Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol stresses the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and Intel Arc B570 combo in a predictable way: the GPU becomes the deciding factor as resolution climbs, but the CPU still holds the ceiling at lower settings. At 1080p Low, the system pushes 136 FPS, but that drops sharply to 100 FPS at 1440p Low and 64 FPS at 4K Low. That pattern confirms the Arc B570 is the primary limiter once the resolution goes up, because the Ryzen 7 7700 has enough headroom in its 8-core, 16-thread design to feed frames well past what the GPU can render at higher pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear trend: every step up in resolution costs a significant chunk of performance, regardless of the quality preset. At Low settings, the system delivers 136 FPS at 1920x1080, 100 FPS at 2560x1440, and 64 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 36 FPS loss from 1080p to 1440p, and another 36 FPS loss from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is almost perfectly linear, which points to the GPU being the bottleneck across all three resolutions. The Arc B570’s 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily as pixel count increases.

The Medium preset tells a similar story, with 96 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 1440p is 25 FPS, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs another 25 FPS. High settings show 84 FPS at 1080p, 62 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K, with the gaps shrinking to 22 FPS each step. Ultra settings are the most punishing, with 63 FPS at 1080p dropping to 46 FPS at 1440p and then 30 FPS at 4K.

The fact that the FPS drop is so consistent between resolutions, even at Low settings, indicates the game is not lightly threaded. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the 1080p Low result would be much higher relative to 1440p Low, because lowering resolution and settings reduces GPU load while leaving CPU work mostly unchanged. Instead, the 1080p Low result of 136 FPS is only 36% higher than the 4K Low result of 64 FPS, which suggests the GPU is still the main constraint even at the lowest settings. The Ryzen 7 7700’s single-thread score of 1049 in 3dmark and 1930 in Cinebench R23 shows it has the per-core strength to avoid being the primary bottleneck in most scenarios.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the system consistently exceeds 60 FPS across all settings. At 1080p, the lowest average is 63 FPS on Ultra, while High and Medium sit at 84 and 96 FPS respectively. At 1440p, only Low and Medium stay above 60 FPS, with 100 and 71 FPS. At 4K, every preset falls below 60 FPS, with the best result being 64 FPS on Low.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to High?

A: At 1080p, Ultra averages 63 FPS versus 84 FPS on High, a 21 FPS penalty. At 1440p, the gap widens to 16 FPS, with Ultra at 46 FPS and High at 62 FPS. At 4K, Ultra drops to 30 FPS while High holds 40 FPS, a 10 FPS difference. The relative cost of Ultra increases as resolution goes down because the CPU can push more frames when the GPU is less stressed.

Q: Does the Arc B570’s 10 GB VRAM hold up at 4K?

A: The measured data shows 4K is playable only on Low settings, where the system averages 64 FPS. Medium drops to 46 FPS, High to 40 FPS, and Ultra to 30 FPS. The 10 GB memory capacity is not the main issue; the GPU’s raw compute throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are what limit high-resolution performance.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 7700 strong enough for this game?

A: Yes, the CPU benchmarks indicate plenty of headroom. The Ryzen 7 7700 scores 18760 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1930 in single-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 34470. It ranks in the 87th percentile among all CPUs. The 1080p Low result of 136 FPS suggests the CPU can feed the GPU well beyond what the Arc B570 can render at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the lowest playable FPS recorded in the measurement?

A: The minimum FPS values are only recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 82 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 60 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 39 FPS. These minimums show that even the 4K Medium preset stays above 30 FPS, though it dips close to that threshold.

Q: How does this combo rank against other systems in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2264 out of 2828 tested combinations. That places it in the lower-middle portion of all tested systems. The GPU percentile is 65, meaning it outperforms 65% of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 87th percentile. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, since the CPU is far stronger relative to other processors than the GPU is relative to other graphics cards.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the decisive component in this pairing. Its benchmarks place it in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556. That puts it in the same performance class as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534 score, 0.1% delta) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582 score, -0.1% delta). The B570’s 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is enough for 1080p and 1440p gaming but starts to strain at 4K.

The GPU’s clock behavior matters for Lockdown Protocol. The base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, which is unusual because most GPUs have a higher boost than base. This means the card runs at a flat 2500 MHz under load, with no dynamic overclocking headroom. The memory clock is 2375 MHz, running at 19 Gbps effective. This fixed clock profile likely contributes to the linear FPS scaling between resolutions, as the GPU cannot push higher clocks when the workload is lighter.

The architectural specs explain the 4K performance ceiling. With 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs, the B570 delivers 200.0 GPixel/s pixel fill rate and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate. The FP32 throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards. In Lockdown Protocol, this translates to 64 FPS at 4K Low and 40 FPS at 4K High. The gap between Low and High at 4K is 24 FPS, which suggests the game’s quality settings heavily tax the GPU’s fixed resources.

The Passmark G3D score of 14195 and DirectX 12 score of 72 indicate strong compatibility with modern APIs, which is important for a 2024 release. The Vulkan score of 96844 in Geekbench is notably high, suggesting the game could benefit from Vulkan if it supports that API. The GPU’s 18 ray tracing cores are present but not heavily utilized in this title based on the measured results, as the FPS drops are consistent with traditional rasterization load.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Starting at 1920x1080, the system delivers its best results. Low settings average 136 FPS, Medium averages 96 FPS with a minimum of 82 and maximum of 111, High averages 84 FPS, and Ultra averages 63 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 73 FPS, which is the largest of any resolution. This indicates the CPU is capable of pushing very high frame rates when the GPU is less burdened, but the quality settings still have a major impact on the GPU’s output.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops across the board. Low averages 100 FPS, Medium averages 71 FPS with a minimum of 60 and maximum of 81, High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 46 FPS. The gap from Low to Ultra is 54 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 60 FPS is exactly at the threshold for smooth gameplay, making it the lowest acceptable setting for 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low averages 64 FPS, Medium averages 46 FPS with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 52, High averages 40 FPS, and Ultra averages 30 FPS. The Medium minimum of 39 FPS shows that even mid-range settings can dip below 40 FPS at 4K. The gap from Low to Ultra is 34 FPS, which is smaller than at lower resolutions because the GPU is already saturated at Low settings.

Comparing the Medium preset across resolutions shows the most complete data. At 1080p, the average is 96 FPS with a range of 82-111. At 1440p, the average drops to 71 FPS with a range of 60-81. At 4K, the average falls to 46 FPS with a range of 39-52. The minimum FPS scales proportionally with the average, indicating stable frame pacing without sudden spikes or drops. This consistency suggests the game is well optimized for this hardware configuration.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides strong foundational performance for Lockdown Protocol. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture, it scores 18760 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1930 in single-core. The Passmark multithread score of 34470 and single-thread score of 4063 place it in the 87th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.1% faster), Intel Core 5 221E (-0.2% faster), and AMD Ryzen 9 270 (-0.4% faster), showing it is competitive with recent mobile and desktop parts.

The CPU’s clock speeds are important for this game. The base clock of 3.80 GHz boosts to 5.30 GHz, giving it strong single-thread performance that matters for FPS titles. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core help with game data locality. The 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth over dual-channel DDR5 is sufficient to feed the GPU without creating a bottleneck.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s role becomes evident at 1080p Low, where the system hits 136 FPS. This is the highest result in the entire dataset, and it suggests the CPU can handle well over 136 FPS if the GPU were faster. The 3dmark scores support this: 8484 in 16-thread, 6933 in 8-thread, and 3931 in 4-thread tests show strong scaling across core counts. The single-thread score of 1049 in 3dmark is modest, but the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1930 indicates the Zen 4 architecture is efficient for gaming workloads.

The CPU’s 65W TDP is low for an 8-core part, which means it generates less heat and can sustain boost clocks longer under load. This is relevant for extended gaming sessions where the CPU might otherwise throttle. The fact that the 1080p Low result is 136 FPS while 4K Low drops to 64 FPS shows the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions; the GPU is. The CPU’s 87th percentile ranking versus the GPU’s 65th percentile confirms this asymmetry.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality. It averages 96 FPS with a minimum of 82 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even in intense firefights. High settings drop to 84 FPS average, which is still playable, but the 12 FPS difference between Medium and High is not worth the visual gain for most players. Ultra at 63 FPS is borderline, and the 33 FPS loss from Medium to Ultra is significant.

At 1440p, Low settings are the safest choice, delivering 100 FPS average. Medium is also viable at 71 FPS average with a 60 FPS minimum, but that minimum is close to the edge of playability. For a competitive FPS, Low settings are recommended to maintain high frame rates and reduce input latency. High at 62 FPS and Ultra at 46 FPS are not ideal for fast-paced gameplay.

At 4K, only Low settings provide a consistently playable experience at 64 FPS average. Medium drops to 46 FPS with a 39 FPS minimum, which will feel sluggish in action sequences. High at 40 FPS and Ultra at 30 FPS are not recommended for this game. If 4K is a priority, the data suggests accepting Low settings or considering a GPU upgrade, as the Arc B570’s 65th percentile performance is not sufficient for high-quality 4K gaming.

The overall recommendation is to play at 1080p Medium for the best experience, as it provides a 96 FPS average with a solid 82 FPS minimum. For players with 1440p monitors, Low settings at 100 FPS is the preferred choice for competitive play. The system’s 2264th rank out of 2828 combos indicates it is not a high-end gaming rig, so prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity is the practical approach. The Ryzen 7 7700 has more than enough CPU headroom, but the Arc B570’s 11.52 TFLOPS and 10 GB VRAM are the limiting factors at higher resolutions and settings.