Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT produces a spread of results in Lockdown Protocol that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary performance driver at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s age becomes more apparent at 1080p. This combination ranks in the 26th percentile of all tested combos, placing it at rank 1206 out of 1637, which is a middling result for a pairing that includes a GPU with a 71st percentile standing among all GPUs. The data suggests that the Zen+ processor is holding back the RDNA 2 graphics card in this FPS title, particularly when settings are lowered and frame rates climb.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 102.1 FPS at 1080p to 72.7 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of approximately 29%, and then falls further to 47.6 FPS at 4K. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at 1440p and 4K, as the RX 6600 XT’s 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB GDDR6 buffer are being saturated by the increased pixel count. The transition from 1440p to 4K at High settings produces a 34% performance loss, which is a larger relative drop than the 1080p to 1440p step, highlighting the exponential cost of 4K rendering.

At the Low preset, the resolution scaling tells a different story. The 1080p result of 158.7 FPS drops to 116.5 FPS at 1440p and then to 74.9 FPS at 4K. The absolute frame rates are higher at every resolution compared to High settings, but the percentage drops are steeper, suggesting that the CPU is beginning to influence results at lower graphical loads. The 1080p Low score of 158.7 FPS is nearly 56% higher than the 1080p High score, which points to the Ryzen 5 2600’s six cores and twelve threads being able to feed the GPU adequately at lower settings, but the gap narrows as resolution increases and the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The 4K Low result of 74.9 FPS still represents a playable experience, but the scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a 53% reduction, indicating that the RX 6600 XT’s compute throughput is the dominant constraint in this scenario.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1206 out of 1637 tested combinations, this pairing sits below the median for Lockdown Protocol. The CPU’s percentile of 77 against all CPUs is respectable, but the GPU’s percentile of 71 is slightly lower, creating an imbalance that favors compute-heavy workloads over frame rate generation in this title. The nearest rivals for the Ryzen 5 2600 include the Intel Core i5-11600KF with a delta of -0.6% and the Intel Core i7-10700F with a delta of 0.7%, meaning the CPU is essentially performance-neutral against those parts in synthetic benchmarks, yet the real-world game results may differ due to architectural differences in Zen versus newer designs.

The RX 6600 XT’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti with a delta of 0.1% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with a delta of -0.9%, which places the AMD card in a crowded mid-range segment. However, the combo rank of 1206 suggests that the pairing does not translate its individual component percentiles into top-tier game performance. The data indicates that the CPU’s 12 nm process node and Zen architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 3.90 GHz, may be limiting the GPU’s ability to reach its full potential in a game that appears to favor higher single-thread performance. The 4K Ultra result of 33.8 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows that even with the GPU fully loaded, the combination cannot maintain a smooth frame rate at maximum settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the Navi 23 chip using RDNA 2.0 architecture on a 7 nm process from TSMC. Its memory configuration includes 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results in Lockdown Protocol show that it becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU’s boost clock of 2589 MHz and game clock of 2359 MHz are relatively high, yet the 4K Ultra performance of 33.8 FPS demonstrates that the 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs cannot handle the pixel throughput required at that resolution with maximum settings.

The GPU’s 32 ray accelerators and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate suggest it is capable of modern rendering features, but the measured data does not include ray tracing metrics. The 10.60 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is a solid figure for this class, and the 331.4 GTexel/s texture rate helps maintain performance in texture-heavy scenes. However, the 4K Medium result of 51.5 FPS and the 4K High result of 47.6 FPS show that the GPU is working hard but still falls short of a consistent 60 FPS target at that resolution. The 1440p High result of 72.7 FPS is more encouraging, suggesting that the RX 6600 XT is best suited for 1440p gaming with this CPU pairing, where it can leverage its bandwidth and compute without being overwhelmed by pixel count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide range of performance across presets. The Low preset delivers 158.7 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset and indicates that the CPU-GPU combination is capable of high refresh rate gaming when graphical demands are minimal. The Medium preset produces 115.1 FPS, representing a 27% reduction from Low. The High preset yields 102.1 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 73.8 FPS. This progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 53% performance loss, which is a significant penalty for the highest quality settings. The fact that even the Ultra preset exceeds 60 FPS at 1080p suggests that this combination can handle the game’s maximum settings at this resolution, though the margin is not large.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results follow a similar pattern but with lower absolute numbers. The Low preset achieves 116.5 FPS, which is a 27% drop from 1080p Low. The Medium preset hits 81.4 FPS, the High preset reaches 72.7 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 54.8 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result is below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that players seeking maximum quality at this resolution will need to accept frame rates in the mid-50s. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 53 FPS, or 46%, which is a smaller relative difference than at 1080p, reinforcing that the GPU becomes more of a bottleneck as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the results are the weakest across the board. The Low preset delivers 74.9 FPS, which is surprisingly playable for a 4K resolution, but the Medium preset drops to 51.5 FPS, and the High preset falls to 47.6 FPS. The Ultra preset bottoms out at 33.8 FPS, which is the only result in the dataset that is below 30 FPS. The 4K Low result is notably higher than the 1440p Ultra result of 54.8 FPS, indicating that lowering settings at 4K can yield frame rates comparable to higher settings at lower resolutions. However, the 4K data overall shows that this combination is not well-suited for 4K gaming beyond the Low preset, and even then, the 74.9 FPS average may not be stable during intense combat sequences.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal preset for this combination depends on the target resolution. At 1080p, the High preset at 102.1 FPS provides a strong balance between visual quality and performance, offering a 38% improvement over Ultra while still exceeding 100 FPS. The Medium preset at 115.1 FPS is also viable for players who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, but the jump from Medium to High is only 13 FPS, making High the better choice for most users. The Ultra preset at 73.8 FPS is still above 60 FPS, but the visual gains over High are likely marginal compared to the 28% performance cost.

For 1440p, the High preset at 72.7 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it stays above 60 FPS while providing solid visual quality. The Medium preset at 81.4 FPS offers a 12% performance boost over High, which may be preferable for competitive play, but the difference is not substantial. The Ultra preset at 54.8 FPS falls below 60 FPS, and the data suggests that the performance hit is not worth the minor visual improvements. Players with 1440p displays should choose High and accept the 72.7 FPS average, or drop to Medium if they require a higher frame rate for fast-paced FPS action.

At 4K, the Low preset at 74.9 FPS is the only option that provides a consistently playable experience, as all other presets fall below 52 FPS. The Medium preset at 51.5 FPS is borderline, but the 23 FPS gap between Low and Medium is too large to justify the visual upgrade. The Ultra preset at 33.8 FPS is effectively unplayable for a competitive FPS title. The data clearly indicates that this combination should not be used for 4K gaming beyond Low settings, and even then, the 74.9 FPS average may dip during heavy scenes. For the best overall experience, 1440p High at 72.7 FPS represents the sweet spot, delivering a balance of visual quality and performance that leverages the RX 6600 XT’s capabilities without exposing the Ryzen 5 2600’s limitations.