Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Lockdown Protocol, with the data showing that 4K Ultra remains out of reach. Across the measured resolution and settings grid, the combination consistently produces frame rates well above the 60 FPS playability threshold, except for the most demanding 4K preset. The following analysis breaks down the measured performance data, compares nearby hardware alternatives, and provides clear guidance on which settings to use at each resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions — 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 — each tested at Low, Medium, High, and Ultra settings. The dataset provides average FPS for all configurations, with min and max FPS only recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution.

At 1920x1080, the combo shows exceptional headroom. The Low preset averages 225 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. Moving to Medium drops the average to 160 FPS, with a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 184 FPS. The High preset averages 139 FPS, while Ultra still maintains a strong 105 FPS average. Every setting at 1080p clears the 60 FPS threshold by a wide margin, with even the most demanding Ultra preset delivering nearly double the playability target.

At 2560x1440, performance remains robust but scales down predictably. The Low preset averages 165 FPS, still far above the 60 FPS target. Medium averages 117 FPS, with a minimum of 99 FPS and a maximum of 135 FPS. High averages 102 FPS, and Ultra averages 77 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 88 FPS, showing that the settings menu has a substantial impact on performance. Even the lowest recorded minimum at this resolution — 99 FPS on Medium — is comfortably above the playability threshold.

At 3840x2160, the picture changes significantly. The Low preset averages 106 FPS, which remains playable and smooth. Medium averages 76 FPS, with a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 87 FPS, meaning even the worst-case frame dips stay above 60 FPS. High averages 66 FPS, which still clears the threshold but with less margin. The Ultra preset averages 49 FPS, falling below the 60 FPS playability line. This is the only configuration in the entire dataset that fails to reach the target, and the data shows a clear cliff between High and Ultra at this resolution.

The scaling between settings is consistent across resolutions. Moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p reduces the average from 225 FPS to 105 FPS, a drop of 120 FPS. At 1440p, the same settings change reduces the average from 165 FPS to 77 FPS, a drop of 88 FPS. At 4K, Low to Ultra goes from 106 FPS to 49 FPS, a drop of 57 FPS. This pattern indicates that the absolute performance penalty of higher settings shrinks as resolution increases, but the relative penalty remains significant.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearestRivals data provides context for both the CPU and GPU in this combo. For the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, the closest alternatives in average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755, which scores 75738 with a delta of 0.1%, and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D, also at 75716 with a 0.1% delta. The AMD EPYC 8224P sits at 75582 with a 0.3% delta, and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 is at 75488 with a 0.4% delta. These deltas are extremely small — all four alternatives are within 0.4% of the 9950X3D's average score of 75779. For Lockdown Protocol specifically, any of these CPUs would deliver essentially identical frame rates, as the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most of the measured configurations.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, the nearest rivals show a tightly clustered group. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 scores 30095 with a delta of -0.5%, meaning it is slightly faster than the RTX 3070 Ti's average score of 29945. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile scores 29928 with a 0.1% delta, making it nearly identical in performance. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti scores 29783 with a 0.5% delta, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 30433 with a -1.6% delta. The RX 6700 is the fastest of the group, sitting 1.6% above the RTX 3070 Ti. In practice, any of these GPUs would produce frame rates within a couple of percent of each other in Lockdown Protocol, meaning the choice between them would not alter which settings are playable at each resolution.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 75 versus all GPUs, combined with the CPU's percentile ranking of 95 versus all CPUs, suggests that the RTX 3070 Ti is the more likely performance limiter in demanding scenarios. The CPU has substantial headroom relative to its peers, while the GPU is closer to the middle of the pack.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data shows a clear pattern of GPU-bound performance at higher resolutions and settings, with the CPU becoming relatively less important as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the differences between settings are large — Low averages 225 FPS while Ultra averages 105 FPS. This 120 FPS gap indicates that the GPU is doing most of the work, but the CPU still has enough headroom to feed high frame rates. The 9950X3D, with its strong single-thread score of 1292 in 3dmark_single_thread and 2259 in cinebench_r23_singlecore, is well suited to maintain high frame rates at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the same settings comparison shows a smaller absolute gap — Low at 165 FPS versus Ultra at 77 FPS, an 88 FPS difference. The GPU is now working harder per frame, and the CPU's role diminishes slightly. Still, the fact that even Ultra at 1440p stays above 60 FPS suggests that neither component is severely bottlenecked at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the dominant factor. The Ultra preset drops to 49 FPS, while Low stays at 106 FPS. The 57 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest absolute difference across all resolutions, which indicates that the GPU is saturated regardless of settings. The CPU's performance at 4K Ultra is largely irrelevant because the RTX 3070 Ti simply cannot render enough frames to stress the 9950X3D. The verdict data confirms this: only the 4K Ultra preset fails to reach 60 FPS, and the gap is substantial — 11 FPS below the target.

The scaling between resolutions at the same settings reinforces this interpretation. At High settings, moving from 1080p (139 FPS) to 1440p (102 FPS) to 4K (66 FPS) shows a steady decline that tracks the increasing pixel count. The 4K High result of 66 FPS is barely above the threshold, suggesting that the GPU is nearing its limit even at High settings. At Medium settings, the same progression goes from 160 FPS at 1080p to 117 FPS at 1440p to 76 FPS at 4K, with the 4K minimum of 64 FPS showing that occasional dips approach the threshold.

The Verdict

The verdictByResolution data provides a clear answer: this PC can run Lockdown Protocol at 60 FPS or above in every resolution and preset combination except for 3840x2160 Ultra. At 1920x1080, all four settings are playable, with the best settings being Ultra at an average of 105 FPS. At 2560x1440, all four settings are also playable, with Ultra averaging 77 FPS. At 3840x2160, three of the four settings are playable — High at 66 FPS, Low at 106 FPS, and Medium at 76 FPS — but Ultra falls to 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playability threshold.

The practical takeaway is that this combo is well suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, and it can handle 4K at most settings. The only scenario where the user must compromise is 4K Ultra, where the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are insufficient to maintain the target frame rate. The 4K High result of 66 FPS shows that dropping from Ultra to High is enough to cross the threshold, although the margin is modest.

Best Settings per Resolution

Based on the measured FPS data and the verdictByResolution field, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at each resolution is as follows:

• 1920x1080: Ultra at 105 FPS average. This is the highest preset tested, and it delivers a frame rate well above the 60 FPS target. There is no reason to drop below Ultra at this resolution.
• 2560x1440: Ultra at 77 FPS average. Again, the highest preset remains playable with a comfortable 17 FPS margin over the threshold. The minimum FPS data is not provided for Ultra at this resolution, but the average suggests no issues.
• 3840x2160: High at 66 FPS average. This is the most demanding preset that clears 60 FPS at 4K. Medium averages 76 FPS and Low averages 106 FPS, but High offers the best visual quality while staying playable. The margin over the threshold is only 6 FPS, so users who prefer a larger buffer might choose Medium instead.

The data also shows that at 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 64, which is just above the threshold. This suggests that High at 4K, which has no min/max data, could potentially dip below 60 FPS in extreme scenes, but the average of 66 FPS indicates that such dips would be rare.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field places this specific CPU-GPU pairing at rank 1324 out of 3714 tested combinations. This puts it in the 64th percentile of all tested combos, meaning roughly one-third of configurations outperform it and two-thirds are slower. The ranking reflects the balance between the high-end CPU and the mid-to-high-end GPU. The 9950X3D is a top-tier processor, but the RTX 3070 Ti, while capable, is not a flagship GPU in 2025 terms. The combination is stronger than most systems but falls short of the top echelon that would include newer high-end GPUs.

The rank of 1324 out of 3714 is consistent with the measured FPS data. The combo performs very well at 1080p and 1440p, where the CPU's strength can be leveraged, but it is held back at 4K Ultra by the GPU. Many combos with more powerful GPUs would rank higher primarily because they can handle 4K Ultra, whereas this system cannot. However, for the majority of users playing at 1080p or 1440p, the ranking is more than adequate.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Lockdown Protocol at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The best playable setting at 4K is High, which averages 66 FPS.

Q: What is the highest preset that maintains 60 FPS at 2560x1440?

A: Ultra settings average 77 FPS at 1440p, making it the highest preset that clears the threshold. All four presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — are playable at this resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to the RX 6800 in this game?

A: The RX 6800 has an average benchmark score of 30095, which is 0.5% higher than the RTX 3070 Ti's 29945. In Lockdown Protocol, the frame rate difference would be negligible, likely within 1-2 FPS at most settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 3840x2160?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The data shows that even at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 225 at 1080p to 106 at 4K, indicating the GPU is heavily loaded. The CPU's performance is sufficient at all resolutions.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1920x1080 Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium is 136 FPS, with an average of 160 FPS and a maximum of 184 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and indicates smooth performance.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This CPU-GPU combination ranks 1324 out of 3714 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all systems. The ranking reflects the strong CPU and capable but not top-tier GPU.