Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination delivers a highly capable Lockdown Protocol experience, ranking in the 65.7th percentile of all tested hardware pairings for this title. The data shows a system that can handle competitive FPS play at high refresh rates across most resolutions, though the 8 GB VRAM and the CPU’s six Zen 3 cores create distinct boundaries at the highest settings. The measured frame rates reveal a clear hierarchy: the Low preset pushes well past 200 FPS at 1080p, while Ultra at 4K dips below 50 FPS, indicating a system that rewards settings tuning more than raw resolution scaling.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo to maintain a 144 Hz experience?

A: At 2560x1440 with the Low preset, the combo averages 165 FPS, which is the only 1440p setting that clears a 144 Hz threshold. The High preset at 1440p averages 102 FPS, so users targeting 144 Hz should stick to Low or consider 1080p.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its nearest rival GPUs in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti posts an average benchmark score of 29,945, which is effectively tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile at a 0.1% delta. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 sits 0.5% higher, while the RTX 2080 Ti is 0.5% lower, making this a tightly clustered group of performance peers.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 5500X3D’s large L3 cache help in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The CPU features 96 MB of shared L3 cache, a hallmark of the X3D series. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (225 FPS) versus 1440p Low (165 FPS) shows a 60 FPS drop, suggesting that at lower resolutions the CPU’s 96 MB cache and six cores are sufficient to feed the GPU, while at higher resolutions the GPU becomes the primary limiter.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: The Medium preset is the only setting with min and max FPS data for every resolution. At 1080p, the range is 136 to 184 FPS; at 1440p, it narrows to 99 to 135 FPS; at 4K, it tightens further to 64 to 87 FPS. This shows that as resolution increases, the frame-to-frame variance compresses alongside the average.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM on the RTX 3070 Ti a limiting factor at 4K?

A: The 4K Ultra preset averages only 49 FPS, while 4K High averages 66 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K (17 FPS) is larger than the gap between Medium and High (10 FPS), which suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional memory pressure, combined with the 8 GB GDDR6X capacity, disproportionately impacts performance at this resolution.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded score compare to its direct competitors?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 20,363 in Passmark multithread and an average benchmark score of 37,018. This puts it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Core Ultra 5 225, but 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 and 0.3% behind the Intel Core i9-12900T, placing it in a dead heat with its closest rivals.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip manufactured on Samsung’s 8 nm process. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 19 Gbps effective across a 256-bit bus, yielding 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock is 1575 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and it houses 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units. The 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and DLSS, though Lockdown Protocol’s measured results show no ray-traced settings in the data. The card’s FP32 throughput is 21.75 TFLOPS, which drives the raw rasterization performance seen in the benchmark rows.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU’s role shifts dramatically based on resolution and preset. At 1080p Low, the RTX 3070 Ti averages 225 FPS, which is 60 FPS higher than 1440p Low (165 FPS) and 119 FPS higher than 4K Low (106 FPS). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU remains the dominant performance factor even at Low settings, since the CPU’s six cores and 96 MB cache can deliver frame times faster than the GPU can render at higher resolutions. The passmark G3D score of 23,356 and a GPU percentile ranking of 75th among all GPUs place it as a solid mid-to-high tier part, with nearest rivals including the RTX 5070 Mobile and RX 6800 within a 1.6% delta.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a notable constraint at 4K. The transition from Medium (76 FPS) to High (66 FPS) at 4K costs 10 FPS, but the jump from High to Ultra (49 FPS) costs 17 FPS. This disproportionate drop suggests that Ultra textures and effects exceed the comfortable memory footprint, forcing the GPU to manage data more aggressively. At 1080p, the same High-to-Ultra transition costs 34 FPS (139 to 105), showing that the preset’s overhead is not purely memory-bound but also compute-bound, as the shading units and TMUs struggle with higher shader complexity. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,478 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 139,541 confirm the card’s DirectX 12 and Vulkan capabilities, which align with Lockdown Protocol’s modern rendering requirements.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows offer a clear guide for optimizing Lockdown Protocol with this hardware. For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 225 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh monitors and competitive play. At 1440p, Low still provides 165 FPS, making it the only 1440p option that comfortably exceeds 144 Hz. The Medium preset at 1080p (160 FPS) and 1440p (117 FPS) offers a balanced middle ground, with the 1440p figure remaining viable for 100 Hz panels but not for 144 Hz displays.

The High preset is the best choice for visual fidelity while maintaining playable performance. At 1080p, High averages 139 FPS, which is still smooth for most users, while 1440p High drops to 102 FPS, suitable for 100 Hz monitors. At 4K, High averages 66 FPS, which is playable but not competitive-grade. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p (105 FPS) or lower, as 1440p Ultra (77 FPS) and 4K Ultra (49 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The data shows that Medium is the default sweet spot, offering the best compromise between the 136–184 FPS range at 1080p and the 99–135 FPS range at 1440p.

For 4K users, the Low preset (106 FPS) is surprisingly strong, outperforming Medium (76 FPS) by 30 FPS and High (66 FPS) by 40 FPS. This makes Low the recommended 4K preset for high refresh rate gaming, while Medium (76 FPS) or High (66 FPS) can be used for better visuals at the cost of smoothness. The Ultra preset at 4K (49 FPS) should be avoided unless the user accepts sub-60 FPS gameplay. Overall, the data indicates that this combo is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p with Medium-to-High settings, with Low reserved for extreme refresh rate targets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D and RTX 3070 Ti produce a wide spread of results. The Low preset averages 225 FPS, which is the highest figure in the entire dataset, while Medium averages 160 FPS with a min-max range of 136 to 184 FPS. High averages 139 FPS, and Ultra drops to 105 FPS. The 1080p results show a 120 FPS gap between Low and Ultra, indicating that preset selection has a massive impact at this resolution. The Medium preset’s range of 48 FPS (136 to 184) suggests some scene-dependent variability, but the average remains high enough for competitive play.

At 2560x1440, the scaling from 1080p is consistent but pronounced. Low averages 165 FPS, which is a 60 FPS drop from 1080p Low. Medium averages 117 FPS (range 99 to 135), High averages 102 FPS, and Ultra averages 77 FPS. The 1440p results show a tighter spread between Medium and High (15 FPS) compared to the 1080p spread (21 FPS), suggesting that the GPU’s memory bandwidth becomes more of a factor as pixel count increases. The Ultra preset at 1440p (77 FPS) is still playable but falls short of 100 FPS, making it a less attractive option than High.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope narrows significantly. Low averages 106 FPS, Medium averages 76 FPS (range 64 to 87), High averages 66 FPS, and Ultra averages 49 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that the RTX 3070 Ti’s 608.3 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM are stressed, particularly at Ultra where the average dips below 50 FPS. The Medium preset’s min of 64 FPS and max of 87 FPS show that even at this setting, frame times can fluctuate by over 20 FPS, which may be noticeable in fast-paced FPS gameplay. The gap between Low (106 FPS) and Medium (76 FPS) at 4K is 30 FPS, the largest single-setting drop in the dataset, highlighting the cost of enabling medium-tier effects at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently outperforms Medium by 30 FPS or more, while the High-to-Ultra gap widens at higher resolutions (34 FPS at 1080p, 25 FPS at 1440p, 17 FPS at 4K). This pattern indicates that Ultra settings introduce diminishing returns, with the largest absolute FPS losses occurring at 1080p where the GPU is least likely to be the bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reveals a consistent pattern of frame rate degradation across all settings. At Low, the average FPS drops from 225 at 1080p to 165 at 1440p (a 26.7% reduction) and then to 106 at 4K (a 35.8% reduction from 1440p). This means that moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings cuts the frame rate by more than half, from 225 to 106 FPS. At Medium, the scaling is similar: 160 to 117 (26.9% drop) to 76 (35.0% drop). High shows 139 to 102 (26.6%) to 66 (35.3%). Ultra follows the same pattern: 105 to 77 (26.7%) to 49 (36.4%). The consistency of these percentages—roughly a 27% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 35% drop from 1440p to 4K—indicates that the GPU’s fill rate and bandwidth are the primary scaling factors, regardless of preset.

This uniform scaling behavior suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in resolution scaling. If the Ryzen 5 5500X3D were bottlenecking, the delta between 1080p and 1440p would be smaller, as the CPU would cap the frame rate at lower resolutions. Instead, the 60 FPS drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low and the 59 FPS drop from 1440p Low to 4K Low show that the RTX 3070 Ti’s rendering throughput is the binding constraint. The GPU’s pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s are taxed increasingly as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

At 4K, the 8 GB VRAM capacity also plays a role, particularly at higher presets. The 4K Ultra average of 49 FPS is the only result below 60 FPS, and the 17 FPS gap between High and Ultra at 4K (versus 34 FPS at 1080p) suggests that the VRAM limitation compresses the performance delta at higher resolutions. This is because at 1080p, the GPU has enough memory headroom to fully process Ultra’s assets, but at 4K, the memory subsystem becomes saturated, reducing the incremental cost of Ultra over High. The data shows a GPU-bound system where resolution scaling is predictable and CPU headroom is ample.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a six-core, twelve-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename. It runs at a 3.00 GHz base clock and a 4.00 GHz boost clock, with a 105 W TDP. Its cache layout features 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is the defining characteristic of the X3D series. The CPU’s memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth, which is a generation behind modern DDR5 platforms but still sufficient for this game. The processor scores 2,941 in Passmark single-thread tests and 20,363 in multithread tests, with a peak Passmark score of 37,018 in average benchmark score.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the 225 FPS average far exceeds the 1440p Low result of 165 FPS. This 60 FPS gap indicates that at 1080p, the GPU is rendering frames faster than the CPU can feed it, yet the CPU still manages to maintain a high frame rate. The six cores and 12 threads are sufficient to handle the game’s threading model, and the 96 MB L3 cache likely reduces memory latency for game logic and physics calculations. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 85th among all CPUs places it in the top 15%, and its nearest rivals—the Ryzen 5 5600F, Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, Core Ultra 5 225, and Core i9-12900T—all score within 0.3% of each other, showing that this is a tightly competitive mid-range processor.

The combination of 6 cores and 12 threads with 4.00 GHz boost is well-matched to the RTX 3070 Ti in this game. The 1080p Medium result of 160 FPS (min 136, max 184) shows that even with moderate settings, the CPU can sustain frame rates above 136 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of most monitors. At 1440p, the CPU’s headroom becomes less relevant as the GPU takes over, but the 1440p Low result of 165 FPS suggests that the CPU is still capable of driving high frame rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck. The data does not show any scenario where the CPU causes a frame rate crash or severe stutter, as all min FPS values remain above 60 FPS even at 4K Medium (64 FPS). The Ryzen 5 5500X3D’s 96 MB L3 cache and six Zen 3 cores provide a solid foundation for Lockdown Protocol’s gameplay, with the GPU being the clear limiter at resolutions above 1080p.