Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i7-14700K + AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT

The tested configuration—Intel Core i7-14700K paired with AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT—delivers a well-rounded Lockdown Protocol experience across all three resolutions. The data shows a 43.3% overall combo rank (709 out of 1637 tested combinations), placing this build in the upper-middle tier for this FPS title. The pairing proves capable of high refresh rate play at 1080p, comfortable 1440p gaming, and playable 4K, with the CPU showing no signs of bottlenecking the GPU at any resolution.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p users chasing maximum frame rates, the Low preset delivers an outstanding 220.7 FPS average—nearly double the High preset's 134.3 FPS. However, the Medium preset at 153.3 FPS offers the best balance for competitive play, providing a 14.2% improvement over High while maintaining visual clarity. Ultra at 101.4 FPS remains above the 100 FPS threshold, making it viable for those prioritizing image quality over raw speed.

At 1440p, the Medium preset shines with 115.3 FPS, comfortably exceeding the 100 FPS target for smooth gameplay. High follows closely at 100.6 FPS, while Low reaches 160.4 FPS for esports-focused players. Ultra drops to 77.2 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less fluid. The data suggests Medium is the sweet spot at 1440p—it offers a 14.7 FPS advantage over High while maintaining similar visual fidelity.

For 4K gaming, the situation changes dramatically. Medium produces 71.8 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced FPS action. High manages 66.1 FPS, while Low hits 103.8 FPS—the only preset exceeding the 60 FPS comfort zone comfortably. Ultra falls to 47.4 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most competitive players. For 4K, the Low preset is the practical recommendation, offering over 30 FPS more than Medium while enabling smooth, responsive gameplay.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Lockdown Protocol at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes, but with caveats. The High preset at 3840x2160 produces 66.1 FPS average, which is playable for most users. However, the Low preset at 103.8 FPS provides a more comfortable margin for competitive play, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K.

Q: What is the best preset for competitive play at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 115.3 FPS is the optimal choice. It provides a 14.7 FPS improvement over High (100.6 FPS) while maintaining enough visual detail for target acquisition. Low reaches 160.4 FPS but sacrifices visual clarity that can aid in spotting enemies.

Q: How does the RX 7700 XT compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The RX 7700 XT's average benchmark score of 30097 places it essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, 0% delta), slightly ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla M60 (29969, 0.4% delta), and marginally behind the AMD Radeon RX 570 (30158, -0.2% delta). The differences are negligible in real-world gameplay.

Q: Is the i7-14700K bottlenecking the RX 7700 XT?

A: The data indicates no meaningful bottleneck. The CPU's average benchmark score of 70074 is within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420, -0.5% delta) and 1.4% of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (71056, -1.4% delta). The 20-core, 28-thread configuration provides ample headroom for this game's threading demands.

Q: What frame rates can I expect with Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: Ultra at 1920x1080 produces 101.4 FPS average, which is above the 100 FPS mark but significantly lower than the 220.7 FPS achievable with Low settings. The gap between presets suggests the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are heavily taxed by Ultra's effects.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM capacity affect 4K performance?

A: The 12 GB GDDR6 memory with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for 4K in this title. The data shows the GPU can deliver 103.8 FPS at 4K Low, suggesting VRAM capacity is not the primary limitation—the rendering load at higher presets is what drives frame rates down.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rate spread across presets is substantial. Low leads with 220.7 FPS, followed by Medium at 153.3 FPS, then High at 134.3 FPS, and finally Ultra at 101.4 FPS. The 119.3 FPS gap between Low and Ultra demonstrates how dramatically settings affect performance at this resolution, where the CPU and GPU have more headroom.

The 2560x1440 results show a similar pattern with compressed margins. Low produces 160.4 FPS, Medium reaches 115.3 FPS, High hits 100.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 77.2 FPS. The difference between Medium and High is only 14.7 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 23.4 FPS—indicating that Ultra's additional effects disproportionately impact the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the performance hierarchy remains consistent but the absolute numbers fall. Low achieves 103.8 FPS, Medium manages 71.8 FPS, High produces 66.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 47.4 FPS. The 4K Low result is notable—it exceeds the 1440p Ultra frame rate by 26.6 FPS, showing that resolution scaling is less punishing than preset escalation at this hardware level.

The pattern across all resolutions shows diminishing returns: upgrading from Low to Medium costs roughly 30% performance, while Medium to High costs less, and High to Ultra costs the most. This suggests the RX 7700 XT's 3456 shading units and 96 ROPs handle medium-tier effects efficiently but struggle with the full Ultra feature set.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets. Low falls from 220.7 to 160.4 FPS (a 27.3% reduction), Medium from 153.3 to 115.3 FPS (24.8% reduction), High from 134.3 to 100.6 FPS (25.1% reduction), and Ultra from 101.4 to 77.2 FPS (23.9% reduction). This uniform scaling indicates the GPU's pixel throughput—rated at 244.2 GPixel/s—is the primary constraint.

Moving from 1440p to 4K shows a more pronounced drop. Low goes from 160.4 to 103.8 FPS (35.3% reduction), Medium from 115.3 to 71.8 FPS (37.7% reduction), High from 100.6 to 66.1 FPS (34.3% reduction), and Ultra from 77.2 to 47.4 FPS (38.6% reduction). The larger reductions at 4K suggest memory bandwidth—432.0 GB/s—becomes a limiting factor as the pixel count quadruples from 1440p.

The scaling behavior reveals this is a GPU-bound scenario at all resolutions. The i7-14700K's high single-thread performance (6287 in Cinebench R23 single-core) ensures it can feed frames faster than the RX 7700 XT can render them, even at 1080p Low where the GPU produces 220.7 FPS. The consistent percentage drops across presets confirm the GPU is the bottleneck, not the CPU.

Notably, the 4K Low result of 103.8 FPS is only 35.3% lower than 1080p Low, which is less than the theoretical 75% pixel count increase would suggest. This indicates the RX 7700 XT has spare compute capacity that becomes utilized at higher resolutions, making 4K Low a surprisingly viable option.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, built on the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, demonstrates strong performance in Lockdown Protocol. Its boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz drive the 35.17 TFLOPS FP32 compute throughput, which translates to the observed frame rates. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s bandwidth, sufficient for this game's texture streaming demands.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows it sitting at the 73rd percentile among all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 22547. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, scores 30109 in the average benchmark—a 0% delta—while the AMD Radeon RX 570 scores 30158 with a -0.2% delta. These near-identical scores suggest the RX 7700 XT is well-positioned in its performance class for this title.

The GPU's 54 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are present, though their impact on Lockdown Protocol is not directly measured in the FPS data. The pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s indicate the GPU can handle the fill-rate demands of 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K pushing these resources harder.

The performance degradation from Low to Ultra presets—a 54.1% drop at 1080p and 54.3% at 4K—shows the GPU's shading units and ROPs are heavily taxed by Ultra's effects. The 96 ROPs deliver the pixel throughput needed for high resolutions, but the 3456 shading units struggle with the compute load of Ultra settings at 4K, resulting in the 47.4 FPS figure.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K provides robust processing power that keeps pace with the RX 7700 XT across all tested scenarios. Its 20 cores and 28 threads, split between performance and efficiency cores, offer substantial multi-threaded capability. The 5.60 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-thread performance, evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6287.

The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data locality for game logic and physics computations. The PassMark multi-thread score of 52392 and single-thread score of 4472 indicate this processor handles both lightly-threaded FPS workloads and heavily-threaded background tasks with ease.

Benchmark comparisons show the i7-14700K performing at the 96th percentile among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 70074 is within 0.3% of the AMD EPYC 9115 (69887) and 0% of the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70104), while edging out the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420, -0.5% delta). This consistency indicates the CPU is not a limiting factor in Lockdown Protocol.

The absence of CPU-related frame drops in the data—even at 1080p Low where the GPU produces 220.7 FPS—confirms the i7-14700K's capability. The 125W TDP and unlocked multiplier allow for overclocking headroom, though the stock configuration already delivers sufficient performance. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 provides a fallback display output, though it is not utilized in this gaming configuration.