Lockdown Protocol

# FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X perform in synthetic multi-threaded benchmarks?

A: The processor scores 20,485 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 17,906 in Geekbench multi-core. Its average benchmark score of 37,943 places it in the 86th percentile of all CPUs, putting it just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i9-14901E and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

Q: What is the Intel Arc B370's GPU benchmark standing?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1,184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. This puts it within 0.2% of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and 0.5% of the ATI Radeon HD 5770, indicating it sits at the very low end of the performance spectrum.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700X's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread results?

A: The CPU achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 1,280 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,211. Its multithreaded results scale substantially, with the 3DMark max-threads score of 9,771 representing roughly 7.6 times the single-thread figure, showing strong scaling across its 8 cores and 16 threads.

Q: What is the best playable configuration for Lockdown Protocol at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system delivers 80 FPS average. Medium settings yield 57 FPS, High drops to 49 FPS, and Ultra falls to 37 FPS. The Low preset is the only configuration that clears the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the Ryzen 7 9700X's cache configuration benefit gaming workloads?

A: The processor features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. This 32 MB shared pool is notable for a desktop chip in this class, though the measured data for Lockdown Protocol shows the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the Arc B370's memory architecture affect performance?

A: The GPU uses System Shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth, meaning it relies on the host system's DDR5 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This shared memory approach, combined with its 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 48.00 GPixel/s pixel rate, explains its modest gaming results.

# GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, and its memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with no dedicated VRAM. This means the GPU draws from the same DDR5 pool as the CPU, and memory bandwidth is system-dependent rather than fixed. The GPU's 1,184 score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, a figure that aligns with its nearest rivals: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 at 1,186 (0.2% behind) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 at 1,190 (0.5% behind). This is not a component designed for high-end gaming; it is a low-power integrated part with a 25 W TDP.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's limitations become immediately apparent in the measured FPS data. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system manages 80 FPS, but this drops to 57 FPS at Medium, 49 FPS at High, and 37 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 53.75% performance reduction, which is a direct consequence of the GPU's modest shading power — 1,280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs. The GPU's 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 96.00 GTexel/s texture rate are simply not enough to sustain high frame rates at elevated settings. The pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s further constrains fill-rate-bound scenarios, which are common in FPS titles with particle effects and dynamic lighting.

The Arc B370's boost clock of 2400 MHz is respectable for an integrated part, but the architecture's overall throughput is the bottleneck. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so it is feature-complete for modern APIs, but the raw execution resources are sparse. The 10 ray tracing cores are present, but in a GPU with this little compute power, ray-traced workloads would be severely constrained. For Lockdown Protocol, the data shows that the GPU is the limiting component at every resolution except possibly the lowest settings at 1080p, where the CPU's strength can partially compensate.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which points directly to the GPU as the primary bottleneck in this configuration. Starting at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 80 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops performance to 58 FPS, a 27.5% reduction. At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields only 38 FPS, which is a 52.5% drop from the 1080p result. This scaling curve is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where increasing pixel count directly taxes the rasterization and shading units.

The trend holds across all settings presets. At Medium settings, the 1080p average of 57 FPS falls to 42 FPS at 1440p (26.3% drop) and then to 27 FPS at 4K (52.6% drop from 1080p). High settings show 49 FPS at 1080p, 36 FPS at 1440p (26.5% drop), and 23 FPS at 4K (53.1% drop). Ultra settings produce 37 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p (27.0% drop), and 18 FPS at 4K (51.4% drop from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops — all hovering around 26-27% for 1080p to 1440p and 51-53% for 1080p to 4K — is a textbook sign of a GPU-limited scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the resolution scaling would be much flatter, since the CPU's workload is largely independent of pixel count.

The 4K results are particularly telling. Even at Low settings, the system only manages 38 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 4K produces just 18 FPS, which is borderline unplayable. The data indicates that the Arc B370 simply does not have the fill rate or shading throughput to handle 3840x2160 resolutions in Lockdown Protocol, regardless of how much the CPU is capable of. The Ryzen 7 9700X, with its 16 threads and 5.50 GHz boost clock, is more than capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, but at 4K, the GPU's 20 ROPs and 96.00 GTexel/s texture rate become insurmountable barriers.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p): The best performance comes from the Low preset, which delivers an average of 80 FPS. This is the only 1080p setting that achieves a playable 60+ FPS experience. Medium settings produce 57 FPS average, with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 65 FPS, showing noticeable frame variability. High settings drop to 49 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 37 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 43 FPS, meaning the Ultra preset costs 53.75% of the Low preset's frame rate. For players who prioritize smoothness, Low is the only viable option at this resolution.

2560x1440 (1440p): At this resolution, the Low preset delivers 58 FPS average, which is close to the 60 FPS target but not quite there. Medium settings yield 42 FPS average, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS. High settings produce 36 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 27 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1440p shows a 53.4% performance loss. None of the presets achieve a consistent 60 FPS experience, and even the Low preset's 58 FPS average suggests that frame drops below 60 are likely in demanding scenes.

3840x2160 (4K): The results at 4K are uniformly poor. The Low preset manages 38 FPS average, Medium produces 27 FPS (with a minimum of 23 FPS and a maximum of 31 FPS), High drops to 23 FPS, and Ultra falls to 18 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 20 FPS, a 52.6% reduction. Even the lowest settings cannot sustain a playable frame rate at this resolution. The Medium preset's frame range of 23-31 FPS shows that the system is operating at the edge of its capabilities, with no headroom for complex scenes.

The overall pattern across all resolutions is consistent: the Low preset provides roughly 1.4 to 1.7 times the frame rate of the Ultra preset, and the absolute performance levels are low across the board. The combo rank of 2,611 out of 2,828 in Lockdown Protocol places this system in the bottom 7.7% of all tested configurations for this game, confirming that the combination of this CPU and GPU is not well-suited for this title.

# Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset for Lockdown Protocol depends heavily on the resolution and the player's tolerance for frame rate dips. At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only configuration that delivers a 60+ FPS experience, with an average of 80 FPS. This is the recommended choice for competitive play, as the higher presets all fall below the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset's 57 FPS average is close, but the minimum of 48 FPS indicates that significant stutters will occur during intense action sequences. High and Ultra at 1080p are not recommended, as their 49 FPS and 37 FPS averages, respectively, put the gameplay in a range where responsiveness and visual smoothness both suffer.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is again the best option, producing 58 FPS average. While this is slightly below the 60 FPS target, it is the closest any preset comes at this resolution. The Medium preset's 42 FPS average and 35 FPS minimum make it a less attractive choice, as the frame rate dips into the 30s during demanding moments. High and Ultra at 1440p, with their 36 FPS and 27 FPS averages, are not viable for a smooth experience. Players at this resolution should accept the Low preset's visual compromises to maintain reasonable frame rates.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets achieve a playable experience. The Low preset's 38 FPS average is the best available, but it is well below the 60 FPS target and would feel sluggish in a fast-paced FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra at 4K produce 27 FPS, 23 FPS, and 18 FPS, respectively, all of which are in the territory of slideshow-like gameplay. The data suggests that 4K is not a viable resolution for this configuration in Lockdown Protocol. Players with a 4K display should either drop the resolution to 1440p or 1080p or consider a different GPU.

The overarching recommendation is to use the Low preset at 1080p for the best balance of frame rate and playability. For players who want slightly better visuals, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a 57 FPS average, but the frame pacing will be less consistent. In all cases, the Ultra preset should be avoided, as it provides the worst performance-to-visual tradeoff in this configuration.

# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, built on TSMC's 4 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's benchmark results show strong performance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20,485 and a single-core score of 2,211, a Geekbench multi-core score of 17,906 and a single-core score of 3,023, and a 3DMark max-threads score of 9,771. Its average benchmark score of 37,943 places it in the 86th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i9-14901E (0.1% ahead) and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (0.1% ahead). The CPU also scores 37,161 in PassMark's multithread test and 4,654 in PassMark's single-thread test, showing balanced performance across different workloads.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, physics calculations, and game logic. The 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample parallel processing capability, and the 5.50 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for FPS games that often rely on a primary game thread. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, and its dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth provides sufficient data throughput for most scenarios. The CPU's benchmarks show that it is far more capable than the GPU in this system, and the measured FPS data confirms this — the frame rates are consistently low across all settings, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor.

However, there is a nuance in the data. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 80 FPS, which is closer to what the CPU can deliver. At higher resolutions, the GPU bottleneck becomes more pronounced, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops. The CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 9,824 and 8-thread score of 8,184 show that it scales well with thread count, and its PassMark integer math score of 120,142 and floating-point math score of 78,999 suggest strong computational throughput for physics and game logic. In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution above 1080p Low, and even at 1080p Low, the system is likely approaching the CPU's limit for this particular title. The data shows that this is a severely GPU-limited configuration, and the Ryzen 7 9700X's capabilities are largely untapped in this game.