Lockdown Protocol

The pairing of AMD’s Ryzen 5 5500 with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 in Lockdown Protocol produces a fascinating bottleneck study. The 6-core, 12-thread CPU, built on the Zen 3 architecture, is a capable mid-range part, while the RTX 4090 is an absolute flagship GPU with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth. The data shows that this combination lands at rank 104 out of 1637 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.4% of all configurations. However, the frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals that the CPU is often the limiting factor, especially at lower settings and 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of this CPU and GPU combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: This combination is ranked 104th out of 1637 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.4% of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 4090’s raw compute power compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 66473. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla T4, scores 66733, which is 0.4% higher. The NVIDIA Tesla P40 is 0.5% lower, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is 0.9% lower.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers an average of 176.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 80.6 FPS. This represents a significant 96.3 FPS gap between the two extremes.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a strong performer in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU scores 20875 on average and sits in the 79th percentile against all CPUs. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores 20897, which is just 0.1% higher, showing they are practically neck-and-neck.

Q: How does the frame rate change from 1080p to 1440p on the High preset?

A: The average frame rate drops from 204.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 168.8 FPS at 2560x1440. This is a 35.4 FPS decrease, indicating a modest performance scaling cost as resolution increases.

Q: Which settings preset at 1440p offers the highest average frame rate?

A: The Low preset at 2560x1440 offers the highest average at 217.5 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 190.7 FPS, and the High preset trails at 168.8 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed heavyweight in this pairing, and its specifications make it a monster for rasterization. With 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units, the card is built to push massive pixel throughput. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides a staggering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for feeding high-resolution textures and maintaining smooth framerates in demanding titles. The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz ensures it can sustain high performance under load.

In Lockdown Protocol, the data shows that the GPU’s role becomes more critical as resolution increases. At 4K, the performance gap between settings presets is massive; the Ultra preset yields 80.6 FPS, while Low yields 176.9 FPS. This 96.3 FPS spread suggests that at 4K, the GPU is being heavily taxed, and its raw power is the primary driver of performance. The RTX 4090’s 24 GB frame buffer is more than sufficient for any setting at any resolution, so VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor. Instead, the card’s compute power dictates the frame rate ceiling, and its 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is what allows it to hit over 80 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of scaling from 1080p to 4K. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 204.2 FPS at 1080p to 168.8 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 110.1 FPS at 4K. This represents a 46.1% drop in performance from 1080p to 4K, which is a significant but expected decline for a high-resolution workload. The trend is consistent across all presets, with the Low preset dropping from 242.2 FPS at 1080p to 176.9 FPS at 4K.

This scaling pattern indicates that the system is becoming more GPU-bound at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5500 is likely the limiting factor, as the RTX 4090 is powerful enough to render frames far faster than the CPU can feed it. The evidence is the relatively small performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p, which is only 72.9 FPS. At 4K, that gap balloons to 96.3 FPS, showing that the GPU’s workload is increasing and it is becoming the primary bottleneck. The 1440p results sit in a middle ground, with the frame rates suggesting a more balanced distribution of work between the CPU and GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 104 out of 1637 places it in the top 6.4% of all tested configurations. This is a strong result, but it is not at the very top, which suggests that the Ryzen 5 5500 is holding back the RTX 4090 to some degree. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 20875 places it in the 79th percentile, which is respectable but not elite. In contrast, the RTX 4090 is in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 66473. This mismatch in relative performance is the root cause of the bottleneck.

If the RTX 4090 were paired with a more powerful CPU, the combo rank would likely be higher. The data shows that the GPU is capable of much higher frame rates, as evidenced by the 242.2 FPS at 1080p Low. However, the CPU’s single-threaded score of 836 in 3DMark and its modest 16 MB of L3 cache may limit the frame pacing in CPU-bound scenarios. While the combo is still ranked highly, it is not maximizing the potential of the RTX 4090, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU load is relatively higher.

Settings Recommendations

For players aiming for the highest possible frame rates, the Low preset is the clear winner. At 1080p, it delivers 242.2 FPS, and even at 4K, it maintains a very playable 176.9 FPS. The performance penalty for moving from Low to Medium is substantial: a 28.9 FPS drop at 1080p, a 26.8 FPS drop at 1440p, and a 53.8 FPS drop at 4K. This suggests that the Medium preset introduces a significant additional GPU load that is not worth the visual upgrade for competitive play.

The High preset offers a balance between visual fidelity and performance. It delivers 204.2 FPS at 1080p, 168.8 FPS at 1440p, and 110.1 FPS at 4K. This is a good choice for players with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p or 1440p. However, at 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 80.6 FPS, which is below the 90 FPS threshold many consider ideal for a smooth experience. Therefore, for a 4K experience, the High preset is recommended, as it provides a 29.5 FPS improvement over Ultra while still looking significantly better than Medium. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot for this combo, offering a solid experience across all resolutions without sacrificing too much performance.