Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol places the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination in a specific performance tier, and the measured frame rates reveal a system that is consistently capable but requires deliberate settings management to hit high refresh rates. The data indicates a classic pairing where the GPU's age and the CPU's mid-range standing create a balanced bottleneck that shifts depending on resolution and preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows show a clear hierarchy across presets at every resolution, with the Low preset providing the only consistently high frame rates. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 132.2 FPS, which is the only measured configuration that exceeds the 120 FPS threshold for high-refresh monitors. The Medium preset at the same resolution yields 92.4 FPS, which is playable but represents a 30% drop from Low. The High preset drops further to 80.4 FPS, while Ultra sits at 62.1 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the pattern becomes more pronounced. The Low preset produces 98.4 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS and suitable for standard refresh displays. However, Medium drops to 67.4 FPS, High to 59.9 FPS, and Ultra to 43.2 FPS. The step from Low to Medium at this resolution costs 31.5% of the frame rate, indicating that the GTX 1070's 8 GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus are being taxed by the increased pixel count.

For 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. Low settings produce 62.6 FPS, which is the only preset at 4K that maintains a playable average. Medium drops to 44.6 FPS, High to 40.9 FPS, and Ultra to 30.6 FPS. Based on these measurements, the recommended experience for this combo is the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p for competitive play, as it maximizes frame rate headroom. For visually demanding sessions, Medium at 1080p offers a reasonable compromise, but the data shows that Ultra settings are only viable at lower resolutions and even then with significant frame rate penalties.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination ranks 1376 out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the lower 16% of all pairings. This rank reflects the age of both components relative to the game's 2024 release. The CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 76, meaning it outperforms 76% of processors in general benchmarks, but its average benchmark score of 18129 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 18150 with a delta of -0.1%, the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 18101 with a delta of 0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 scores 18158 with a delta of -0.2%. These sub-1% differences indicate that the processor is not the primary limiting factor in most scenarios.

The GPU presents a different story. The GTX 1070's percentile versus all GPUs is 51, placing it just above the median. Its average benchmark score of 12331 is within 2% of its nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 at 12241 (delta 0.7%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M at 12490 (delta -1.3%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER at 12504 (delta -1.4%). The combination's low rank in this specific game suggests that Lockdown Protocol's rendering demands favor newer architectures, as the Pascal-based GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates even at lower presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s. Its base clock is 1506 MHz with a boost clock of 1683 MHz, and the memory runs at 2002 MHz with 8 Gbps effective speed. The GPU has 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations units. Its pixel rate is 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate is 202.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 6.463 TFLOPS.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role is clearly defined by the measured FPS deltas between presets. At 1080p, the transition from Low to Medium costs 39.8 FPS, from Medium to High costs 12.0 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 18.3 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth becomes a constraint at higher presets, as the game's texture and effect loads increase. The 8 GB VRAM is adequate for 1080p and 1440p at all presets, but the 4K Ultra measurement of 30.6 FPS indicates that the GPU's compute throughput is insufficient for the highest settings at that resolution. The GPU's DirectX 12 support (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility are present, but the Pascal architecture lacks the dedicated ray tracing cores found in newer generations, which may impact Lockdown Protocol's advanced rendering features.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low delivers 132.2 FPS, Medium delivers 92.4 FPS, High delivers 80.4 FPS, and Ultra delivers 62.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 70.1 FPS, indicating that settings have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution. The jump from Medium to High is relatively small at 12.0 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra is larger at 18.3 FPS, suggesting that Ultra introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GTX 1070.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 98.4 FPS, Medium at 67.4 FPS, High at 59.9 FPS, and Ultra at 43.2 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 31.0 FPS, which is the largest single step at this resolution. This indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput becomes a limiting factor as resolution increases. The High to Ultra step costs 16.7 FPS, which is similar in magnitude to the 1080p equivalent.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 62.6 FPS, Medium at 44.6 FPS, High at 40.9 FPS, and Ultra at 30.6 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that maintains an average above 60 FPS, and it still represents a 52.7% drop from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 4K is 28.5 FPS below the 1080p Medium result, and the Ultra preset at 4K is nearly half the 1080p Ultra result. These numbers confirm that 4K gaming with this combo requires significant settings compromises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU's role as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (132.2 FPS) to 2560x1440 (98.4 FPS) represents a 25.6% reduction, and further to 3840x2160 (62.6 FPS) represents a 52.7% reduction from 1080p. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is limited by pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth as resolution increases.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is steeper. The move from 1080p (62.1 FPS) to 1440p (43.2 FPS) is a 30.4% drop, and to 4K (30.6 FPS) is a 50.7% drop. The similarity in percentage drops between Low and Ultra suggests that the GPU's architecture is the limiting factor regardless of settings, but the absolute frame rates at Ultra are too low for smooth gameplay at 4K.

The CPU's contribution to this scaling is minimal, as its 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz provide adequate headroom for the game's logic at these frame rates. The Ryzen 5 3600's single-thread score of 696 in 3DMark and multi-thread score of 4605 indicate that it can feed the GTX 1070 effectively at 1080p Low, where the GPU is the clear bottleneck. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU's average of 30.6 FPS means the CPU is not stressed, and the system's overall performance is dictated by the graphics card's compute capabilities. The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming with settings tuned to Medium or High, as the 4K and 1440p Ultra configurations do not provide playable frame rates for a fast-paced FPS.