Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 5 5600X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a high-refresh-rate experience across all tested resolutions in Lockdown Protocol, with the GPU overwhelmingly dominating the system's performance profile. The RTX 4090 sits in the 91st percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 5600X holds the 78th percentile among CPUs, creating a system where frame rates are largely dictated by graphics settings rather than processor throughput. Measured data across 12 configurations shows the combination ranking 72nd out of 1,637 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 4.4% of all tested systems. The 6-core, 12-thread Zen 3 processor with a 3.70 GHz base and 4.60 GHz boost clock provides sufficient headroom for the RTX 4090's immense rendering capabilities, though the gap between low and ultra settings narrows as resolution increases, revealing where the CPU begins to matter.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data points to High settings as the optimal balance for this combination across all three resolutions. At 3840x2160, High yields 109.4 FPS, which is 30.7% faster than Ultra's 83.7 FPS while costing only 13.9% performance relative to Medium's 123.5 FPS. The jump from Medium to High at 4K represents a 12.9% reduction in average frame rate, but the visual uplift from Medium to High is typically far more perceptible than the difference between High and Ultra in modern FPS titles. At 2560x1440, High produces 169.6 FPS, comfortably above the 144 Hz refresh threshold many high-end monitors target, while Ultra drops to 123.7 FPS. The 1080p results reinforce this pattern: High delivers 222.7 FPS versus Ultra's 174.4 FPS, a 27.7% advantage that will be noticeable even on 240 Hz displays.

For competitive play, Low settings at 1080p provide the absolute maximum frame rate at 264.9 FPS, which is 19.0% higher than High at the same resolution. However, the performance gain from Low to High at 1080p is only 15.9% relative to the Low figure, suggesting diminishing returns for the visual fidelity sacrificed. At 4K, the Low-to-High gap expands to 37.8% (175.8 to 109.4 FPS), making Low more attractive for players prioritizing responsiveness over visuals at higher resolutions. Medium settings serve as a middle ground, delivering 234.6 FPS at 1080p, 190.5 FPS at 1440p, and 123.5 FPS at 4K, but High's superior visual quality with only a 5.1% penalty over Medium at 1080p makes it the clear recommendation for most users. Ultra settings should be reserved for players with 120 Hz or lower displays at 4K, where the 83.7 FPS average remains playable, though the 30.7% drop from High is substantial.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 72nd out of 1,637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 4.4% of all systems evaluated. The RTX 4090's 91st percentile standing among all GPUs is the primary driver of this high placement, as the GPU's average benchmark score of 66,473 far exceeds the processor's contribution. The Ryzen 5 5600X's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks show a tight cluster: the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT scores 20,740 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core i7-10700 scores 20,746 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core i5-12490F scores 20,794 (0.5% higher), and the Intel Xeon 6325P scores 20,538 (0.7% lower). This sub-1% spread indicates that the CPU is not a differentiating factor in this game's performance envelope, as all four rivals would likely produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the same RTX 4090.

The GPU's nearest rivals similarly cluster tightly, with the NVIDIA Tesla T4 scoring 66,733 (0.4% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 scoring 67,097 (0.9% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scoring 67,320 (1.3% higher), and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 scoring 66,127 (0.5% lower). These professional and workstation cards, despite their enterprise focus, benchmark within 1.3% of the RTX 4090's average score, though their gaming performance in Lockdown Protocol would likely diverge significantly due to driver optimizations and feature support. The combo's 72nd rank out of 1,637 suggests that roughly 71 systems achieve higher frame rates, likely featuring newer or higher-clocked CPUs paired with equally powerful GPUs, but the practical difference in measurable FPS is minimal given the GPU-bound nature of this workload.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data suggests minimal CPU limitation. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 264.9 FPS, and the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows only a 34.1% reduction (264.9 to 174.4 FPS). If the CPU were severely limiting, the gap between Low and Ultra at lower resolutions would be much smaller, as the GPU would be waiting on the processor. The 4K Low-to-Ultra gap of 52.4% (175.8 to 83.7 FPS) further confirms GPU-bound scaling.

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play with this system?

A: 1080p with Low settings delivers the highest measured average at 264.9 FPS, which is 11.3% faster than 1440p Low (238.1 FPS) and 50.7% faster than 4K Low (175.8 FPS). For players with 240 Hz monitors, 1080p Low is the only configuration that fully saturates the display's refresh rate, while 1440p High at 169.6 FPS remains viable for 144 Hz panels.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 66,473 places it within 0.4% of the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733), 0.5% below the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66,127), 0.9% below the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67,097), and 1.3% below the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67,320). These deltaPct values indicate that in pure compute terms, the RTX 4090 is statistically tied with these workstation cards, though gaming-specific features like ray tracing and DLSS are not captured in these aggregate scores.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with High settings?

A: The measured average is 109.4 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings. This is 30.7% higher than Ultra at the same resolution (83.7 FPS) and 11.4% lower than Medium (123.5 FPS). For 4K gaming on a 120 Hz display, High settings provide the best balance, as the 109.4 FPS average stays above 100 FPS while delivering better visual quality than Medium.

Q: Does the combo rank change with different settings?

A: The comboRankInGame of 72 out of 1,637 is a single aggregate ranking, not per-settings. However, the measured FPS data shows that the combo's relative standing improves at lower resolutions and settings, as the RTX 4090's headroom becomes more apparent. At 1080p Low, the 264.9 FPS would likely place this combo significantly higher than the 72nd rank, while 4K Ultra's 83.7 FPS could drop it further down the list.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600X's synthetic performance compare to its rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 20,680. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT, scores 20,740 (0.3% higher), while the Intel Core i7-10700 scores 20,746 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core i5-12490F scores 20,794 (0.5% higher), and the Intel Xeon 6325P scores 20,538 (0.7% lower). All four rivals fall within 0.7% of the 5600X, indicating virtually identical multi-threaded performance in this test suite.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured averages span from 83.7 FPS on Ultra to 175.8 FPS on Low. The progression is: Low 175.8 FPS, Medium 123.5 FPS (29.7% lower than Low), High 109.4 FPS (11.4% lower than Medium), and Ultra 83.7 FPS (23.5% lower than High). The cumulative drop from Low to Ultra is 52.4%, meaning Ultra settings cost over half the frame rate of Low at 4K. This steep decline indicates that Ultra settings impose substantial rendering overhead, likely from advanced lighting and shadow effects that disproportionately impact the GPU's pixel throughput at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance envelope shifts upward significantly. Low achieves 238.1 FPS, Medium reaches 190.5 FPS (20.0% lower than Low), High produces 169.6 FPS (11.0% lower than Medium), and Ultra delivers 123.7 FPS (27.1% lower than High). The total Low-to-Ultra drop at 1440p is 48.0%, slightly less severe than at 4K, suggesting that the GPU's compute resources are somewhat less strained at this resolution, allowing the settings hierarchy to compress slightly. The 1440p High figure of 169.6 FPS is particularly notable, as it exceeds the 4K Low result by 3.5%, showing that resolution scaling has a more significant impact than settings changes at this performance tier.

At 1920x1080, the combo reaches its peak measured performance. Low tops out at 264.9 FPS, Medium achieves 234.6 FPS (11.4% lower), High reaches 222.7 FPS (5.1% lower than Medium), and Ultra produces 174.4 FPS (21.7% lower than High). The Low-to-Ultra reduction at 1080p is 34.1%, the smallest of any resolution, indicating that at 1080p the system begins to approach CPU or other system-level limits. The 1080p results show that even Ultra settings maintain an average above 170 FPS, making this resolution the only one where all settings presets remain comfortably above 144 Hz.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K reveal the system's scaling behavior across resolutions. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p (264.9 FPS) to 1440p (238.1 FPS) represents a 10.1% reduction, while moving from 1440p to 4K (175.8 FPS) costs another 26.2%. The total 1080p-to-4K drop at Low is 33.6%. At High settings, 1080p delivers 222.7 FPS, dropping 23.8% to 1440p's 169.6 FPS, then another 35.5% to 4K's 109.4 FPS, for a total reduction of 50.9%. Medium settings show a similar pattern: 234.6 FPS at 1080p falls 18.8% to 190.5 FPS at 1440p, then 35.2% to 123.5 FPS at 4K, a cumulative 47.4% drop. Ultra settings demonstrate the steepest scaling curve: 174.4 FPS at 1080p drops 29.1% to 123.7 FPS at 1440p, then 32.3% to 83.7 FPS at 4K, totaling 52.0% from 1080p to 4K.

These scaling patterns indicate that the RTX 4090 remains the primary performance limiter at 4K, as the frame rate reductions closely track the expected pixel count increase. The 1080p-to-1440p transition (2.25x pixels) yields FPS drops ranging from 10.1% (Low) to 29.1% (Ultra), while the 1440p-to-4K transition (2.25x pixels) produces drops between 26.2% (Low) and 35.5% (High). The fact that even at 1080p Low, the system only reaches 264.9 FPS—well below what the RTX 4090 is theoretically capable of in less demanding titles—suggests that Lockdown Protocol's engine imposes some frame rate ceiling, likely due to game logic or draw call processing on the CPU. However, the Ryzen 5 5600X's 3DMark scores, including 5,582 for 16 threads and 917 for single-thread, indicate a capable processor that should not bottleneck at these frame rates. The data ultimately shows a system where the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for 4K rendering, with the resolution scaling curves confirming that players should target 1440p or 1080p for maximum frame rates, while 4K remains viable for 60-120 Hz displays depending on settings.