Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER produces a fascinating split personality in Lockdown Protocol: at 1080p the combination delivers high refresh rates exceeding 160 FPS on Low settings, yet at 4K Ultra it collapses to just 35.9 FPS. This 162-to-35.9 FPS spread across the measured matrix reveals a system where the GPU becomes the dominant constraint as resolution climbs, while the CPU's 8-core/16-thread configuration keeps frame rates respectable at lower resolutions. The combo ranks 1215th out of 1637 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-mid tier of the database, which aligns with the RTX 2060 SUPER's 63rd percentile standing among all GPUs versus the Ryzen 7 7700's much stronger 91st percentile among CPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about which component bottlenecks this system. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 162 FPS at 1920x1080 to 114.5 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 29.3% reduction — and then to 75 FPS at 3840x2160, which is another 34.5% drop. This progressive decline as pixel count increases points directly to the GPU as the limiting factor, since the CPU workload per frame doesn't scale with resolution the way pixel shading does.

The scaling pattern becomes even more pronounced at Ultra settings. The system manages 74.6 FPS at 1080p Ultra, but this falls to 57 FPS at 1440p Ultra (a 23.6% decrease) and then to 35.9 FPS at 4K Ultra (a further 37% drop). The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling: it's less than half of the 1080p Ultra figure, indicating that the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated at the highest resolution and quality preset.

Interestingly, the ratio between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low gives 162 FPS versus 74.6 FPS for Ultra — a 2.17x difference. At 4K, the gap narrows to 75 FPS versus 35.9 FPS — a 2.09x difference. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even dropping to Low settings cannot fully compensate, as the memory bandwidth and shading throughput become hard limits rather than settings-driven bottlenecks.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 brings substantial compute resources to this pairing: 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture, running at a 3.80 GHz base clock with a 5.30 GHz boost. Its benchmark results confirm strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29302 and a 3DMark 16-thread score of 8484. The single-thread performance is equally solid at 4136 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which matters for Lockdown Protocol's frame pacing in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU's 91st percentile ranking among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40468, places it well above the GPU's standing. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (0.1% ahead), AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.5% ahead), Intel Core i9-13905H (0.6% behind), and Intel Core Ultra 5 235T (1.2% ahead). These margins are tight — within 1.2% — indicating the Ryzen 7 7700 sits in a crowded performance band.

At 1080p Low, the 162 FPS result suggests the CPU is still delivering headroom, as the frame rate is high enough that the GPU is likely the primary limiter even at this resolution. However, the 3DMark 2-thread score of 2043 and PassMark single-thread score of 4063 indicate that Lockdown Protocol's engine, which typically relies on fewer threads for game logic, should have ample single-core performance for this GPU pairing. The 32 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provide the memory subsystem needed to feed the GPU without introducing cache-miss stalls.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the clear performance ceiling in this configuration. Built on the TU106 chip using a 12 nm process at TSMC, this Turing-architecture GPU features 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the boost clock reaches 1650 MHz from a 1470 MHz base. The 7.181 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate are modest by modern standards, which explains the 63rd percentile GPU ranking.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 19774 places it remarkably close to its nearest rivals: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (0.3% ahead), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (0.5% ahead), NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (0.8% ahead), and NVIDIA Tesla K40m (1.3% ahead). The RTX 2060 SUPER's 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores provide hardware ray tracing and DLSS capability, though the measured FPS data does not indicate whether these features were active during testing.

The 4K Ultra result of 35.9 FPS is the clearest indicator of GPU limitation. With the 12 nm process and 10,800 million transistors packed into a 445 mm² die, the RTX 2060 SUPER simply lacks the raw shading power for 4K Ultra in a modern FPS title. The VRAM capacity of 8 GB also becomes a concern at 4K with High or Ultra textures, as the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth must service both frame buffer and texture streaming demands. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 16462 and DirectX 12 score of 61 reinforce that this is a mid-range part struggling at the highest resolution tiers.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best results: 162 FPS on Low, 111.2 FPS on Medium, 97.7 FPS on High, and 74.6 FPS on Ultra. The step from Low to Medium costs 50.8 FPS (a 31.4% reduction), while Medium to High costs 13.5 FPS and High to Ultra costs 23.1 FPS. This shows diminishing returns as settings rise, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 114.5 FPS on Low, 80.9 FPS on Medium, 71.1 FPS on High, and 57 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Medium gap narrows to 33.6 FPS (29.3% reduction), while the High-to-Ultra drop is 14.1 FPS. Compared to 1080p, the 1440p results show a consistent 28-30% reduction across all settings, confirming that resolution scaling is relatively uniform until the GPU becomes saturated.

At 3840x2160, the numbers compress further: 75 FPS on Low, 52.1 FPS on Medium, 49.2 FPS on High, and 35.9 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Medium drop is 22.9 FPS, while Medium-to-High is only 2.9 FPS — nearly flat — and High-to-Ultra costs 13.3 FPS. This plateau between Medium and High at 4K suggests that both presets are hitting similar GPU resource limits, with Ultra pushing the hardware over the edge into sub-40 FPS territory.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 1215th out of 1637 total tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 25.8th percentile — meaning roughly 74% of tested configurations deliver higher frame rates. This ranking appears consistent with the GPU's modest 63rd percentile standing among all GPUs, while the CPU's 91st percentile suggests the processor is not the limiting factor in most scenarios.

The gap between the CPU's strong benchmark position and the combo's weak in-game ranking implies that Lockdown Protocol is heavily GPU-bound for this pairing. The Ryzen 7 7700's average benchmark score of 40468 versus the RTX 2060 SUPER's 19774 creates a ratio of roughly 2.05:1 in favor of the CPU, which is a significant imbalance for a modern FPS title. The 3DMark max-thread score of 8479 for the CPU, combined with the GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011, further illustrates this disparity.

Compared to the GPU's nearest rivals — GTX TITAN, RTX 2070, Quadro K5200, and Tesla K40m — the in-game ranking suggests the RTX 2060 SUPER performs as expected for its benchmark position. The RTX 2070 being only 0.5% ahead in average GPU score likely translates to a similarly small FPS advantage in Lockdown Protocol, meaning the combo's rank is representative of its hardware tier rather than an anomaly.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1920x1080, all settings (Low 162 FPS, Medium 111.2 FPS, High 97.7 FPS, Ultra 74.6 FPS) exceed 60 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low (114.5 FPS), Medium (80.9 FPS), and High (71.1 FPS) all stay above 60 FPS, but Ultra drops to 57 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low (75 FPS) and Medium (52.1 FPS) come close, with High at 49.2 FPS and Ultra at 35.9 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700's average benchmark score of 40468 is 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (40431), 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (40262), 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core i9-13905H (40712), and 1.2% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T (39995).

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor even at 1080p, since the CPU's 91st percentile ranking and strong single-thread scores (Cinebench R23 single-core 4136) indicate it could push higher frame rates than the GPU delivers. The 74.6 FPS at 1080p Ultra versus 162 FPS at Low shows the GPU struggling with increased settings.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p High settings?

A: The measured average is 71.1 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is playable for most FPS titles, though it falls below the 144 Hz refresh rates that many competitive players target.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to the RTX 2070?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 19774, which is 0.5% behind the RTX 2070's 19680. This translates to a negligible performance difference in most games, including Lockdown Protocol.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in this game?

A: The combo ranks 1215th out of 1637 tested combinations, which means approximately 74% of other tested configs perform better in Lockdown Protocol.

Settings Recommendations

For a 60 FPS target, the data shows that 1920x1080 with Ultra settings (74.6 FPS) is viable, but 2560x1440 requires dropping to High (71.1 FPS) or Medium (80.9 FPS) to stay comfortably above 60 FPS. At 4K, only Low settings (75 FPS) achieve this target, while Medium (52.1 FPS) and above fall short.

For competitive play prioritizing high frame rates, 1080p Low delivers 162 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh monitors. At 1440p, Low (114.5 FPS) remains excellent for esports-style play, while Medium (80.9 FPS) offers a balance of visual quality and responsiveness.

For visual quality over frame rate, 1440p High (71.1 FPS) represents the sweet spot, providing a 46% improvement over 4K High (49.2 FPS) with only a modest resolution reduction. The 4K Ultra preset (35.9 FPS) is not recommended for smooth gameplay, as the frame rate drops below 40 FPS. The data indicates that Medium settings at 1440p (80.9 FPS) or High at 1080p (97.7 FPS) offer the best balance between visual fidelity and performance, avoiding the steep degradation seen when pushing to Ultra at higher resolutions.