Lockdown Protocol

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Lockdown Protocol with the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 delivers the highest frame rates across all settings, with Low averaging 164.2 FPS and Ultra at 74.9 FPS. At 2560x1440, the same combo produces 121.8 FPS on Low and 56.5 FPS on Ultra, while 3840x2160 drops to 81 FPS on Low and 36.9 FPS on Ultra.

Q: How does this combo's overall performance rank against other tested combinations?

A: This pairing ranks 1091 out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the field, meaning it is a functional but not top-tier setup for this specific game.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 3840x2160?

A: The frame rate collapse at 4K suggests the GPU is the primary constraint. Going from Low (81 FPS) to Medium (55.1 FPS) at 3840x2160 is a 32% drop, while moving from Medium to Ultra (36.9 FPS) costs another 33%. The GPU's 16 GB VRAM is ample, but its throughput cannot sustain high settings at this resolution.

Q: Can this combo handle high-refresh-rate monitors?

A: At 1920x1080, yes for most settings. Low averages 164.2 FPS, Medium 119.4 FPS, and High 104.7 FPS, all exceeding 100 FPS. Only Ultra at 74.9 FPS falls below that mark. At 2560x1440, only Low (121.8 FPS) clears 100 FPS.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark standing relative to its closest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X has an average benchmark score of 28631, which is essentially identical to the Intel Core i5-12600 (28654, -0.1% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28591, +0.1% delta). It sits at the 85th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest competitors?

A: The RX 7600 XT averages 20146 in benchmarks, placing it at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. It is 0.3% faster than the RX 460 (20088) and 1.9% faster than the RTX 2060 SUPER (19774), but 0.6% slower than the RX 7600 (20258) and 1.9% slower than the RTX 3070 Mobile (20534).

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear sweet spot: Medium settings at 1920x1080. This preset yields an average of 119.4 FPS, which is a 14% improvement over High (104.7 FPS) while still looking substantially better than Low. The jump from Medium to High costs 14.7 FPS, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 29.8 FPS (down to 74.9 FPS) — a steep price for marginal visual gains in a fast-paced FPS.

At 2560x1440, Medium (85.1 FPS) is the practical ceiling for smooth gameplay. High drops to 76.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 56.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold most players consider acceptable. Low at 121.8 FPS is an option for competitive play, but the visual fidelity loss is significant.

For 3840x2160, the data is blunt: only Low (81 FPS) is playable. Medium (55.1 FPS) and High (47.9 FPS) are borderline, and Ultra (36.9 FPS) is a slideshow. If 4K is a priority, this combo demands Low settings and even then delivers just over 60 FPS.

The pattern across all resolutions is consistent: Medium offers the best balance of performance and quality. It avoids the visual compromises of Low while preserving enough headroom to keep frame rates above 80 FPS at 1080p and 1440p. Ultra is rarely justified here — in every resolution, it costs more than 30% of the Medium frame rate for what the benchmark data suggests is diminishing returns.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 33 chip manufactured on a 6 nm process. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock runs at 1980 MHz, with a game clock of 2470 MHz and a boost clock of 2755 MHz. These clocks put it in a position where its 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs can push substantial pixel rates (176.3 GPixel/s) and texture rates (352.6 GTexel/s).

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1920x1080, the frame rate differences between settings (164.2 FPS Low vs. 74.9 FPS Ultra) indicate the GPU has headroom at lower presets. But at 3840x2160, the same settings spread (81 FPS Low vs. 36.9 FPS Ultra) shows the GPU saturating quickly. The 16 GB VRAM is never a bottleneck in this data — even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate is limited by compute throughput, not memory capacity.

The GPU's benchmark percentile (63rd) and its closeness to rivals like the RX 7600 (-0.6%) and RTX 2060 SUPER (+1.9%) suggest it is a mid-pack performer. The measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol aligns with that: it handles 1080p easily, manages 1440p with settings compromises, and struggles at 4K beyond Low. The 190 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with a card that delivers this level of performance without exotic cooling requirements.

How This Combo Ranks

The Ryzen 7 3700X + RX 7600 XT combination ranks 1091 out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the 33rd percentile of all pairings — meaning roughly two-thirds of tested setups outperform it. This is not a surprising result given the component ages: the CPU was released in 2019, and the GPU targets the mid-range segment.

The ranking reflects a balanced but unexceptional pairing. The CPU's 85th percentile standing (28631 average benchmark score) is stronger than the GPU's 63rd percentile (20146 average). This mismatch suggests the GPU is the more limiting factor in this combo for Lockdown Protocol, particularly at higher resolutions where the frame rate drops are steepest.

Context matters here: the combo rank is game-specific. In CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p Low, the 3700X's eight cores and 16 threads can keep up, allowing the GPU to stretch to 164.2 FPS. But at 4K Ultra, the GPU's compute limits dominate, and the combo falls to 36.9 FPS. The rank of 1091 captures this overall behavior — capable at lower resolutions and settings, but outclassed by combos with newer or higher-tier components.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture (codenamed Matisse), built on TSMC's 7 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boosts to 4.40 GHz, with 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support delivering 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth. Its 65 W TDP is modest for an 8-core part, and it sits at the 85th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 28631.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo hits 164.2 FPS — a figure that requires the CPU to feed the GPU efficiently. The 3700X's 16 threads provide ample parallelism for game logic and physics, and its single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2694) is sufficient to avoid severe bottlenecks in this FPS.

However, the CPU's age shows when compared to its nearest rivals. The Intel Core i5-12600 (28654 avg score, -0.1% delta) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28591, +0.1% delta) are essentially equivalent in raw benchmarks, but they are newer architectures with higher IPC. In Lockdown Protocol, the 3700X's performance is adequate — the data shows no obvious CPU-induced frame drops at any resolution — but it does not provide the headroom that newer chips might offer for future game updates.

The 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die illustrate the Zen 2 design's efficiency, but the architecture lacks the refinements of later generations. For this game, the CPU delivers consistent performance across all measured settings, with the GPU taking over as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results across the board:

• Low: 164.2 FPS average
• Medium: 119.4 FPS average
• High: 104.7 FPS average
• Ultra: 74.9 FPS average

The progression from Low to Medium costs 44.8 FPS (a 27% drop), while Medium to High loses 14.7 FPS (12%), and High to Ultra loses 29.8 FPS (28%). The Ultra preset is the only setting below 100 FPS at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance scales down predictably:

• Low: 121.8 FPS average
• Medium: 85.1 FPS average
• High: 76.9 FPS average
• Ultra: 56.5 FPS average

The gap between Medium and High narrows to 8.2 FPS (10%), but Ultra drops 20.4 FPS below High (27%). Only Low remains above 100 FPS, and Ultra falls below the 60 FPS standard.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor:

• Low: 81 FPS average
• Medium: 55.1 FPS average
• High: 47.9 FPS average
• Ultra: 36.9 FPS average

The jump from Low to Medium costs 25.9 FPS (32%), and Medium to High loses 7.2 FPS (13%). Ultra is 18.2 FPS below High (38%). At this resolution, no setting achieves 60 FPS except Low.

Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p Low to 1440p Low transition costs 42.4 FPS (26%), and 1440p Low to 4K Low costs 40.8 FPS (33%). The same pattern holds for Medium: 119.4 to 85.1 (29% loss) then to 55.1 (35% loss). The data shows consistent scaling — roughly a 30% frame rate reduction per resolution step, with setting changes having a larger relative impact at 4K than at 1080p.