Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol presents a demanding scenario for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER pairing. The measured data shows a system that can handle competitive play at 1080p, but struggles to maintain fluid frame rates at higher resolutions. This combination sits at rank 1457 out of 1637 tested combos in the game’s database, indicating that while it is functional, it is positioned in the lower percentile of performance for this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly illustrates where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 122.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 88.8 FPS, a reduction of about 27%. At 4K Low, the average falls to 58.8 FPS, which is a 52% reduction from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is typical for a GPU-heavy scenario; the GTX 1660 SUPER is the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The data for High settings reinforces this trend. From 76.9 FPS at 1080p, the average drops to 58.6 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 37.1 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly telling — a 21.5 FPS loss — which shows that the 6 GB VRAM and the GPU’s compute capacity are overwhelmed by the sheer number of pixels at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is more moderate, suggesting that the CPU is still able to feed the GPU adequately at those resolutions, but the GPU’s rendering power runs out before 4K.

The difference between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution also highlights the GPU dependency. At 1080p, the jump from Low (122.6 FPS) to Ultra (59.3 FPS) halves the frame rate. At 4K, the same setting change reduces performance from 58.8 FPS to 25.8 FPS. This indicates that the game’s visual effects and geometric complexity on Ultra are disproportionately taxing for the GTX 1660 SUPER, particularly at higher pixel counts.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Lockdown Protocol at 1440p with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The data shows 88.8 FPS on Low and 65.5 FPS on Medium at 2560x1440. High settings produce 58.6 FPS, which is borderline for competitive play, while Ultra drops to 41.3 FPS, which will feel stuttery.

Q: What is the best resolution for maximum frame rate?

A: 1920x1080 is clearly the strongest resolution for this combo. With Low settings, the system achieves 122.6 FPS, and even on Ultra, it maintains 59.3 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially at 4K. The frame rate drops significantly as resolution increases, while the CPU’s strong single-thread performance — evidenced by a 3dmark single-thread score of 999 — is sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p with 122.6 FPS on Low.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in this test?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 14286 is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11’s 14314 and 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT’s 14389. These are very close scores, meaning performance will be nearly identical to those parts in this game.

Q: Is the 6 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming?

A: The data suggests it is not. At 4K High, the average FPS is 37.1, and on Ultra it falls to 25.8. These numbers indicate the GPU is running out of memory bandwidth or capacity, causing severe performance degradation.

Q: What is the expected frame rate on Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The measured average is 59.3 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is just below the 60 FPS target, so you may notice occasional dips in busy scenes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 brings solid fundamentals to this pairing. With 6 cores and 12 threads, it offers enough parallelism for modern game engines. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide strong per-thread performance, which is critical for frame pacing in an FPS title like Lockdown Protocol. The CPU’s benchmark results show a 3dmark single-thread score of 999 and a 3dmark 2-thread score of 1938, indicating that it excels at the low-thread-count workloads typical of game logic.

The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is a key asset. This large cache helps reduce memory latency, which can be beneficial for game code that frequently accesses the same data. In practical terms, the CPU’s performance is sufficient to push the GTX 1660 SUPER to its limits at 1080p. The fact that frame rates scale down as resolution increases — rather than staying flat — confirms that the CPU is not holding back the GPU at lower resolutions.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals shows a tight race. The Ryzen 5 7600’s average benchmark score of 26617 is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (26574) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i9-11900K (26546). This means that in pure compute terms, the 7600 is essentially on par with those older high-end parts. For Lockdown Protocol, this implies that the CPU is more than capable of handling the game’s logic, and any performance shortfall will be due to the GPU.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP is modest, but that is a power draw figure, not a performance metric. The data shows that the CPU’s passmark multithread score of 27058 and cinebench r23 multicore score of 22992 place it well above the average CPU, ensuring it will not become a bottleneck in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of what to expect at each resolution and settings level. At 1920x1080, the system is most capable. Low settings produce 122.6 FPS, Medium yields 84.9 FPS, High gives 76.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 59.3 FPS. This shows a smooth scaling curve, with each settings tier reducing frame rate by a consistent margin.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance takes a noticeable hit. Low settings still deliver 88.8 FPS, which is playable. Medium produces 65.5 FPS, High drops to 58.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 41.3 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is only 6.9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 17.3 FPS, suggesting that Ultra settings introduce effects that are disproportionately expensive.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 58.8 FPS, which is just under the ideal 60 FPS mark. Medium drops to 39.8 FPS, High to 37.1 FPS, and Ultra to 25.8 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K is only viable with the lowest settings, and even then, it is borderline. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is 19 FPS, which is a massive jump for one settings tier, highlighting the GPU’s inability to handle increased shading and texture detail at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the defining component in this analysis. With 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, it provides 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the data shows it is inadequate for 4K. The GPU’s boost clock of 1785 MHz and 1408 shading units deliver 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is modest by modern standards.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 14286. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11, scores 14314, which is 0.2% higher. The Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics scores 14315, also 0.2% higher. These are statistically negligible differences, meaning the GTX 1660 SUPER should perform nearly identically to those parts in Lockdown Protocol. The AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT is 0.7% ahead with a score of 14389, which is still within a few frames per second.

The GPU’s 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 is a more demanding test, and it reflects the card’s limitations in modern APIs. In practical terms, the GPU is the reason why 4K performance is so poor. The frame rates at 4K High (37.1 FPS) and 4K Ultra (25.8 FPS) show that the card’s memory bandwidth and compute power are simply overwhelmed. The 6 GB VRAM is likely a factor, as texture-heavy scenes at 4K can exceed that capacity, forcing the GPU to use slower system memory.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. This yields 84.9 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and leaves headroom for demanding action sequences. If you prefer maximum visual fidelity, High settings at 1080p produce 76.9 FPS, which is still highly playable. Ultra at 1080p is borderline at 59.3 FPS, so it is only advisable if you can tolerate occasional dips.

For 1440p, the best balance is Low settings, which produce 88.8 FPS. Medium at 1440p gives 65.5 FPS, which is acceptable, but High settings at 58.6 FPS may feel inconsistent. Avoid Ultra at 1440p, as the 41.3 FPS average will hinder aiming and reaction times in a fast-paced FPS.

At 4K, the only viable option is Low settings, which average 58.8 FPS. This is just shy of 60 FPS, so you may experience minor stuttering. Medium, High, and Ultra at 4K are not recommended, as they produce 39.8, 37.1, and 25.8 FPS respectively, all of which are too low for competitive play. For the best overall experience, stick to 1080p Medium or High; this will keep frame rates smooth while still providing a visually pleasing image.