Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i7-12700KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers a dominant Lockdown Protocol experience across every resolution tested, with the combo ranking 83rd out of 3,714 recorded configurations. The data shows a system capable of triple-digit frame rates even at 4K Ultra, while 1080p Low pushes past 300 FPS, making this pairing one of the most potent tested for this FPS title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how Lockdown Protocol scales with resolution and settings, and the pattern clearly indicates where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the RTX 5090 produces 313 FPS average; moving to 1440p Low drops that to 276 FPS, and 4K Low lands at 178 FPS. That represents a 56.9% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, suggesting that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is still heavily engaged at higher resolutions.

The scaling pattern changes dramatically when examining Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the system averages 175 FPS, which is remarkably close to the 178 FPS seen at 4K Low. This proximity suggests that at 1080p with maxed-out settings, the CPU is beginning to assert its influence, as the frame rate ceiling appears to hover around the 175-180 FPS mark regardless of resolution when settings are pushed to Ultra. At 1440p Ultra, the average drops to 128 FPS, and 4K Ultra falls to 83 FPS, showing a much steeper scaling curve at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset tells an interesting story. At 1080p Medium, the average is 268 FPS with a minimum of 227 FPS and maximum of 308 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium yields 196 FPS average (167 min, 226 max), and 4K Medium produces 127 FPS (108 min, 146 max). The step from 1080p to 1440p at Medium is a 26.9% reduction, while the step from 1440p to 4K is a 35.2% reduction. This non-linear scaling indicates that the RTX 5090's immense memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s and 32 GB of GDDR7 memory keep the GPU fed even at 4K, but pixel throughput demands eventually catch up.

High settings follow a similar trajectory: 234 FPS at 1080p, 171 FPS at 1440p (a 26.9% drop), and 111 FPS at 4K (a 35.1% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Medium and High presets suggests Lockdown Protocol's rendering load scales predictably with resolution, and the RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute capacity is the primary limiter at these settings rather than memory or CPU constraints.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings a colossal specification sheet to Lockdown Protocol, and the measured results reflect its capabilities. Built on the GB202 chip with Blackwell 2.0 architecture on a 5 nm process from TSMC, this GPU packs 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs. The boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz drive the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput that powers the high frame rates seen in the data.

Memory configuration is a defining feature here. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. In Lockdown Protocol, even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains an 83 FPS average, and the memory subsystem's headroom is evident when comparing Low to Ultra at the same resolution. At 4K, the difference between Low (178 FPS) and Ultra (83 FPS) is substantial, indicating that the GPU's shading and rasterization workload, not memory capacity, drives the performance delta.

The RTX 5090's benchmark profile reinforces its position. It scores 18,355 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 376,728 in Geekbench Vulkan, and 334,370 in Geekbench OpenCL. Its PassMark G3D score of 39,650 and GPU compute score of 26,756 place it in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. The nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% higher average score), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% higher), and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (1.4% lower), though these comparisons reflect synthetic benchmarks rather than Lockdown Protocol-specific performance.

The GPU's 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores support DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring full API compatibility for modern FPS titles. The 575 W TDP and dual-slot design with a 950 W suggested PSU indicate this is a power-hungry part, but the measured frame rates justify the thermal envelope.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing Lockdown Protocol on this hardware. The Medium preset emerges as the sweet spot across resolutions, offering a balanced experience with headroom for competitive play. At 4K Medium, the system delivers 127 FPS average with a 108 FPS minimum and 146 FPS maximum. This frame rate comfortably exceeds the 100 FPS threshold that many FPS players consider essential for smooth aiming, and the minimum frame rate of 108 FPS suggests consistent performance without severe drops.

For 1440p users, Medium delivers 196 FPS average (167 min, 226 max), which is exceptionally fluid for a competitive shooter. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 25 FPS (196 to 171), a 12.8% reduction that may not be worth the visual fidelity gain in a fast-paced title where frame rate matters more than texture detail. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 128 FPS, which remains playable but sacrifices 34.7% of the Medium preset's average frame rate.

At 1080p, the recommendation shifts slightly. Medium produces 268 FPS average with a 227 FPS minimum, while High delivers 234 FPS. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Medium preset's 268 FPS average approaches the ceiling of most 240 Hz displays. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 313 FPS, but the visual compromise in a modern FPS title is substantial, and the marginal frame rate gain over Medium (45 FPS, or 16.8%) rarely justifies the reduced visual clarity for target acquisition.

The 4K Ultra preset at 83 FPS average is the only configuration that dips below 100 FPS in the measured data. While this remains playable on many displays, the 35.2% drop from 4K Medium to 4K Ultra suggests diminishing returns. Players prioritizing competitive performance should select Medium at any resolution; those seeking maximum visual quality on a 4K display can use High at 111 FPS as a compromise that keeps frame rates above 100 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play with this hardware?

A: The data shows 1080p Medium delivers 268 FPS average with a 227 FPS minimum, making it the strongest choice for competitive scenarios. The 1440p Medium preset at 196 FPS average is also viable for players wanting higher resolution without sacrificing frame rate.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol?

A: Yes, all 4K presets exceed 60 FPS. The 4K Medium preset provides 127 FPS average with a 108 FPS minimum, while 4K High reaches 111 FPS. Even 4K Ultra maintains 83 FPS, which is playable on standard 60 Hz displays.

Q: Is the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures the GPU never faces memory capacity constraints in Lockdown Protocol. The measured scaling between resolutions indicates the GPU's compute capacity, not VRAM size, limits performance.

Q: How does the Core i7-12700KF perform relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 35,365 places it in the 85th percentile among all processors. It trails the Intel Core i7-13700T by 0.1% and the Intel Core 5 213PE by 0.2% in average score, while leading the Intel Core i5-13600T by 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-12700K by 0.2%.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p Ultra?

A: The measured data shows 128 FPS average at 1440p Ultra. This is 34.7% lower than the 1440p Medium preset's 196 FPS, indicating Ultra settings impose a significant rendering cost.

Q: Does the system bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: The 313 FPS average at 1080p Low is the highest measured result in the dataset. The relatively small drop to 276 FPS at 1440p Low (an 11.8% reduction) compared to larger drops at higher settings suggests the CPU or game engine imposes a frame rate ceiling near the 300 FPS mark.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF anchors this system with 12 cores and 20 threads from the Alder Lake architecture on Intel Socket 1700. The base clock of 3.60 GHz boosts to 5.00 GHz, and the 25 MB shared L3 cache provides substantial headroom for game logic and physics processing. The 10 nm process node and 215 mm² die size house the 12 physical cores that include performance and efficiency core configurations.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded capability. Cinebench R23 scores reach 28,838 in multi-core and 4,071 in single-core, while Geekbench reports 14,367 multi-core and 2,255 single-core. PassMark multi-thread scoring hits 34,092, with single-thread at 3,984. The 3DMark results demonstrate scaling from 2,065 for 2 threads to 9,983 for max threads, indicating the 20-thread configuration efficiently utilizes available parallelism.

The CPU's role in Lockdown Protocol becomes evident when examining the frame rate patterns at 1080p. At Low settings, the system produces 313 FPS, but the Ultra preset at 1080p yields 175 FPS. This 44.1% reduction at the same resolution points to the GPU becoming the limiting factor as settings increase, even with the RTX 5090's massive compute resources. Conversely, the relatively modest 11.8% frame rate drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower settings, and the RTX 5090's pixel throughput handles the resolution increase efficiently.

The 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier make this processor a flexible choice for overclocking, and its DDR4/DDR5 dual-channel memory support offers platform flexibility. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35,365, places it within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Core i5-13600T, and within 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-13700T. This tight clustering indicates the 12700KF sits at a performance plateau where synthetic benchmarks show minimal differentiation from its closest competitors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete FPS dataset for Lockdown Protocol with the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 covers three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 313 FPS average, Medium produces 268 FPS average with 227 FPS minimum and 308 FPS maximum, High reaches 234 FPS, and Ultra delivers 175 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 138 FPS, representing a 44.1% reduction in average frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the scaling continues. Low delivers 276 FPS average, Medium yields 196 FPS (167 min, 226 max), High produces 171 FPS, and Ultra drops to 128 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 1440p is 148 FPS, a 53.6% reduction from the Low preset. The minimum frame rate for Medium at 1440p is 167 FPS, which remains above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors.

The 3840x2160 results show the most dramatic scaling. Low achieves 178 FPS average, Medium produces 127 FPS (108 min, 146 max), High delivers 111 FPS, and Ultra falls to 83 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 95 FPS, a 53.4% reduction. Notably, the 4K Medium minimum of 108 FPS matches the 4K High average of 111 FPS, indicating that Medium provides more consistent frame pacing than the settings preset's average suggests.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings reveals consistent scaling factors. For Medium, the 1080p-to-1440p reduction is 26.9%, and the 1440p-to-4K reduction is 35.2%. High settings show identical percentage drops: 26.9% from 1080p to 1440p, and 35.1% from 1440p to 4K. Ultra settings show a slightly different pattern with a 26.9% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 35.2% drop from 1440p to 4K. Low settings deviate from this pattern, with an 11.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 35.5% drop from 1440p to 4K, reinforcing that the Low preset is less resolution-sensitive at lower pixel counts.

The RTX 5090's raw performance metrics align with these results. Its pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s provide the throughput needed for 4K rendering, while the 176 ROPs handle the final pixel output stage. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute capacity directly supports the shader workload, and the 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth ensures the 32 GB frame buffer never starves the GPU cores. This combination yields the high frame rates observed across all settings and resolutions in the measured dataset.