Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is a fast-paced FPS that stresses both CPU and GPU, and the combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 produces a wide spread of frame rates depending on how you configure it. The data reveals a system capable of extreme high-refresh-rate play at lower resolutions, but the demands of 4K Ultra quickly bring it back to earth. The following analysis breaks down the measured results to determine the best settings and what the numbers say about the underlying hardware.

FAQ

Q: What is the single highest average frame rate recorded for this combo, and at what settings?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 333, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is nearly double the 206 FPS average seen at the same resolution with High settings, showing a massive performance headroom when visual fidelity is reduced.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4080 compared to its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The benchmark scores show the RTX 4080 has an average score of 54247, while the RTX 4080 SUPER has an average score of 54209. This puts the RTX 4080 at a 0.1% higher score, meaning the performance difference between the two is effectively negligible.

Q: What is the most demanding setting tested at 4K, and what frame rate does it yield?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 is the most demanding configuration in the data, producing an average of 73 FPS. This is the lowest average frame rate recorded across all tests, indicating a significant load on the GPU.

Q: Is the Core i7-14700F more powerful than an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X according to the data?

A: Yes, the data shows the Core i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 53620, which is 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X's average score of 53288. The i7-14700F also edges out the AMD EPYC 7313P by 0.8%.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded at 1440p, and is it still playable?

A: The lowest average at 2560x1440 is 113 FPS, recorded with the Ultra settings preset. This is still well above the standard 60 FPS threshold and indicates that even the most demanding settings at this resolution are highly playable.

Q: How large is the gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The gap is substantial. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 333 FPS, while the Ultra preset produces an average of 155 FPS. This represents a performance drop of 178 FPS, or roughly 53%, when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data suggests that the choice of settings is heavily dependent on the target resolution and refresh rate. For competitive play at 1080p, the Low preset's 333 FPS average is the clear choice, offering the highest possible frame rate to minimize input latency and maximize responsiveness on high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 236 FPS is a strong alternative if some visual improvements are desired without a drastic performance hit.

At 1440p, the data points to the High preset as the sweet spot for a balanced experience. The 151 FPS average is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on most monitors, and it represents a significant visual upgrade over the Low preset's 244 FPS, which is likely unnecessary unless targeting a 240Hz display. The Ultra preset at 1440p, with its 113 FPS average, is still viable for those who prioritize image quality above all else.

For 4K gaming, the High preset is the recommended starting point. The 98 FPS average is good, but the Medium preset, with its 112 FPS average and recorded minimum of 95 FPS, offers a more consistent experience that stays above 60 FPS more comfortably. The Ultra preset's 73 FPS average is playable but may dip lower in intense scenes, making the High or Medium presets the more reliable options for a smooth 4K experience. The Low preset at 4K provides 157 FPS but sacrifices significant visual fidelity, which seems counterproductive at such a high resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear trend of increasing GPU dependency. At Low settings, the progression from 333 FPS at 1080p to 244 FPS at 1440p and finally 157 FPS at 4K shows a steady decline. This is a 53% drop from 1080p to 4K, which is substantial but not entirely linear, indicating that the CPU is still a significant factor at these lower graphical loads.

However, at Ultra settings, the scaling tells a different story. The frame rate drops from 155 FPS at 1080p to 113 FPS at 1440p, and then plummets to 73 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 35%, which is a more significant relative decrease than the 27% drop from 1080p to 1440p. This steeper decline at higher resolutions and settings strongly suggests that the GPU becomes the primary limiting component as the pixel count and graphical load increase.

The data implies that at 1080p and 1440p, the Core i7-14700F is powerful enough to keep feeding the RTX 4080, but the GPU's limits are reached at 4K Ultra. The difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K (157 FPS vs 73 FPS) highlights how much headroom the CPU has, with the GPU being the bottleneck when the graphics card is fully stressed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

3840x2160 (4K):

At 4K, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 73 FPS, which is the lowest performance point in the entire dataset. Dropping to High settings yields a significant improvement to 98 FPS, and the Medium preset offers a further boost to 112 FPS (with a minimum of 95 FPS and a maximum of 129 FPS). The Low preset produces an average of 157 FPS, showing that even at 4K, there is a wide range of performance available depending on how much visual quality you are willing to sacrifice.

2560x1440 (1440p):

The 1440p results show a similar pattern with higher overall numbers. The Ultra preset averages 113 FPS, which is surprisingly close to the 4K Medium result. The High preset jumps to 151 FPS, while the Medium preset provides an average of 173 FPS (with a minimum of 147 and a maximum of 199). The Low preset reaches an impressive 244 FPS average, making it a viable option for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming.

1920x1080 (1080p):

At 1080p, the system is clearly not GPU-bound in most scenarios. The Low preset achieves a massive 333 FPS average. The Medium preset follows at 236 FPS (with a minimum of 201 and a maximum of 272), and the High preset averages 206 FPS. Even the most demanding Ultra preset manages a very high 155 FPS average, meaning every setting at this resolution is capable of driving a high-refresh-rate monitor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, with its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, is the dominant factor in the higher-resolution results. The data shows that the most significant performance drops occur when moving to 4K Ultra, which stresses the GPU's 76 RT cores and 9728 shading units. The card's boost clock of 2505 MHz allows it to handle the intense computational load, but the 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is finite, and the 4K Ultra results reflect this limit.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, and its average score of 54247 is nearly identical to the RTX 4080 SUPER. The fact that the 4K Ultra setting yields just 73 FPS suggests that the game's most demanding visual features are heavily taxing the GPU. The 16 GB of VRAM is likely sufficient for this game at these settings, but the sheer processing power required to render at 4K with Ultra details is the main constraint. The performance scaling from Medium to High to Ultra at 4K (112 to 98 to 73 FPS) shows a clear correlation between the graphical load and the GPU's ability to keep up.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4958, is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in FPS games. The data suggests the CPU is not the primary bottleneck until the GPU is heavily loaded. At 1080p Low, the system hits 333 FPS, demonstrating the CPU's ability to feed frames to the GPU without issue.

The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and high boost clock are likely key factors in its ability to handle the game's physics and AI calculations. Its average benchmark score of 53620 places it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, and it outperforms rivals like the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X. The fact that the frame rate drops by 53% from 1080p Low to 4K Low (333 to 157 FPS) indicates that the CPU is still doing a significant amount of work, but the GPU is also being stressed at 4K. The CPU's role is to ensure that the GPU is never starved of data, and the high frame rates at lower resolutions confirm that it succeeds in this task.

How This Combo Ranks

The Core i7-14700F and RTX 4080 combination ranks 205th out of 3714 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol. This puts it in the top 5.5% of all configurations in the database, indicating a very high-performing setup for this specific title. The ranking reflects the combined strength of the two components, which individually score in the 91st and 86th percentiles, respectively.

This high rank is supported by the measured FPS data. The ability to achieve over 300 FPS at 1080p and over 150 FPS at 4K Low demonstrates that this combo is capable of handling a wide range of gaming scenarios. The rank suggests that while there are more powerful combinations, this pairing offers a level of performance that will satisfy most gamers, especially those targeting high refresh rates at 1440p or a solid 4K experience with adjusted settings. The close benchmark scores to the RTX 4080 SUPER also suggest that this combo's ranking is not significantly affected by the choice between these two GPUs.