Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol with an Intel Core i9-14900K and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER presents a stark contrast in hardware capabilities. The data shows a CPU that ranks in the 95th percentile against all processors, paired with a GPU that sits in the 53rd percentile, creating a system where the graphics card is the primary bottleneck across most configurations. The measured frame rates confirm this imbalance, with the GTX 1660 SUPER's 6 GB of VRAM and 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance limiting the experience far more than the i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads ever will.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset at 1080p offers the most balanced experience for this specific combination of hardware. At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the system produces an average of 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. This represents a 24.1% improvement over the High preset's 76 FPS average, while still delivering visual quality above the Low preset. The frame time consistency, suggested by the 74 FPS minimum, keeps the gameplay smooth enough for a competitive FPS title without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p delivers a substantial 123 FPS average, which is 41.4% higher than Medium and 61.8% higher than High. However, this comes at the cost of most graphical features. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 57 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for a responsive shooter, making it a poor choice for this GPU.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. The Medium preset produces 64 FPS average with a minimum of 54 FPS, which is playable but close to the edge of comfort for fast-paced gameplay. The High preset at 1440p yields 56 FPS, and Ultra falls to 42 FPS. For 4K resolution, no preset achieves a consistently playable frame rate; the Low preset tops out at 58 FPS average, while Medium drops to 41 FPS, High to 36 FPS, and Ultra to 27 FPS.

The data suggests that 1080p Medium is the sweet spot for this pairing, offering a 74 FPS minimum that keeps the action fluid. Users with high refresh rate monitors should consider 1080p Low for maximum performance, while those who prioritize image quality over frame rate should stay at 1080p Medium rather than attempting higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all presets except Ultra achieve at least 76 FPS average. At 2560x1440, even the Low preset drops to 90 FPS, and Medium falls to 64 FPS. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS average, making 1080p the clear choice for consistent performance.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Medium at 1080p?

A: Ultra at 1920x1080 produces an average of 57 FPS, which is 34.5% lower than Medium's 87 FPS. The gap widens at higher resolutions: at 1440p, Ultra averages 42 FPS versus Medium's 64 FPS, and at 4K, Ultra averages 27 FPS versus Medium's 41 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra exceeds its visual benefit on this GPU.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER capable of 4K gaming in this title?

A: The measured data shows that at 3840x2160, the highest average frame rate is 58 FPS on the Low preset. Medium averages 41 FPS, High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. Only Low approaches playability, and even then, the frame rate is marginal for a competitive FPS.

Q: How much performance does the High preset sacrifice compared to Medium?

A: Across all resolutions, High averages are consistently lower than Medium. At 1080p, High produces 76 FPS versus Medium's 87 FPS, a 12.6% drop. At 1440p, High produces 56 FPS versus Medium's 64 FPS, a 12.5% drop. At 4K, High produces 36 FPS versus Medium's 41 FPS, an 12.2% drop.

Q: Does the CPU help maintain minimum frame rates in this game?

A: The i9-14900K's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2262.5, helps maintain consistent frame pacing. The measured minimum FPS values, such as 74 FPS at 1080p Medium and 54 FPS at 1440p Medium, are relatively close to the averages, indicating the CPU prevents major drops.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 90 FPS while Ultra averages 42 FPS. This represents a 53.3% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest preset. The gap is similar at 1080p, where Low averages 123 FPS and Ultra averages 57 FPS, a 53.7% reduction.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER serves as the primary limiting factor in this system. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but struggles at higher resolutions. The GPU's 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs, running at a boost clock of 1785 MHz, deliver 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This places the card in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12986.

The measured frame rates directly reflect the GPU's capabilities. At 1080p, the GTX 1660 SUPER manages 123 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 87 FPS on Medium and 76 FPS on High. The Ultra preset, which typically demands more memory bandwidth and shading power, reduces the average to 57 FPS. The GPU's 6 GB VRAM capacity becomes a concern at 1440p and 4K, where texture requirements exceed what the card can efficiently handle, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops at those resolutions.

The GPU's Turing architecture, while older, supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, allowing it to run modern game engines. However, the absence of dedicated ray tracing cores and tensor cores means the card relies entirely on traditional rasterization. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 indicates modest DirectX 12 performance, which aligns with the observed frame rates in this FPS title.

The GTX 1660 SUPER's power envelope of 125 W TDP and dual-slot design with a single 8-pin connector make it a straightforward install, but its end-of-life production status means users cannot expect driver optimizations for future titles. In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the GPU's performance ceiling is evident: at 4K, even the Low preset only achieves 58 FPS average, confirming that this card is best suited for 1080p gaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear progression across presets. Low settings deliver an average of 123 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS. High settings yield an average of 76 FPS. Ultra settings drop to an average of 57 FPS. This represents a 53.7% performance decrease from Low to Ultra at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down significantly. Low settings average 90 FPS. Medium settings average 64 FPS, with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 73 FPS. High settings average 56 FPS. Ultra settings fall to an average of 42 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs approximately 26.8% of performance on Low settings, and the gap narrows to approximately 26.3% on Medium settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. Low settings average 58 FPS. Medium settings average 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS. High settings average 36 FPS. Ultra settings produce a mere 27 FPS average. The measured minimum at 4K Medium (35 FPS) indicates significant frame pacing issues, as the GPU struggles to maintain consistent output.

The overall combo rank in-game is 3166 out of 3714 tested combinations, placing this pairing in the lower 15th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities, as the i9-14900K ranks in the 95th percentile among all CPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a steep performance drop as resolution increases, characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on Low settings reduces the average frame rate from 123 FPS to 90 FPS, a 26.8% decrease. The same resolution jump on Medium settings reduces the average from 87 FPS to 64 FPS, a 26.4% decrease. On High settings, the drop is from 76 FPS to 56 FPS, a 26.3% decrease.

Scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 produces an even more pronounced effect. On Low settings, the average drops from 90 FPS to 58 FPS, a 35.6% decrease. Medium settings see a drop from 64 FPS to 41 FPS, a 35.9% decrease. High settings drop from 56 FPS to 36 FPS, a 35.7% decrease. This increasing penalty at higher resolutions confirms that the GTX 1660 SUPER's pixel fill rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are insufficient for 4K workloads.

The frame rate scaling between presets remains relatively consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra is 53.7% slower than Low; at 1440p, Ultra is 53.3% slower than Low; and at 4K, Ultra is 53.4% slower than Low. This consistency suggests that the GPU's architectural limits are being reached uniformly across all resolutions, with the primary variable being the total pixel count.

This scaling behavior indicates that the system is entirely GPU-limited in this title. The i9-14900K's substantial compute resources, including a Passmark multi-thread score of 58674 and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5, are not the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see diminishing frame rate differences between resolutions, but the data shows linear scaling that tracks pixel count directly.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K provides an overwhelming amount of processing power that this game does not fully utilize. With 24 cores and 32 threads, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5 and a single-core score of 2262.5. This places it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79097. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-14900KF, scores 79371, a mere 0.3% difference.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and manage game logic. The i9-14900K's high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2655, ensures that the game's main thread is never starved. The measured minimum FPS values confirm this: at 1080p Medium, the minimum is 74 FPS, which is 85.1% of the average, indicating stable frame delivery. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 54 FPS is 84.4% of the average.

The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for game engines that frequently access small data sets. The support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a dual-channel memory bus, provides flexibility, though the game's performance is not memory-bandwidth sensitive based on the data.

Given that the GPU is the bottleneck, the i9-14900K's performance headroom is largely unused. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4697 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 324.5 indicate it can handle far more demanding workloads than this game presents. The data suggests that users with this CPU and a more powerful GPU would see significantly higher frame rates, as the CPU is not the limiting factor in any of the measured configurations.