Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol pairs a 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, a combination that produces a wide spread of framerates depending on resolution and quality preset. The data shows a system capable of high refresh rates at 1080p and solid 4K playability, but the performance scaling reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution increases. Benchmark results indicate that the RX 7900 XT’s substantial memory bandwidth and compute resources are the primary drivers of high-resolution performance, while the Ryzen 5 4600G’s Zen 2 architecture becomes a limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a classic resolution scaling pattern, where the gap between 1080p and 4K narrows as settings increase. At Low settings, the average framerate drops from 208 FPS at 1920x1080 to 188 FPS at 2560x1440, then falls to 133 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 36% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is not yet fully saturated at lower resolutions. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads based on Zen 2 architecture, appears to be the limiting component at 1080p Low, as the framerate ceiling is likely being reached before the GPU can fully stretch its legs.

At High settings, the scaling becomes more pronounced. The average framerate moves from 174 FPS at 1080p to 127 FPS at 1440p, and then to 82 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep at 35%, suggesting that the RX 7900 XT’s 20 GB of GDDR6 memory and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily by the higher pixel count. The trend continues at Ultra settings, where the framerate falls from 130 FPS at 1080p to 96 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 62 FPS at 4K. This 52% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is the largest relative drop across all settings, confirming that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck when visual fidelity is maximized.

The data suggests that the limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 4600G’s single-thread performance, reflected in its 726 3DMark single-thread score and 1919 Cinebench R23 single-core score, likely caps the framerate. At 4K, the RX 7900 XT’s raw throughput becomes the deciding factor, as the GPU must process over four times as many pixels as 1080p. The Medium settings row provides the only min/max FPS data in the pack, showing a 80-108 FPS range at 4K, a 124-168 FPS range at 1440p, and a 156-211 FPS range at 1080p, which illustrates how the framerate variance shrinks as resolution increases and the GPU becomes more consistently utilized.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its 5376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 ROPs provide the compute foundation for Lockdown Protocol’s rendering workload. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1387 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz that represents sustained performance under typical gaming loads. The memory subsystem consists of 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus, delivering 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for high-resolution textures and frame buffering.

Benchmark results for the GPU show a PassMark G3D score of 29009, placing it in the 55th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 660M with an average score of 13812 (a 0.5% difference), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile at 13821 (0.5% difference), and the AMD Radeon RX 570X at 13871 (0.9% difference). The RX 7900 XT’s average benchmark score of 13745 is actually 1.5% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT’s 13543, which seems counterintuitive given the 7900 XT’s higher raw specs, but the data reflects the specific benchmark suite used. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5623 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 71068 indicate strong DirectX 12 and Vulkan API performance, which aligns with Lockdown Protocol’s FPS nature.

In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the GPU’s role becomes apparent through the settings scaling. At 4K Ultra, the average framerate of 62 FPS is the lowest measured, and this is where the GPU’s 51.48 TFLOPS FP32 performance is most heavily taxed. The 84 ray tracing cores are present, but their impact on this game’s results is not explicitly measured in the provided data. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s appears sufficient for 4K High, where the 82 FPS average suggests the card is being pushed but not overwhelmed. The fact that 4K Low produces 133 FPS, nearly double the Ultra result, indicates that the GPU’s shading units and texture units are the primary contributors to the settings-based performance delta.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture with the Renoir codename, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz provide the processing headroom for game logic and draw calls. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache, which is relatively modest for a modern gaming CPU. The processor supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a theoretical bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, which is significantly lower than the GPU’s 800.0 GB/s, but this does not directly impact gaming performance as the CPU memory traffic is much smaller.

The CPU’s benchmark results place it in the 71st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17507. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE at 17482 (0.1% difference), the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE at 17614 (0.6% difference), and the Intel Core 7 150U at 17395 (0.6% difference). The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 13593 and single-core score of 1919 illustrate the CPU’s balanced performance, though the single-core result is notably lower than what newer architectures achieve. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 1430 in the 2-thread test to 4889 in the max-thread test, indicating that the CPU scales well with additional threads but has a limited single-thread ceiling.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the average framerate of 208 FPS likely approaches the CPU’s maximum draw call throughput. The 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for the game’s multithreaded workload, but the Zen 2 architecture’s lower instructions-per-clock compared to newer designs means the CPU cannot keep up with the GPU’s potential at lower resolutions. This is confirmed by the fact that 1080p High (174 FPS) and 1080p Medium (183 FPS) are both lower than 1080p Low, yet the GPU is clearly capable of much higher framerates based on the 4K Low result of 133 FPS. The CPU’s 8 MB of L3 cache may also be a factor in scenarios with large game worlds, though the provided data does not isolate this variable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest framerates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 208 FPS, which drops to 183 FPS at Medium and 174 FPS at High. Ultra settings yield 130 FPS, which is the largest single-settings drop at 1080p, representing a 37.5% reduction from Low. The Medium setting shows a min-max range of 156 to 211 FPS, indicating that the framerate is relatively stable with occasional dips. These numbers suggest that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary constraint, as the gap between Low and High is only 34 FPS (16%), while the GPU has significant headroom.

At 2560x1440, the average framerates are 188 FPS at Low, 146 FPS at Medium, 127 FPS at High, and 96 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting shows a min-max range of 124 to 168 FPS, which is a tighter envelope than at 1080p. The drop from Low to Ultra is 92 FPS (49%), which is more pronounced than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to become more of a factor. The 1440p results show that the RX 7900 XT can comfortably drive high refresh rate monitors at this resolution, with even Ultra settings surpassing 90 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the framerates are 133 FPS at Low, 94 FPS at Medium, 82 FPS at High, and 62 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting shows a min-max range of 80 to 108 FPS, which is the narrowest range in the entire dataset, suggesting that the GPU is consistently loaded at this resolution. The drop from Low to Ultra is 71 FPS (53%), the largest percentage reduction across all resolutions. The 4K results indicate that the system is GPU-bound at this resolution, with the CPU no longer being a limiting factor. The 82 FPS at High and 62 FPS at Ultra are both playable for a FPS title, though competitive players may prefer the 133 FPS Low setting for maximum responsiveness.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G a bottleneck for the RX 7900 XT in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor. The average framerate at 1080p Low is 208 FPS, while at 4K Low it is 133 FPS, showing that the GPU can push significantly higher framerates when not constrained by resolution. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz appear to cap performance at lower resolutions, while at 4K the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play based on the measured data?

A: For competitive FPS play, 1080p Low at 208 FPS is the highest measured average framerate. If a player prefers Medium settings for better visuals, 1080p Medium at 183 FPS is still well above 144 Hz refresh rates. At 1440p, Low settings at 188 FPS is also viable for competitive play, but the framerate drops to 96 FPS at Ultra, which may be too low for high-refresh competitive monitors.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XT’s 20 GB of VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: The 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely sufficient for 4K textures in Lockdown Protocol. The measured 4K results show that even at Ultra settings, the average framerate is 62 FPS, which suggests the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor. The 800.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be the more critical specification, as the framerate drops from 133 FPS at Low to 62 FPS at Ultra, indicating that memory bandwidth is being consumed by higher quality textures and effects.

Q: What are the CPU’s nearest rivals in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 5 4600G has an average benchmark score of 17507. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE at 17482 (0.1% higher), the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE at 17614 (0.6% lower), and the Intel Core 7 150U at 17395 (0.6% higher). The Intel Core i3-14100T is also close at 17648 (0.8% lower). These rivals show that the 4600G performs within a tight band of comparable CPUs.

Q: Does the GPU’s performance in Lockdown Protocol match its benchmark percentiles?

A: The RX 7900 XT is in the 55th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 13745. In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU delivers 62 FPS at 4K Ultra and 208 FPS at 1080p Low. While the percentile ranking is based on synthetic benchmarks, the in-game results show that the GPU performs well in this FPS title, with the 4K High setting at 82 FPS being a particularly strong result given the game’s genre.

Q: Is the system more CPU-bound or GPU-bound at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 Medium, the average framerate is 146 FPS with a min-max range of 124 to 168 FPS. This result sits between the 1080p and 4K extremes, suggesting a balanced workload. The fact that 1440p Medium (146 FPS) is closer to 1080p Medium (183 FPS) than to 4K Medium (94 FPS) indicates that the GPU still has headroom, but the CPU is not the sole limiting factor as it is at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting maximum framerates, the 1080p Low preset at 208 FPS is the clear choice. This setting provides the highest measured average framerate and is ideal for competitive play where every millisecond counts. The 1440p Low preset at 188 FPS is a reasonable alternative for players with 1440p monitors who still want high refresh rates, though the 20 FPS difference may be noticeable in fast-paced scenarios.

For a balance between visual quality and performance, the Medium preset is the strongest option across all resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 183 FPS with a min-max range of 156 to 211 FPS, which is only 25 FPS lower than Low but offers noticeably better textures and effects. At 1440p, Medium produces 146 FPS with a range of 124 to 168 FPS, which is still suitable for 144 Hz displays. At 4K, Medium at 94 FPS is the best choice for players who want to use a 4K display without sacrificing too much smoothness, especially since the min framerate of 80 FPS remains playable.

The High preset is a middle-ground option that works best at 1440p, where it delivers 127 FPS. This is high enough for most gaming monitors and provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium. At 1080p, High at 174 FPS is still very playable, but the 16% drop from Low may not be worth the visual gains for competitive players. At 4K, High at 82 FPS is playable but requires a VRR display to smooth out frametime variance.

The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1440p users, where it delivers 96 FPS. This is the highest setting that maintains a framerate above 60 FPS at this resolution. At 1080p, Ultra at 130 FPS is playable but the 45% drop from Medium makes it a poor trade-off for the visual improvements. At 4K, Ultra at 62 FPS is on the edge of playability for a FPS title, and players should only use it if they prioritize visual fidelity over competitive performance and have a display that supports adaptive sync. The data clearly shows that Medium is the most versatile preset across all resolutions, offering the best combination of framerate stability and visual quality.