Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol, a 2024 FPS title, presents an interesting test for the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four presets reveal a system that is heavily GPU-bound at high settings, but shows signs of CPU limitation at lower resolutions. The combo ranks 217th out of 1,637 tested configurations, placing it in the upper tier of tested combos.

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. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU's L3 cache is 32 MB, and it supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus, offering a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. Its average benchmark score is 28,631, which places it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-12600 (delta -0.1%), Intel Core i5-12600H (delta -0.1%), AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (delta 0.1%), and AMD EPYC 7203P (delta 0.2%). This indicates that the CPU's overall compute performance is essentially tied with these mid-range parts. In single-thread workloads, the Cinebench R23 score is 2,694, while the multi-core score is 19,087. Cinebench R15 results are 1,923 multi-core and 271 single-core; R20 scores are 8,016 multi-core and 1,131 single-core. Geekbench results are 8,083 multi-core and 1,672 single-core. Passmark tests show a multi-thread score of 22,458 and a single-thread score of 2,656. These numbers indicate a balanced mid-range processor. For an FPS game like Lockdown Protocol, single-thread performance is often the primary driver. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low reach 209.5 FPS, which is high but not exceptionally so, suggesting that the CPU may be the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The CPU's launch MSRP was $329.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a top-tier graphics card based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, with a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The GPU's base clock is 2017 MHz, boost clock is 2407 MHz, and memory clock is 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). It has 21,760 shading units, 680 tensor cores, and 170 RT cores. Its average benchmark score is 84,306, placing it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D (delta 0.1%), RTX 5050 Mobile (delta 0.2%), AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (delta 1.3%), and NVIDIA CMP 40HX (delta -1.6%). In 3DMark Steel Nomad, it scores 14,411, and in Geekbench OpenCL it scores 380,114. Geekbench Vulkan yields 379,571. Passmark G3D score is 39,650, and compute score is 26,756. The GPU's pixel rate is 423.6 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 1,636.8 GTexel/s. These specifications contribute to its high performance in rasterized games. The GPU's TDP is 575 W, and it uses a 16-pin power connector. In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU delivers 84.6 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is a high result for that resolution. The launch MSRP was $1,999 USD.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS across resolutions shows a clear pattern. At High settings, the average FPS is 175.3 at 1080p, 156 at 1440p, and 114.6 at 4K. At Low settings, the values are 209.5, 186.3, and 160.6. At Medium, they are 182.2, 163.1, and 131.6. At Ultra, they are 161.1, 133.3, and 84.6. The drop from 1080p to 4K is larger at Ultra than at Low, indicating that the GPU becomes more stressed as settings increase. At Low settings, the 4K result of 160.6 is relatively close to the 1080p result of 209.5, suggesting that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At Ultra, the 4K result of 84.6 is much lower than the 1080p result of 161.1, showing that the GPU is the bottleneck at high settings. This scaling behavior is typical for a system with a mid-range CPU and a top-tier GPU. The fact that 1080p Low yields 209.5 FPS while 4K Low yields 160.6 indicates that the GPU is not fully utilized at 1080p Low, because the CPU cannot feed it faster. Conversely, at 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the frame rate drops to 84.6.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a basis for choosing a preset. At 1080p, all presets deliver above 160 FPS, with Low at 209.5, Medium at 182.2, High at 175.3, and Ultra at 161.1. At 1440p, Ultra still achieves 133.3 FPS, while High gives 156 and Medium 163.1. At 4K, Ultra drops to 84.6 FPS, while High gives 114.6 and Medium 131.6. For 4K gaming, the data suggests that Medium or High provide a better frame rate than Ultra, with Medium being the highest at 131.6. At 1080p, even Ultra is above 160 FPS, so the visual quality gain from Ultra may be worth the FPS reduction. The choice of preset depends on the display's refresh rate and the user's preference for visual fidelity. The measured numbers show that at 4K, the difference between Ultra and High is 30 FPS (84.6 vs 114.6), and between Ultra and Medium is 47 FPS (84.6 vs 131.6). These are substantial gains for a single preset step.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 217th out of 1,637 tested configurations in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the upper tier of tested combos. The CPU's percentile is 85, and the GPU's percentile is 94, so the combo's rank is between the two, indicating that the CPU is a slight limiting factor. The CPU's average benchmark score is 28,631, which is within 0.2% of its nearest rivals, so the CPU is not an outlier. The GPU's average score is 84,306, which is within 1.6% of its nearest rivals. The combination of a mid-range CPU and a top-tier GPU results in a system that is capable of high frame rates, but the CPU prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential at lower resolutions. The rank of 217 out of 1,637 suggests that many other combos achieve higher performance, likely those with newer CPUs that can better feed the RTX 5090.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The table below lists the average FPS for each resolution and preset. Min and max FPS were not provided in the data.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 114.6 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 160.6 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 131.6 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 84.6 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 156 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 186.3 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 163.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 133.3 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 175.3 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 209.5 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 182.2 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 161.1 |

These numbers show that the system is capable of high frame rates across the board, with the lowest result being 84.6 FPS at 4K Ultra. The highest result is 209.5 FPS at 1080p Low. The data indicates that the RTX 5090 is a powerful GPU, but the Ryzen 7 3700X holds it back in CPU-bound scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions and settings.