Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 5 5600F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 represents a distinctly entry-level combination for Lockdown Protocol, a 2024 FPS title. The combo ranks 2737 out of 2828 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 3% of all systems evaluated. This pairing combines a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 3 processor with a 4 GB GDDR5 graphics card, and the measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings tell a story of a system that can deliver playable performance only at its most optimized settings. The data shows a clear pattern: this is a 1080p-oriented configuration where graphical compromises are mandatory, and even then, the experience hovers around the edge of smooth gameplay.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall ranking of this CPU-GPU combination for Lockdown Protocol?

A: The combo ranks 2737 out of 2828 tested combinations. This places it in the bottom percentile of all systems tested, indicating that it is one of the weaker configurations for running this game at higher quality levels.

Q: What are the best measured frame rates for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 76, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next best is 56 FPS at 2560x1440 on Low settings, followed by 54 FPS at 1920x1080 on Medium settings.

Q: How does the GPU's memory configuration affect performance?

A: The GTX 1650 features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. This limited memory capacity and bandwidth become a bottleneck at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops when moving from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the CPU a limiting factor in this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600F has a Passmark multithread score of 19236 and a single-thread score of 2872, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Given the GPU's lower percentile ranking (40th), the CPU appears to have sufficient headroom, making the GPU the primary performance limiter.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS drops from 76 on Low settings to 35 on Ultra settings. This represents a 54% reduction in frame rate, showing that the graphical preset has an enormous impact on playability with this hardware.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best average FPS is 36 on Low settings, and Ultra settings yield only 17 FPS. These numbers fall well below what is generally considered playable for a fast-paced FPS title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2737 out of 2828 tested combinations places this system firmly in the lower echelon of hardware configurations for Lockdown Protocol. With only 91 combinations ranking below it, this pairing sits at roughly the 96.8th percentile from the bottom, meaning 96.8% of all tested systems deliver better performance. This ranking is unsurprising given the GPU's specifications. The GTX 1650 falls into the 40th percentile of all GPUs based on its average benchmark score of 7472, while its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 8850M (7447 score, 0.3% faster), Intel UHD Graphics 750 (7441 score, 0.4% faster), and AMD Radeon R7 350 (7425 score, 0.6% faster). Interestingly, the Intel Arc A310 scores 7550, which is 1% higher than the GTX 1650.

The CPU, by contrast, is comparatively strong. The Ryzen 5 5600F sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 36945. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938 score, 0% difference), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37018 score, 0.2% faster), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093 score, 0.4% faster), and Intel Core i9-12900T (37112 score, 0.5% faster). This near-tie with the i9-12900T is notable, suggesting the CPU is punching well above its class. The mismatch between a high-performing CPU and a low-performing GPU creates a significant bottleneck scenario where the graphics card is clearly holding back the system's overall gaming potential.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is built on the Turing architecture using the TU117 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It contains 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units. The card operates at a base clock of 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, while its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus. This configuration delivers 128.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is a critical constraint for modern games at higher resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark scores reveal its modest capabilities. Its Passmark G3D score is 7880, with a DirectX 12 score of just 35 and a DirectX 11 score of 58. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 29629 and Vulkan score of 33042 provide additional context. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 305 is particularly low, indicating poor performance in modern rendering workloads. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 2.984 TFLOPS, which is modest by today's standards. In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's limitations manifest clearly: the game demands more memory bandwidth and VRAM than this card can provide at higher settings and resolutions. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is especially problematic at 4K, where texture data exceeds what the card can efficiently manage, leading to the steep performance cliff observed between 1440p and 2160p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) and four settings levels (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra). Starting at 1080p, the average frame rates are: 76 FPS on Low, 54 FPS on Medium (with minimum 46 and maximum 62), 47 FPS on High, and 35 FPS on Ultra. These figures show a steady degradation as settings increase, with the gap between Low and Ultra being 41 FPS. The Medium setting's min-max range of 46-62 FPS indicates some frame time variance, which could translate to occasional stuttering in fast-paced gameplay.

Moving to 1440p, the averages drop to: 56 FPS on Low, 40 FPS on Medium (34-46 min-max), 35 FPS on High, and 26 FPS on Ultra. The relative performance scaling is interesting here — Low settings lose 26% of their 1080p performance, while Ultra loses 26% as well, suggesting a consistent resolution penalty across settings. At 4K, the results become largely unplayable: 36 FPS on Low, 26 FPS on Medium (22-29 min-max), 22 FPS on High, and 17 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low setting of 36 FPS is just barely above what might be considered playable in a slow-paced game, but for an FPS title, it falls short of smooth gameplay.

The data reveals that the Medium preset consistently provides the only option with recorded min and max values, perhaps indicating that the testing methodology captured more detailed data at this setting. The gap between Low and Medium at each resolution is notable: 22 FPS at 1080p, 16 FPS at 1440p, and 10 FPS at 4K. This suggests that the step from Low to Medium carries a significant performance cost, while the step from Medium to High is smaller (7 FPS at 1080p, 5 FPS at 1440p, 4 FPS at 4K). This nonlinear scaling implies that the Medium preset hits a sweet spot in terms of resource usage.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combo is achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers 76 FPS average. This is the only configuration that comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold commonly desired for FPS games. The 1080p Medium preset, at 54 FPS, offers a compromise with better visual quality while remaining mostly playable, though the 46 FPS minimum suggests potential dips during intense scenes. At 1440p, only the Low preset (56 FPS) approaches playability, while Medium drops to 40 FPS, which is borderline for competitive play. The 4K resolution should be avoided entirely, as even Low settings only reach 36 FPS.

For players prioritizing smooth gameplay, the 1080p Low preset is the clear recommendation. It provides the highest frame rates and ensures the most responsive experience. If visual fidelity is more important, 1080p Medium offers a reasonable middle ground, but players should be prepared for occasional frame drops below 50 FPS. The High and Ultra presets at any resolution are not recommended for this hardware, as they consistently produce averages below 50 FPS at 1080p and become progressively worse at higher resolutions. Given that Lockdown Protocol is an FPS title where reaction time matters, prioritizing frame rate over visual quality is the sensible approach with this hardware configuration.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, based on the Zen 3 architecture (codenamed Vermeer) manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It runs at a base clock of 3.00 GHz with a boost clock of 4.00 GHz, and its 65 W TDP makes it an efficient choice. The CPU features a 32 MB shared L3 cache, 512 KB L2 cache per core, and 64 KB L1 cache per core. Memory support includes DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, along with ECC support. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes.

The CPU's benchmark results paint a picture of a solid mid-range processor. Its Passmark multithread score of 19236 and single-thread score of 2872 indicate strong performance for its class. The integer math score of 59339 and floating point math score of 34548 show balanced compute capabilities. The extended instructions score of 16266 and data encryption score of 13839 demonstrate good performance in specialized workloads. The find prime numbers score of 120 and physics score of 1043 are lower, but these are less relevant for gaming scenarios.

In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's 85th percentile ranking suggests it is more than capable of feeding the GTX 1650 with data. The game's performance is clearly GPU-bound, as evidenced by the fact that the CPU outperforms its GPU counterpart by a significant margin in relative terms. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225, scores nearly identically, while the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 are within 0.4% — all indicating that the CPU sits in a well-populated performance tier. The fact that the CPU is not the bottleneck is further supported by the consistent frame rate scaling across resolutions: if the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see similar FPS values regardless of resolution, but instead we see substantial drops from 1080p to 4K, confirming the GPU is the constraining factor.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops by 20 FPS on Low settings (76 to 56, a 26% reduction), 14 FPS on Medium (54 to 40, a 26% reduction), 12 FPS on High (47 to 35, a 26% reduction), and 9 FPS on Ultra (35 to 26, a 26% reduction). The consistency of this 26% reduction across all settings indicates that the performance penalty is uniform, suggesting the GPU's rendering pipeline is being scaled proportionally with pixel count.

The jump from 1440p to 4K produces even steeper declines. On Low settings, the average drops from 56 to 36 FPS, a 36% reduction. Medium drops from 40 to 26 FPS, a 35% reduction. High drops from 35 to 22 FPS, a 37% reduction. Ultra drops from 26 to 17 FPS, a 35% reduction. The slightly larger percentage losses at 4K compared to the 1440p transition point to the GPU's memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity becoming increasingly inadequate. The 4 GB VRAM is likely being exceeded at 4K, causing additional overhead beyond just the raw pixel fill rate.

This scaling behavior strongly indicates that the GTX 1650 is the limiting component. A CPU-bound system would show minimal FPS changes when resolution increases, since the CPU workload remains constant regardless of pixel count. Instead, the data shows substantial and consistent FPS degradation as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. For players of Lockdown Protocol, this means that upgrading the graphics card would yield significant performance gains, while upgrading the CPU would provide little benefit. The 1080p Low preset remains the only fully playable configuration, and even that requires accepting lower visual quality to achieve smooth frame rates.