required for responsive aiming.

The best overall experience, balancing visual quality and performance, is Medium settings at 2560x1440 with 114 average FPS. This combination provides a 26% resolution increase over 1080p while maintaining frame rates above 100 FPS, and the 97 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay throughout. For those with 144Hz 1440p displays, Low settings at 1440p (160 FPS) are the optimal choice to fully utilize the refresh rate capability.