Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers a dominant performance profile in Lockdown Protocol, placing this combination in the 92nd percentile of all 1,637 tested system configurations. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and presets indicate a system that is exceptionally well-balanced for this FPS title, with the data showing that the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, while the CPU’s 8-core, 16-thread Zen 5 architecture provides ample headroom to avoid bottlenecking even at high refresh rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured performance data clearly indicates that the High preset offers the most compelling balance between visual fidelity and frame rate for this combination. At 1080p, the High preset delivers an average of 202.3 FPS, which is more than sufficient for competitive play on high-refresh-rate monitors. The transition to 1440p High yields 149.6 FPS, still comfortably above the 144 Hz threshold, while 4K High maintains a playable 96.9 FPS average. This consistency across resolutions makes High the recommended starting point for most users.

For users prioritizing maximum competitive advantage, the Low preset at 1080p produces an exceptional 333.6 FPS average, with 1440p Low still hitting 246 FPS and 4K Low reaching 157.9 FPS. These figures suggest that the Low preset removes nearly all GPU-related constraints, allowing the Ryzen 7 9700X to push frame rates to their practical limits. However, the jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs only 36.6 FPS (from 238.9 to 202.3), while the visual improvements are typically substantial. The Medium preset at 1440p (172.7 FPS) and 4K (112.7 FPS) represents a reasonable middle ground, but the data shows that High provides better image quality with only a 13.4% performance penalty at 1440p and a 14.1% penalty at 4K.

The Ultra preset demonstrates the steepest performance cost, dropping to 154.1 FPS at 1080p, 111.5 FPS at 1440p, and 72.9 FPS at 4K. While the 4K Ultra figure remains playable, the 24.8% reduction from High at 4K suggests diminishing returns for the extra graphical settings. Based on the measured rows, the High preset at 1440p delivers the best overall experience, offering a 149.6 FPS average that balances visual quality with the headroom needed for consistent frame pacing in fast-paced firefights.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER’s role in this configuration is defined by its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory subsystem is critical for Lockdown Protocol’s texture streaming at higher resolutions, and the data reflects this: the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a predictable GPU-bound pattern across all presets. The GPU’s boost clock of 2550 MHz, combined with 10,240 shading units and 80 RT cores, enables the substantial frame rates observed, but the architecture’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the primary driver of raw rasterization performance.

The VRAM capacity proves sufficient across all tested configurations, as no preset or resolution combination shows evidence of memory capacity limiting performance. The 736.3 GB/s bandwidth, however, becomes increasingly relevant at 4K, where the average FPS drops from 202.3 (1080p High) to 96.9 (4K High), a 52.1% reduction. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting component at higher resolutions, with the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth being fully utilized. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 88 against all GPUs, with nearest rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (0.2% delta) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (2.9% delta), contextualizes its position as a high-end but not flagship-class solution for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best 4K preset for this CPU/GPU combination?

A: The High preset at 3840x2160 achieves 96.9 FPS average, which is the highest playable 4K configuration. The Ultra preset drops to 72.9 FPS, a 24.8% reduction, while the Medium preset offers 112.7 FPS. High provides the best balance for 4K gaming.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 333.6 FPS while Ultra averages 154.1 FPS. This represents a 53.8% performance reduction for the highest visual settings, making Ultra a significant trade-off at 1080p.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p?

A: The data shows a 39.2% frame rate drop from 1080p High (202.3 FPS) to 1440p High (149.6 FPS), indicating the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. The Ryzen 7 9700X’s strong single-thread score of 1280 in 3DMark supports this interpretation.

Q: What frame rate can users expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 172.7 FPS. This is 15.4% higher than High settings at the same resolution, making Medium a viable option for users targeting 165 Hz displays.

Q: How does this combination rank against other tested systems in Lockdown Protocol?

A: This specific configuration ranks 92nd out of 1,637 tested combinations, placing it in the top 5.6% of all systems benchmarked for this game.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM capacity limit performance at 4K?

A: No, the measured data shows no indication of VRAM capacity bottlenecking. The 4K High preset maintains 96.9 FPS, and the scaling from Medium (112.7 FPS) to High (96.9 FPS) follows the expected compute-bound pattern rather than a memory capacity cliff.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination holds rank 92 out of 1,637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 94.4th percentile of all configurations evaluated. This ranking is particularly strong given the CPU’s overall percentile of 89 among all processors and the GPU’s 88th percentile among all graphics cards. The synergy between the two components is evident: the system outperforms what either component’s individual percentile might suggest, indicating that Lockdown Protocol’s workload is well-matched to this architecture pairing.

The CPU’s nearest rivals provide context for its contribution. The Intel Core i5-14500HX scores nearly identically (0.2% delta) in average benchmark scores, while the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H trails by 0.4%. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 is 0.6% ahead, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225H is 0.8% behind. These marginal deltas suggest the Ryzen 7 9700X’s performance is tightly clustered with other high-end mobile and desktop parts, making the GPU the differentiating factor in this combo’s ranking.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4080 SUPER’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (0.2% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (0.4% delta), with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 2.9% behind. The tight grouping at the top of the GPU benchmark chart reinforces that the combo’s strong rank is driven by the GPU’s high absolute performance rather than an unusually favorable pairing. The measured FPS data supports this: at 4K Ultra, the system still delivers 72.9 FPS, which is playable, while the 1080p Low result of 333.6 FPS demonstrates the GPU’s ability to feed high-refresh-rate displays without CPU limitation.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear GPU-bound profile. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 202.3 at 1920x1080 to 149.6 at 2560x1440 (a 26.1% reduction) and further to 96.9 at 3840x2160 (a 52.1% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU that has substantial compute resources but is ultimately limited by memory bandwidth and rasterization throughput as pixel count increases. The 1080p to 1440p drop of 52.7 FPS is proportionally similar to the 1440p to 4K drop of 52.7 FPS, suggesting linear scaling with pixel count.

The Low preset exhibits the most dramatic scaling: 333.6 FPS at 1080p, 246 FPS at 1440p, and 157.9 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p reduction of 26.3% and the 1440p to 4K reduction of 35.8% indicate that even at Low settings, the GPU becomes increasingly constrained at higher resolutions. This behavior confirms that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting component across all settings, as the Ryzen 7 9700X’s 8-core/16-thread configuration with a 5.50 GHz boost clock provides sufficient single-thread performance to feed the GPU at 1080p, where the 333.6 FPS Low result approaches the practical limits of the GPU’s rendering pipeline.

The Ultra preset’s scaling is steeper: 154.1 FPS at 1080p, 111.5 FPS at 1440p (27.6% drop), and 72.9 FPS at 4K (52.7% drop from 1080p). The consistent ~50% reduction from 1080p to 4K across all presets—52.1% for High, 52.7% for Ultra, and 52.7% for Low—indicates that the GPU’s compute and memory resources scale predictably with resolution, with no sudden cliff indicative of VRAM capacity exhaustion or CPU bottlenecking. This data suggests that users targeting 4K should accept the High preset as the optimal ceiling, while 1080p users can exploit the full range of presets without concern for CPU-induced frame rate caps.