Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol, a 2024 FPS title, presents a demanding workload that scales significantly with both resolution and graphical presets. This analysis examines the performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, based on measured FPS data. The combination ranks 874th out of 3714 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 23.5% of all configurations. The data reveals a system capable of high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming, with playable 4K performance at medium settings, though the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that the optimal experience depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 121 FPS, which is sufficient for most high-refresh monitors, but the Medium preset provides a substantial boost to 185 FPS while still maintaining high visual quality. For competitive play where frame rate is paramount, the Low preset achieves an exceptional 260 FPS, making it the best choice for maximum responsiveness. The High preset at 161 FPS represents a balanced middle ground, but the jump from Medium to High only costs 24 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 40 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the highest settings.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset stands out as the sweet spot, delivering 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even in intense firefights. The High preset offers 118 FPS, which is still excellent, but the Ultra preset drops to 89 FPS, which may be too low for players with 144Hz displays. The Low preset at 191 FPS is again the choice for esports-focused play, but the visual compromise is significant. For this resolution, the data suggests Medium is the best overall experience, balancing visual fidelity with a frame rate that comfortably exceeds 120 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The Ultra preset averages only 57 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay on most displays. The High preset improves to 76 FPS, but this is still marginal. The Medium preset, however, delivers 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS, making it the only setting that provides a consistently playable 4K experience. The Low preset reaches 123 FPS, but at 4K, the visual downgrade is more noticeable than at lower resolutions. Therefore, the recommendation for 4K is to use Medium settings, accepting the visual compromise for a playable frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 874 out of 3714 tested combos places it in the 76.5th percentile of all configurations tested in Lockdown Protocol. This is a strong showing, but it is not at the very top tier. The ranking reflects the balance between the powerful 16-core CPU and the mid-to-high-range GPU. The data suggests that in this title, the combination is well-suited for high-refresh 1440p gaming, where it likely outperforms many systems with weaker CPUs but similar GPUs. However, at 4K, the system’s ranking would likely be lower due to the GPU becoming the limiting factor.

Comparing to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 5950X has an average benchmark score of 51947, which is 0.2% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (52073) and 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 8124P (52121). It is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i9-13900F (51730) and 0.7% lower than the Intel Core i7-14700 (52301). These deltas are all within a single percentage point, indicating that the CPU’s raw compute performance is highly competitive with these modern alternatives. In a game like Lockdown Protocol, which may be sensitive to single-thread performance, these small differences could translate to a few FPS in either direction, but the overall ranking is more heavily influenced by the GPU.

The GPU’s nearest rivals show a similar pattern. The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37648, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37628) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507). It is 1.3% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135) and 1.3% higher than the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (37157). These small deltas suggest that the RTX 4070’s performance is tightly clustered with these other GPUs in synthetic benchmarks, but in real-world gaming, the Ada Lovelace architecture and features like DLSS could provide a larger advantage in supported titles.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its memory clock is listed as 1313 MHz, with an effective data rate of 21 Gbps. The GPU has a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, which are the speeds at which it operates under load. In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU’s role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to achieve very high frame rates, but at 4K, the GPU’s pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor.

The RTX 4070’s 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs determine its fill rate. The pixel rate is 158.4 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 455.4 GTexel/s. These specifications, combined with the 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance, indicate a GPU that is well-suited for 1440p gaming at high settings. The data supports this, as the 1440p High preset achieves 118 FPS, and the Medium preset achieves 135 FPS. The 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient for this game at all tested settings, as no VRAM-related stutters or issues are indicated in the FPS measurements.

The GPU’s 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 37648 further contextualize its performance. The RTX 4070 is positioned as a strong mainstream-to-high-end card, capable of handling most titles at 1440p with high settings. However, in Lockdown Protocol, the jump from 1440p to 4K causes a significant FPS drop, highlighting that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at the higher resolution. The fact that the 4K Ultra preset only achieves 57 FPS, while 1440p Ultra achieves 89 FPS, shows a 35.9% performance decrease, which is consistent with the increased pixel count.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 260, making it ideal for competitive play. For a better visual experience, the Medium preset offers 185 FPS, which is still high enough for most high-refresh monitors. Ultra is playable at 121 FPS but offers diminishing returns over High at 161 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which achieves an average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS. High and Ultra presets at 4K are below 80 FPS, which may not be smooth enough for all players. The Low preset at 123 FPS is also viable but requires significant visual compromises.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 Mobile?

A: The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37648, which is 1.3% lower than the RTX 4080 Mobile's 38135. In Lockdown Protocol, this small synthetic difference may translate to a few FPS, but the desktop RTX 4070's higher boost clock could mitigate this in real-world gaming.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5950X a bottleneck at 1440p?

A: The data suggests that at 1440p, the system is still GPU-limited. The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads provide ample processing power, as evidenced by its high Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 26017. The FPS drop from 1440p to 4K is significantly larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 874th out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 23.5% of all configurations. This is a strong result, but not at the absolute top tier, which is typically reserved for systems with even more powerful GPUs.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM cause any issues at 4K?

A: The measured FPS data does not indicate any VRAM-related performance issues. The average FPS at 4K Medium is 87, and the minimum is 74, which suggests stable performance without stuttering. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is sufficient for this game at the tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 260 FPS. This drops to 191 FPS at 1440p Low, a decrease of 26.5%. At 4K Low, the FPS drops to 123, a further decrease of 35.6% from 1440p. This pattern is consistent across all settings, with the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K being roughly 52% for Low, 55% for Medium, 53% for High, and 53% for Ultraeb. This consistent scaling indicates that the system is not hitting a hard CPU limit at any resolution, but rather that the GPU is being progressively more loaded as resolution increases.

The scaling pattern also reveals the nature of the bottleneck. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can provide draw calls. This is evidenced by the fact that the FPS at 1080p Low (260) is much higher than at 1440p Low (191), showing that the GPU is not the limiting factor at the lower resolution. However, as resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and it becomes the primary bottleneck. The FPS drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe than from 1080p to 1440p, which is typical for a GPU-limited scenario.

The data shows that the system is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, as the FPS at this resolution is still very high (118-191 FPS depending on settings). At 1080p, the system is CPU-limited, meaning that a faster CPU could potentially unlock even higher frame rates. At 4K, the system is GPU-limited, meaning that a more powerful GPU would be needed to achieve higher FPS. This analysis confirms that the Ryzen 9 5950X and RTX 4070 are a good match for 1440p, but not for 4K gaming at high settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw calls, which are typically single-threaded or lightly threaded tasks. The CPU's strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1614 and Geekbench single-core score of 2083, is crucial for maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions.

The 5950X's 64 MB of L3 cache is a significant asset for gaming, as it can store frequently accessed data, reducing latency and improving performance. The CPU's 7 nm process node and TSMC foundry contribute to its efficiency, with a TDP of 105 W. The data shows that at 1080p, the system achieves very high frame rates, indicating that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU effectively. However, the fact that the FPS at 1080p Low (260) is significantly higher than at 1080p Ultra (121) suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at the highest settings, but rather the GPU's rendering workload.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 91st among all CPUs and its average benchmark score of 51947 place it in the top tier of processors. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-13900F and Intel Core i7-14700, have very similar average scores, with deltas of less than 1%. This indicates that in a CPU-limited scenario, the 5950X would perform nearly identically to these newer processors. In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU is likely not the primary bottleneck at 1440p and 4K, as the GPU is more heavily stressed. However, at 1080p with Low settings, a faster CPU could potentially push the FPS higher, but the 5950X is already delivering an exceptional 260 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS across settings is as follows: Low averages 260 FPS, Medium averages 185 FPS with a minimum of 157 and maximum of 213, High averages 161 FPS, and Ultra averages 121 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 139 FPS, demonstrating a large performance range. The Medium preset provides the best balance for most users, offering a 24 FPS improvement over High and a 139 FPS improvement over Ultra. The Low preset is clearly the best for competitive play, while Ultra is only suitable for players with 120Hz monitors who prioritize visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the FPS values are: Low averages 191 FPS, Medium averages 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 and maximum of 156, High averages 118 FPS, and Ultra averages 89 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, with the Medium preset losing 50 FPS (from 185 to 135). This indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at this resolution. The Medium preset is again the recommended choice, as it maintains a high average FPS while still providing good visual quality. The Ultra preset at 89 FPS is playable but may not be smooth enough for all users, particularly those with 144Hz displays.

At 3840x2160, the FPS values are: Low averages 123 FPS, Medium averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 and maximum of 101, High averages 76 FPS, and Ultra averages 57 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is even more pronounced, with the Medium preset losing 48 FPS (from 135 to 87). This confirms that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K. Only the Medium and Low presets achieve average FPS above 60, making them the only viable options for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 76 FPS is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 57 FPS is below the threshold for most players. The data clearly shows that this system is not intended for 4K Ultra gaming, but it can handle 4K at medium settings for a playable experience.