Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol pairs a 20-core Intel Core i7-14700K with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and the measured frame rates show this combination is heavily skewed toward GPU limitation at higher settings. The i7-14700K, with its 28 threads and boost clock of 5.60 GHz, provides ample headroom; its average benchmark score of 70074 places it in the 96th percentile among all CPUs. The closest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, scores 70104, a delta of 0%, meaning the K-series chip with integrated graphics is effectively identical in compute performance for this title. The CPU’s strength is further underscored by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534, which suggests that even when the game’s logic and physics scale across threads, this processor will not be the bottleneck. The data indicates that the primary constraint on frame rates in Lockdown Protocol is the graphics card, not the central processor.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake-R architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz can boost up to 5.60 GHz, and it includes 33 MB of shared L3 cache. For Lockdown Protocol, an FPS title, this configuration is more than sufficient. The benchmark results show that at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 299.3 FPS, which is a clear indicator that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far beyond typical display refresh rates. The CPU’s percentile ranking at 96 means it outperforms 96% of all CPUs in the database, and its nearest rivals—such as the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X with a score of 70420 and a delta of -0.5%—show that the i7-14700K is in the top tier of gaming processors. The PassMark multi-thread score of 52392 and single-thread score of 4472 further confirm that both lightly-threaded game logic and heavily-threaded background tasks are handled with ease. In practice, the data suggests that the CPU’s role here is to stay out of the way; at 1440p High, the FPS drops to 136.5, a 27.8% reduction from 1080p High, which is a GPU-driven scaling pattern rather than a CPU limitation.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for settings optimization. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 299.3 FPS, Medium 212.9 FPS, High 189.1 FPS, and Ultra 142 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra is a 24.9% performance penalty (189.1 to 142), which is substantial for a visual gain that is often imperceptible in fast-paced action. The sweet spot for competitive play is the High preset at 1080p, as it maintains a 189.1 FPS average, well above the 144 Hz threshold, while offering better visual fidelity than Low or Medium. For 1440p, High yields 136.5 FPS, which is still high but not quite enough for a 144 Hz monitor without dropping to Medium, which gives 156.2 FPS. The data shows that Medium at 1440p provides a better balance than High, as the 14.4% FPS increase from High to Medium (136.5 to 156.2) is more valuable than the minor visual bump. At 4K, the situation changes; High gives 86.4 FPS, Medium 102 FPS, and Ultra drops to 67.7 FPS. For 4K, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point, as it is the only settings level that keeps the average above 100 FPS. Ultra at any resolution is the worst choice, as it never exceeds 142 FPS at 1080p and falls to 67.7 FPS at 4K, which is below the 60 FPS minimum for smooth gameplay on many displays.

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

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals that the RX 7900 XTX is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 189.1 at 1080p to 136.5 at 1440p and finally to 86.4 at 4K. This represents a 27.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 36.7% drop from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is consistent with a GPU that is increasingly saturated by pixel count. At Low settings, the same resolution scaling shows 299.3 FPS at 1080p, 219.7 at 1440p, and 143.4 at 4K—a 26.6% and 34.7% drop respectively. The fact that even at Low settings the 4K frame rate is only 143.4 FPS, which is half the 1080p Low figure, indicates that the GPU’s raw throughput, not the CPU, is what governs performance. The RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, and its boost clock is 2498 MHz. These specs are capable, but the data shows that the GPU’s compute units (6144 shading units) are the bottleneck when rendering 3840x2160 pixels. The CPU’s single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2932, is not the constraint here, as the FPS deltas between resolutions are purely proportional to pixel count.

FAQ

Q: Can the Intel Core i7-14700K maintain 144 FPS in Lockdown Protocol at 1440p?

A: Yes, but only with the right settings. At 1440p with Medium settings, the average FPS is 156.2, which exceeds 144. High settings at 1440p yield 136.5 FPS, slightly below the 144 FPS target. Ultra at 1440p drops to 105.9 FPS.

Q: Is the RX 7900 XTX a bottleneck for the i7-14700K in this game?

A: The data shows yes, particularly at higher resolutions. At 4K High, the FPS is 86.4, while at 1080p High it is 189.1. The CPU’s average benchmark score (70074) is in the 96th percentile, and its nearest rival (i7-14700KF) has a 0% delta, indicating the CPU is not the limiting factor.

Q: What is the best preset for a 240 Hz monitor at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves 299.3 FPS, which is above 240 FPS. Medium at 212.9 FPS falls short of 240. High at 189.1 FPS is also below the 240 FPS threshold. Only Low can fully saturate a 240 Hz display at 1080p.

Q: How does the i7-14700K compare to the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X for this combo?

A: The i7-14700K has an average benchmark score of 70074, while the Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420, a delta of -0.5%. This means the Ryzen is only 0.5% faster on average, which is within noise for gaming performance.

Q: Does the 24 GB VRAM on the RX 7900 XTX prevent frame drops at 4K Ultra?

A: The data does not show min FPS values, but the average at 4K Ultra is 67.7 FPS. The 24 GB memory size is large, but the average FPS suggests that memory capacity is not the issue; the GPU’s compute power limits the frame rate.

Q: Should I use the Ultra preset for this game?

A: No, the measured data shows Ultra is the worst-performing preset. At 1080p, it gives 142 FPS, which is 47.1 FPS lower than High (189.1). At 4K, Ultra drops to 67.7 FPS, which is below the 86.4 FPS of High. The visual gain is not justified by the performance loss.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a RDNA 3.0 architecture GPU with 24 GB of GDDR6 memory, a 384-bit bus, and a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1929 MHz, with a game clock of 2365 MHz and a boost clock of 2498 MHz. The GPU has 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, plus 96 ray tracing cores. The benchmark results for this GPU show a PassMark G3D score of 31238, placing it in the 85th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, has an average score of 44900, which is 2% higher than the RX 7900 XTX’s average of 44019. However, in Lockdown Protocol, the measured FPS at 1080p High (189.1) suggests the GPU is well-utilized. The 24 GB VRAM is abundant for this game, but the data reveals that the GPU’s compute capability, not memory size, dictates performance. At 4K Ultra, the system only manages 67.7 FPS, which is 52.7% lower than 1080p Ultra (142 FPS). This heavy scaling indicates that the GPU’s raw pixel fill rate (479.6 GPixel/s) and texture rate (959.2 GTexel/s) are being taxed. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS is high, but Lockdown Protocol’s rendering pipeline appears to be sensitive to resolution, making the 7900 XTX a strong 1440p card but only a passable 4K card for this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The complete measured FPS table for this combo is as follows:

• 1920x1080: Low 299.3 FPS, Medium 212.9 FPS, High 189.1 FPS, Ultra 142 FPS.
• 2560x1440: Low 219.7 FPS, Medium 156.2 FPS, High 136.5 FPS, Ultra 105.9 FPS.
• 3840x2160: Low 143.4 FPS, Medium 102 FPS, High 86.4 FPS, Ultra 67.7 FPS.

At 1080p, the system delivers a playable experience at every preset, with even Ultra surpassing 140 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 157.3 FPS, indicating a massive performance spread. At 1440p, the pattern shifts: Low is still over 200 FPS, but Ultra drops below 110 FPS. The difference between 1440p Low and Ultra is 113.8 FPS. At 4K, the spread narrows to 75.7 FPS (143.4 Low to 67.7 Ultra), which shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at this resolution, as the settings have less relative impact on the already-low frame rates. The data shows that the RX 7900 XTX is best paired with this CPU for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can leverage the i7-14700K’s high single-thread performance (Geekbench single-core score of 2932) to reach refresh-rate-maximizing FPS. At 4K, the combo still works, but the user must accept either lower settings (Medium for 102 FPS) or lower frame rates (High for 86.4 FPS). The combo’s overall rank in the game’s database is 210 out of 1637 combos, placing it in the top 12.8% of tested configurations, which is a strong result given the GPU’s end-of-life status.