Lockdown Protocol

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, this combination clears the 60 FPS threshold at every preset. The most demanding option, Ultra, still delivers an average of 67 FPS, which makes it the recommended choice for full visual fidelity at this resolution. Medium runs at 103 FPS average, High at 90 FPS, and Low at 145 FPS, so there is headroom for high-refresh displays if you drop settings.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes. Ultra falls to 49 FPS average, below the 60 FPS playable line. High is the best preset that stays at or above 60 FPS, recording 66 FPS average. Medium sits at 76 FPS and Low at 106 FPS, both also playable, but High offers the strongest image quality while keeping the frame rate above the mark.

At 3840x2160, only Low remains playable. It produces 69 FPS average, which is above the threshold but with minimal visual settings. Medium drops to 49 FPS, High to 43 FPS, and Ultra to 32 FPS. For 4K use, the data indicates you must accept Low settings to maintain smooth gameplay, and even then the margin is slim.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded measurements show a clear pattern: this game scales heavily with resolution, and the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080, the RTX 2060 can push high frame rates, but the difference between Low (145 FPS) and Ultra (67 FPS) is a 78 FPS gap, indicating that shading load and fill rate matter substantially even at lower resolutions. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is unlikely to bottleneck at these settings; its single-thread score of 1269 in 3dmark and 6739 in Cinebench R23 suggest strong per-core performance that keeps up with the GPU's output.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates compress. Low drops from 145 to 106 FPS, a 27% reduction, while Ultra drops from 67 to 49 FPS, a 27% reduction as well. The consistent percentage decline across presets points to the GPU being the primary constraint: the RTX 2060's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are being stressed by the higher pixel count, and the CPU's role diminishes.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is decisively the bottleneck. Low falls to 69 FPS, Medium to 49 FPS, High to 43 FPS, and Ultra to 32 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steep: Low loses 37 FPS, High loses 23 FPS. The CPU's performance headroom, evidenced by its 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs, is not the issue; the RTX 2060 simply cannot feed the 4K pipeline fast enough. For builders, this means upgrading the GPU would yield the largest gains at 4K, while the CPU is more than adequate for this title across all tested resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing sits at rank 2941 out of 3714 tested combinations in the database. That places it in the lower third of all combos, which aligns with the GPU's modest standing. The RTX 2060 holds a 58th percentile rank among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 15290 is just above the GTX 580 (15283) and Radeon 680M (15270). The CPU, in contrast, is a high-end part: the 9900X3D ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs with an average score of 54762, close to the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (55093, 0.6% higher).

The rank is dragged down almost entirely by the GPU. In a game like Lockdown Protocol, where resolution scaling shows consistent frame rate drops, the combo behaves like a mid-range GPU paired with an overqualified CPU. The data suggests that the CPU has plenty of headroom to support a stronger graphics card without becoming a limiting factor, but as tested, the overall position reflects the GPU's constraints.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals in the database are the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, Intel Core Ultra 5 245K, Intel Xeon 6505P, and Intel Core i7-14700F. The Core Ultra 5 245KF scores 55093, which is 0.6% higher than the 9900X3D's 54762, effectively a tie. The Core Ultra 5 245K scores 54053 (1.3% lower), the Xeon 6505P scores 53701 (2% lower), and the i7-14700F scores 53620 (2.1% lower). None of these differ by more than a couple of percent, so swapping the CPU to any of these would produce nearly identical frame rates in this game.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283, 0% delta), AMD Radeon 680M (15270, 0.1% lower), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199, 0.6% lower), and AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171, 0.8% lower). The RTX 2060's average score of 15290 is essentially the same as the GTX 580, meaning that in this title, a GTX 580 would deliver nearly identical performance. The RX 7600 is 0.8% slower on average, so it would behave almost the same in practice. These alternatives are relevant if you are looking for comparable hardware, but none offer a meaningful step up in frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full preset range is available. Low averages 145 FPS, Medium averages 103 FPS with a minimum of 88 and maximum of 119, High averages 90 FPS, and Ultra averages 67 FPS. The medium preset's min-max spread of 88 to 119 shows some variance, but all presets stay well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 106 FPS. Medium averages 76 FPS with a minimum of 64 and maximum of 87, which keeps the minimum above the playable line. High averages 66 FPS, and Ultra averages 49 FPS, falling short. The medium preset's minimum of 64 FPS is the closest any playable setting comes to the threshold; if you value stable frame pacing, High's 66 FPS average offers a safer margin.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 69 FPS. Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 and maximum of 56, which is below the threshold on average and dips further under load. High averages 43 FPS, and Ultra averages 32 FPS. No preset except Low reaches 60 FPS, and even Low's 69 FPS average could drop in demanding scenes, though the recorded data does not show a minimum for that setting.

The Verdict

This PC can run Lockdown Protocol, but the playable range depends heavily on resolution. At 1920x1080, every preset clears 60 FPS, so Ultra is viable at 67 FPS average. At 2560x1440, High is the best playable preset at 66 FPS, with Medium and Low also above the line. At 3840x2160, only Low achieves playable performance at 69 FPS average.

The verdict by resolution is straightforward: 1920x1080 Ultra is playable, 2560x1440 High is playable, and 3840x2160 Low is playable. The data does not support running higher settings at 4K, as Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below 60 FPS. For a 1080p or 1440p monitor, this combination delivers smooth gameplay with reasonable visual quality. For 4K, you would need to lower expectations to minimum settings, and even then, the margin above the threshold is thin. The CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution; the RTX 2060 is. If you plan to play at 4K, a GPU upgrade would be the practical path forward, while the 9900X3D remains a strong foundation for future upgrades.