Lockdown Protocol

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

The measured FPS data for Lockdown Protocol reveals a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces 315 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 284 FPS, a reduction of 31 FPS. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 190 FPS. This represents a 39.7% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical preset, the game demands substantial GPU resources as pixel count rises.

The Medium settings row shows similar scaling with a twist. At 1080p Medium, the average is 277 FPS with a minimum of 235 FPS and maximum of 319 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 209 FPS with a minimum of 178 FPS and maximum of 241 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS and maximum of 155 FPS. The delta from 1080p to 4K at Medium is 142 FPS — a 51.3% reduction. This steeper percentage drop at Medium compared to Low suggests that the increased shading and texture work at Medium begins to saturate the GPU's compute resources more aggressively as resolution climbs.

High settings tell a similar story. The 1080p High average of 249 FPS falls to 183 FPS at 1440p and 118 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is 52.6% lower than the 1080p result. Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 187 FPS at 1080p, 137 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra average is 52.9% below the 1080p Ultra average. This consistent pattern across presets — roughly half the performance at 4K compared to 1080p — points to the GPU as the primary limiting factor in this game. The CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions, where the i7-12700K's 12 cores and 20 threads can feed frames at rates exceeding 300 FPS. But as resolution climbs, the RTX 5090 D's rendering workload grows proportionally, and the FPS curve bends downward accordingly.

What is notable is that the scaling is not perfectly linear. At Low settings, the drop from 1440p to 4K is 94 FPS, while the drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 31 FPS. This non-linear behavior suggests that at 4K Low, the GPU is hitting a memory bandwidth or fill-rate constraint that becomes more pronounced at higher pixel counts. The RTX 5090 D's GDDR7 memory operates at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed, and the 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Yet even this enormous bandwidth appears to be a bottleneck at 4K Low, where the GPU is otherwise underutilized.

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

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a rank of 23 out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the combo in the top 0.8% of all tested configurations, which is an exceptional result. The rank reflects the combined capability of this pairing to deliver high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings.

To contextualize this rank, the CPU's average benchmark score of 35287 places it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13600T with an average score of 35305 and a delta of -0.1%, the Intel Core i7-12700KF at 35365 with a delta of -0.2%, the Intel Core i7-13700T at 35403 with a delta of -0.3%, and the Intel Core 5 213PE at 35428 with a delta of -0.4%. These rivals are all within 0.4% of the i7-12700K's average score, indicating that the CPU sits in a tightly clustered performance band. The i7-12700K's 3.60 GHz base clock and 5.00 GHz boost clock, combined with its 12 cores and 20 threads, place it near the top of mid-range desktop processors from its generation.

The GPU side is more interesting. The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are surprising in their diversity: the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at 76904 with a delta of 1.1%, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78940 with a delta of -1.6%, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB at 79396 with a delta of -2.1%, and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB at 79605 with a delta of -2.4%. These mobile and datacenter parts bracket the RTX 5090 D's score within a 3.5% range, which is a narrow margin for a GPU with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 21760 shading units. The benchmark data suggests that raw compute scores do not fully capture the RTX 5090 D's gaming performance, as its rank in Lockdown Protocol is considerably higher than its GPU percentile might suggest.

The combo rank of 23 out of 2828 implies that the i7-12700K and RTX 5090 D pair particularly well in this specific game. The CPU's strong single-thread performance — evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1043 and passmark_single_thread score of 4013 — helps maintain high frame rates at 1080p, where the GPU is not the limiting factor. The GPU's massive compute resources then take over at higher resolutions. This synergy results in a top-tier ranking that neither component achieves individually in their respective percentile rankings.

# FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS measured for this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest average FPS is 315, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The second-highest is 284 FPS at 2560x1440 Low, followed by 277 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 23rd out of 2828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 0.8% of all configurations tested.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded, and at which settings?

A: The lowest average FPS is 88, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the only measured row that falls below 100 FPS average.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the limiting factor?

A: The data indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The FPS drops by roughly half from 1080p to 4K across all settings presets, while the CPU's 20 threads and 5.00 GHz boost clock appear sufficient to avoid bottlenecking at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the difference between the RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score and its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, scores 76904, which is 1.1% lower. The next closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, scores 78940, which is 1.6% higher.

Q: How does the i7-12700K's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i7-12700K's average benchmark score of 35287 is within 0.4% of all four nearest rivals. The Intel Core i5-13600T is 0.1% lower, the i7-12700KF is 0.2% lower, the i7-13700T is 0.3% lower, and the Intel Core 5 213PE is 0.4% lower.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across four resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 315 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 277 FPS average with a minimum of 235 FPS and maximum of 319 FPS. The High preset drops to 249 FPS average, while the Ultra preset produces 187 FPS average. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 128 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a 40.6% performance penalty relative to Low.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 284 FPS average, which is 31 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 209 FPS with a minimum of 178 FPS and maximum of 241 FPS. The High preset averages 183 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 137 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 147 FPS, which is wider than the 1080p spread. This indicates that the Ultra preset becomes relatively more expensive at higher resolution, likely due to increased shading complexity that scales with pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 190 FPS. The Medium preset averages 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS and maximum of 155 FPS, making it the only 4K preset with recorded minimum and maximum values. The High preset averages 118 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 88 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is 102 FPS, which is narrower than at 1440p. This narrowing suggests that at 4K, even the Low preset is heavily GPU-bound, reducing the relative impact of preset changes.

The Medium preset rows are the only ones that include minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the range is 235 to 319 FPS, a span of 84 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 178 to 241 FPS, a span of 63 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range is 115 to 155 FPS, a span of 40 FPS. This tightening of the frame time distribution as resolution increases suggests that the GPU's workload becomes more consistent at higher pixel counts, with fewer spikes or drops in frame rate.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The die contains 92,200 million transistors across a 750 mm² area, giving a transistor density of 122.9 million per square millimeter. This enormous chip houses 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation units. The GPU also includes 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. The base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and the memory operates at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed.

The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. In Lockdown Protocol, this memory configuration appears to be a significant asset. The game's measured FPS at 4K Ultra, 88 FPS average, suggests that the GPU is not memory-bandwidth limited at the highest settings. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s provide ample fill-rate capacity for the game's rendering demands.

The FP32 compute throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS is substantial, and the FP16 rate matches at 104.8 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio. This compute capacity is likely what enables the RTX 5090 D to maintain 190 FPS at 4K Low, where the game's simpler shading passes still require significant compute. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712, places it above most consumer graphics cards, though its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are somewhat unexpected — the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and RX 6850M XT are mobile parts, while the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants are datacenter accelerators. This suggests that the benchmark scores reflect compute workloads that differ from gaming performance, where the RTX 5090 D's gaming-specific features such as the dedicated ray tracing cores and tensor cores provide advantages not captured in those aggregate scores.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is an Alder Lake-S desktop processor with 12 cores and 20 threads. Its hybrid architecture combines performance cores with efficiency cores, though the FACT PACK does not specify the exact core distribution. The base clock is 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU has an 80 KB L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB L2 cache per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and its PCIe Gen 4 interface provides 20 lanes from the CPU.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance. Its 3dmark_max_threads score of 9979 and cinebench_r23_multicore score of 19784 indicate robust scaling across its 20 threads. The passmark_multithread score of 34404 and geekbench_multicore score of 15790 further confirm this capability. Single-thread performance is also respectable, with cinebench_r23_singlecore scoring 1850.5 and geekbench_singlecore scoring 2308. The 3dmark_single_thread score of 1043 and passmark_single_thread score of 4013 round out the picture.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the FPS scaling. At 1080p Low, the 315 FPS average suggests the CPU is capable of processing game logic and draw calls at extremely high rates. The fact that the 1080p Low result is 31 FPS higher than the 1440p Low result, but the 1440p Low result is 94 FPS higher than the 4K Low result, indicates that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck even at 1080p. If the CPU were limiting performance, the FPS would remain relatively constant across resolutions. Instead, the steady decline with increasing resolution points to GPU-bound behavior.

The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35287, places it in the upper tier of desktop processors. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.4% of its average score, indicating that the i7-12700K sits at the edge of a performance plateau. The Intel Core i5-13600T, i7-12700KF, i7-13700T, and Intel Core 5 213PE all achieve nearly identical average scores, suggesting that for Lockdown Protocol, any of these CPUs would deliver similar frame rates when paired with the RTX 5090 D.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Lockdown Protocol experience with this combo. At 1920x1080, all four presets deliver frame rates well above 144 Hz, with even the Ultra preset averaging 187 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p offers a strong balance with 277 FPS average and a minimum of 235 FPS, ensuring consistent frame pacing. For players with high refresh rate monitors, the Low preset at 315 FPS is the only option that approaches 300+ FPS territory, though the visual quality trade-off may not be worthwhile given that Ultra still exceeds 180 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 183 FPS average, which is sufficient for most high refresh rate displays. The Medium preset at 209 FPS provides additional headroom, while the Ultra preset at 137 FPS still comfortably exceeds 120 FPS. The Low preset at 284 FPS is the only 1440p option that approaches the 1080p Low result, though the visual differences between Low and High at this resolution are likely more noticeable than at 1080p. The data suggests that 1440p High is the sweet spot for this resolution, offering 183 FPS average while preserving visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the recommendation changes based on the target frame rate. The Low preset at 190 FPS is the only 4K option that exceeds 144 Hz, making it suitable for high refresh rate 4K monitors. The Medium preset at 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS is ideal for 120 Hz displays, providing sufficient headroom above the refresh rate. The High preset at 118 FPS is marginally above 60 Hz and suitable for standard 4K displays, while the Ultra preset at 88 FPS remains playable but falls below 90 FPS. For the best experience at 4K, the Medium preset offers the most balanced combination of visual quality and performance, with its 135 FPS average and 115 FPS minimum ensuring no drops below 60 FPS.