Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers a mid-range 1080p and 1440p experience in Lockdown Protocol, but the data indicates that the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution and settings increase. Benchmark results show the combo achieves a rank of 2577 out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. The measured FPS figures reveal a system capable of high refresh rates at 1080p on lower settings, yet one that struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 99 frames per second Rush, which is the most demanding setting tested for this resolution.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra compared to 1080p Low?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS drops to 35, while at 1920x1080 Low, the average is 160 FPS. This represents a performance reduction of over 75% when moving from the lowest to the highest workload.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures recorded at Medium settings?

A: The data shows minimum FPS values for Medium settings only: 96 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K. No minimum FPS values are listed for Low, High, or Ultra settings.

Q: How much faster is the 1080p Low result compared to the 1440p Low result?

A: The 1080p Low average is 160 FPS, while the 1440p Low average is 117 FPS. This represents a 43 FPS difference, or approximately 37% higher performance at the lower resolution.

Q: What is the combo's global ranking among tested configurations?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination ranks 2577 out of 3714 total tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 69th percentile of all recorded configurations.

Q: Is the Radeon RX 7600's 8 GB VRAM a limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus. While the FPS data shows playable results at 1080p and 1440p, the significant frame rate drops at 4K suggest that memory bandwidth and capacity may contribute to the performance ceiling at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip fabricated on a 6 nm process. It features 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with 32 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1720 MHz and a boost clock of 2655 MHz, while its game clock is rated at 2250 MHz. Memory runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth through an 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 128-bit interface.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 160 FPS, indicating that the CPU is likely feeding frames efficiently. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 35 FPS, a 78% reduction from the 1080p Low figure. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution: at 1080p, the difference is 86 FPS (160 vs 74), while at 4K it is 41 FPS (76 vs 35). This pattern suggests that the RX 7600's compute throughput and memory subsystem are the limiting factors at higher resolutions and quality presets.

The GPU's pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s provide theoretical ceilings that align with the measured results. The FP32 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS supports the card's mid-range positioning, which is reflected in its 57th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2310 and Passmark G3D score of 16634 further contextualize its performance tier. Notably, the GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (deltaPct -0.2) and AMD Radeon Pro 560X (deltaPct 0.6), indicating that the RX 7600 sits at a competitive level for its class.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination achieves a rank of 2577 out of 3714 tested configurations in Lockdown Protocol. This places the combo in the lower third of the database, with approximately 69% of tested systems performing better. The ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range nature rather than a CPU bottleneck, as the i7-14700K is a high-end processor with a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

The GPU's own percentile ranking of 57 among all GPUs is more telling for gaming performance. The RX 7600's average benchmark score of 15171 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199, deltaPct -0.2) and AMD Radeon 680M (15270, deltaPct -0.7). This suggests that in synthetic tests, the GPU performs at a level comparable to entry-level and integrated solutions, which explains why the combo does not rank higher in a game like Lockdown Protocol.

The CPU's synthetic scores, by contrast, are robust: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33440.5 and a Geekbench multicore score of 20767. The i7-14700K's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct -0.2) and AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (deltaPct -0.7), all within 1% of each other. This contrast between CPU and GPU performance tiers explains the combo's overall position: the processor has headroom, but the graphics card caps the gaming experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 160 FPS, while Medium settings average 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 and maximum of 130. High settings reduce the average to 99 FPS, and Ultra settings bring it down to 74 FPS. These figures indicate that 1080p gaming is viable across all quality presets, with even Ultra maintaining above 60 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low settings average 117 FPS, Medium settings average 83 FPS with a range of 71 to 96, High settings average 73 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 54 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result falls below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that users seeking smooth gameplay at this resolution should consider High settings or lower.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings average 76 FPS, Medium settings average 54 FPS with a range of 46 to 62, High settings average 47 FPS, and Ultra settings average 35 FPS. The 4K results show that only Low settings can maintain a playable frame rate, and even then, the margin above 60 FPS is thin. The minimum FPS of 46 at 4K Medium highlights the instability at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a pattern consistent with GPU-bound behavior. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 160 at 1080p to 117 at 1440p and 76 at 4K. This represents a 27% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a further 35% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 84 FPS, or 52.5%.

At High settings, the scaling is steeper in percentage terms. The average FPS falls from 99 at 1080p to 73 at 1440p and 47 at 4K. This is a 26% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 36% drop from 1440p to 4K, with a total reduction of 52 FPS (52.5%). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests a uniform scaling factor tied to pixel count rather than settings complexity.

The Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling. From 74 FPS at 1080p, the average drops to 54 FPS at 1440p and 35 FPS at 4K. The 1440p to 4K drop of 19 FPS represents a 35% reduction, while the 1080p to 1440p drop of 20 FPS is a 27% reduction. These figures indicate that the RX 7600's rendering pipeline saturates at 4K Ultra, where the pixel throughput demands exceed the GPU's capabilities. The limiting component is clearly the GPU, as the CPU's strong multicore performance (Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33440.5) would not be expected to bottleneck at these frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU features a substantial cache hierarchy: 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory via a dual-channel interface.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but it provides the foundation for high frame rates at 1080p. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2160 and Geekbench single-core score of 2569, supports the 160 FPS result at 1080p Low. The 20-core configuration with 28 threads ensures that background tasks and game logic do not starve the rendering pipeline.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all processors underscores its high-end positioning. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 9115 (deltaPct 0.1) and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct -0.2), showing that it performs within 1% of these top-tier chips. The Passmark multithread score of 52392 and Passmark single-thread score of 4472 further demonstrate its capability. However, the data shows that this processing power is not fully utilized at 4K, where the RX 7600's 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth become the constraining factors. At 1080p, the CPU-GPU balance is more equitable, allowing the combo to reach 160 FPS on Low settings, but the GPU's 57th percentile ranking limits the system's overall gaming potential.