Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is a fast-paced FPS that stresses both CPU and GPU, and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT combo delivers a highly playable experience across most settings, with the data clearly indicating that the Medium preset offers the best balance of fluidity and visual fidelity. This pairing lands in the 48th percentile of all tested combos for this title, ranking 1473 out of 2828, which positions it as a solid mid-pack performer. The benchmark results show that while the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, the CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures the frame rate stays competitive at 1080p, though the gap between Low and Ultra settings reveals the limits of this configuration.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data points to the Medium preset as the sweet spot for this hardware combination, delivering an average of 135 FPS at 1920x1080, 99 FPS at 2560x1440, and 64 FPS at 3840x2160. These figures represent a substantial improvement over the High preset, which averages 118 FPS at 1080p, 87 FPS at 1440p, and drops to just 56 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset also provides the only complete frame time data in the pack, with minimums of 115 FPS at 1080p, 84 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K, indicating consistent frame pacing that is critical for a competitive FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs roughly 13% of performance at 1080p, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 25%, making Ultra a questionable choice for anything beyond visual showcase purposes.

For players prioritizing competitive responsiveness, the Low preset at 1920x1080 yields a massive 191 FPS average, which is 56 FPS higher than Medium and 102 FPS higher than Ultra. This setting is clearly the best option for high-refresh-rate monitors, as the data shows a 41% performance gain over Medium at the same resolution. However, the Low preset at 1440p still delivers a respectable 140 FPS, making it a viable alternative for those who want higher resolution without sacrificing too much speed. At 4K, Low produces 90 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Ultra preset, while technically playable at 1080p with 89 FPS, drops to 65 FPS at 1440p and becomes nearly unplayable at 42 FPS at 4K, so it should be reserved for screenshots or non-competitive play.

The data suggests that Medium is the default recommendation because it provides a 14% performance buffer over High at 1080p and a 35% buffer at 1440p, while still maintaining a minimum FPS above 115 at 1080p. For 4K users, Medium is the highest setting that stays above the 60 FPS threshold, averaging 64 FPS with a minimum of 54 FPS, which is borderline but acceptable for less demanding sessions. Players with 144Hz or higher refresh monitors at 1080p should consider Low to fully utilize their display, as the 191 FPS average gives ample headroom. Ultimately, the choice hinges on whether the user values visual detail or raw frame rate, but the measured data clearly favors Medium for the best overall experience.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process, carries 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. This memory configuration proves sufficient for Lockdown Protocol, as even at 4K Ultra the GPU does not appear to run out of VRAM, though the performance crater to 42 FPS suggests the compute load is the limiting factor. The GPU's clocks are notably high, with a base of 2321 MHz, a game clock of 2424 MHz, and a boost clock of 2581 MHz, which helps maintain strong throughput in this lightly threaded game scenario. The 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s, both of which are directly relevant to the fill-rate demands of a modern FPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27425, putting it in close competition with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (deltaPct 0%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (deltaPct -0.5%). This indicates that the RX 6700 XT is a capable mid-range card that holds its own against much more expensive desktop parts, though it trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 by 1.5% in raw compute. In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the CPU is able to feed the GPU effectively, but the gap between Low (191 FPS) and Ultra (89 FPS) shows a 53% performance range that is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The 12 GB VRAM is a future-proofing asset, but the data shows that the card's raw compute power, not memory capacity, is what dictates frame rates in this game.

The transition from Medium to High at all resolutions costs approximately 13-14% of performance, while the transition from High to Ultra costs another 25-27%, indicating that the GPU's compute units are the primary constraint at higher settings. The card's 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 40 RT cores are underutilized in Lockdown Protocol, which appears to favor traditional rasterization. The power draw of 230 W and the suggested 550 W PSU are not reflected in the FPS data, but they position this GPU as a mainstream component that pairs well with the 65 W TDP of the Ryzen 7 9700F, creating a balanced system that doesn't overload a typical desktop power supply.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global database of tested combinations for Lockdown Protocol, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT achieves a rank of 1473 out of 2828 total combos, placing it just past the halfway point of all configurations. This ranking is a direct reflection of the GPU's mid-pack performance, as the CPU is a top-tier part that sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The combo's position suggests that while the processor is capable of driving higher frame rates, the graphics card holds the overall result back from the top echelons of the leaderboard. The rank of 1473 means that 1355 combos outperform this setup, while 1355 combos fall behind it, indicating a very balanced distribution around the median.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, but 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-14700KF. This tight clustering means that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would change the combo's ranking by only a handful of positions, as the GPU remains the bottleneck. On the GPU side, the RX 6700 XT's average score of 27425 is nearly identical to the RTX 4070 Mobile (deltaPct 0%), slightly lower than the RTX 3090 (deltaPct -0.5%), and higher than the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell (deltaPct 1.1%). This means that pairing the 9700F with any of these GPUs would yield very similar results in Lockdown Protocol, with the ranking shifting by less than 1% in most cases.

The combo's rank of 1473 is notable because it falls below the 50th percentile, which is slightly disappointing given the CPU's high percentile ranking. This discrepancy highlights how heavily Lockdown Protocol relies on GPU performance at the settings tested. The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios, as evidenced by the high FPS at Low settings (191 FPS at 1080p), which is near the ceiling for many displays. The ranking could be improved by pairing the 9700F with a higher-tier GPU, but within this specific combo, the performance is consistent and predictable, making it a dependable choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming without any major bottlenecks or surprises.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from a high of 191 on Low to a low of 89 on Ultra, with Medium at 135 and High at 118. The Medium preset provides a minimum of 115 FPS and a maximum of 156, giving a frame time variance of 41 FPS, which is acceptable for a smooth experience. The Low preset does not have min/max data, but its average of 191 FPS suggests it is the only setting that can fully saturate a 144Hz monitor without any drops. High at 1080p offers 118 FPS average, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra at 89 FPS is playable but represents a 53% performance loss compared to Low, making it the least efficient setting at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the FPS drops proportionally, with Low delivering 140 FPS, Medium at 99 FPS, High at 87 FPS, and Ultra at 65 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114, which is a tighter range than at 1080p, indicating better frame pacing at this resolution. Low at 1440p is still very playable for competitive play, while High and Ultra begin to show the GPU's limits, with Ultra barely maintaining 65 FPS average. The data shows a consistent 28-30% performance hit when moving from Low to Medium, and another 12-13% when moving from Medium to High, followed by a 25% drop from High to Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the performance degrades significantly, with Low averaging 90 FPS, Medium at 64 FPS, High at 56 FPS, and Ultra at 42 FPS. The Medium preset maintains a minimum of 54 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target, but the average of 64 FPS is technically playable. High at 4K drops to 56 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and Ultra at 42 FPS is only suitable for screenshots or turn-based play. The 4K data reveals that Low is the only setting that provides a truly comfortable experience, with 90 FPS giving enough headroom for action sequences. The complete absence of min/max data for most settings at 1080p and 4K limits the analysis, but the averages paint a clear picture of a GPU that is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K reserved for lower quality presets.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable pattern that reveals the GPU as the dominant bottleneck. At Low settings, the performance drops from 191 FPS at 1080p to 140 FPS at 1440p, a 27% reduction, and then to 90 FPS at 4K, a further 36% reduction from 1440p. This means that moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings costs 53% of the performance, which is entirely due to the increased pixel count overwhelming the GPU's rasterization capabilities. At Medium settings, the drop is from 135 FPS at 1080p to 99 FPS at 1440p (27% reduction) and then to 64 FPS at 4K (35% reduction from 1440p), totaling a 53% loss from 1080p to 4K. This consistent scaling pattern across Low and Medium suggests that the CPU is not introducing any variable bottlenecks, as the frame rate scales nearly linearly with pixel count.

The High settings show a similar trend, with 118 FPS at 1080p dropping to 87 FPS at 1440p (26% reduction) and then to 56 FPS at 4K (36% reduction), totaling a 53% loss from 1080p to 4K. Ultra settings follow the same pattern: 89 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p (27% reduction), and 42 FPS at 4K (35% reduction), again totaling 53% loss. The uniformity of this scaling across all four settings is a strong indicator that the system is purely GPU-limited at all resolutions, with no measurable CPU bottleneck appearing even at 1080p Low where the frame rate reaches 191 FPS. If the CPU were a limiting factor, we would expect to see a smaller percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p as the GPU load increases, but the data shows no such effect.

This resolution scaling behavior has practical implications for users. The fact that the performance loss from 1080p to 4K is nearly constant at 53% regardless of quality setting means that the GPU is consistently saturated. The Ryzen 7 9700F, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is clearly capable of feeding the RX 6700 XT at all resolutions, as evidenced by the smooth scaling curve. For users considering a 4K monitor, the data suggests that only Low settings will provide a comfortable experience, while 1440p users can enjoy High settings at 87 FPS, which is a good balance. The 1080p experience is excellent across all settings, with even Ultra hitting 89 FPS, making this resolution the sweet spot for this combo.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) and manufactured on a 4 nm process, brings 8 cores and 16 threads to this pairing, a configuration that is more than sufficient for Lockdown Protocol. The CPU's base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz, combined with 32 MB of shared L3 cache, provide the single-thread performance that FPS games often require. The PassMark single-thread score of 4691 and the passmark_find_prime_numbers score of 183 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios. However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor in this game, as the GPU saturates at all resolutions before the CPU's capacity is reached.

The CPU's multithreaded performance is also robust, with a PassMark multithread score of 36470 and an integer math score of 120788, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. This means that even in heavily threaded workloads, the 9700F has ample headroom, but Lockdown Protocol appears to be a lightly threaded title that doesn't fully utilize all 16 threads. The nearest rivals to the 9700F include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (deltaPct 0.2%), Intel Core i7-14700KF (deltaPct -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct 0.7%), and Intel Core i7-14700K (deltaPct 0.9%), all of which have similar average scores. This tight grouping means that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would have a negligible impact on Lockdown Protocol's frame rates, since the GPU is the bottleneck.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth are not directly reflected in the FPS data, but they contribute to a system that runs efficiently without thermal throttling. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes ensures that the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x16 connection is not a bottleneck, allowing the RX 6700 XT to operate at full bandwidth. In terms of the game's results, the CPU's role is to keep the GPU fed with draw calls and physics calculations, and the data shows that it does so effectively up to 191 FPS at 1080p Low. Beyond this point, the GPU's compute limits take over, and the CPU's higher clock speeds would not yield any additional FPS. The conclusion from the data is that the Ryzen 7 9700F is overqualified for this game when paired with the RX 6700 XT, providing a solid foundation that will not cause any CPU-related frame drops or stutters.