Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 combination is severely constrained by the GPU in Lockdown Protocol. The recorded data shows that this pairing can only achieve a playable 60 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, where it hits 76 FPS on average. At every other resolution or higher preset, the system falls short of the 60 FPS playability threshold, with 1440p topping out at 56 FPS on Low and 4K reaching only 36 FPS on Low. The GTX 1650 is the decisive bottleneck, despite being paired with one of the strongest desktop CPUs available.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the system delivers its lowest performance across the board. The Ultra preset averages 17 FPS, which is effectively unplayable for a fast-paced FPS. High settings improve this to 22 FPS, while Medium produces 26 FPS with a recorded minimum of 22 FPS and a maximum of 29 FPS. The Low preset is the best at this resolution, averaging 36 FPS, but even that remains far below the 60 FPS target. No preset at 4K comes close to providing a smooth experience.

Dropping to 2560x1440 helps considerably, but the system still cannot reach 60 FPS on any setting. The Low preset averages 56 FPS, just 4 FPS shy of the playability threshold. Medium averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. High settings drop to 35 FPS, and Ultra falls to 26 FPS. The scaling pattern here is consistent: each step up in quality costs roughly 8 to 10 FPS, but the starting point on Low is already too low to clear the bar.

At 1920x1080, the picture improves dramatically. The Low preset averages 76 FPS, making it the only configuration across all resolutions and settings that clears 60 FPS. Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS, meaning it dips below the threshold during demanding scenes even though the average is close. High settings average 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 22 FPS, which is the largest single-preset jump in the entire dataset, indicating that the Medium preset introduces a significant rendering load that the GTX 1650 cannot sustain.

The min and max FPS values are only recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution, and they show a consistent pattern. At 1080p Medium, the range is 46 to 62 FPS, a spread of 16 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 34 to 46 FPS, and at 4K Medium it is 22 to 29 FPS. This tightening range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more uniformly saturated as pixel count rises, leaving less headroom for variation.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data makes the division of labor in this pairing unmistakable. The Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on Zen 5 architecture, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32172. It ranks in the 92nd percentile among all CPUs tested in the database. The GTX 1650, by contrast, sits in the 40th percentile among GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 7880 and an average benchmark score of 7472. The delta between the CPU's elite standing and the GPU's mid-range position is the story of this combination.

At 4K, the GPU is almost entirely responsible for the frame rate. The difference between Low and Ultra at 3840x2160 is 19 FPS (36 vs 17), which is entirely attributable to GPU rendering load since the CPU has ample headroom. The Ryzen 9 9900X's single-thread performance, as measured by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and Geekbench single-core score of 3010, means it can feed frames far faster than the GTX 1650 can draw them.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds. The Low preset averages 56 FPS, and the CPU is not the limiting factor; the GPU's 128.1 GB/s memory bandwidth and 2.984 TFLOPS FP32 throughput cap the output. The GTX 1650's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus is also a constraint, particularly as resolution increases and memory pressure grows.

At 1080p, the CPU begins to matter more, but only in relative terms. The Low preset hits 76 FPS, and the jump to Medium drops it to 54 FPS. This 22 FPS reduction is a GPU-side cost, not a CPU limitation. The Ryzen 9 9900X's PassMark multi-thread score of 54643 and 3DMark max-thread score of 13929 indicate that it could drive far higher frame rates in a less GPU-bound scenario. The data shows that even at 1080p, the GTX 1650 remains the primary constraint, just to a lesser degree than at higher resolutions.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the database records no playable settings. The best average FPS at this resolution is 36 on Low, but that falls 24 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold. The verdict for 4K is clear: this combo cannot run Lockdown Protocol at a playable level at any setting.

At 2560x1440, the situation is nearly identical. No settings are listed as playable. The Low preset averages 56 FPS, which is 4 FPS below the threshold. The Medium preset at 40 FPS and High at 35 FPS are progressively worse, and Ultra at 26 FPS is far off the mark. The closest this system comes to playability at 1440p is the Low preset, but it does not clear the bar.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the sole playable option, averaging 76 FPS. This is the only configuration in the entire dataset that meets the 60 FPS playability threshold. The Medium preset averages 54 FPS, which is close but not enough, and its minimum of 46 FPS confirms that it drops well below the target during intense scenes. High at 47 FPS and Ultra at 35 FPS are not viable for maintaining smooth gameplay.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The GTX 1650's nearest rivals in the database are all within a narrow performance band. The AMD Radeon HD 8850M averages 7447 with a delta of 0.3%, meaning it is essentially identical in performance. The Intel UHD Graphics 750 averages 7441 with a delta of 0.4%, and the AMD Radeon R7 350 averages 7425 with a delta of 0.6%. The Intel Arc A310 averages 7550 with a delta of -1%, making it the only rival that is faster by any measurable amount. Any of these GPUs would produce nearly indistinguishable frame rates in Lockdown Protocol, so swapping to one of them would not change the playability verdict.

On the CPU side, the Ryzen 9 9900X's nearest rivals are also tightly clustered. The AMD EPYC 9015 averages 57555 with a delta of -0.1%, the AMD EPYC 7313 averages 57399 with a delta of 0.2%, the Intel Core i9-14900 averages 58115 with a delta of -1.1%, and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M averages 58323 with a delta of -1.4%. These processors are all within 1.4% of the Ryzen 9 9900X's average benchmark score of 57498. In practical terms, any of them would deliver the same CPU performance headroom in this game, meaning the GTX 1650 would remain the bottleneck regardless of which of these CPUs is installed.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X and GTX 1650 ranks 3580 out of 3714 tested combos in the database for Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the bottom 3.6% of all tested pairings, which is consistent with the measured FPS data. The rank reflects the severe mismatch between the CPU and GPU: a top-tier processor paired with a GPU that is near the bottom of the performance distribution. The GTX 1650's 40th percentile standing among all GPUs, combined with its low average benchmark score of 7472, drags the entire combo down despite the CPU's 92nd percentile ranking.

The rank is not surprising given the FPS results. A combo that can only play at 1080p Low, and fails to hit 60 FPS at any other resolution or preset, is going to sit near the bottom of a database that includes many more balanced pairings. The data shows that CPU-heavy combinations do not help in a game that is this GPU-bound at the tested settings.

The Verdict

The question of whether this PC can run Lockdown Protocol has a straightforward answer based on the verdict data. At 3840x2160, there are no playable settings; the best average is 36 FPS on Low, which is far below the 60 FPS target. At 2560x1440, there are also no playable settings; the Low preset averages 56 FPS, just short of the threshold. At 1920x1080, the Low preset is playable with an average of 76 FPS, and it is the only playable configuration in the entire dataset.

The Ryzen 9 9900X provides more than enough computational power for this game, but the GTX 1650 cannot translate that power into high frame rates at demanding settings. The system will run Lockdown Protocol at 1080p Low smoothly, and it will produce a playable experience there. For 1440p or 4K, or for any preset above Low at 1080p, the data indicates that the frame rate will fall below 60 FPS. The GPU is the limiting factor in every scenario, and upgrading it would be the only way to unlock higher resolutions and settings with this CPU.