Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol presents an interesting test for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT pairing. The measured frames-per-second data across resolutions and settings reveals a component balance that shifts dramatically depending on the graphical load. This analysis will break down the optimal settings, the individual roles of the CPU and GPU, and how this combination stacks up against the broader field of tested hardware.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for this combination in Lockdown Protocol points to the Medium preset as the most balanced experience. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 113 FPS, which is a significant step down from the 159 FPS achieved on Low, but it offers a substantial visual upgrade over Low. The High preset at this resolution drops to 99 FPS, a 14 FPS penalty for moving from Medium to High. The Ultra preset, while visually demanding, brings the average down to 74 FPS, which may not be worth the performance cost for competitive play.

The case for Medium becomes even stronger when examining the minimum FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the system recorded a minimum of 96 FPS, ensuring that frame pacing remains smooth even in demanding scenes. This is a critical factor for an FPS title, where drops below the refresh rate can be jarring. The High preset lacks reported minimum FPS data, but the average suggests a tighter performance margin. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, Medium is the clear choice to maintain a frame rate well above the 100 FPS threshold.

Moving up to 2560x1440, the Medium preset still holds up admirably, producing an average of 83 FPS with a minimum of 70 FPS. This is a playable and smooth experience for most users. High at this resolution yields 72 FPS, which is still decent but begins to approach the threshold where frame drops become more noticeable. At 3840x2160, the performance picture changes entirely. Medium averages 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS, which is on the edge of playability for a fast-paced shooter. The High preset at 4K averages 47 FPS, and Ultra drops to 35 FPS, both of which are generally not ideal for the genre.

Therefore, the data strongly suggests that Medium is the "sweet spot" preset. It provides the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, ensuring that the frame rate remains high enough for responsive gameplay without sacrificing too much graphical quality. It offers a 14% performance uplift over High at 1080p and a 15% uplift at 1440p, while maintaining a significantly higher minimum frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process node. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. Its core clocks are listed with a base of 1968 MHz and a boost of 2589 MHz. The GPU's performance in this game is clearly a major factor, particularly at higher resolutions. The data shows a steep decline in average FPS as resolution increases, which is classic evidence of a GPU-bound scenario at higher pixel counts.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 24442, placing it in the 70th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630, which has an average score of 24277 (a 0.7% delta), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, with an average score of 24170 (a 1.1% delta). This is a curious placement, as the RX 6600 XT's score is only slightly higher than these older or lower-tier cards. In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gameplay, but the 4K results suggest that the GPU's raw compute and fillrate capabilities are the primary bottleneck at that resolution.

The transition from 1440p to 4K on the Medium preset illustrates this bottleneck. The average FPS drops from 83 to 53, a 36% reduction. This significant loss of performance strongly implies that the RX 6600 XT's pixel throughput and shading power are being overwhelmed by the demands of rendering at 3840x2160. While the VRAM capacity might not be fully exhausted, the GPU's overall processing power is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, relegating that resolution to lower-quality settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a Zen 5 architecture processor (Granite Ridge) with 8 cores and 16 threads. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. It supports DDR5 memory and has a shared 32 MB L3 cache. The CPU's synthetic benchmark performance is strong, with an average score of 69996, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and Intel Core i7-14700KF, which are within a 0.2% delta of its score.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves an average of 159 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. This suggests that the Ryzen 7 9700F has ample processing power to feed the GPU at this resolution. However, the fact that the 1080p Low score (159 FPS) is not dramatically higher than the 1440p Low score (117 FPS) hints at a potential CPU limitation as the frame rate target gets very high. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Low is 42 FPS, which is a large drop, but the 1080p result might be approaching the CPU's maximum frame generation capacity for this game engine.

The CPU's high single-thread and multi-thread performance, evidenced by its PassMark scores of 4691 and 36470 respectively, ensures that it does not become a limiting factor in most scenarios. The data shows that the FPS scales down linearly with resolution, which is a sign that the GPU is the dominant constraint. The CPU is likely able to maintain frame pacing and handle game logic without issue, as the minimum FPS figures for Medium settings are relatively close to the averages. For example, at 1440p Medium, the average is 83 FPS and the minimum is 70 FPS, indicating a stable and CPU-capable performance profile.

How This Combo Ranks

According to the measured data, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 2014th out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the bottom 29th percentile of all tested hardware pairings. This is a significant data point that contextualizes the individual component strengths. While the CPU is a top-tier performer (94th percentile), and the GPU is a solid mid-range card (70th percentile), their combined performance in this particular game is lower than one might expect.

This ranking suggests that the RX 6600 XT is likely holding back the overall potential of the system. The Ryzen 7 9700F is capable of driving much higher frame rates, as evidenced by the 1080p Low result of 159 FPS. However, the GPU's performance ceiling in this game prevents the combo from achieving a higher rank. The combo's rank is a holistic measure of its performance across all tested resolutions and settings, and the GPU's weakness at 4K significantly drags down its overall standing.

The data implies that this is a CPU-heavy pairing where the processor is far more powerful than the graphics card. This is an "unbalanced" combination in the context of this game. Users with this setup are leaving performance on the table at lower resolutions, as the CPU is waiting for the GPU to finish its work. The combo rank reflects this bottleneck, showing that while the system is capable of good 1080p performance, it cannot compete with higher-end GPU pairings in overall aggregate performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions provides a clear picture of how the system scales and where the bottleneck lies. Starting from 1080p, the average FPS on Medium is 113. At 1440p, this drops to 83 FPS, a 26.5% reduction. Moving to 4K, the average falls to 53 FPS, a 36.1% reduction from 1440p. This pattern of increasing performance loss with each resolution step is a textbook indicator of a GPU-limited system.

If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see very similar frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, as the CPU's workload wouldn't change much with resolution. Instead, the FPS drops significantly as the resolution increases, demonstrating that the GPU's rendering capabilities are the primary constraint. The Low preset shows a similar trend. From 1080p (159 FPS) to 1440p (117 FPS), there is a 42 FPS drop. From 1440p to 4K (75 FPS), the drop is another 42 FPS. This consistency across presets reinforces the fact that the GPU is the limiting factor.

The data also shows that the performance scaling is not perfectly linear. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p (26.5%) is less than the drop from 1440p to 4K (36.1%). This indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth or fillrate is being increasingly stressed at 4K, leading to a super-linear increase in rendering time. The 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth is likely a key constraint at 3840x2160, where the sheer number of pixels requires more data to be pushed through the memory subsystem.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a detailed breakdown of the measured average FPS for this combo in Lockdown Protocol.

1920x1080:

• Low: The average FPS is 159.
• Medium: The average FPS is 113, with a minimum of 96 and a maximum of 130.
• High: The average FPS is 99.
• Ultra: The average FPS is 74.

2560x1440:

• Low: The average FPS is 117.
• Medium: The average FPS is 83, with a minimum of 70 and a maximum of 95.
• High: The average FPS is 72.
• Ultra: The average FPS is 54.

3840x2160:

• Low: The average FPS is 75.
• Medium: The average FPS is 53, with a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 61.
• High: The average FPS is 47.
• Ultra: The average FPS is 35.

These numbers illustrate the performance envelope of this hardware. At 1080p, the system is capable of excellent performance, especially on Low and Medium settings. The 1440p results are still respectable, with Medium providing a good balance. The 4K results, however, are only suitable for less demanding titles or for users who can tolerate lower frame rates. The minimum FPS data for Medium settings shows that the system can maintain playable frame rates even in more demanding scenes at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the minimum of 45 FPS indicates a less stable experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this CPU/GPU combo at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering an average of 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS. While Low yields a higher 159 FPS average, Medium provides a significant visual upgrade while maintaining a high and stable frame rate for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows that 4K performance is limited. The highest playable average is 75 FPS on Low, but this drops to 53 FPS on Medium and 35 FPS on Ultra. For a competitive FPS, the Low preset is the only one that provides an average above 60 FPS, but the experience is not ideal compared to lower resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 6600 XT has an average benchmark score of 24442. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630, scores 24277, a 0.7% difference. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER scores 24170, a 1.1% difference. The RX 6600 XT is slightly ahead of both in these synthetic tests.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the limiting factor in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the primary limiting factor. This is evident from the resolution scaling, where FPS drops significantly as resolution increases. The CPU is a high-performer (94th percentile) and is capable of generating high frame rates, but the GPU's rendering power caps the overall performance, especially at 1440p and 4K.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among all tested systems?

A: This specific combination ranks 2014th out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the lower half of all tested hardware pairings, reflecting the performance bottleneck created by the GPU.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to the Intel Core i7-14700KF?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996. The Intel Core i7-14700KF has an average score of 70163, which is a -0.2% delta from the Ryzen's score. This indicates that the Ryzen 7 9700F performs nearly identically to the i7-14700KF in these benchmarks.