Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 9 5950X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER delivers a compelling 4K-capable experience in Lockdown Protocol, though the data reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. This combo ranks 505th out of 3,714 tested combinations, placing it in the top 14% of all tested systems. The measured frame rates show this pairing excels at 1440p, where it comfortably exceeds the 140 FPS threshold at High settings, while 4K Ultra demands more than the hardware can consistently deliver at high refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and telling. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 273 FPS at 1080p to 145 FPS at 4K — a 46.9% reduction. This scaling pattern suggests the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER becomes the limiting factor as pixel count rises, since the Ryzen 9 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads provide ample headroom. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller: Low settings drop from 273 to 225 FPS (17.6% reduction), while High settings fall from 191 to 140 FPS (26.7% reduction). A further step to 4K at High settings brings the average down to 90 FPS, which is a 35.7% reduction from 1440p.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher quality presets. At Ultra settings, the 1080p result is 143 FPS, dropping to 105 FPS at 1440p (26.6% reduction) and then to 68 FPS at 4K (35.2% reduction from 1440p). This progressive decline indicates that the GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 256-bit bus are being pushed harder as resolution increases, with the 672.3 GB/s bandwidth becoming a more critical factor. The fact that 4K Low (145 FPS) outperforms 4K High (90 FPS) by 61.1% suggests that pixel throughput, not geometry or shading complexity, is the primary constraint at 4K.

Curiously, the scaling from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings shows the smallest relative drop: from 160 to 103 FPS, a 35.6% reduction. This is nearly identical to the Ultra preset's drop, suggesting the rendering pipeline hits a similar bottleneck regardless of how much detail is being processed. The data implies that at 4K, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 8448 shading units are saturated, and further increases in settings only reduce the average FPS without changing the fundamental scaling behavior.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 3,714 tested combinations, this pairing ranks 505th — a strong showing that places it ahead of the vast majority of systems. The rank reflects the combination's ability to maintain high frame rates across resolutions, but it also indicates that there are more than 500 combos that push further, likely with more powerful GPUs or more balanced CPU-GPU pairings. The Ryzen 9 5950X's 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs, combined with the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 76th percentile among GPUs, suggests the CPU is not holding the system back in this game.

The benchmark data for the CPU shows a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 26,017 and a single-core score of 1,614, with a PassMark multithread score of 45,424. These figures place the 5950X close to rivals like the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (0.2% lower average score), the AMD EPYC 8124P (0.3% lower), and the Intel Core i9-13900F (0.4% higher). The near-identical scores among these rivals indicate that Lockdown Protocol's performance is unlikely to be sensitive to small CPU differences, making the GPU the more important component in this pairing.

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,569 and PassMark G3D score of 31,811 place it near the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 (0.4% lower), the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q (0.4% lower), and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell (1.4% lower). These close margins suggest that within this performance tier, the 4070 Ti SUPER delivers consistent results, and the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol reflects a GPU that is well-matched to the game's demands at 1440p and 1080p.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's specifications paint a clear picture of what drives its performance in Lockdown Protocol. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus and 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has sufficient memory capacity for 4K textures, but the bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at Ultra settings where the 4K average FPS drops to 68. The boost clock of 2,610 MHz and base clock of 2,340 MHz, combined with 8,448 shading units, provide the raw compute needed for high frame rates at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the 273 FPS average at 1080p Low.

The GPU's 44.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 66 RT cores suggest the card is well-equipped for modern FPS titles, though Lockdown Protocol's measured results show that the game is more sensitive to memory bandwidth than raw compute at higher resolutions. The 4K Medium result of 103 FPS with a minimum of 88 FPS indicates the card can maintain playable frame rates, but the 4K Ultra result of 68 FPS shows the limits of the memory subsystem under maximum load. The 96 ROPs and 264 TMUs contribute to pixel fill rates of 250.6 GPixel/s and texture rates of 689.0 GTexel/s, which are more than adequate for 1080p and 1440p but strain at 4K.

The GPU's PassMark DirectX 12 score of 119 and DirectX 11 score of 278 provide context for its API-level performance, though the game's actual results show that the 4070 Ti SUPER handles the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set (12_2) without issue. The 76th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 31,087, places this card in the upper quartile, and the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol are consistent with that standing — strong but not top-tier.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER and Ryzen 9 5950X deliver exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset averages 273 FPS, while Medium reaches 218 FPS with a minimum of 186 and maximum of 251. High settings produce 191 FPS, and Ultra still manages 143 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently, and the system is primarily GPU-limited even at Low settings.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain high but show the expected decline. Low averages 225 FPS, Medium 160 FPS (min 136, max 184), High 140 FPS, and Ultra 105 FPS. The 1440p High result of 140 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it means the system can drive a 144 Hz monitor at High settings without dropping below that threshold. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 105 FPS, still clears 100 FPS but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes.

At 4K, the performance drops become more pronounced. Low averages 145 FPS, Medium 103 FPS (min 88, max 119), High 90 FPS, and Ultra 68 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the only resolution/setting combination where minimum FPS data is available, showing a 15 FPS gap between average and minimum — a 14.6% variance that suggests occasional frame dips. The 4K Ultra result of 68 FPS is borderline for smooth gameplay, falling below the 72 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for high-refresh-rate displays.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each resolution step up reduces the average FPS by roughly 20-30% across all settings, with the exact percentage varying by preset. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is the most extreme, with a 46.9% drop, while at Ultra settings the drop is 52.4% (from 143 to 68 FPS). This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, as the relative performance gap widens as pixel count increases.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution/settings combination for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: The 1440p High preset, which averages 140 FPS, is the optimal choice for a 144 Hz display. At 1080p, even Ultra settings reach 143 FPS, so any preset works, while at 4K only Low (145 FPS) and Medium (103 FPS) exceed 100 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 5950X's CPU performance affect Lockdown Protocol?

A: The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads, with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, provide ample processing power. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 26,017 and PassMark multithread score of 45,424 indicate it is not a bottleneck in this game, as the FPS scaling with resolution is consistent with GPU limitation.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K Ultra?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 68 FPS suggests the VRAM capacity is adequate, but the memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s becomes the limiting factor. The card can render 4K Ultra, but the frame rate falls below what most players would consider smooth for a competitive FPS.

Q: How does this combo compare to the nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 5950X's average benchmark score of 51,947 is nearly identical to the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (52,073, 0.2% higher), the AMD EPYC 8124P (52,121, 0.3% higher), and the Intel Core i9-13900F (51,730, 0.4% lower). These differences are negligible for gaming performance.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only minimum FPS data available is at Medium settings: 88 FPS at 4K, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 186 FPS at 1080p. This represents a 14.6% drop from average at 4K Medium, indicating occasional frame dips.

Q: Does the GPU perform consistently across benchmark suites?

A: The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 31,811 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,569 are consistent with its 76th percentile ranking. Its nearest rivals in the GPU benchmarks all fall within 1.9% of its average score, showing stable performance.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads, based on the Zen 3 architecture, provide substantial headroom for Lockdown Protocol. With a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz, the CPU can handle the game's single-threaded demands while having plenty of cores for background tasks. The 64 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth ensure the CPU can feed the GPU without creating a bottleneck, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p.

The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce this interpretation. The 3DMark single-thread score of 944 and passmark single-thread score of 3,470 indicate solid per-core performance, while the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 26,017 and Geekbench multicore score of 15,233 show the chip's multithreading capability. The PassMark physics score of 1,878 is directly relevant to game physics calculations, and the data suggests the CPU handles Lockdown Protocol's physics load without issue.

The 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 51,947, places the 5950X in the top tier of processors. Its nearest rivals — the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX, AMD EPYC 8124P, Intel Core i9-13900F, and Intel Core i7-14700 — all score within 0.7% of the 5950X, showing that the CPU is well-matched to its peers. For Lockdown Protocol specifically, the high single-thread performance is likely more important than the core count, and the 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,856 suggests the game's primary thread benefits from the Zen 3 architecture's efficiency.

The CPU's 105 W TDP and AM4 socket compatibility with PCIe Gen 4 (20 lanes) provide a solid foundation for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The 8,300 million transistors on a 7 nm process with a die size of 2x 74 mm² indicate a mature design that balances power efficiency with performance. In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU appears to be a non-factor in limiting FPS, as the scaling pattern across resolutions and settings is consistent with GPU-bound performance.

Settings Recommendations

For players seeking the best experience, the data points to 1440p High as the sweet spot. This combination averages 140 FPS, which is sufficient for a 144 Hz monitor, and the visual quality improvement over Medium is meaningful. At 1080p, Ultra settings at 143 FPS provide the best visual experience without sacrificing frame rate, as the system has enough headroom to run maximum settings.

For 4K, the Medium preset at 103 FPS is the recommended choice, as it balances visual fidelity with playability. The 4K High preset at 90 FPS is acceptable for less demanding players, but the drop below 100 FPS may be noticeable in fast-paced FPS action. The 4K Ultra preset at 68 FPS is only suitable for players who prioritize visuals over performance and have a 60 Hz display, as the frame rate is below what most competitive players would accept.

The Low preset at 4K, averaging 145 FPS, is an interesting option for players who want maximum frame rates at 4K, but the visual sacrifices are substantial. For most players, the 1440p High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with the 140 FPS average providing a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate displays. The 1080p Ultra preset, at 143 FPS, is a viable alternative for players who prefer maximum settings over resolution scaling, though the visual difference between 1080p and 1440p is significant on larger monitors.

The data suggests that Lockdown Protocol is not particularly demanding on the CPU, as even at 1080p Low (273 FPS), the system appears GPU-limited. This means players can maximize the CPU's potential by focusing on GPU settings rather than worrying about CPU-bound scenarios. The 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X provides enough processing power for any preset combination, and the limiting factor is always the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's ability to render frames at the chosen resolution and quality level.