Lockdown Protocol

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Lockdown Protocol with the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti reveals a clear and consistent pattern: performance scales heavily with resolution, and the drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 123.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 59.4 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly half. The High preset tells a similar story, dropping from 76.7 FPS at 1080p to 38.6 FPS at 4K. Medium settings see the average fall from 90.3 FPS to 44.5 FPS, while Ultra drops from 56.8 FPS to 30.1 FPS.

This scaling pattern suggests that the GTX 1660 Ti is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The GPU's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit memory bus, paired with a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s, are being taxed heavily as pixel count increases. The fact that even Low settings at 4K only manage 59.4 FPS — barely above the 60 FPS target — indicates that the rendering load at 3840x2160 exceeds what this GPU can comfortably handle, regardless of how much the CPU is capable of pushing.

The most telling observation is the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, Low delivers 123.8 FPS while Ultra manages 56.8 FPS, a spread of 67 FPS. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 46.8 FPS (89.7 vs 42.9), and at 4K it shrinks further to 29.3 FPS (59.4 vs 30.1). This compression of the settings range as resolution rises is a classic symptom of GPU-bound rendering: when the GPU is already saturated, reducing graphics quality offers diminishing returns. The data implies that players seeking higher frame rates should prioritize resolution reduction over quality setting changes.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the only resolution where all settings break past 56 FPS, with Low hitting 123.8 FPS, Medium at 90.3 FPS, and High at 76.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low (89.7 FPS) and Medium (66.4 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, while 4K struggles to reach playable levels on any preset.

Q: How much performance is lost moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 76.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 56 FPS at 2560x1440, a drop of 20.7 FPS. On Low, the drop is 34.1 FPS (123.8 to 89.7), and on Medium it is 23.9 FPS (90.3 to 66.4). Ultra sees the smallest absolute loss at 13.9 FPS (56.8 to 42.9).

Q: Is the GTX 1660 Ti capable of 4K gaming here?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest average frame rate recorded is 59.4 FPS on Low settings. High manages 38.6 FPS, Medium 44.5 FPS, and Ultra only 30.1 FPS. The data suggests 4K is only viable on the lowest preset, and even then it is borderline.

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

A: Low delivers 123.8 FPS while Ultra drops to 56.8 FPS, a difference of 67 FPS. Medium sits between at 90.3 FPS, and High is close behind at 76.7 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank relative to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1410th out of 1637 tested combinations for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the lower portion of the database. This suggests the pairing is not well-suited to high-refresh or high-resolution play in this title.

Q: Which setting offers the best balance at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 66.4 FPS, which is above the common 60 FPS target, while High drops to 56 FPS and Ultra falls to 42.9 FPS. Low is fastest at 89.7 FPS but at a visual cost.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of L3 cache. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 51.2 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 interface.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 3700X shows strong multi-threaded performance: it scores 8016 in Cinebench R20 multi-core and 19087 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. Single-core scores are 1131 in R20 and 2694 in R23. The CPU sits at the 85th percentile among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28631. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-12600 (deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core i5-12600H (deltaPct -0.1), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (deltaPct 0.1), indicating it is essentially performance-equivalent to those parts in aggregate.

For Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 123.8 FPS, which is high enough to suggest the CPU is feeding frames adequately. However, the 16 threads and 32 MB of L3 cache provide headroom that is not fully utilized in this title, as evidenced by the GPU-bound scaling pattern discussed earlier. The 3700X's 85th percentile ranking implies it is a capable mid-range processor, but the measured FPS data shows that the GTX 1660 Ti — ranked at the 55th percentile among GPUs — is the constraining factor in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces playable results. Low settings deliver the highest average at 123.8 FPS, followed by Medium at 90.3 FPS, High at 76.7 FPS, and Ultra at 56.8 FPS. The 67 FPS spread between Low and Ultra is the largest of any resolution, showing that at 1080p the GPU has enough headroom to respond to quality changes.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 89.7 FPS on Low, 66.4 FPS on Medium, 56 FPS on High, and 42.9 FPS on Ultra. Only Low and Medium clear the 60 FPS mark. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 46.8 FPS, indicating reduced GPU headroom.

At 3840x2160, the numbers compress further: Low averages 59.4 FPS, Medium 44.5 FPS, High 38.6 FPS, and Ultra 30.1 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is just 29.3 FPS. No setting at 4K reaches 60 FPS, and only Low comes close. The progression from 1080p to 4K at each setting is consistent: Low drops by 64.4 FPS (123.8 to 59.4), Medium by 45.8 FPS (90.3 to 44.5), High by 38.1 FPS (76.7 to 38.6), and Ultra by 26.7 FPS (56.8 to 30.1). The diminishing absolute drops at higher presets reinforce that the GPU is being saturated at 4K regardless of visual load.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Lockdown Protocol, this pairing of the Ryzen 7 3700X and GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1410th out of 1637 combos. This places it in the bottom 14% of tested systems. The ranking reflects the GPU's modest 55th percentile position among all GPUs, which drags down the overall performance despite the CPU's stronger 85th percentile standing.

The data indicates that while the CPU is a solid mid-range part, the GTX 1660 Ti's performance ceiling limits the combo's ability to compete with higher-tier graphics cards. The nearest GPU rivals to the 1660 Ti — the AMD Radeon RX 570X (deltaPct 0.4), the NVIDIA Tesla K10 (deltaPct -0.7), and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (deltaPct 0.8) — all sit at similar aggregate performance levels. This suggests the combo's ranking is primarily driven by GPU-bound performance, as the CPU has ample headroom that the GPU cannot exploit in this title.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data points to 1080p as the most reliable resolution. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 90.3 FPS and High achieves 76.7 FPS, both comfortably above 60 FPS. Ultra drops to 56.8 FPS, which is below the target but still playable for many users.

At 2560x1440, the choice narrows. Medium at 66.4 FPS is the only preset above 60 FPS besides Low at 89.7 FPS. High falls to 56 FPS, and Ultra to 42.9 FPS. For 1440p users, Medium offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, while Low is the safer choice for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, no setting reaches 60 FPS. Low at 59.4 FPS is the closest, and it is the only 4K option that approaches playable performance. Medium at 44.5 FPS and High at 38.6 FPS are noticeably less smooth, while Ultra at 30.1 FPS is likely too sluggish for a fast-paced FPS. The recommendation based on the measured rows is to stick with 1080p Medium or High for the best experience, or drop to 1440p Low if resolution matters more than quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built on the Turing architecture at a 12 nm process node, with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 288.0 GB/s, and it operates with a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz. The GPU has 1536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units, with a pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is 5.437 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Synthetic benchmarks place the 1660 Ti at the 55th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13925. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 570X (deltaPct 0.4), the NVIDIA Tesla K10 (deltaPct -0.7), and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (deltaPct 0.8). In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1061, while Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores are 60863 and 58014, respectively.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 192-bit bus struggle to keep up with the pixel throughput demands. The boost clock of 1770 MHz allows for decent performance at lower resolutions, but the scaling data shows that beyond 1440p, the GPU's architectural limits — 1536 shading units and 48 ROPs — cap the frame rate regardless of settings. The GPU's 55th percentile ranking aligns with its measured behavior: it is a mid-range part that handles 1080p well and 1440p acceptably, but it is not designed for 4K gaming in a title like Lockdown Protocol.