Lockdown Protocol

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers exceptional performance in Lockdown Protocol, ranking in the top 1% of all tested combinations. Across all resolutions, the combo demonstrates a clear dominance at 1080p, where the high refresh rate potential of the CPU is fully realized, while 4K Ultra settings still produce a highly playable average of 88 FPS. The data indicates a system that scales predictably with settings, though the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at 4K as expected.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Lockdown Protocol?*

A: This combo ranks 12th out of 3,714 tested combinations, placing it in the top 0.3% of all systems benchmarked for this game.

Q: How does the CPU's single-threaded performance compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X scores 1,280 in 3DMark single-thread and 2,211 in Cinebench R23 single-core. Its average benchmark score of 37,943 places it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i9-14901E and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core 5 211E.

Q: What is the maximum FPS observed at 1080p with this configuration?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 365 at 1080p with Low settings. At the more common Medium preset, the average is 285 FPS, with a minimum of 243 and maximum of 328 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D have enough VRAM for this game?

A: Yes, the GPU is equipped with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for Lockdown Protocol at any resolution or setting level.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants by 2.1% and 2.4%, respectively.

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 249 at 1080p to 183 at 1440p, and further to 118 at 4K. This represents a 52.6% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the undisputed performance driver in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, ensures that frame buffers are never a constraint in Lockdown Protocol. The GPU's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with 21,760 shading units, deliver a raw FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS. This compute capacity directly translates into the high fill rates observed in the benchmark data.

At 4K resolution, the GPU's role becomes even more pronounced. The data shows that moving from Medium to Ultra settings at 4K reduces the average FPS from 135 to 88, a 34.8% performance penalty. This scaling indicates that the RTX 5090 D is the primary bottleneck at this resolution, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU. The GPU's 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores also suggest it is well-prepared for any future ray-traced or DLSS-enhanced updates to the game, though the current data does not include such workloads.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712, confirms its elite status. However, its nearest rivals in the database—the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and RX 6850M XT—are surprisingly close in aggregate score, with deltas of 1.1% and -1.6% respectively. This suggests that while the RTX 5090 D excels in synthetic tests, its real-world advantage in Lockdown Protocol is driven by its massive memory bandwidth and shading throughput rather than a dominant lead in every metric.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 3,714 tested combinations, this pairing of the Ryzen 7 9700X and RTX 5090 D achieves a rank of 12th. This places the system in the 99.7th percentile of all tested configurations, indicating that only 11 other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher average frame rates in Lockdown Protocol. The rank reflects a balanced system where neither component is severely holding back the other, though the analysis below shows the GPU takes over as the limiting factor at 4K.

The combo's ranking is particularly impressive given that the CPU's average benchmark score of 37,943 places it in the 86th percentile among all CPUs. This suggests that the CPU is not the top-tier part in the database, yet the overall system still ranks near the very top. The data implies that Lockdown Protocol is highly sensitive to GPU throughput, and the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB frame buffer and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to keep the system at the forefront. The 12th-place rank reflects the GPU's ability to scale efficiently with the CPU's 8-core, 16-thread Zen 5 architecture.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combination produces outstanding results across all settings. The Low preset yields an average of 365 FPS, while Medium drops to 285 FPS (with a minimum of 243 and maximum of 328). High settings average 249 FPS, and Ultra still maintains a high 187 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is almost entirely CPU-limited, as even the most demanding settings fail to push the average below 180 FPS.

Moving to 1440p, the performance remains impressive but shows the GPU beginning to assert its influence. Low settings average 295 FPS, Medium averages 209 FPS (with a minimum of 178 and maximum of 241), and High averages 183 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 137 FPS, representing a 26.7% reduction from the High preset. This scaling demonstrates that the RTX 5090 D can handle 1440p with ease, though the gap between settings widens compared to 1080p.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings average 190 FPS, but Medium drops to 135 FPS (with a minimum of 115 and maximum of 155). High settings average 118 FPS, and Ultra falls to 88 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is still highly playable for a fast-paced FPS, but the 52.6% drop from 1080p High to 4K High highlights the resolution's demands on the GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of compute power.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a predictable pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 249 to 183, a 26.5% decrease. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average drops from 183 to 118, a further 35.5% decrease. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 52.6%, which is consistent with a system where the GPU is increasingly the bottleneck.

The scaling at Low settings is even more pronounced. At 1080p Low, the average is 365 FPS; at 1440p Low, it drops to 295 FPS (19.2% decrease); and at 4K Low, it falls to 190 FPS (35.6% decrease from 1440p). The larger percentage drops at lower settings indicate that the CPU can no longer hide the GPU's workload at 4K, even on the least demanding preset. The RTX 5090 D's 32 GB VRAM is not the issue; rather, the pixel throughput required at 3840x2160 overwhelms the GPU's 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate.

The limiting component shifts definitively to the GPU at 4K. The CPU's 3.80 GHz base and 5.50 GHz boost clocks, combined with its 32 MB of L3 cache, are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. However, at 4K, the GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance becomes the ceiling, as evidenced by the 88 FPS average at Ultra settings. This is a classic GPU-bound scenario where the system's frame rate is determined by the graphics card's raw throughput rather than the CPU's instruction processing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X provides a robust foundation for this high-performance GPU. Its 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 5 (Granite Ridge) architecture, offer a balanced mix of single-thread and multi-thread performance. The CPU's boost clock of 5.50 GHz is critical for Lockdown Protocol, a game that appears to favor high single-core throughput, as evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 1,280 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,211.

The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core help reduce memory latency, which is essential for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios. The 89.6 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth further supports the CPU's ability to feed data to the GPU without becoming a bottleneck. The CPU's average benchmark score of 37,943 places it in the 86th percentile, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-14901E, is only 0.1% behind, indicating that the 9700X is competitive but not dominant in raw compute.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the system achieves 365 FPS at Low settings. This suggests the CPU can drive frame rates well beyond what most displays can show, and it is only at 4K Ultra that the GPU's 88 FPS average reveals the true constraint. The 65W TDP of the 9700X is remarkably efficient for this level of performance, though the data does not include power consumption measurements for the game itself. The CPU's 4 nm process node and 8,315 million transistors enable this efficiency, making it an ideal partner for the RTX 5090 D's power-hungry 575W TDP.