Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB delivers a solid 1080p and 1440p experience in Lockdown Protocol, but the data shows a clear ceiling at 4K. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is well-balanced for high-refresh gaming at lower resolutions, yet struggles to maintain playable performance when pixel count spikes. This analysis breaks down exactly where the bottleneck shifts and what each component contributes to the final frame output.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and tells a classic story of GPU limitation at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 120.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 90.7 FPS at 2560x1440, then plummets to 58 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 24.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 36.1% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear—the jump to 4K exacts a disproportionate toll, indicating the Radeon RX 9060 XT’s 8 GB frame buffer and 128-bit memory bus are being saturated.

At Low settings, the pattern repeats but with higher absolute numbers. The system hits 195.4 FPS at 1080p, drops to 142.1 FPS at 1440p, and falls to 92.9 FPS at 4K. Even at the lowest settings, 4K cannot sustain 100 FPS, which suggests the GPU is the limiting factor regardless of settings. However, the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is massive: 92.9 FPS versus 41.4 FPS. This 51.5 FPS difference at 4K is much larger than the 104.1 FPS difference at 1080p (195.4 FPS Low vs 91.3 FPS Ultra), proving that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

The data indicates that the sweet spot for this combo is 1440p, where High settings still yield 90.7 FPS—above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1080p, the system is clearly CPU-bound at Low and Medium settings, as the GPU has headroom to render far more frames than the processor can feed. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is more gradual than from 1440p to 4K, which is a hallmark of a GPU that handles moderate resolution increases well but hits a wall when pixel throughput demands exceed its bandwidth.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. Its boost clock reaches 3130 MHz, with a game clock of 2530 MHz, and it carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivering 322.3 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications are modest for a 4K card, and the benchmark results confirm this. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 41.4 is barely playable, while 4K High (58 FPS) and 4K Medium (68 FPS) are borderline.

The 8 GB VRAM is a notable constraint. At 4K Ultra, the combination of high-resolution textures and effects likely exceeds the frame buffer, causing the steep drop to 41.4 FPS. The 322.3 GB/s bandwidth is also a limiting factor—at 4K, the GPU must move far more data per frame, and the 128-bit bus struggles to keep up. This is why the difference between Medium and Ultra at 4K is only 26.6 FPS (68 vs 41.4), whereas at 1080p the same settings gap is 50.8 FPS (142.1 vs 91.3). The GPU is being choked by memory bandwidth at higher resolutions, not by raw compute.

The GPU’s percentile ranking sits at 50, placing it exactly at the median of all tested GPUs. This is consistent with a card that handles 1080p and 1440p admirably but is not designed for 4K gaming. The boost clock of 3130 MHz is high, yet it cannot compensate for the narrow memory bus. For Lockdown Protocol, the data suggests that the RX 9060 XT performs best when the resolution stays at 1440p or below, where its 25.64 TFLOPS of FP32 compute can be fully utilized without being bottlenecked by memory throughput.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It has 8 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus. Its benchmark scores show a capable mid-range CPU: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 13593 and a single-core score of 1919. The 3DMark single-thread score of 726 and max-thread score of 4889 indicate balanced performance.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s role becomes apparent at 1080p Low settings, where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The system reaches 195.4 FPS, which is high, but not as high as a more powerful CPU might allow. The CPU’s passmark single-thread score of 2653 and 3DMark 2-thread score of 1430 suggest that it can handle the game’s single-threaded tasks, but the 12 threads may not be fully utilized if the game is not heavily multithreaded.

The CPU’s percentile rank against all CPUs is 75, meaning it outperforms 75% of tested processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (avg score 17482, deltaPct 0) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (avg score 17475, deltaPct 0.1). The 4600G’s average benchmark score of 17489 is nearly identical to these rivals, indicating that it is not a weak link in this combo. However, the data shows that at 1440p and 4K, the CPU is not the limiting factor—the GPU is. At 1080p High and Ultra, the FPS drops from 195.4 (Low) to 120.5 (High) and 91.3 (Ultra), which suggests the CPU can still feed the GPU sufficiently, but the GPU’s own limits begin to show at Ultra settings even at 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers a wide range of performance depending on settings. Low settings average 195.4 FPS, Medium 142.1 FPS, High 120.5 FPS, and Ultra 91.3 FPS. This is a spread of 104.1 FPS from lowest to highest settings. The gap between Low and Medium is 53.3 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 21.6 FPS, and High to Ultra is 29.2 FPS. The diminishing returns are clear—moving from Low to Medium is a huge jump, but further increases in settings yield smaller absolute changes.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 142.1 FPS (Low), 104.7 FPS (Medium), 90.7 FPS (High), and 66.7 FPS (Ultra). The spread narrows to 75.4 FPS. The Low to Medium gap shrinks to 37.4 FPS, and Medium to High is 14 FPS, while High to Ultra is 24 FPS. The system still maintains over 90 FPS at High settings, which is excellent for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the averages drop significantly: 92.9 FPS (Low), 68 FPS (Medium), 58 FPS (High), and 41.4 FPS (Ultra). The spread narrows further to 51.5 FPS. Only Low settings clear 60 FPS, and even that is barely above the threshold. Medium and High are playable but not ideal for fast-paced FPS action, while Ultra is not recommended. The data shows that 4K gaming with this combo requires sacrificing settings to maintain a playable frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 873 out of 1637 tested combinations for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 53rd percentile of all tested systems. This is a mid-pack ranking, which is consistent with the component specifications—the CPU is strong (75th percentile) but the GPU is average (50th percentile). The ranking indicates that while this combo is not a top-tier performer, it is far from the bottom. It outperforms 764 other combos and falls behind 873.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show that the 4600G is well-matched with the RX 9060 XT. The Intel Core i3-14100T has a deltaPct of -0.8, meaning it scores 0.8% lower on average, while the Intel Core i3-13100F is 1% lower. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE is identical in score. This suggests that swapping the CPU for a slightly different model would not drastically change the combo’s ranking. The bottleneck is the GPU, and the ranking reflects that the system is held back by its graphics card at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Lockdown Protocol at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings (92.9 FPS) or Medium settings (68 FPS). High settings drop to 58 FPS, and Ultra falls to 41.4 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings for this combo?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings delivers 90.7 FPS, which is a strong balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p, High settings hit 120.5 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh monitors.

Q: How much faster is Low versus Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low settings average 195.4 FPS, while Ultra averages 91.3 FPS. This is a difference of 104.1 FPS, meaning Low is roughly 114% faster than Ultra.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this system?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at 1440p and 4K. At 1080p Low settings, the CPU may be the bottleneck, but at higher resolutions the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus are the primary constraints.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 873 out of 1637 combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier. The CPU ranks in the 75th percentile, while the GPU ranks in the 50th percentile, indicating the GPU is the weaker link.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth and how does it affect performance?

A: The GPU has 322.3 GB/s of bandwidth on a 128-bit bus. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K it becomes a bottleneck, causing a significant drop in frame rates compared to lower resolutions.