Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

This combo pairs AMD's 8-core Ryzen 7 9850X3D with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, a 24 GB RDNA 3.0 flagship. The data shows a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, with the 1080p Low result of 304 FPS indicating a strong CPU-side ceiling, while the 4K Ultra figure of 67 FPS reveals where the GPU workload becomes the primary constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent drop as resolution increases, which is typical for a high-end CPU and GPU pairing. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 304 at 1920x1080, down to 223 at 2560x1440, and finally to 144 at 3840x2160. That represents a 26.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 35.4% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 52.6%, meaning the 4K result is less than half the 1080p result.

At High settings, the pattern is similar but with a smaller relative drop. The 1080p High average is 188 FPS, 1440p High is 138 FPS, and 4K High is 89 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 26.6%, and from 1440p to 4K is 35.5%. Interestingly, the percentage drops are nearly identical between Low and High settings, which suggests that the scaling is driven primarily by resolution rather than by the complexity of the settings preset.

Ultra settings tell a different story. The 1080p Ultra average of 141 FPS drops to 103 FPS at 1440p, a 27.0% reduction, and then to 67 FPS at 4K, a 35.0% reduction. While the relative drops are similar, the absolute numbers are much lower. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 77 FPS (144 vs 67), while at 1080p it is 163 FPS (304 vs 141). This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, compressing the range of achievable frame rates across settings.

The Medium preset provides the only measured minimum and maximum FPS values in the dataset. At 1080p Medium, the average is 216 FPS with a min of 183 and max of 248. At 1440p Medium, the average is 158 FPS with a min of 134 and max of 182. At 4K Medium, the average is 102 FPS with a min of 87 and max of 117. The spread between min and max FPS stays relatively consistent across resolutions, around 65-68 FPS, which suggests that frame pacing issues are not resolution-dependent.

The data indicates that this system is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where even Ultra settings produce a 103 FPS average. At 4K, the user will need to choose between High settings at 89 FPS or Medium at 102 FPS, with Ultra requiring a drop to 67 FPS. The 1080p results are exceptionally high, with every preset except Ultra exceeding 188 FPS, making this a strong setup for high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a Zen 5 architecture processor on the AMD Socket AM5 platform, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The L3 cache is 96 MB shared, which is a substantial amount for gaming workloads. The CPU also features 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22807 and a single-core score of 2228. The PassMark multithread score is 41318, with a single-thread score of 4704. The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 92, placing it in the top 8% of all processors tested. The average benchmark score is 58386, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M at 58323 (0.1% higher), the Intel Xeon w5-2545 at 58504 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core i9-14900 at 58115 (0.5% higher), and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 at 58826 (0.7% lower).

For Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's high single-thread performance is likely the key contributor to the 304 FPS result at 1080p Low. At this resolution and settings combination, the GPU is not heavily taxed, so the frame rate is likely limited by the CPU's ability to feed draw calls and game logic. The boost clock of 5.60 GHz, combined with the large 96 MB L3 cache, should help maintain high minimum frame rates in scenes with many entities or complex physics.

The PassMark data compression score of 474501 and data encryption score of 22856 are not directly relevant to gaming but indicate strong general-purpose performance. The CPU's TDP of 120 W, while not a direct performance metric, suggests that it can sustain high clocks under load without requiring extreme cooling solutions. The CPU is unlocked, meaning users can adjust multipliers, though the stock boost clock of 5.60 GHz is already high.

The 8-core, 16-thread configuration is well-suited for modern FPS titles that can use multiple threads for rendering tasks, AI, and physics. However, the data shows that at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 67 FPS, which is far below the 1080p Low result. This indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions; instead, the GPU workload dominates. The CPU's performance is consistent across settings at each resolution, with the 1080p Low to Ultra spread being 163 FPS, while the 4K Low to Ultra spread is only 77 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, codenamed Plum Bonito, with the Navi 31 chip built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, along with 96 ray tracing cores. The GPU has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, with a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The base clock is 1929 MHz, with a boost clock of 2498 MHz and a game clock of 2365 MHz.

The GPU's memory configuration is substantial for a gaming card, with 24 GB being far more than typical for 1080p or 1440p gaming. This suggests that the card is designed for high-resolution textures and future-proofing, though the measured FPS data does not explicitly show VRAM usage. The pixel rate is 479.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 959.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 50465, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 85612. The PassMark G3D score is 31238, with a PassMark GPU compute score of 17689. The GPU's percentile vs all GPUs is 64, meaning it outperforms 64% of all GPUs tested. The average benchmark score is 19410, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB at 19334 (0.4% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 at 19602 (1.0% lower), the AMD FirePro D300 at 19637 (1.2% lower), and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp at 19177 (1.2% higher).

The GPU's role in Lockdown Protocol becomes evident when examining the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the 4K result of 144 FPS is 52.6% lower than the 1080p result of 304 FPS. This drop is largely due to the increased pixel count, which directly impacts the GPU's fill rate and shading workload. The 24 GB VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any resolution in this game, as even 4K Ultra settings typically use less than 24 GB.

The boost clock of 2498 MHz and the game clock of 2365 MHz indicate that the GPU can maintain high clocks under gaming loads. The 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is ample for the 384-bit bus, providing the data throughput needed for high-resolution textures and effects. The GPU's TDP of 355 W is high, but the card is dual-slot with two 8-pin power connectors, suggesting it is designed for high-performance systems.

The data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 67. At 1080p Low, the GPU is not the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 304 FPS result. The GPU's performance scales consistently with settings at each resolution, with the 1080p Low to Ultra spread being 163 FPS, while the 4K spread is only 77 FPS. This indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU and GPU work together more closely, while at 4K, the GPU's shading workload becomes dominant.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all settings. The Low preset averages 304 FPS, Medium averages 216 FPS (with a min of 183 and max of 248), High averages 188 FPS, and Ultra averages 141 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 163 FPS, which is substantial. Even at Ultra, the 141 FPS result is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of many monitors, making this resolution ideal for competitive play with maximum settings.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 223 FPS for Low, 158 FPS for Medium (min 134, max 182), 138 FPS for High, and 103 FPS for Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 120 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p. The Ultra result of 103 FPS is still very playable, and the High result of 138 FPS is suitable for 144 Hz monitors. This resolution appears to be the sweet spot for this combo, balancing visual quality with high frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 144 FPS for Low, 102 FPS for Medium (min 87, max 117), 89 FPS for High, and 67 FPS for Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 77 FPS, which is the narrowest of the three resolutions. The Ultra result of 67 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold by a small margin, making it playable but not ideal for fast-paced FPS gameplay. The High setting at 89 FPS offers a better balance, while Medium at 102 FPS is the most competitive option for 4K.

The Medium preset is the only one with measured min and max FPS values. At 1080p, the min is 183 and max is 248, giving a range of 65 FPS. At 1440p, the min is 134 and max is 182, a range of 48 FPS. At 4K, the min is 87 and max is 117, a range of 30 FPS. This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU workload becomes more consistent, reducing frame time variance.

The data shows that the Low preset provides the highest frame rates at every resolution, but the relative benefit of Low over Medium decreases as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low is 40.7% faster than Medium, while at 4K, Low is 41.2% faster. This consistency indicates that the settings preset affects the GPU workload uniformly across resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for this specific CPU and GPU pairing in Lockdown Protocol is 313 out of 2828 tested combinations. This places it in the top 11.1% of all combos tested for this game. The rank of 313 is notable given the high-performance components involved, but the data suggests that there are many combinations that perform better in this specific title.

The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs of 92 indicates that the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a top-tier processor, but the GPU's percentile vs all GPUs of 64 is lower than expected for a flagship card. This discrepancy may explain why the combo rank is not higher. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include older or lower-tier cards like the GTX 1060 3 GB and the Quadro K5200, which suggests that the 7900 XTX's raw benchmark scores are not exceptional relative to its class.

The combo rank of 313 out of 2828 means that 2515 other combinations performed better in this game. This is a surprising result for a system with such high-end components. The CPU's strong synthetic scores (Cinebench R23 multicore of 22807 and single-core of 2228) do not translate into a top-tier gaming rank for this title. This could indicate that Lockdown Protocol is not heavily CPU-bound, or that the game favors different hardware configurations.

The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 31238 is respectable, but the percentile of 64 shows that many other GPUs outperform it in synthetic tests. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841 is a modern benchmark, but the relative performance in Lockdown Protocol may differ. The data shows that the combo rank is in the top 11.1%, which is still a strong result, but it does not place the system in the elite tier of performance for this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 offers the best balance, with High settings achieving 138 FPS and Ultra achieving 103 FPS. At 1080p, the frame rates are higher (188 FPS High, 141 FPS Ultra), but the visual quality is lower. At 4K, the frame rates drop to 89 FPS High and 67 FPS Ultra, which may be too low for competitive play.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance at 1080p Low?

A: At 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS is 304, which is the highest measured result in the dataset. This indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high frame rates. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's boost clock of 5.60 GHz and 96 MB L3 cache likely contribute to this result.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with this setup?

A: The 4K Ultra average is 67 FPS, which is above 60 FPS but below the 144 FPS threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors. This is playable for most users, but the 4K Medium setting at 102 FPS offers a smoother experience if frame rate is a priority.

Q: How does the GPU's VRAM affect performance?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The data does not show VRAM usage, but the large capacity means that VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any resolution or settings preset in this game.

Q: What is the FPS range at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the FPS ranges from 183 to 248, with an average of 216. At 1440p Medium, the range is 134 to 182, with an average of 158. At 4K Medium, the range is 87 to 117, with an average of 102.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 313 out of 2828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 11.1%. This is a strong result, but the GPU's percentile of 64 suggests that other GPUs may offer better performance in this specific title.