Lockdown Protocol

This combo pairs the Intel Core i7-14700K with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB for Lockdown Protocol, a game released in 2024-03-11. The data shows this pairing ranks 889 out of 1637 tested combos in this title, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field. That ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, which sits at the 50th percentile among all tested graphics cards. The CPU, by contrast, is a strong performer at the 96th percentile among all processors, so the bottleneck in this matchup is almost entirely on the graphics side.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 889 out of 1637 puts this setup slightly below the median of all tested pairings. That is a modest result for a system with a top-tier CPU, and the reason becomes clear when you look at the components individually. The Core i7-14700K is a high-end part with an average benchmark score of 70074, sitting at the 96th percentile of all CPUs. In contrast, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB has an average benchmark score of zero and sits at the 50th percentile of all GPUs, which is a mediocre position for a modern card. The CPU is clearly capable of far more than this GPU can feed it, especially at lower resolutions where the graphics card becomes the limiting factor.

Relative to other combos, this ranking means you are getting a system that can handle Lockdown Protocol at playable framerates, but it will not be among the top performers. The CPU's headroom suggests that pairing the i7-14700K with a stronger GPU would yield a dramatically better experience, but with this specific graphics card, the results are constrained. The data indicates this is a balanced-for-price setup rather than a performance-first one, though the CPU is overqualified for the role it plays in this configuration.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 1700 MHz, a boost clock of 3130 MHz, and a game clock of 2530 MHz. The memory runs at 2518 MHz with 20.1 Gbps effective speed, and the card has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 322.3 GB/s of bandwidth. These figures place the card at the 50th percentile of all GPUs, which is a mid-pack position.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role is decisive. The measured FPS shows that at 1080p Low, the card achieves 195.5 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 44.3 FPS. This wide spread reflects the card's limited memory bandwidth and 8 GB frame buffer. The 128-bit bus is narrow for modern FPS titles, and the 322.3 GB/s bandwidth becomes a constraint at higher resolutions and settings. The card also has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 200.3 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 400.6 GTexel/s. These are mid-range numbers, and they show up in the measured results: the card can push high framerates at low settings, but it struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K with higher presets.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep across all settings, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the card delivers 195.5 FPS at 1080p, 140.8 FPS at 1440p, and 94.1 FPS at 4K. That is a decline of 54.7 FPS from 1080p to 1440p, and another 46.7 FPS from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the numbers are 118.6 FPS at 1080p, 90.4 FPS at 1440p, and 59.7 FPS at 4K. The scaling pattern shows that the GPU is the limiting component at every resolution, because the framerate drops proportionally as pixel count increases.

The CPU is not the bottleneck here. The Core i7-14700K has 20 cores and 28 threads, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, so it has ample headroom to drive the GPU at all tested resolutions. The fact that FPS scales down so consistently with resolution confirms that the graphics card is the constraint. At 1080p, the card is still able to hit high framerates, but the drop to 4K is severe, with Ultra settings falling below 45 FPS. This indicates that for 4K play, the RX 9060 XT 8 GB is simply not sufficient, and users should stick to 1080p or 1440p for a smoother experience.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that the best experience is found at Medium settings, depending on your target resolution. At 1080p Medium, the card delivers 141 FPS, which is smooth for an FPS title. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 104.4 FPS, still playable but less fluid. At 4K Medium, it falls to 64.4 FPS, which is borderline for competitive play. Low settings provide higher framerates—195.5 FPS at 1080p and 140.8 FPS at 1440p—but sacrifice visual quality, which may not be worth it for a game where visibility matters.

High settings are a reasonable middle ground. At 1080p High, the card achieves 118.6 FPS, which is excellent. At 1440p High, it drops to 90.4 FPS, still acceptable for most players. At 4K High, it falls to 59.7 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS threshold and may feel choppy. Ultra settings are not recommended except at 1080p, where the card manages 88.6 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 66.5 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 44.3 FPS, which is not smooth for an FPS. The data suggests that Medium or High at 1080p or 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the card delivers 195.5 FPS on Low, 141 FPS on Medium, 118.6 FPS on High, and 88.6 FPS on Ultra. These numbers show a clear progression, with Low being nearly 2.2 times faster than Ultra. At 2560x1440, the results are 140.8 FPS on Low, 104.4 FPS on Medium, 90.4 FPS on High, and 66.5 FPS on Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 25-30% across all settings, which is consistent with the increased pixel count. At 3840x2160, the card manages 94.1 FPS on Low, 64.4 FPS on Medium, 59.7 FPS on High, and 44.3 FPS on Ultra.

The full picture shows that this card is capable of high framerates at 1080p, but the performance degrades significantly at higher resolutions. At 4K, only Low settings break 90 FPS, and Ultra falls below 45 FPS. The data indicates that for 4K play, users would need to accept Low settings for playable framerates, which defeats the purpose of 4K. For 1440p, Medium and High are viable, with High staying above 90 FPS. For 1080p, all settings are playable, but Ultra is the only one that dips below 100 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a Raptor Lake Refresh part with 20 cores and 28 threads, base clock of 3.40 GHz, and boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, has a 125 W TDP, and is built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a launch MSRP of $409 and is unlocked for overclocking. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 44534 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 6287 in single-core, and 52392 in Passmark multithread.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with enough data to keep framerates high. The data shows that the i7-14700K is more than capable of doing so, as the framerate scaling is purely dependent on resolution and settings, not on CPU load. The CPU sits at the 96th percentile of all processors, and its nearest rivals—the Core i7-14700KF at 70104 average score, the AMD EPYC 9115 at 69887, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X at 70420, and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 at 71056—are all within 1.4% of its score. This means the CPU is not a limiting factor in this combo, and the GPU is the clear bottleneck. For users looking to upgrade, the data suggests that replacing the GPU would yield a much larger performance gain than any CPU change.