Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol pairs a 12-core, 24-thread AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with a 6 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, producing a combination that ranks 1468th out of 1637 tested configurations. This is a pairing where the CPU’s immense headroom clashes with the GPU’s modest frame delivery, creating a bottleneck that shifts dramatically across resolutions. The data reveals a system that is playable at 1080p, but struggles to maintain smooth motion at higher fidelity targets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best-case average frame rate for this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 120.9 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only preset that clears the 120 FPS mark, indicating that the GPU is capable of high refresh rates only when graphical load is minimized.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in raw compute?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X has an average benchmark score of 54450, which is 0.7% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700F. It sits 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, showing that it is effectively a statistical tie with its closest competitors.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS falls from 89.6 on Low to 41.2 on Ultra. That is a reduction of 48.4 FPS, or roughly 54%, highlighting the significant cost of enabling the highest visual preset.

Q: Is the GPU’s memory bandwidth a limiting factor in the data?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has a 192-bit memory bus with 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The steep performance decline from 1080p Low to 4K High suggests that this bandwidth, along with the 6 GB VRAM pool, is heavily taxed at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of the GPU compared to all tested units?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER is in the 55th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 14286 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, which is 0.7% higher, indicating it sits in a mid-range performance tier.

Q: How many threads does the processor offer for game logic?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X provides 24 threads across its 12 cores. This high thread count, combined with a 64 MB shared L3 cache, ensures that CPU-side frame pacing is unlikely to be the primary constraint in Lockdown Protocol.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Low settings as the only viable option for high-refresh-rate displays. At 1920x1080, Low delivers 120.9 FPS, which is 34.3 FPS higher than the next best setting (Medium at 86.6 FPS). This gap is substantial, making Low the clear choice for competitive play where frame time consistency matters more than visual fidelity.

For users prioritizing visual quality over raw speed, Medium at 1080p (86.6 FPS) offers a balanced experience, while High (74.2 FPS) and Ultra (58.4 FPS) progressively sacrifice smoothness. At 2560x1440, the story changes: Low (89.6 FPS) is the only setting that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Medium (64.4 FPS) barely holds on, and High (57.6 FPS) dips below that threshold. The 4K data is unequivocal—Low (60.1 FPS) is the only playable preset, with Medium (41.4 FPS) and High (33.7 FPS) falling into stutter-prone territory.

The data suggests that the best experience is achieved by locking to 1080p Low, which provides the largest headroom over the 60 FPS baseline. If a higher resolution is mandatory, 1440p Low is the only reasonable choice, as it preserves 89.6 FPS, but the 4K Low result of 60.1 FPS shows that even the lowest preset cannot provide a buffer for demanding scenes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a powerhouse on paper, with 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture. Its boost clock of 5.60 GHz and 64 MB of shared L3 cache provide exceptional single-thread and multi-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 scores of 6555 single-core and 46438 multi-core. In the context of Lockdown Protocol, this CPU is vastly overqualified for the frame rates the GPU can deliver.

The benchmark results show that the CPU’s performance percentile is 94, meaning it outperforms 94% of all tested processors. However, in the measured FPS data, the CPU’s influence is only visible in the consistency of frame delivery at lower settings. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system achieves 120.9 FPS, but the GPU is still the limiting factor, as the CPU could theoretically push far higher frame rates if paired with a faster graphics card.

The nearest rival data reinforces that the 9900X is not the bottleneck here. Its average benchmark score of 54450 is within 1.8% of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (55421), yet the in-game results are constrained by the GTX 1660 SUPER. The CPU’s role is to ensure that no frame pacing issues arise from the processor side, which the high thread count and large cache are more than capable of handling. In short, the data shows that the Ryzen 9 9900X is idling in this pairing, waiting for a GPU that can match its output.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1468 out of 1637 tested combinations, this system sits in the bottom 10% of all configurations tested for Lockdown Protocol. This low ranking is directly attributable to the GPU’s limitations, as the CPU is in the top 6% of all processors but the GTX 1660 SUPER is only in the 55th percentile. The pairing creates a severe imbalance, where the CPU’s capabilities are largely wasted.

The data suggests that this combo is positioned for 1080p gaming, where it can achieve playable frame rates, but it falls far behind other configurations that pair high-end CPUs with more modern GPUs. The ranking of 1468 implies that most tested combos deliver better average frame rates across the board. This is not a reflection of the CPU’s quality, but rather the GPU’s inability to translate the CPU’s raw power into visible performance gains. The delta between the combo’s rank and the CPU’s percentile (94) versus the GPU’s percentile (55) is a clear indicator that the graphics card is the anchor dragging down the overall score.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is a Turing-architecture card with 1408 shading units and a boost clock of 1785 MHz. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest by modern standards. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 14286 places it in the 55th percentile, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, is only 0.7% faster, confirming its mid-range position.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU’s role is to render frames, and the data shows it is the primary constraint in all scenarios. At 1080p Ultra, the card manages 58.4 FPS, which is barely playable, while at 4K Ultra, it drops to 25.9 FPS. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s is likely a key bottleneck, as the 6 GB VRAM capacity may also be exceeded at higher settings, causing texture streaming issues that manifest as frame rate drops.

The GPU’s performance decline from Low to Ultra at each resolution is steep, suggesting that the card’s 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is insufficient for the game’s higher visual presets. The data implies that the GTX 1660 SUPER is best suited for esports-style settings, where its strengths can be leveraged without overwhelming its memory subsystem. Its end-of-life production status further indicates that this card is not designed for future titles with demanding visuals, but for current games like Lockdown Protocol, it can still deliver a playable experience at lower presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best performance. Low settings produce 120.9 FPS, which is the only result above 120 FPS in the entire dataset. Medium achieves 86.6 FPS, High drops to 74.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 58.4 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a total loss of 62.5 FPS, with the largest single drop (34.3 FPS) occurring between Low and Medium.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease across all settings. Low yields 89.6 FPS, Medium 64.4 FPS, High 57.6 FPS, and Ultra 41.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 25.2 FPS, and the difference between Medium and High is 6.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU struggles more with the resolution increase than with the settings change. The Ultra preset at 1440p is 48.4 FPS lower than Low, reinforcing the GPU’s limitations.

At 3840x2160, the results are the weakest. Low settings produce 60.1 FPS, which is the only 4K result at or above 60 FPS. Medium drops to 41.4 FPS, High to 33.7 FPS, and Ultra to 25.9 FPS. The performance loss from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 60.8 FPS, and the loss from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 32.5 FPS. These numbers highlight the GPU’s inability to handle 4K resolutions, even at the lowest settings.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a clear pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases, which points to the GPU as the limiting component. Moving from 1080p Low (120.9 FPS) to 1440p Low (89.6 FPS) results in a 31.3 FPS drop, a 25.9% decrease. Scaling from 1440p Low to 4K Low (60.1 FPS) introduces a further 29.5 FPS drop, a 32.9% decrease. This consistent decline indicates that the GPU’s rendering throughput, not the CPU’s processing power, is the bottleneck.

The CPU’s role in resolution scaling is minimal, as its performance does not degrade with resolution. The Ryzen 9 9900X’s 3DMark scores (13929 max threads) show it can handle multi-threaded workloads, but the frame rate drops are entirely attributable to the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 25.9 FPS is particularly telling, as it suggests the GPU’s 85.68 GPixel/s pixel rate is overwhelmed by the 8.3 million pixels of a 4K display.

This scaling behavior implies that if the GPU were upgraded, the CPU could support significantly higher frame rates. The current combo’s 1080p Low result of 120.9 FPS is likely far from the CPU’s ceiling, as the 9900X’s single-thread score of 1286 in 3DMark suggests it could drive a more powerful GPU without issue. The data makes it clear that resolution scaling is a GPU-bound exercise, and this pairing’s limitations are entirely due to the GTX 1660 SUPER’s modest capabilities.