Lockdown Protocol

FAQ

Q: What is the measured performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and AMD Radeon RX 570 combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows this combination achieves 77 FPS average at 1080p Low settings, 56 FPS at 1440p Low, and 36 FPS at 4K Low. At Ultra settings, the averages drop to 36 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The combo ranks 3544 out of 3714 tested combinations. This places it in the lower 5% of all tested configurations, indicating that this pairing is not well-suited for high-end performance in this game.

Q: What is the best settings preset for playable performance at 1080p?

A: Based on the measured data, Low settings at 1080p provide the highest average FPS at 77. Medium settings yield 54 FPS average, High drops to 47 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36 FPS, so Low is the only preset that clears a 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much VRAM does the RX 570 have, and does it matter for this game?

A: The RX 570 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The substantial FPS drops when moving from Low to Ultra settings suggest that the 4 GB frame buffer is a limiting factor at higher presets.

Q: What CPU and GPU pairings are closest in performance to this configuration?

A: For the CPU, the nearest rivals are the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (0.2% slower), AMD EPYC 8124P (0.3% slower), Intel Core i9-13900F (0.4% faster), and Intel Core i7-14700 (0.7% slower). For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (0.4% slower), AMD Radeon R9 M295X (0.7% faster), AMD Radeon RX 470 (0.8% slower), and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (1.2% faster).

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck this system in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data indicates a strong GPU limitation. The RX 570's 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs contrasts with the Ryzen 9 5950X's 91st percentile among all CPUs, and the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a pattern consistent with GPU-bound performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip using GCN 4.0 architecture on a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. It contains 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. Memory runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 7 Gbps effective on 4 GB of GDDR5.

The memory subsystem consists of a 256-bit bus delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Pixel fill rate is 39.81 GPixel/s while texture rate reaches 159.2 GTexel/s. Floating point performance is rated at 5.095 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16.

In Lockdown Protocol, the RX 570's performance characteristics are clearly visible in the measured FPS data. At 1080p Low, the card delivers 77 FPS average, but this drops steeply as settings increase. Medium yields 54 FPS, High drops to 47 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36 FPS. This pattern of diminishing returns suggests that the GPU's 4 GB frame buffer and limited compute resources struggle with the increasing memory and shading demands of higher presets.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 74 against all GPUs places it in the upper-middle range historically, but its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (0.4% slower), the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (0.7% faster), the AMD Radeon RX 470 (0.8% slower), and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (1.2% faster). These close margins indicate that the RX 570 sits in a well-populated performance tier, but that tier is not sufficient for demanding modern FPS titles at high settings.

At 4K resolution, the GPU's limitations become severe. Ultra settings produce only 17 FPS average, and even Low settings manage just 36 FPS. The gap between 1080p Low (77 FPS) and 4K Low (36 FPS) represents more than a halving of performance, which is consistent with the pixel count increase from roughly 2 million to 8.3 million pixels. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is likely a contributing factor at higher resolutions and settings, as the game must either compress textures or spill to system memory.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename. It uses TSMC's 7 nm process and contains 8,300 million transistors across a dual-die design with each die measuring 74 mm². The CPU has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz.

Cache configuration includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 64 MB of L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel operation providing 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU supports ECC memory and uses PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes from the CPU. The socket is AMD Socket AM4.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5950X posts strong results across the board. Cinebench R23 multi-core reaches 26017 while single-core hits 1614. Geekbench multi-core scores 15233 and single-core 2083. The 3DMark suite shows a scaling pattern from 944 single-thread to 11597 max-thread, indicating good multi-thread scaling. Passmark multi-thread reaches 45424 with single-thread at 3470.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 91 against all CPUs places it in the top tier of processors. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (0.2% slower), AMD EPYC 8124P (0.3% slower), Intel Core i9-13900F (0.4% faster), and Intel Core i7-14700 (0.7% slower). These margins are tiny, indicating the 5950X is competitive with modern high-end processors despite its 2020 release date.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is less prominent than the GPU's because the measured FPS drops scale closely with resolution increases. If the CPU were the primary bottleneck, FPS would remain relatively constant across resolutions. Instead, the data shows 77 FPS at 1080p Low falling to 56 FPS at 1440p Low and 36 FPS at 4K Low. This resolution scaling indicates the GPU is the limiting component, with the CPU providing enough headroom to feed the GPU at all tested settings.

The 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads are far more than what most FPS titles require, and Lockdown Protocol appears to follow this pattern. The high single-thread score of 1614 in Cinebench R23 suggests adequate per-core performance for game logic and physics. The large 64 MB L3 cache likely helps with game data locality, though this benefit is masked by the GPU bottleneck in the measured results.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for settings selection at each resolution. At 1080p, Low settings deliver 77 FPS average, which is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. Medium settings drop to 54 FPS, High to 47 FPS, and Ultra to 36 FPS. For smooth gameplay at 1080p, Low is the recommended preset.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. Low settings produce 56 FPS average, which is playable but below 60 FPS. Medium drops to 40 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 26 FPS. The 1440p Medium row includes measured minimum and maximum values of 34 and 46 FPS respectively, showing a tight band around the average. For 1440p, Low settings are the only reasonable choice, and even then, the frame rate is marginal.

At 4K, none of the presets deliver playable performance. Low settings average 36 FPS, Medium averages 26 FPS with a minimum of 22 and maximum of 30, High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The 4K Medium row's minimum of 22 FPS indicates significant frame time variability. Based on this data, 4K is not a viable resolution for this combination in Lockdown Protocol.

The recommendation hierarchy is clear: for the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, 1080p Low provides the highest average FPS at 77. If visual quality is prioritized over frame rate, 1080p Medium at 54 FPS is the next best option, but the 23 FPS drop from Low to Medium suggests that the GPU's resources are heavily taxed by the Medium preset. The jump from Medium to High costs another 7 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 11 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset is disproportionately expensive relative to its incremental quality gain.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and AMD Radeon RX 570 combination ranks 3544 out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the configuration in the bottom 5% of all tested systems. The ranking reflects the GPU's substantial performance limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities.

The CPU alone ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, which is a strong position. The GPU, however, ranks in the 74th percentile among all GPUs, and this gap between CPU and GPU capability is a defining characteristic of this pairing. In a game like Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's lower relative standing dominates the overall system performance.

The low combo rank is consistent with the measured FPS numbers. At 1080p Ultra, the system averages 36 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target that most competitive FPS players would consider minimum. At higher resolutions, the frame rates fall further, with 4K Ultra averaging 17 FPS and 4K High averaging 22 FPS. These numbers place the combo firmly in the lower tier of tested configurations.

The ranking context is important for understanding what this means for potential users. A rank of 3544 out of 3714 means only 170 tested combos perform worse. This is not a configuration that will provide a high-refresh-rate experience in Lockdown Protocol at any resolution above 1080p Low. The data suggests that users with this hardware should either lower expectations significantly or consider upgrading the GPU to achieve better results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing twelve data points. At 1080p, the results range from 77 FPS average at Low to 36 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset at 1080p shows an average of 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 and maximum of 63, indicating a relatively stable frame delivery. High at 1080p averages 47 FPS.

At 1440p, the averages drop across all presets. Low yields 56 FPS, Medium yields 40 FPS with minimum and maximum of 34 and 46, High yields 35 FPS, and Ultra yields 26 FPS. The Medium preset's range of 12 FPS between minimum and maximum shows some variability but not extreme frame time spikes.

At 4K, the performance falls significantly. Low averages 36 FPS, Medium averages 26 FPS with a minimum of 22 and maximum of 30, High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K shows the narrowest absolute range of 8 FPS, but the low averages make this resolution impractical for actual gameplay.

Looking at the progression within each resolution, the pattern is consistent. Low to Medium costs between 15 and 23 FPS depending on resolution. Medium to High costs between 4 and 7 FPS. High to Ultra costs between 5 and 11 FPS. The largest drop occurs from Low to Medium, suggesting that the Medium preset introduces significant additional GPU workload compared to Low.

The 1080p Low result of 77 FPS is the only data point that exceeds 60 FPS. This makes 1080p Low the definitive recommendation for playable performance. The 1440p Low result of 56 FPS is the only other data point above 50 FPS, but it falls short of the 60 FPS threshold. All other configurations produce averages below 50 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component in this system. At Low settings, the progression is 77 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 21 FPS, or approximately 27%. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 20 FPS, or approximately 36%. This pattern of decreasing FPS as pixel count increases is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

At Medium settings, the progression is 54 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 14 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 14 FPS. At High settings, the progression is 47 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 22 FPS at 4K. At Ultra settings, the progression is 36 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K.

The consistent FPS drops across all presets when resolution increases point to the GPU as the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, the FPS would stay roughly constant regardless of resolution because the CPU's work does not scale with pixel count. Instead, the FPS scales down as pixel count increases, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario.

The RX 570's 4 GB VRAM is likely a factor in the resolution scaling. At 4K, the frame buffer requirements exceed what 4 GB can comfortably hold, forcing the GPU to manage memory more carefully. This is reflected in the steep drop from 1440p Low (56 FPS) to 4K Low (36 FPS), which represents a 36% reduction in performance while the pixel count increases by 125% from 3.7 million to 8.3 million.

The CPU's high performance ceiling is not the constraining factor here. With a 91st percentile ranking and multi-thread scores like 26017 in Cinebench R23, the 5950X has ample headroom. The data shows that upgrading the GPU would yield significant FPS improvements across all resolutions and settings, while upgrading the CPU would provide minimal benefit in this specific game. The bottleneck is clearly on the graphics side, and any performance improvement strategy should focus on the GPU first.