Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is a team-based FPS that scales aggressively with both GPU and CPU depending on the resolution and preset you choose. The pairing of an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 represents a top-tier configuration that sits at the 70th percentile of 3,714 tested combinations for this game. The measured data reveals a system that is capable of delivering extremely high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, while still maintaining excellent playability at 4K, but the bottleneck shifts distinctly as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a clear and expected shift in system bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 368 FPS, which drops to 270 FPS at 1440p and further to 174 FPS at 4K. That represents a 53% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases, even though the RTX 4090 is exceptionally powerful. The data shows that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU's 12 cores and high boost clocks are able to feed the GPU enough data to reach frame rates well beyond what most displays can refresh.

Looking at High settings, the scaling is different. At 1080p, the system hits 228 FPS, which is 38% faster than at 1440p (167 FPS) and 111% faster than at 4K (108 FPS). The gap between 1080p and 1440p at High settings is 61 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 59 FPS, showing a relatively consistent per-step decline that points to GPU compute and memory bandwidth becoming more critical. The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth are substantial, but the pixel throughput requirements of 4K still exact a heavy toll, with the Ultra preset at 4K dropping to just 81 FPS.

The most telling comparison for bottleneck analysis comes from the Medium preset, where min and max FPS data is available. At 1080p Medium, the average is 261 FPS with a 222 FPS minimum, while at 1440p Medium the average drops to 192 FPS with a 163 FPS minimum, and at 4K Medium the average is 124 FPS with a 105 FPS minimum. The fact that the minimum FPS at 4K Medium (105) is higher than the average FPS at 4K Ultra (81) demonstrates that settings have a profound impact on the GPU workload, and that the system is never severely CPU-bound even at the highest resolutions. The scaling pattern indicates that for 1080p and 1440p gaming, the CPU is doing substantial work, but at 4K, the RTX 4090 becomes the definitive limiting component across all settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this configuration for Lockdown Protocol. Its Ada Lovelace architecture with 16,384 shading units and 128 RT cores provides the raw compute horsepower, and the data confirms that the GPU's capabilities scale directly with the game's visual demands. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz are high, but the more critical factor is the memory subsystem: 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This bandwidth is essential for the game's texture streaming and high-resolution rendering, as evidenced by the 4K performance gaps between presets.

The benchmark data shows the RTX 4090 achieving a Passmark G3D score of 38194 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60, has an average score of 60326, which is essentially identical (0% delta), while the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% slower. This positioning suggests that the RTX 4090 is at the upper echelon of GPU performance, which is consistent with the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol. The GPU's FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS is substantial, and the 512 tensor cores contribute to the overall compute capability, though the game's results show that the GPU is not fully utilized at lower resolutions.

The memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) is a key detail for understanding the 4K behavior. At 4K High, the system produces 108 FPS, but at 4K Medium it rises to 124 FPS, and at 4K Low it jumps to 174 FPS. This 70 FPS spread between Low and High at 4K demonstrates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading power are the limiting factors, not the CPU. The RTX 4090's 176 ROPs and 512 TMUs provide the pixel and texture throughput needed, but the game's Ultra preset at 4K demands more than the GPU can deliver to maintain 100+ FPS. The data indicates that for competitive play at 4K, High settings are the practical ceiling for this GPU, while Medium offers a comfortable margin for frame time consistency.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X serves as the supporting cast in this configuration, and its role becomes more prominent at lower resolutions. With 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture at a 4 nm process node, the CPU delivers strong multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32172 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 22174. The CPU's boost clock of 5.60 GHz is critical for the game's physics and AI calculations, which are typically single-threaded or lightly threaded in FPS titles. The single-thread performance is strong, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4672.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 57498 places it in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD EPYC 9015 at a 0.1% slower score (57555), and the Intel Core i9-14900 being 1.1% faster (58115). This indicates that the Ryzen 9 9900X is competitive with the best consumer and server parts, though not the absolute fastest. In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's impact is visible in the 1080p Low result of 368 FPS, which is a 98 FPS jump over the 1080p High result of 228 FPS. This 140 FPS spread at 1080p shows that the CPU can feed the GPU at very high rates, but the game's engine still benefits from reduced GPU load at Low settings, allowing the CPU to push frame rates higher.

The CPU's 64 MB of L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth are relevant for the game's level streaming and entity management. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 12552 and max-thread score of 13929 indicate that the CPU scales well up to 12 cores, which is more than enough for Lockdown Protocol's threading model. The Passmark physics score of 3381 and data compression score of 683579 further illustrate the CPU's capability for game logic. However, the data shows that at 1440p and 4K, the CPU's role diminishes, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The 270 FPS at 1440p Low versus 368 FPS at 1080p Low demonstrates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions, since the frame rate drops by 98 FPS despite the same CPU workload, indicating GPU pixel throughput is the constraint.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings achieves 368 FPS, which is the highest measured average. For a balance of visual clarity and speed, 2560x1440 at Low settings provides 270 FPS, which is still well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The 4K resolution at Low settings drops to 174 FPS, which is still playable for competitive titles but less optimal for maximum frame rate.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 228 at 1080p to 167 at 1440p, and then to 108 at 4K. This represents a 53% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, with the largest single-step drop being 59 FPS from 1440p to 4K. The data indicates that the RTX 4090's GPU resources are heavily taxed at 4K.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X bottlenecking the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 368 FPS, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates. However, the 4K Low result of 174 FPS versus the 1080p Low result of 368 FPS indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is not the primary limiting factor, as the frame rates are exceptionally high.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: The measured data provides min FPS only for Medium settings. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 222 FPS with an average of 261 FPS. At 2560x1440, the minimum is 163 FPS with an average of 192 FPS. At 3840x2160, the minimum is 105 FPS with an average of 124 FPS. These minimums indicate good frame time consistency, with the 4K result still staying above 100 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RTX 4090's average benchmark score is 60347, which is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0% delta) and slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140, 0.3% delta). The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% faster with a score of 61896, while the AMD Radeon PRO V710 is 2.9% slower with a score of 58657. This places the RTX 4090 in the middle of its immediate performance bracket.

Q: Does the game's Ultra preset provide a playable experience at 4K?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 81, which is below the 100 FPS threshold that many players consider smooth for an FPS. While technically playable, the 81 FPS average is 27 FPS lower than the 4K High result of 108 FPS, and 43 FPS lower than the 4K Medium result of 124 FPS. For a consistent competitive experience, Medium or High is recommended at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. The Low preset achieves 368 FPS, which is the single highest measured result in the entire data set. The Medium preset produces 261 FPS with a minimum of 222 FPS and a maximum of 301 FPS, showing excellent frame pacing. High settings yield 228 FPS, while Ultra drops to 171 FPS, which is still very high. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 197 FPS, indicating that the GPU has substantial headroom at this resolution, and the CPU is capable of driving extremely high frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings produce 270 FPS, which is a 98 FPS reduction from 1080p Low, highlighting the increased GPU workload. Medium settings deliver 192 FPS with a minimum of 163 FPS and a maximum of 220 FPS. High settings achieve 167 FPS, while Ultra drops to 125 FPS. The 1440p results show that the system remains highly capable, with even Ultra settings staying above 120 FPS, making this resolution a sweet spot for high-refresh-rate gaming with visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. Low settings produce 174 FPS, which is still very playable. Medium settings average 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 FPS and a maximum of 142 FPS, providing a stable experience. High settings drop to 108 FPS, while Ultra falls to 81 FPS. The 4K data shows that the RTX 4090 can handle the game at high frame rates when settings are moderated, but the Ultra preset pushes the GPU beyond its comfort zone, resulting in sub-100 FPS performance. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 93 FPS, which is the largest absolute spread across all resolutions, confirming the GPU's workload is the primary constraint.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting the highest possible frame rates, particularly for competitive play, the 1920x1080 Low preset is the clear choice, delivering 368 FPS. However, this comes at the cost of visual fidelity. The 2560x1440 Medium preset offers a better balance, with 192 FPS average and a 163 FPS minimum, which is well above the refresh rate of most 1440p high-refresh monitors. This preset provides a significant visual upgrade over Low while still maintaining excellent performance, and the measured minimum of 163 FPS ensures that frame drops remain imperceptible.

At 4K, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point, as it provides a 124 FPS average with a 105 FPS minimum. This ensures that the game remains smooth even in intense firefights, and the visual quality is acceptable for most players. The High preset at 4K (108 FPS) is also viable, but the 16 FPS drop from Medium to High may be noticeable in fast-paced scenarios. The Ultra preset at 4K should be avoided for competitive play, as the 81 FPS average is below the 100 FPS threshold that many FPS players consider necessary for consistent aim and reaction.

For players who prioritize visual quality over raw frame rate, the 1440p Ultra preset at 125 FPS is the best option, as it provides a high level of detail while still maintaining a frame rate that is smooth and responsive. The data from the Medium presets with min/max FPS shows that the system has good frame time consistency, with the 4K Medium minimum of 105 FPS being only 19 FPS below the average, indicating stable GPU performance. The overall recommendation is to use Medium settings at any resolution for the best mix of performance and stability, with the understanding that the 1080p Low preset is the only configuration that exceeds 300 FPS, which may be relevant for monitors with 360 Hz refresh rates.