Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a genuinely strong Lockdown Protocol experience, with the measured data showing this combo landing at rank 556 out of 1637 tested configurations. That places it comfortably in the upper third of all combos, which is respectable for a pairing of a 3000-series CPU with a 30-series GPU. The RTX 3080's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for this FPS title, while the Ryzen 7 3700X's 8 cores and 16 threads handle the game's threading demands without becoming a bottleneck at most settings. The overall picture is one of a balanced system that can push high refresh rates at 1080p and remains playable at 4K, with the settings menu being the primary lever for tuning performance to your display's capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data makes the optimal settings choice clear depending on your target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 115.3 FPS average, which is already above the 100 FPS threshold that most competitive FPS players consider acceptable. However, dropping to High raises that to 153.1 FPS, a meaningful 37.8 FPS improvement that pushes well into high-refresh territory. The Medium preset at 177.7 FPS and Low at 208.9 FPS show diminishing returns for competitive play, but for a 144Hz display, High is the sweet spot—it offers the visual fidelity of near-max settings while keeping frame times consistent enough for smooth aiming.

At 2560x1440, the High preset produces 113.2 FPS, which is still excellent for a 1440p panel. The Ultra preset drops to 83.2 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced engagements. Medium at 129.9 FPS and Low at 183 FPS are both viable, but High strikes the best balance between image quality and responsiveness. For 3840x2160, the story changes: High yields 74.4 FPS, which is smooth for a 60Hz 4K display but insufficient for 120Hz+ panels. Medium at 84.3 FPS is the best 4K option for visual quality, while Low at 121.1 FPS enables high-refresh 4K gameplay if you have a capable monitor.

The data suggests that High is the recommended preset for most users, as it provides the best experience across all three resolutions without the steep performance penalty of Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra is consistent—roughly 30-40% performance loss—while the visual difference in a fast-paced FPS is often negligible during movement.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and the benchmark results reflect its strengths. With a boost clock of 1710 MHz, 8704 shading units, and 68 RT cores, this Ampere architecture GPU delivers 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The memory subsystem is particularly relevant for Lockdown Protocol: 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus provides 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which prevents texture streaming bottlenecks at high resolutions. The pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s indicate the GPU can fill frames quickly, which is evident in the 1080p results.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 80 versus all GPUs places it well above average, and its nearest rival deltaPct values show it trading blows with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (0.9% slower) and AMD Radeon 880M (0.4% faster). The RTX 3080's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions: the 4K Ultra result of 52.9 FPS versus 1080p Ultra at 115.3 FPS shows a 54% drop, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the 208.9 FPS figure suggests the GPU is not the limiting factor—the CPU's single-thread performance starts to matter more at those frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 2 architecture, provides solid foundation for Lockdown Protocol. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz are modest by modern standards, but the 32 MB L3 cache helps with game data locality. The CPU's benchmark scores—Cinebench R23 multi-core at 19087 and single-core at 2694—indicate it can sustain high thread utilization without overheating, given its 65W TDP.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 85 versus all CPUs is surprisingly strong, and its nearest rivals show it clustering with the Intel Core i5-12600 (0.1% slower) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (0.1% faster). In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p with lower settings, where the frame rate ceiling is determined by how fast the processor can feed draw calls. The 1080p Low result of 208.9 FPS versus 1440p Low at 183 FPS shows only a 14% drop, indicating the CPU is keeping up at both resolutions. However, the 4K Low result of 121.1 FPS versus 1440p Low at 183 FPS—a 34% drop—shows that the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor once resolution increases.

The PassMark multi-thread score of 22458 and single-thread score of 2656 suggest the CPU is adequate for this game, but not exceptional. In scenarios where the RTX 3080 is fully utilized, such as 4K Ultra, the CPU has enough headroom to avoid bottlenecking. The data indicates the 3700X is a capable partner, but users seeking maximum 1080p frame rates might find the CPU limits the GPU's potential.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a combo rank of 556 out of 1637 tested configurations in Lockdown Protocol. That places it in the 34th percentile of all combos, meaning roughly two-thirds of tested systems outperform it. This is a somewhat surprising result given the GPU's strength, but it reflects the CPU's age—the 3700X was released in 2019 and its single-thread performance lags newer processors.

The rank suggests that in this game, the CPU matters more than raw GPU horsepower. While the RTX 3080 is a top-tier GPU (80th percentile), the 3700X's 85th percentile CPU ranking is actually higher, yet the combo still lands mid-pack. This indicates Lockdown Protocol is sensitive to the combination of both components, and that other combos with faster CPUs but weaker GPUs might achieve similar or better results. The deltaPct values for the CPU's rivals—all within 0.2% of each other—show that the 3700X is in a tightly contested performance band, and small CPU gains could push this combo higher in the rankings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 153.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 113.2 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 26% drop), then to 74.4 FPS at 3840x2160 (a further 34% drop). This pattern is consistent with GPU-bound scaling, where pixel count increases quadratically. At Low settings, the drop is more dramatic: 208.9 FPS at 1080p falls to 183 FPS at 1440p (12% drop), then to 121.1 FPS at 4K (34% drop). The smaller 1080p-to-1440p drop at Low settings suggests the CPU is partially limiting performance at 1080p, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest scaling: 115.3 FPS at 1080p, 83.2 FPS at 1440p (28% drop), and 52.9 FPS at 4K (36% drop). This is classic GPU-limited behavior, where the RTX 3080's rendering load increases with resolution. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting component at Low and Medium settings, while the GPU takes over as the primary constraint at 1440p and 4K across all settings. For users with high-refresh 1080p monitors, the CPU will cap frame rates below what the GPU could theoretically deliver.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 3080 and Ryzen 7 3700X produce excellent results across all settings. Low settings yield 208.9 FPS average, which is ideal for 240Hz displays. Medium settings drop to 177.7 FPS, still above 144Hz refresh rates. High settings deliver 153.1 FPS, maintaining a strong competitive edge. Ultra settings produce 115.3 FPS, which is playable but sacrifices the smoothness that lower presets provide.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the GPU starting to work harder. Low settings achieve 183 FPS, which is excellent for 1440p high-refresh monitors. Medium settings produce 129.9 FPS, comfortably above 120Hz. High settings deliver 113.2 FPS, which is near the 144Hz threshold but not quite there. Ultra settings fall to 83.2 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced play but not ideal for competitive FPS action.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limits become apparent. Low settings yield 121.1 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K and suitable for 120Hz displays. Medium settings produce 84.3 FPS, which is smooth for 60Hz panels. High settings deliver 74.4 FPS, maintaining playability on 60Hz displays. Ultra settings drop to 52.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and shows the RTX 3080's 10 GB memory and 320-bit bus are being stressed by the 4K Ultra workload. The 52.9 FPS result at 4K Ultra versus 74.4 FPS at 4K High represents a 29% performance hit for the highest visual preset, which is a significant trade-off in this title.