Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 presents a classic generational pairing in Lockdown Protocol: a mature six-core CPU from 2018 alongside a modern RDNA 3 graphics card. The measured frame rates show that the RX 7700 has enough headroom to push very high refresh rates at 1080p, but the Ryzen 5 2600 becomes the limiting factor as resolution drops. The data indicates a system that is well-balanced at 1440p with High settings, but which leaves performance on the table at lower resolutions due to the older CPU's single-thread limitations.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how workload shifts between the CPU and GPU. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 176 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 147 FPS, a 16.5% decrease. At 4K Low, the average falls to 95 FPS, which is a 46% reduction from the 1080p result. This steep drop at 4K indicates the GPU is now fully engaged; the data shows the RX 7700's pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s are being taxed heavily at that resolution.

The scaling pattern changes significantly when moving up in settings. At High settings, the 1080p average is 124 FPS. The 1440p High result is 91 FPS, a 26.6% drop. The 4K High average is 59 FPS, which is 52.4% lower than the 1080p number. The larger percentage drops at higher settings confirm that the GPU is the primary bottleneck once the quality preset increases pixel and shading workload. The 4K Ultra result of 44 FPS is the lowest measured, showing that this combo is not intended for maximum quality at 4K.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (176 FPS) and Ultra (93 FPS) is 83 FPS. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 79 FPS (147 vs 68). At 4K, the gap shrinks to 51 FPS (95 vs 44). This compression at 4K is a classic sign of GPU saturation — the card cannot render faster regardless of the quality settings because it is already at its limit. Conversely, the larger gaps at 1080p suggest that the CPU is not the bottleneck there, allowing the GPU's raw power to show through.

The Medium settings rows provide the only frame time data in the pack. At 1080p Medium, the average is 142 FPS with a minimum of 121 and maximum of 163. At 1440p Medium, the average is 104 FPS with min/max of 88/120. At 4K Medium, the average is 67 FPS with min/max of 57/77. The frame time consistency degrades with resolution, but the 4K Medium minimum of 57 FPS is still above the 44 FPS Ultra average, indicating that Medium is the sensible ceiling for 4K on this hardware.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is built on the Navi 32 chip using RDNA 3.0 architecture on a 5 nm process from TSMC. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 2438 MHz with 19.5 Gbps effective transfer. The GPU's base clock is 1900 MHz, with a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz. The 16 GB frame buffer is generous for Lockdown Protocol, a 2024 FPS title, and the bandwidth figure of 624.1 GB/s is more than sufficient to feed the 2560 shading units.

The GPU's compute resources include 160 TMUs and 96 ROPs. The texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s are directly relevant to how the card handles the visual complexity of Lockdown Protocol. The FP32 throughput of 25.18 TFLOPS means the card has substantial raw compute for shading work. The passmark G3D score of 20974 places this GPU in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15852.

The nearestRivals data shows the RX 7700 sits close to several other cards in aggregate performance. The AMD Radeon R9 370X is 0.1% behind, the AMD Radeon RX 9060 is 1% ahead, the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 is 1.1% behind, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 1.7% ahead. These small deltas of -0.1 to -1.7 percent indicate that in synthetic benchmarks, the RX 7700 is effectively in the same performance tier as those cards. However, the measured Lockdown Protocol results show that the card's real-world gaming performance can vary substantially from these aggregate scores.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) aligns with the requirements of a modern FPS title. The 40 RT cores are present, though Lockdown Protocol results in the FACT PACK do not indicate ray tracing usage in the measured scenarios. The card's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is backward compatible with the Ryzen 5 2600's PCIe Gen 3 lanes, so there is no bandwidth limitation at the system level, though the older CPU's 16 Gen 3 lanes are the available pathway.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Lockdown Protocol?*

A: The measured data suggests 1440p High is the sweet spot. It delivers 91 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold, while the 4K High result of 59 FPS is marginal by comparison. The 1080p results are higher but do not take advantage of the GPU's full capability.

*Q: Does the RX 7700's 16 GB VRAM matter for Lockdown Protocol?*

A: The 16 GB frame buffer is not stressed by the measured settings. At 4K Ultra, the card still produces 44 FPS average, which is a compute-bound result rather than a memory limitation. The 624.1 GB/s bandwidth is more relevant than capacity for this title's performance.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 2600 hold up in this game?

A: The CPU's passmark single-thread score of 2239 and geekbench single-core score of 1154 are modest by modern standards. The data shows the CPU is not the bottleneck at 1080p Low, where the GPU produces 176 FPS, but it likely limits maximum frame rates in less demanding scenes at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the RX 7700 a good match for the Ryzen 5 2600?

A: The combo rank of 1393 out of 2828 places it in the middle of the pack. The 1440p results show balanced performance, but at 1080p the CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs (avg benchmark score 21484) is clearly lower than the GPU's 58th percentile, creating an imbalance.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1080p Ultra?

A: The measured average is 93 FPS. This is the only 1080p setting where the frame rate drops below 100 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings at 1080p are still playable but noticeably more demanding than High.

Q: Should I use Medium settings at 4K?

A: The data shows 4K Medium produces 67 FPS average with a minimum of 57 FPS. This is the only 4K setting that maintains an average above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K displays with this combo.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance for each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 176 FPS, which is excessive for most displays, while Ultra delivers 93 FPS. The High preset at 124 FPS is the most practical choice for 1080p, offering a strong balance of quality and speed. Medium at 142 FPS is also viable if higher frame rates are preferred over visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, High produces 91 FPS, which is the recommended setting for this resolution. Medium delivers 104 FPS and Low delivers 147 FPS, but the visual quality difference between Low and High is substantial for only a 56 FPS cost. Ultra drops to 68 FPS, which is still playable but does not provide enough of a visual uplift to justify the 23 FPS loss from High.

At 3840x2160, the options are limited. Medium is the only preset that breaks 60 FPS, averaging 67 FPS. High averages 59 FPS, which is borderline. Low averages 95 FPS but sacrifices too much visual quality for a 4K display. Ultra averages 44 FPS, which is not recommended for competitive play. The data strongly indicates that 4K Medium is the ceiling for this combo, and even then, the 57 FPS minimum may cause noticeable dips in intense scenes.

The overall recommendation is to use High settings at 1440p for the best experience. This yields 91 FPS average with no reported minimum, suggesting stable frame delivery. For 1080p users with high refresh rate monitors, High at 124 FPS is also excellent. The Medium preset at 4K is the only viable 4K option, and users should accept that Ultra is not attainable at playable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low delivers 176 FPS, Medium delivers 142 FPS with a minimum of 121 and maximum of 163, High delivers 124 FPS, and Ultra delivers 93 FPS. The frame time data for Medium shows a 42 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, indicating some variability but generally smooth performance.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 147 FPS, Medium produces 104 FPS with a minimum of 88 and maximum of 120, High produces 91 FPS, and Ultra produces 68 FPS. The Medium frame time spread of 32 FPS is tighter than at 1080p, suggesting more consistent frame pacing at this resolution. The 68 FPS Ultra result is the only 1440p setting below 90 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 95 FPS, Medium averages 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 77, High averages 59 FPS, and Ultra averages 44 FPS. The Medium frame time spread of 20 FPS is the tightest of any resolution, but the 57 FPS minimum is the lowest recorded value in the entire dataset. The 44 FPS Ultra result is the only average below 50 FPS across all measurements.

The progression across settings is consistent: each step from Low to Medium to High to Ultra reduces the average FPS by a diminishing amount at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the step from Low to Ultra costs 83 FPS. At 1440p, it costs 79 FPS. At 4K, it costs 51 FPS. This clearly shows the GPU becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases, with the CPU's influence waning.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, based on the Zen architecture (Zen+ Pinnacle Ridge) on a 12 nm GlobalFoundries process. It runs at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boosts to 3.90 GHz. The 65 W TDP is modest, and the CPU supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s. The L3 cache is 16 MB shared, with 512 KB L2 per core.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21484. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (0.2% faster), Intel Core i9-11900H (0.5% faster), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (0.7% slower), and AMD EPYC 9454 (1.2% faster). These tight deltas of -0.7 to 1.2 percent show that the Ryzen 5 2600's aggregate performance is competitive with much newer parts in synthetic tests.

However, the single-thread performance is the critical factor for Lockdown Protocol. The passmark single-thread score of 2239 and geekbench single-core score of 1154 are the relevant numbers for a game that typically relies on a few primary threads. The cinebench R15 single-core score of 157.3 reinforces this picture. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 176 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at that setting. But the 1080p Ultra result of 93 FPS is only 29 FPS higher than the 4K Ultra result of 44 FPS, a small gap that hints at CPU involvement.

The 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for the game's threading model, but the 3.90 GHz boost clock is low by current standards. The passmark physics score of 673 and the floating point math score of 22942 are moderate, but the integer math score of 44518 is stronger. The CPU's 16 MB L3 cache is shared across all cores, which helps with data locality in gaming workloads. The memory bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s is adequate for DDR4-2400-class memory, but it does not provide the headroom that newer platforms offer.

The combination rank of 1393 out of 2828 places this pairing in the 49th percentile of all combos tested. This suggests that while the system is functional, it is not optimized for maximum Lockdown Protocol performance. The CPU's 75th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 58th percentile indicates that the CPU is the stronger component relative to its peers, yet the game's results show the CPU limiting the GPU at lower resolutions. The practical takeaway is that the Ryzen 5 2600 can sustain 60+ FPS in this game at most settings, but it will not allow the RX 7700 to reach its full potential at 1080p.