Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces a highly capable Lockdown Protocol system, with measured frame rates that remain fluid even at maximum settings. The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 5090 D is the dominant component, while the Ryzen 5 3600's six cores and twelve threads provide sufficient throughput to keep the Blackwell GPU well-fed across all tested resolutions. This combination ranks 380th out of 2,828 tested combos, placing it in the top 13.4% of all configurations, which is a strong result given that the CPU is a 2019 part paired with a flagship 2025 GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals a consistent hierarchy across all three resolutions, with Low settings delivering the highest average frame rates, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra in descending order. At 1920x1080, the spread from Low to Ultra is 49 FPS (201 down to 152), while at 2560x1440 the spread narrows to 44 FPS (181 down to 137), and at 3840x2160 it widens to 69 FPS (157 down to 88). This pattern indicates that the settings presets scale predictably, with each step up in quality costing a measurable chunk of performance.

For players prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 201 FPS average, which is the highest measured score in the entire dataset. However, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a compelling middle ground: 177 FPS average with a recorded minimum of 150 FPS and maximum of 204 FPS, representing only a 12% drop from Low while presumably offering better visual fidelity. The High preset at 1080p still maintains 169 FPS, which is 84% of the Low setting's performance.

At 1440p, the Medium preset stands out as the best balance, delivering 160 FPS average with a minimum of 136 FPS and maximum of 184 FPS. This represents 88% of the Low setting's 181 FPS, and the 136 FPS minimum ensures that even demanding scenes stay well above typical 120 Hz refresh rates. The High preset at 1440p drops to 152 FPS average, which is still excellent, but the Medium preset's tighter minimum frame time makes it the safer choice for competitive play.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. The Ultra preset falls to 88 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh displays. The High preset at 118 FPS and Medium at 135 FPS (with a 115 FPS minimum) are both viable, but the data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot: it delivers 86% of the Low setting's 157 FPS while providing the only recorded minimum frame rate at this resolution (115 FPS). For 4K gaming, Medium settings are recommended to maintain a stable experience above 120 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, drawing a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is limited to DDR4 with dual-channel access and a theoretical bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU has more headroom relative to the GPU, yet the highest average FPS recorded (201 at Low) still falls short of what the RTX 5090 D alone might achieve, suggesting some CPU limitation at lower resolutions. The 3DMark single-thread score of 696 and passmark single-thread score of 2562 indicate moderate per-core performance, which is typical for a 2019-era processor.

The processor's multi-threaded capabilities are more robust: Cinebench R23 multi-core score reaches 15,045, and passmark multi-thread score is 17,700. These results suggest that Lockdown Protocol, being a modern FPS, can utilize the twelve threads effectively, but the single-thread performance is the more critical factor for frame pacing. The CPU's percentile ranking against all CPUs is 71st percentile, placing it above average but not exceptional. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1260P (0.2% faster), Intel Core i5-11400 (0.2% slower), and AMD EPYC 7573X (0.2% slower), indicating that the Ryzen 5 3600 sits in a tightly clustered performance band.

The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4,605 versus the 2-thread score of 1,361 shows that multi-thread scaling is reasonable but not linear, with a 3.4x improvement when going from 2 to 16 threads. This is consistent with a six-core processor where hyperthreading provides diminishing returns beyond physical cores. For Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's 32 MB L3 cache likely helps with game data locality, but the DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s could become a bottleneck in heavily populated scenes, especially when paired with a GPU capable of generating frame rates above 200 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the centerpiece of this configuration, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. The GPU contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, with 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. It also features 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2,017 MHz and a boost clock of 2,407 MHz, with memory running at 1,750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

The RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a massive 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is particularly relevant for Lockdown Protocol at 4K resolution, where the GPU must move large amounts of texture and geometry data. The GPU's pixel rate is 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate is 1,636.8 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS. These specifications explain why the combo achieves 157 FPS at 4K Low settings and 118 FPS at 4K High.

The GPU's benchmark scores are impressive but show some inconsistency: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 14,326, while passmark G3D score reaches 44,065 and passmark GPU compute is 28,396. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 310,674 and Vulkan score of 376,915 indicate strong compute capabilities. However, the GPU's percentile ranking is 92nd percentile, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% slower), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (2.1-2.4% slower). This clustering suggests that the RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score of 77,712 is competitive but not overwhelmingly ahead of its peers.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p, the gap between Low (201 FPS) and Ultra (152 FPS) is 49 FPS, but at 4K, the gap widens to 69 FPS (157 to 88). This indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU's architecture and memory bandwidth are the primary determinants of performance, while at 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance and memory subsystem play a larger role in limiting frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 2560x1440?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 160 FPS average with a minimum of 136 FPS and maximum of 184 FPS. This represents 88% of the Low preset's 181 FPS while providing better visual quality, and the 136 FPS minimum ensures consistent frame pacing above 120 Hz.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves 88 FPS average, which is playable but below the 100 FPS threshold preferred by many competitive players. The High preset at 4K reaches 118 FPS, and Medium reaches 135 FPS with a 115 FPS minimum.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The difference is 49 FPS, with Low delivering 201 FPS and Ultra delivering 152 FPS. This represents a 24.4% performance penalty for Ultra settings at 1080p, which may be acceptable given the high baseline frame rates.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 3600 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600's average benchmark score is 17,035, placing it within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-1260P (17,007) and Intel Core i5-11400 (17,067). It is also 0.2% faster than the AMD EPYC 7742 and 0.2% slower than the AMD EPYC 7573X.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded for this combo at 4K Medium?

A: The minimum frame rate at 3840x2160 with Medium settings is 115 FPS, with an average of 135 FPS and maximum of 155 FPS. This is the only 4K preset with a recorded minimum frame rate in the dataset.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations for Lockdown Protocol?

A: The combo ranks 380th out of 2,828 tested combos, placing it in the top 13.4% of all configurations. This is a strong result considering the CPU is from 2019 and the GPU is from 2025.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that shifts the performance bottleneck between CPU and GPU. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 201 FPS, which drops to 181 FPS at 1440p (a 10% decrease) and further to 157 FPS at 4K (a 22% decrease from 1080p). This relatively modest drop from 1080p to 1440p suggests that the CPU is still contributing meaningfully at lower resolutions, limiting the GPU from reaching even higher frame rates.

For High settings, the scaling is more pronounced: 169 FPS at 1080p, 152 FPS at 1440p (a 10% drop), and 118 FPS at 4K (a 30% drop from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 152 FPS at 1080p, 137 FPS at 1440p (a 10% drop), and 88 FPS at 4K (a 42% drop from 1080p). This increasing percentage drop at higher settings indicates that the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor as both resolution and quality settings increase.

The Medium preset, which has the only complete data with min and max FPS, shows a 10% drop from 1080p (177 FPS) to 1440p (160 FPS), and a 24% drop from 1080p to 4K (135 FPS). The minimum frame rates scale similarly: 150 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 115 FPS at 4K. This consistent scaling pattern suggests that the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle 4K textures without causing severe frame time spikes, but the overall GPU compute load at 4K Ultra pushes the system to its limits.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest performance across all settings. Low settings produce 201 FPS average, Medium settings yield 177 FPS average with a minimum of 150 FPS and maximum of 204 FPS, High settings reach 169 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 152 FPS. The 49 FPS spread from Low to Ultra represents a 24.4% performance range, indicating that even at maximum quality, the system maintains frame rates well above 144 Hz.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but with a narrower spread. Low settings deliver 181 FPS, Medium settings achieve 160 FPS with a minimum of 136 FPS and maximum of 184 FPS, High settings reach 152 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 137 FPS. The 44 FPS spread from Low to Ultra is slightly tighter than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is beginning to take on more of the workload. The Medium preset's 136 FPS minimum is notable, as it ensures consistent performance above 120 Hz.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly, especially at higher settings. Low settings still manage 157 FPS, Medium settings deliver 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS and maximum of 155 FPS, High settings reach 118 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 88 FPS. The 69 FPS spread from Low to Ultra is the widest across all resolutions, confirming that 4K resolution places the heaviest load on the GPU. The Ultra preset's 88 FPS average is the only measured result below 100 FPS, making it the least suitable for high-refresh displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 380th out of 2,828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 13.4% of all configurations. This ranking is remarkable given the CPU's age and mid-range positioning; the Ryzen 5 3600's 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs contrasts with the RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs. The combination of a 2019 CPU with a 2025 flagship GPU creates a system where the GPU is clearly the performance driver, but the CPU does not hold the system back to a significant degree.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 77,712 places it in a tight competitive cluster with the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% faster) and RX 6850M XT (1.6% slower), as well as NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (2.1-2.4% slower). This clustering suggests that while the RTX 5090 D is a high-end part, its synthetic benchmark performance is not dramatically ahead of certain mid-range mobile GPUs, which is an interesting data point for understanding its relative position.

The CPU's performance, with an average benchmark score of 17,035, places it in a similarly tight cluster with the Intel Core i7-1260P (0.2% faster), Intel Core i5-11400 (0.2% slower), and AMD EPYC server processors (0.2% slower). This indicates that the Ryzen 5 3600 remains competitive with newer mid-range parts, and its 380th rank in this specific game reflects a balanced system where neither component is severely mismatched. The data shows that for Lockdown Protocol, this combo delivers a playable experience at all settings and resolutions, with the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration still maintaining 88 FPS average.