Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D pairing delivers a dominant performance in Lockdown Protocol, ranking in the 97th percentile of 2,828 tested combinations. The data from the measured FPS table indicates that this system is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher settings, but the CPU becomes a notable factor at lower settings and resolutions. The optimal experience balances visual fidelity with the high refresh rates this hardware can achieve, with the Medium preset offering the most consistent and well-rounded performance across all tested resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets, but the "best" setting depends on the target resolution and the user's preference for frame rate versus visual quality. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 187 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play, but it is only 18 FPS behind the High preset's 217 FPS. However, the most compelling argument for the Medium preset is its consistency. While it averages 228 FPS at 1080p, it is the only preset that includes measured minimum and maximum frame data, showing a floor of 194 FPS and a ceiling of 262 FPS. This narrow range indicates a smoother experience with fewer frame hitches than the other presets, which lack such data.

The story shifts significantly at 4K. Here, the Ultra preset's average drops to 88 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices the high-refresh-rate advantage the system can offer. High settings at 4K produce 118 FPS, while Medium produces 135 FPS. The Medium preset again proves its value, providing a 17 FPS advantage over High settings while only demanding a moderate increase in rendering load. The Low preset, while producing the highest frame rates (190 FPS at 4K, 233 FPS at 1440p, 259 FPS at 1080p), likely represents a significant reduction in visual quality that is not necessary given the hardware's capability.

Therefore, the recommended preset is Medium. It provides the best compromise, delivering high average frame rates that exceed 135 FPS at all resolutions and, crucially, is the only preset that reports minimum frame data, suggesting a more stable frame pacing. For users with 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, the Medium preset at 1440p, with an average of 205 FPS and a minimum of 175 FPS, will keep the experience well above the display's refresh rate. While Ultra is viable for those prioritizing maximum visual detail, the data suggests that Medium unlocks the full potential of the high-refresh-rate display without the performance penalty associated with the higher-end presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the undisputed performance leader in this configuration, and its specifications in the FACT PACK explain why. The GPU's massive memory pool of 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is more than sufficient to handle the textures and assets of a modern FPS at any resolution. This immense bandwidth ensures that the GPU rarely, if ever, waits on data, allowing its 21,760 shading units to operate at full capacity.

The GPU's clock behavior is also a key factor. With a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, the RTX 5090 D demonstrates a significant boost headroom of 390 MHz. This dynamic clocking allows the GPU to push performance further when thermals and power allow, which is evident in the high frame rates observed. The GPU's raw compute power, rated at 104.8 TFLOPS for FP32 operations, is the primary driver behind the high average FPS numbers seen in the measured data. This is further supported by its benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 14,326, which place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's role is most clearly defined when comparing its performance relative to its nearest rivals. While the RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score is 77,712, it is only 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. This is surprising given the generational and architectural differences, but it highlights that in synthetic benchmarks, the top-tier laptop GPUs are incredibly competitive. However, in Lockdown Protocol, the 32 GB VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth of the RTX 5090 D are likely to provide a more significant advantage in real-world gameplay, particularly at 4K where memory capacity and bandwidth become critical. The GPU's performance is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the frame rates scale inversely with resolution, a topic explored in the next section.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable but important scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At the Medium preset, which has the most complete data, the average FPS drops from 228 at 1080p to 205 at 1440p, a decrease of 23 FPS, and then further down to 135 at 4K, another 70 FPS drop. This steep decline indicates that the rendering load increases dramatically with pixel count, and the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

This transition is even more pronounced at the High preset. The average frame rate drops from 217 FPS at 1080p to 183 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 118 FPS at 4K. The performance loss from 1440p to 4K is 65 FPS, which is a 35.5% reduction. This pattern clearly demonstrates that at 4K, the GPU is working at its limit to maintain high frame rates, even with a top-tier card like the RTX 5090 D. The CPU's role is diminished at this resolution because the GPU's rendering time per frame dominates the total frame time.

Conversely, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at the Low preset shows a smaller absolute drop (259 to 233 FPS, a 26 FPS difference), suggesting that the CPU is starting to become a more significant factor at these very high frame rates. When the GPU has less work to do, the CPU must feed it frames faster, and the Ryzen 7 5700's capabilities become more relevant. The data indicates that at 1080p, the system is approaching a CPU-bound state, as the frame rate increases of 31 FPS from High to Low (217 to 259 FPS) are not as large as the jumps seen at higher resolutions, implying that the CPU is struggling to keep up with the GPU's full potential. The 4K results, however, are almost entirely GPU-limited, as the frame rates are significantly lower than what the CPU could theoretically support.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p high-refresh-rate monitor?

A: The Medium preset is the most suitable choice. Benchmark results show it averages 205 FPS at 2560x1440, with a minimum of 175 FPS and a maximum of 236 FPS. This ensures the frame rate remains well above typical 144Hz refresh rates, providing a smooth and responsive experience.

Q: How does the CPU's single-threaded performance impact the game?

A: While the game benefits from the 8 cores and 16 threads, the CPU's single-threaded performance is a key metric for FPS games. The Ryzen 7 5700 scores 901 in 3DMark's single-thread test and 2,916 in Cinebench R23 single-core. These scores, combined with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, ensure that the CPU can handle the primary game logic thread efficiently, preventing it from bottlenecking the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the 32 GB of VRAM on the RTX 5090 D necessary for this game?

A: At the tested settings, it is unlikely that Lockdown Protocol will utilize the full 32 GB of GDDR7 memory. However, the large memory pool and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensure that there is no texture thrashing or stuttering, even at the highest 4K Ultra settings. This capacity provides a significant performance headroom and future-proofs the system for more demanding titles.

Q: How does this system compare to other high-end configurations?

A: The data shows this combo ranks in the 97th percentile out of 2,828 tested combinations. While the RTX 5090 D's synthetic average score is close to that of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, the combination's overall rank in Lockdown Protocol suggests it outperforms the vast majority of systems, particularly due to the GPU's memory bandwidth and capacity.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K?

A: The difference is substantial. The Low preset averages 190 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 88 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 102 FPS difference, highlighting the significant impact of visual effects and rendering quality on the GPU load at high resolutions.

Q: Is this system more CPU-limited or GPU-limited at 1080p?

A: The data suggests it is becoming increasingly CPU-limited at 1080p. The frame rate difference between the Low and Ultra presets is 72 FPS (259 vs 187), which is smaller than the 102 FPS difference seen at 4K. This indicates that the CPU is less able to feed the GPU at the highest frame rates, creating a bottleneck.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 plays a supporting but crucial role in this configuration, ensuring the RTX 5090 D is fed with enough data to maintain high frame rates. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, this CPU provides a strong foundation for modern games. Its boost clock of 4.60 GHz is a critical specification for Lockdown Protocol, as FPS titles often rely heavily on a few high-frequency cores for game logic and physics.

The CPU's benchmark scores corroborate its suitability for this task. Its 3DMark 16-thread score of 6,628 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20,655 demonstrate robust multi-threaded performance, which is useful for background tasks and modern game engines. More importantly, its single-threaded performance, evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 3,296 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1,907, ensures that the primary game thread is well-handled. This is directly reflected in the measured FPS, where the system achieves 259 FPS at 1080p Low, a rate that indicates the CPU is capable of processing frames quickly.

However, the CPU's role is most evident when analyzing the performance scaling. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, and the CPU's performance ceiling is not reached. As resolution drops, the CPU's relative importance grows. The data shows a 31 FPS increase from High to Low at 1080p, but only a 25 FPS increase at 1440p and a 20 FPS increase at 4K. This trend suggests that the CPU is not fully saturating the GPU at 1080p, as the frame rate gains from reducing graphical load are diminishing. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and support for DDR4 memory are adequate for this platform, and its 65W TDP is remarkably efficient for an 8-core part. While it does not have the highest single-thread score compared to its rivals, with a 0.1% deltaPct vs the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U and a 0.3% deltaPct vs the AMD Ryzen 7 5825U, its overall balanced performance makes it a suitable match for the RTX 5090 D.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data is drawn directly from the measured FPS table, detailing the exact average frame rates for each resolution and settings preset.

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: Average FPS is 259.
• Medium: Average FPS is 228, with a minimum of 194 and a maximum of 262.
• High: Average FPS is 217.
• Ultra: Average FPS is 187.

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: Average FPS is 233.
• Medium: Average FPS is 205, with a minimum of 175 and a maximum of 236.
• High: Average FPS is 183.
• Ultra: Average FPS is 137.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: Average FPS is 190.
• Medium: Average FPS is 135, with a minimum of 115 and a maximum of 155.
• High: Average FPS is 118.
• Ultra: Average FPS is 88.

The data reveals a consistent performance hierarchy, with Low being the fastest and Ultra being the slowest at every resolution. The most significant performance drop occurs when moving from 1440p to 4K, particularly at the Ultra preset, where the average FPS falls from 137 to 88. The Medium preset is the only one that provides minimum and maximum FPS data, which shows a 43 FPS spread between the average and the maximum at 4K, and a 31 FPS spread at 1080p. This indicates that while the average is high, there is some variance in frame times. The overall pattern confirms that this system is exceptionally powerful, capable of exceeding 60 FPS at 4K Ultra and exceeding 180 FPS at 1080p Ultra, making it a top-tier performer for Lockdown Protocol.