Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

Lockdown Protocol, a 2024-released FPS title, exhibits a clear performance hierarchy when paired with the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. The measured data reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions and settings, with the GPU becoming the dominant constraint as pixel count rises. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 305 FPS average, while the same settings at 4K drop to 144 FPS — a 53% reduction that points squarely at the graphics card's workload. This pairing ranks 428th out of 3,714 tested combinations, placing it in the top 11.5% of all configs, a strong result for a desktop setup featuring an 8-core Zen 5 processor and a 12 GB Ada Lovelace GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K tells a story of GPU-bound scaling. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 305 FPS at 1920x1080 to 224 FPS at 2560x1440, then further to 144 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 121 FPS difference between 1080p and 1440p, and an additional 80 FPS drop when moving to 4K. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K at Low is 52.8%, which is substantial but not catastrophic, indicating the RTX 4070 Ti still delivers playable triple-digit frame rates even at maximum resolution.

At High settings, the scaling is steeper relative to the starting point. The combo produces 189 FPS at 1080p, 139 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure represents only 47.6% of the 1080p performance, showing that the gap widens as settings increase. This pattern suggests that the GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, become more taxed at higher resolutions where texture data and shader complexity expand.

The Medium preset shows similar behavior with 217 FPS at 1080p, 159 FPS at 1440p, and 103 FPS at 4K. Interestingly, the Medium 4K result of 103 FPS is only 13 FPS higher than the High 4K result of 90 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns when lowering settings at this resolution. The CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 5 architecture, appears sufficiently fast to feed the GPU even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 300 FPS — the data shows no signs of a CPU bottleneck at any resolution.

Ultra settings present the most demanding scenario. The average FPS drops to 142 at 1080p, 104 at 1440p, and 67 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 67 FPS is the only sub-60 result in the entire measured dataset (though it does not dip below 60), while the 1080p Ultra figure of 142 FPS demonstrates that even at maximum quality, the combo maintains high refresh rate capability at lower resolutions. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 52.8% reduction, nearly identical to the Low setting percentage, which implies the bottleneck is consistently GPU-side rather than CPU-bound.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest recorded average is 305 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This drops to 224 FPS at 2560x1440 and 144 FPS at 3840x2160 under the same settings.

Q: Does the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D bottleneck the RTX 4070 Ti at any resolution?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 305 FPS, and the scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, suggesting the GPU is the limiting factor throughout. The CPU's 5.60 GHz boost clock and 96 MB shared L3 cache provide ample headroom.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti compare to its nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 44,795, which is 0.8% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152) and 1.6% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (44,075). It also trails the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT by 1.3% and the Intel Arc A730M by 1.7%.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 428th out of 3,714 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 11.5% of all configurations. This is based on measured data, not estimates.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with this setup?

A: Yes, the average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 67 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth for FPS games. However, this is the lowest result in the dataset, and players seeking higher headroom may prefer Medium or High settings at 4K.

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

A: The Ryzen 7 9850X3D scores 2,228 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 4,704 in Passmark single-thread. Its average benchmark score of 58,386 is 0.1% higher than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (58,323) and 0.5% higher than the Intel Core i9-14900 (58,115), while trailing the Intel Xeon w5-2545 by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 by 0.7%.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, is the primary driver of frame rates in Lockdown Protocol. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for 4K textures but becomes a limiting factor when combined with Ultra settings. The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz, up from a base of 2310 MHz, helps push the 7,680 shading units to achieve 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's workload increasing with resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 305 FPS, but at 4K Low it falls to 144 FPS — a drop that cannot be attributed to the CPU given its 96 MB L3 cache and 5.60 GHz boost capability. The RTX 4070 Ti's 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present but not directly highlighted in the game's measured results; however, their presence on the AD104 chip (with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die) indicates hardware-level support for advanced rendering features.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 84 vs all GPUs places it above most discrete cards, and its average benchmark score of 44,795 is within 0.8% of the RTX 5090 Mobile — a laptop part that draws similar performance despite different thermal constraints. The 285 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest this is a power-hungry card, but the data shows it delivers consistent results across the 12 measured FPS rows. The memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) contributes to the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, which is likely why the 4K High result of 90 FPS remains playable despite the heavy pixel load.

Interestingly, the GPU's predecessor is the GeForce 30 series and its successor is the GeForce 50 series, but the 4070 Ti's performance in Lockdown Protocol is strong enough to keep it competitive — the 4K Ultra result of 67 FPS is notable for a card with 12 GB of VRAM, suggesting the game's memory footprint at 4K Ultra stays within this capacity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks 428th out of 3,714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 88.5th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong showing, though not a top-tier result — the rank implies that 427 combos achieve higher average FPS, likely featuring more powerful GPUs like the RTX 4090 or newer 50-series cards.

The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 92, meaning it outperforms 92% of processors in general benchmarks, while the GPU's percentile vs all GPUs is 84. The combo rank of 428/3714 (top 11.5%) is slightly lower than what the individual percentiles might suggest, which could indicate that Lockdown Protocol is more GPU-bound than CPU-bound — the CPU's strength is not fully utilized if the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Within the nearest rival context, the CPU's average benchmark score of 58,386 is nearly identical to the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (58,323, delta 0.1%) and the Intel Core i9-14900 (58,115, delta 0.5%). This means the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is not uniquely positioned among desktop CPUs in raw compute, but its 3D V-Cache (96 MB L3) likely helps in gaming-specific workloads, even if the benchmark scores do not fully capture that advantage. The GPU's nearest rivals include the RTX 5090 Mobile (-0.8% delta), which is a laptop part, and the RTX A6000 (+1.6% delta), a workstation card — both of which are less common in gaming builds.

The rank of 428 out of 3,714 is a single data point, but it contextualizes the measured FPS: this combo sits in the upper decile of all tested systems, and the measured FPS values reflect that positioning. For a 2026-release CPU paired with an end-of-life GPU (the 4070 Ti's production status is listed as end-of-life), the combo still holds its own in this 2024 game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge codename) manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock of 4.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz, combined with a 96 MB shared L3 cache, make it a formidable gaming CPU. The Passmark multithread score of 41,318 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22,807 indicate strong parallel performance, while the single-thread scores (2,228 Cinebench R23, 4,704 Passmark) show excellent per-core capability.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears to be feeding the GPU efficiently. The fact that the combo achieves 305 FPS at 1080p Low without any apparent bottleneck reflects the CPU's single-thread performance — many CPUs would struggle to maintain frame rates above 300 FPS in a modern FPS. The 5.60 GHz boost clock and 80 KB L1 cache per core (with 1 MB L2 per core) provide low-latency access to frequently used data, which is critical in fast-paced shooting games where frame times must remain consistent.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 58,386 places it at the 92nd percentile vs all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (delta 0.1%) and the Intel Core i9-14900 (delta 0.5%). While the Ryzen 7 9850X3D does not dramatically outperform these rivals in synthetic benchmarks, its 96 MB of L3 cache is a unique feature that likely benefits gaming workloads — though the measured FPS data does not isolate this effect, the absence of any CPU-bound frame rate caps across all 12 rows suggests the cache is doing its job.

The TDP of 120 W (with a 4 nm process and 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die) indicates high efficiency, and the 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth on dual-channel DDR5 is sufficient for this game. The CPU's release date of 2026-01-28 makes it a newer part than the GPU (released 2023-01-02), and its launch MSRP of $499 positions it as a premium desktop processor, though pricing is not a factor in the performance analysis.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides 12 measured FPS rows, each representing a combination of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 305 FPS, Medium 217 FPS (with a min of 184 and max of 249), High 189 FPS, and Ultra 142 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 88 FPS, while Medium to High is 28 FPS, and High to Ultra is 47 FPS — the largest drop occurs when moving from Low to Medium, suggesting that Medium introduces significant graphical effects.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 224 FPS, Medium 159 FPS (min 135, max 183), High 139 FPS, and Ultra 104 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is: Low -81 FPS (26.6% drop), Medium -58 FPS (26.7% drop), High -50 FPS (26.5% drop), and Ultra -38 FPS (26.8% drop). This consistency across settings indicates that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of quality preset, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

At 3840x2160, Low yields 144 FPS, Medium 103 FPS (min 87, max 118), High 90 FPS, and Ultra 67 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is: Low -80 FPS (35.7% drop), Medium -56 FPS (35.2% drop), High -49 FPS (35.3% drop), and Ultra -37 FPS (35.6% drop). Again, the percentage drops are nearly identical across settings, which suggests that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints at 4K, regardless of quality level.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max FPS data across all resolutions: at 1080p it ranges from 184 to 249, at 1440p from 135 to 183, and at 4K from 87 to 118. The FPS spread (max minus min) is 65 at 1080p, 48 at 1440p, and 31 at 4K — the tighter range at 4K indicates that the GPU is consistently saturated, whereas at 1080p there is more variation, possibly due to CPU-side frame time fluctuations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal setting depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p users, the High preset at 189 FPS average is the sweet spot for 144 Hz monitors, while Ultra at 142 FPS still exceeds 120 Hz and is viable for high-refresh displays. The Low preset at 305 FPS is overkill for most monitors but demonstrates headroom for competitive play; however, the visual quality trade-off is likely not worth it unless chasing maximum frame rates.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 139 FPS average, which is ideal for 144 Hz displays. The Medium preset at 159 FPS provides additional headroom (with a min of 135 FPS, ensuring no drops below 120 FPS), making it the best choice for competitive players who want both quality and performance. Ultra at 104 FPS is still playable but may cause noticeable frame drops in intense firefights, so it is only recommended for single-player or less demanding modes.

For 4K, the Low preset at 144 FPS is surprisingly strong and offers the best balance of quality and performance — the data shows that even at Low settings, the game remains visually acceptable while maintaining high frame rates. Medium at 103 FPS (min 87 FPS) is the recommended choice for a stable 90 FPS experience, as the min FPS of 87 ensures no dips below 85 FPS. High at 90 FPS is borderline for 60 Hz displays but may feel less smooth on 120 Hz panels. Ultra at 67 FPS is the most demanding but still exceeds 60 FPS, making it viable for players who prioritize visuals over frame rate.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the most consistent choice across all resolutions, as it is the only preset with min/max data that shows FPS stability within a reasonable range. At 4K Medium, the 87 FPS minimum ensures the experience stays above 85 FPS, which is a solid threshold for a 90 Hz or 100 Hz monitor. For the best overall experience, 1440p Medium is the recommended default, as it balances visual fidelity with a 159 FPS average and a 135 FPS minimum — the latter ensures no drops below 135 FPS, which is ideal for 144 Hz displays.