Lockdown Protocol

Pairing an end-of-life six-core Coffee Lake CPU with a current-generation flagship-class GPU produces an unusual imbalance, but the recorded data for Lockdown Protocol shows the combination clearing the 60 FPS threshold at every tested resolution and every preset. The Intel Core i5-9400 sits in the 47th percentile of all CPUs in the database, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, and that asymmetry shapes how this pairing scales across resolutions in a fast, competitive FPS title released in March 2024.

How This Combo Ranks

Across 3,714 tested hardware combinations in Lockdown Protocol, the i5-9400 plus RTX 5080 lands at rank 1,156. That places it just below the top third of all recorded pairings, a middling position that reflects the CPU far more than the GPU. The RTX 5080 itself is elite hardware: its average benchmark score of 56,083 and 87th percentile placement put it among the strongest cards measured, with 10,752 shading units, 84 RT cores, 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus delivering 960 GB/s of bandwidth, and 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput. The i5-9400, by contrast, is a 6-core, 6-thread part with a 4.10 GHz boost clock and 9 MB of shared L3 cache, scoring 6629 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 935 in single-core. In a game where frame rates at lower resolutions lean on the processor, the ranking shows the GPU being held back. A pairing built around a stronger CPU with this same card would rank meaningfully higher; the data indicates the i5-9400 is the limiting factor in this combination's placement.

Best Settings per Resolution

Because every tested preset at every resolution stays at or above the 60 FPS playable threshold, the most demanding preset is also the best choice everywhere.

• 1920x1080: Ultra, averaging 125.1 FPS. This is the ceiling for visual quality with no frame-rate sacrifice worth worrying about, comfortably double the threshold.
• 2560x1440: Ultra, averaging 109.7 FPS. Even at quadruple the pixel count of 1080p relative to the workload increase, Ultra remains well clear of 60 FPS.
• 3840x2160: Ultra, averaging 77.4 FPS. Native 4K at maximum settings still clears the threshold by over 17 frames per second on average.

In short, there is no resolution or preset in the recorded data where this pairing has to compromise. Ultra is the correct setting at all three resolutions.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data tells a clear story about which component governs performance. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra drops the average from 125.1 to 109.7 FPS, a loss of 15.4 frames. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Ultra drops it further from 109.7 to 77.4 FPS, a loss of 32.3 frames. The pattern is consistent at every preset: Low falls from 162.3 at 1080p to 124.5 at 4K, and High falls from 135.9 to 107.2.

The informative number is the gap between presets at a fixed resolution. At 1080p, Low to Ultra costs 37.2 FPS (162.3 to 125.1), a 22.9 percent reduction. At 4K, Low to Ultra costs 47.1 FPS (124.5 to 77.4), a 37.8 percent reduction. The fact that frame rates at 1080p sit in the 125 to 162 FPS range rather than climbing toward the RTX 5080's full capability is diagnostic: the GPU is massively overprovisioned for this title, and the six-core, six-thread i5-9400 with its 47th percentile standing caps the low-resolution frame rates. At 1080p and 1440p this is a CPU-limited configuration. Only at 4K does the GPU workload become heavy enough that resolution, not the processor, drives the frame-rate decline.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at hardware that would behave similarly in this game, the closest CPU substitutes by average score are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (average score 2259, within 0.2 percent of the i5-9400's 2254), the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, 0.3 percent), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, 0.4 percent), and the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, 0.4 percent). Any of these processors would produce nearly identical Lockdown Protocol behavior alongside an RTX 5080, since the recorded spread between them is under half a percent.

On the GPU side, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon 8060S (average score 55,757, 0.6 percent behind the RTX 5080's 56,083), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698, 0.7 percent), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828, 2.3 percent), and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (57,367, 2.2 percent ahead). Swapping the RTX 5080 for any of these cards should yield frame rates within a few percent at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is the binding constraint. At 1080p, the swap would be nearly invisible because the CPU is already the bottleneck there. One platform note matters: the RTX 5080 uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface while the i5-9400's platform provides PCIe 3.0 with 16 CPU lanes, and the card is a dual-slot, 304 mm long board drawing 360 W through a single 16-pin connector with a 750 W suggested PSU, so a similar build needs a chassis and power delivery to match.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured average frame rates from the database; minimum and maximum values were not recorded for this configuration.

3840x2160 (4K)

| Preset | Avg FPS |

|---|---|

| Low | 124.5 |

| Medium | 113.3 |

| High | 107.2 |

| Ultra | 77.4 |

2560x1440

| Preset | Avg FPS |

|---|---|

| Low | 146.4 |

| Medium | 129.5 |

| High | 121.0 |

| Ultra | 109.7 |

1920x1080

| Preset | Avg FPS |

|---|---|

| Low | 162.3 |

| Medium | 141.5 |

| High | 135.9 |

| Ultra | 125.1 |

The tightest spread between Low and Medium appears at 4K (11.2 frames), while the largest single-step drop occurs between High and Ultra at 4K, where 29.8 frames separate the two presets. That Ultra penalty is the only place in the entire dataset where the frame rate approaches the playable threshold with limited headroom.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC runs Lockdown Protocol, and it does so at maximum settings everywhere. At 1920x1080 the verdict is Ultra at 125.1 FPS average. At 2560x1440 it is Ultra at 109.7 FPS. At 3840x2160 it is Ultra at 77.4 FPS. All four presets, Low through Ultra, are playable at all three resolutions; none dips below the 60 FPS threshold. The only qualification is that 4K Ultra, at 77.4 FPS, has the thinnest margin, and since minimum frame rates were not recorded, momentary dips below the average cannot be ruled out at that setting. For competitive play where high refresh rates matter, 1080p at Low (162.3 FPS) or Medium (141.5 FPS) is the strongest configuration in the data. The RTX 5080 (launch MSRP 999 USD) is doing the heavy lifting; the i5-9400 sets the ceiling on how high frame rates can climb at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can the i5-9400 + RTX 5080 run Lockdown Protocol at 4K?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160, every preset from Low to Ultra stays above 60 FPS, with Ultra averaging 77.4 FPS and Low averaging 124.5 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings choice for this combo?

A: Ultra at all three tested resolutions, since even the most demanding preset clears the 60 FPS playable threshold at 1080p (125.1 FPS), 1440p (109.7 FPS), and 4K (77.4 FPS).

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the bottleneck?

A: The CPU. Frame rates at 1080p top out between 125.1 and 162.3 FPS despite the RTX 5080's 87th percentile ranking, indicating the 47th-percentile i5-9400 limits low-resolution performance. The GPU only becomes the constraint at 4K.

Q: What CPUs would perform about the same as the i5-9400 in this game?

A: The Intel Core i7-1068NG7, Core i7-10710U, and i3-10305, plus the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, all sit within roughly half a percent of the i5-9400's average benchmark score.

Q: How much does raising settings from Low to Ultra cost at 4K?

A: 47.1 FPS on average, a drop from 124.5 to 77.4. It remains the only preset-to-preset step in the dataset that costs nearly 30 frames between High and Ultra.

Q: Would a different GPU in the same class change the results?

A: At 4K, marginally. Cards like the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (2.2 percent higher average score) or the Radeon 8060S (0.6 percent lower) should land within a few percent of these frame rates. At 1080p the results would be essentially unchanged because the CPU is the limiting component.