Lockdown Protocol

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti lands at rank 1616 out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the configuration in the bottom 1.3% of all tested pairings, a position that reflects the extreme imbalance between the two components. The data shows a system where the processor ranks in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits in only the 30th percentile among all GPUs. This 66-point percentile gap is the defining characteristic of the configuration.

Benchmark results indicate that this pairing is severely constrained by the graphics card. The CPU's average benchmark score of 70104 places it within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9115 (69887). Meanwhile, the GPU's average score of 5316 is statistically indistinguishable from the NVIDIA GeForce 930A (5317) and only 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce 940M (5297). The combination's rank is therefore almost entirely determined by the GPU's position in the performance hierarchy, as the processor's computational headroom is never meaningfully utilized in this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti contributes 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 112.1 GB/s. Its memory operates at 1752 MHz (7 Gbps effective), while the core runs at a base clock of 1291 MHz with a boost of 1392 MHz. These specifications, combined with 768 shading units and 32 ROPs, produce a peak pixel rate of 44.54 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 66.82 GTexel/s. The card's FP32 throughput of 2.138 TFLOPS is the primary limiting factor in Lockdown Protocol's rendering workload.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity becomes a critical constraint at higher resolutions and quality settings. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 30.1 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it falls to 12.9 FPS. This scaling pattern suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and fill rate are saturated well before the frame buffer itself is exhausted. The card's 14 nm process node from Samsung and 3,300 million transistors on a 132 mm² die indicate a design that was already modest at its 2016 release, and it has not aged favorably against modern FPS titles.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position: a Passmark G3D score of 6340 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 305 both place it in the lower tier of current hardware. The DirectX 12 score of 26 from Passmark is particularly telling, as it suggests weak performance under modern API workloads. The card's DirectX 11 score of 45 and DirectX 9 score of 104 show that it retains some capability in legacy APIs, but Lockdown Protocol's engine appears to leverage newer feature sets that expose the GPU's limitations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance gradient as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 61.3 FPS, which drops to 42.7 FPS at 1440p Low (a 30.3% reduction) and further to 29 FPS at 4K Low (a 52.7% reduction from 1080p). This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions, as the frame rate scales almost linearly with pixel count. A CPU-bound scenario would show much smaller FPS drops between 1080p and 4K, since the rendering resolution would have minimal impact on processor load.

The scaling becomes even more pronounced at higher quality settings. From 1080p High (40.1 FPS) to 1440p High (26.8 FPS), the drop is 33.2%, and to 4K High (18.5 FPS) it is 53.9%. At Ultra settings, the progression from 1080p (30.1 FPS) to 1440p (21.2 FPS) to 4K (12.9 FPS) shows a consistent 30% per step reduction. These figures demonstrate that the GTX 1050 Ti's fixed hardware resources—its 112.1 GB/s bandwidth and 44.54 GPixel/s pixel rate—are being scaled across an increasing number of pixels, with no relief from the CPU's substantial capabilities.

The fact that the 1080p Low result (61.3 FPS) is the only measured value above 60 FPS across the entire dataset is significant. It suggests that achieving playable frame rates requires both the lowest resolution and the lowest quality settings, and even then the margin above the 60 FPS threshold is minimal. The data indicates that this combination is only marginally viable for competitive play at 1080p with reduced graphical fidelity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its best results. Low settings yield 61.3 FPS average, which is the only measured average above 60 FPS. Medium settings drop to 46.7 FPS, High settings to 40.1 FPS, and Ultra settings to 30.1 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 50.9% reduction in frame rate, which is substantial but consistent with the GPU's limited fill rate. The 1080p results indicate that the card can handle the game's geometry and shading workloads at lower settings, but the additional effects and texture quality at Medium and above overwhelm its 2.138 TFLOPS FP32 capacity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance envelope shrinks considerably. Low settings produce 42.7 FPS, Medium 30.9 FPS, High 26.8 FPS, and Ultra 21.2 FPS. The Ultra result at this resolution is close to the 1080p Ultra figure (30.1 FPS) scaled by the pixel count difference, confirming that the GPU is the bottleneck. The 1440p Low result of 42.7 FPS is 30.3% lower than the 1080p Low result, a drop that is directly proportional to the 1.78x pixel count increase. This near-linear scaling is the signature of a fill-rate-bound scenario.

At 3840x2160, the configuration struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 29 FPS, Medium 22.4 FPS, High 18.5 FPS, and Ultra 12.9 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 12.9 FPS is the lowest measured value and represents just 21% of the 1080p Low performance. This resolution effectively eliminates any possibility of smooth gameplay, and even the Low setting result of 29 FPS is below the typical 30 FPS minimum for playability in an FPS title. The data shows that the GTX 1050 Ti simply does not have the memory bandwidth or pixel throughput to handle 4K rendering in this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings substantial computational resources to this pairing. Its 20 cores and 28 threads operate at a base clock of 3.40 GHz with a boost of 5.60 GHz, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 125 W TDP. The processor features 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core, along with 80 KB of L1 cache per core. These specifications place it in the top 4% of all CPUs, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and a single-core score of 6290. The Geekbench multi-core score of 19287 and single-core score of 2972 further confirm its high-end positioning.

However, in Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is almost entirely passive. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking—the frame rates scale with resolution and settings in a way that is characteristic of GPU limitation. The processor's Passmark multithread score of 52425 and integer math score of 183056 indicate that it could handle far more demanding game logic and physics than this title requires. The data shows that the combo's rank of 1616 is not due to any CPU deficiency but rather the GPU's inability to translate the processor's capabilities into frame rate.

The nearest rivals for the CPU—the Intel Core i7-14700K (70074, 0% delta), AMD EPYC 9115 (69887, 0.3% delta), and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420, -0.4% delta)—all show that the i7-14700KF is performing at the expected level for its class. This means that any performance issues in Lockdown Protocol are isolated to the GPU side of the equation. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking stands in stark contrast to the GPU's 30th percentile, and the measured FPS data consistently reflects the GPU's limitations rather than any processor constraint. For users considering this combination, the data clearly indicates that the CPU is not the factor limiting performance in this game.