Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers a compelling Lockdown Protocol experience, with measured frame rates ranging from a minimum of 67 FPS at 4K Ultra to a maximum of 305 FPS at 1080p Low. This combination demonstrates strong headroom across all tested configurations, though the scaling patterns reveal distinct bottlenecks depending on resolution and settings. The data set shows this combo ranking 428th out of 3,714 tested combinations, placing it comfortably in the top 11.5% of all configurations evaluated for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound performance at higher resolutions, with the CPU taking on increasing importance as resolution drops. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 305 FPS, which drops to 224 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 144 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 52.8% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting factor even at the lowest quality preset.

At High settings, the scaling is more moderate: 189 FPS at 1080p, 139 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs 26.5% of performance, while moving from 1440p to 4K costs another 35.3%. This progressive degradation suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being increasingly taxed as pixel count grows, though the card maintains playable frame rates even at 4K.

The Medium preset shows the most complete data, with minimum and maximum FPS recorded for each resolution. At 1080p, the combo averages 217 FPS with a minimum of 184 FPS and maximum of 249 FPS. At 1440p, the average drops to 159 FPS with min/max of 135/183 FPS. At 4K, the average falls to 103 FPS with min/max of 87/118 FPS. The narrowing gap between resolutions at Medium compared to Low suggests that the GPU is becoming the dominant constraint, as the CPU has fewer instructions to process per frame at lower quality settings.

Ultra settings amplify this trend dramatically. The combo delivers 142 FPS at 1080p, 104 FPS at 1440p, and 67 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K delta of 52.8% at Ultra is nearly identical to the Low preset's delta, suggesting that at extreme quality levels, the GPU's rendering pipeline—including its 7,680 shading units and 80 ROPs—is saturated regardless of resolution. The 4K Ultra result of 67 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below the 90 FPS threshold, indicating that this preset pushes the hardware to its limits.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: Based on the measured data, 1440p offers the best balance. At High settings, the combo delivers 139 FPS at 1440p, which is 73.5% of the 1080p High result but with significantly more visual detail. The 4K High result of 90 FPS is playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals based on benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 44,795, placing it 0.8% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152) and 1.3% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (45,384). It outperforms the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (44,075) by 1.6% and the Intel Arc A730M (45,592) by 1.7% in the wrong direction—meaning the Arc A730M scores 1.7% higher.

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

A: At 1080p, the combo achieves 305 FPS on Low and 142 FPS on Ultra, a difference of 163 FPS or 53.4%. The Medium preset (217 FPS) sits between these extremes, while High (189 FPS) offers a middle ground.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at lower resolutions?

A: The data suggests some CPU limitation at 1080p Low. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p (305 to 217 FPS) is 28.9%, while at 4K the same settings change (144 to 103 FPS) is 28.5%. The similar percentages indicate the CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads are keeping pace, but the 5.00 GHz boost clock is likely the ceiling at 1080p Low.

Q: How does the i7-12700K compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i7-12700K has an average benchmark score of 35,287, which is 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-13600T (35,305), 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-12700KF (35,365), 0.3% behind the Intel Core i7-13700T (35,403), and 0.4% behind the Intel Core 5 213PE (35,428). All four rivals are within a 0.4% margin, making them effectively equivalent in synthetic tests.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded across all configurations?

A: The lowest minimum FPS is 87 FPS, recorded at 4K Medium. The 1080p Medium minimum is 184 FPS, and the 1440p Medium minimum is 135 FPS. No minimum FPS data is available for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination ranks 428th out of 3,714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 88.5th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the combo's strong but not class-leading performance—it sits ahead of the vast majority of systems while trailing the most extreme hardware pairings.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 84th against all CPUs and the GPU's identical 84th percentile against all GPUs suggest a balanced pairing. The i7-12700K's average benchmark score of 35,287 and the RTX 4070 Ti's 44,795 indicate that neither component is dramatically outperforming or holding back the other. The combo's 428th rank out of 3,714 is consistent with this balance, as mismatched pairings typically rank lower due to bottlenecking.

Relative to the CPU's nearest rivals, the i7-12700K is virtually tied with the i5-13600T (-0.1%), i7-12700KF (-0.2%), i7-13700T (-0.3%), and Core 5 213PE (-0.4%). These sub-0.5% deltas mean that swapping to any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical Lockdown Protocol performance. For the GPU, the RTX 4070 Ti's closest competitor is the RTX 5090 Mobile at -0.8%, while the RTX A6000 trails by 1.6%.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. Low settings produce 305 FPS average, Medium produces 217 FPS with a minimum of 184 FPS and maximum of 249 FPS, High produces 189 FPS, and Ultra produces 142 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is substantial at 163 FPS, indicating that quality settings have a profound impact at this resolution.

The 2560x1440 results show a clear step down. Low averages 224 FPS, Medium averages 159 FPS with min/max of 135/183 FPS, High averages 139 FPS, and Ultra averages 104 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs between 25.7% (Low) and 26.8% (Ultra) of performance, demonstrating consistent scaling across presets.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Low averages 144 FPS, Medium averages 103 FPS with min/max of 87/118 FPS, High averages 90 FPS, and Ultra averages 67 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 67 FPS is the only measured configuration below 90 FPS, and the 4K Medium minimum of 87 FPS highlights the GPU's struggle at this resolution. The scaling from 1440p to 4K costs between 35.3% (High) and 35.7% (Low) of performance, a steeper drop than the 1080p to 1440p transition.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 192-bit bus interface deliver 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Lockdown Protocol's texture-heavy scenes. The GPU's 7,680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs provide the raw compute necessary for the measured frame rates. Its base clock of 2310 MHz and boost clock of 2610 MHz are the driving frequencies behind these results.

The GPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks correlates well with in-game results. Its passmark G3D score of 31,624 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,024 indicate strong DirectX 12 performance, which Lockdown Protocol likely leverages. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 176,953 and Vulkan score of 213,808 suggest the card handles compute-heavy workloads efficiently.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck, with the 67 FPS result highlighting the limitations of the AD104 chip's 294 mm² die size and 35,800 million transistors. The 4K Medium minimum of 87 FPS further demonstrates that even mid-range quality settings strain the GPU at this resolution. The GPU's TDP of 285 W and suggested 600 W PSU indicate the power headroom available, though the measured data shows the card reaching its practical limits at 4K.

The RTX 4070 Ti's position in the GeForce 40-series—with its predecessor being GeForce 30 and successor being GeForce 50—reflects its mid-generation placement. Its 84th percentile ranking against all GPUs and the close margins to its nearest rivals (all within 1.7%) suggest that Lockdown Protocol performance is representative of the card's overall capability.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting the highest frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 305 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play on high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 1080p (217 FPS average, 184 FPS minimum) offers a better balance of visual quality and performance, with the minimum FPS still comfortably above 144 Hz thresholds.

At 1440p, the High preset (139 FPS) provides the best experience for most players—it maintains frame rates above 120 FPS while offering significantly better visuals than Medium (159 FPS) or Low (224 FPS). The Ultra preset at 1440p (104 FPS) is viable for those prioritizing quality over frame rate, but the 35 FPS drop from High to Ultra may not justify the visual gains.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset (103 FPS average, 87 FPS minimum) is the recommended choice. The High preset (90 FPS) is playable but leaves little headroom, while Ultra (67 FPS) fails to maintain consistent 60+ FPS in demanding scenes. The Low preset at 4K (144 FPS) sacrifices too much visual fidelity for the resolution upgrade to be worthwhile.

The data suggests that the Medium preset at any resolution provides the most consistent experience, as it is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values showing tight frame pacing. The 4K Medium minimum of 87 FPS and 1440p Medium minimum of 135 FPS both indicate stable performance, while the 1080p Medium minimum of 184 FPS shows the combo has substantial headroom at this resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K's 12 cores and 20 threads, arranged in the Alder Lake hybrid architecture, provide the processing power necessary to feed the RTX 4070 Ti in Lockdown Protocol. The CPU's base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz are crucial for maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed.

The CPU's cache hierarchy—80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 25 MB shared L3—ensures that frequently accessed game data remains close to the cores. The 10 nm process node and 215 mm² die size contribute to the CPU's 125 W TDP, which is moderate for a 12-core desktop processor.

Synthetic benchmarks show the i7-12700K's strength in multi-threaded workloads: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19,784 and single-core score of 1,850.5, Geekbench multi-core of 15,790 and single-core of 2,308, and PassMark multi-thread score of 34,404. These results indicate that the CPU can handle both the game logic and background tasks simultaneously.

The CPU's 84th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with its nearest rivals all within 0.4% in average benchmark score, suggests that the i7-12700K is not the limiting factor in this combo. The 1080p Low result of 305 FPS approaches the CPU's practical ceiling, but the 5.00 GHz boost clock keeps performance competitive.

The CPU's support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory, dual-channel interface, and PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 4070 Ti's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but unused in this configuration, as the discrete GPU handles all rendering tasks. The CPU's launch MSRP of $409 and unlocked multiplier make it a flexible choice for overclocking, though the measured data does not include overclocked results.