Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-9400 + AMD Radeon RX 6600

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Lockdown Protocol with this Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 combination reveals a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 146 FPS average, which is the highest recorded figure for this combo at any resolution or setting. However, the Medium preset at 1080p produces 103 FPS average with a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 119 FPS, representing a more balanced experience that retains visual fidelity while staying well above typical refresh-rate thresholds. The High preset at 1080p drops to 90 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 68 FPS.

For users prioritizing smoothness over visual polish, the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that approaches high-refresh-rate territory, with the 146 FPS figure suggesting headroom for competitive play. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 76 FPS average with a 64 FPS minimum, which remains playable but begins to show the system's limits. At 4K, the Medium preset provides 49 FPS average with a 42 FPS minimum, which is the only 4K configuration that maintains a consistent playable frame rate; the High preset at 4K drops to 43 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS.

The data indicates that Medium is the optimal preset for this pairing when balancing image quality against frame rate stability. At 1080p, Medium offers a 13 FPS improvement over High while maintaining a minimum above 85 FPS. At 1440p, Medium's 76 FPS average with a 64 FPS floor is notably more consistent than High's 66 FPS average, which lacks a recorded minimum. At 4K, Medium is the only setting that keeps the average above 45 FPS, making it the sole viable choice for that resolution. The Low preset, while faster, sacrifices too much visual detail for the modest gains observed at higher resolutions — at 4K, Low's 69 FPS versus Medium's 49 FPS represents a 20 FPS jump, but the visual compromise is substantial.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth to Lockdown Protocol. The GPU's clocks are notable: a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. The memory operates at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed. These specifications place the RX 6600 in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 19036.

The GPU's role in this game's results becomes evident when examining the delta between settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium reduces average FPS from 146 to 103, a 43 FPS drop; from Medium to High, the drop is 13 FPS; from High to Ultra, the drop is 22 FPS. This pattern suggests that the RX 6600's 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs are being taxed progressively as rendering complexity increases. The GPU's 8.928 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 279.0 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient for the lower presets but become limiting factors at Ultra, where the 1080p average falls to 68 FPS.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB proves adequate across all measured configurations, as no resolution or preset combination shows signs of memory-related stutter or frame drops in the recorded data. The GPU's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for this workload, though the system's CPU is only Gen 3, 16 Lanes, which may introduce a minor bottleneck in data transfer. The RX 6600's 132 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a mid-range power envelope, consistent with its performance tier.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2901 out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the pairing in approximately the 22nd percentile of all tested configurations, meaning roughly 78 percent of combinations deliver higher average frame rates in this game. The rank reflects the cumulative impact of both components: the CPU sits in the 47th percentile among all processors, while the GPU sits in the 63rd percentile among all graphics cards.

The combo's rank relative to its component percentiles suggests that the CPU is the more significant constraint in this pairing. The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 places it near the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, 0.4 percent slower) and Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, 0.3 percent slower), while the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259) and Intel Core i3-10305 (2264) are marginally faster. The RX 6600's average score of 19036 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19030, 0 percent delta) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19049, -0.1 percent), indicating the GPU is squarely mid-pack.

The 22nd percentile combo rank implies that Lockdown Protocol is demanding on both components, but the frame rate data shows the GPU carrying more of the load at lower settings, with the CPU becoming more relevant as resolution increases. The measured FPS figures across all resolutions and settings consistently fall below what a 63rd-percentile GPU alone would suggest, reinforcing that the 47th-percentile CPU is holding back overall performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear progression across presets. Low delivers 146 FPS average, the highest figure in the entire dataset. Medium produces 103 FPS average with a minimum of 88 FPS and maximum of 119 FPS. High drops to 90 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 68 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 78 FPS, indicating substantial headroom in the lower presets.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern persists with reduced magnitudes. Low delivers 107 FPS average, Medium produces 76 FPS average with a minimum of 64 FPS and maximum of 87 FPS, High drops to 66 FPS, and Ultra falls to 50 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 57 FPS, showing that resolution scaling compresses the performance differences between presets.

At 3840x2160, the numbers compress further. Low delivers 69 FPS average, Medium produces 49 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS, High drops to 43 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 37 FPS. The Medium preset's 42 FPS minimum is the lowest recorded min FPS in the entire dataset, indicating that 4K gaming on this combo approaches the edge of playability.

Cross-referencing the settings, the Low preset at 1080p (146 FPS) is 39 FPS faster than Low at 1440p (107 FPS), which is 38 FPS faster than Low at 4K (69 FPS). The Medium preset follows a similar trajectory: 103 FPS at 1080p, 76 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K. High and Ultra show proportionally similar drops.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how this combo scales with resolution. Moving from 1080p to 1440p, the Low preset drops from 146 to 107 FPS, a 39 FPS reduction (approximately 27 percent). Moving from 1440p to 4K, Low drops from 107 to 69 FPS, a 38 FPS reduction (approximately 36 percent). The Medium preset drops from 103 to 76 FPS (27 FPS, approximately 26 percent) between 1080p and 1440p, then from 76 to 49 FPS (27 FPS, approximately 36 percent) between 1440p and 4K.

The percentage drops are strikingly consistent across the two resolution transitions for each preset, suggesting that the limiting component scales predictably with pixel count. The High preset drops from 90 to 66 FPS (24 FPS, approximately 27 percent) from 1080p to 1440p, then from 66 to 43 FPS (23 FPS, approximately 35 percent) from 1440p to 4K. Ultra drops from 68 to 50 FPS (18 FPS, approximately 26 percent), then from 50 to 32 FPS (18 FPS, approximately 36 percent).

The consistency of these percentage drops — approximately 26-27 percent for the first transition and 35-36 percent for the second — indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling factor. The pixel count increase from 1080p to 1440p is 78 percent, while from 1440p to 4K it is 125 percent, yet the FPS drops are proportionally smaller, suggesting that the CPU begins to play a larger role at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom. At 1080p Low, the 146 FPS figure approaches the CPU's likely capability ceiling, while at 4K, the GPU's rendering throughput becomes the dominant constraint.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, fabricated on Intel's 14 nm process. It operates at a 2.90 GHz base clock with a 4.10 GHz boost clock, drawing 65 W TDP. The CPU features 64 KB L1 cache per core, 256 KB L2 cache per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and 42.7 GB/s bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-9400 scores 668 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 94 in single-core; 2784 in Cinebench R20 multi-core and 392 in single-core; 6629 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 935 in single-core; and 5141 in Geekbench multi-core with 1389 in single-core. These figures place the CPU in the 47th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 2254. The nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2 percent), Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, -0.4 percent), Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, 0.3 percent), and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, 0.4 percent).

Lockdown Protocol's results show the CPU's influence most clearly at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the 146 FPS average suggests the CPU is nearing its throughput limit for this game's frame generation. The 6 threads, while adequate for many titles, may struggle with the game's threading model when frame rates climb. The 4.10 GHz boost clock provides reasonable single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935, but the lack of hyper-threading limits multi-threaded headroom.

At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes relative to the GPU, as the 32-69 FPS range across presets indicates the RX 6600 is the bottleneck. The CPU's PCIe Gen 3 interface (16 lanes) pairs with the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x8 bus, potentially introducing a bandwidth constraint, though the measured data does not show obvious stuttering or frame-time anomalies beyond the expected scaling.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU-GPU pairing?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings delivers 103 FPS average with an 88 FPS minimum, making it the most balanced configuration. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 146 FPS average, but Medium offers a 15 FPS improvement over High (90 FPS) while maintaining a minimum above 85 FPS.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the only playable preset is Medium, which produces 49 FPS average with a 42 FPS minimum. Low reaches 69 FPS average but requires significant visual compromises. High (43 FPS) and Ultra (32 FPS) fall below smooth playability thresholds.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 is 0.2 percent slower than the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259), 0.4 percent slower than the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264), 0.3 percent faster than the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248), and 0.4 percent faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246). These differences are negligible in practice.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile and how does it affect Lockdown Protocol?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 sits in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 19036. In Lockdown Protocol, this translates to 146 FPS at 1080p Low and 32 FPS at 4K Ultra, showing the GPU's capability range across the preset and resolution spectrum.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes a limiting factor at 1080p Low, where 146 FPS average approaches the i5-9400's likely frame-generation ceiling. At higher resolutions and settings, the GPU's rendering load dominates, with 4K Medium showing 49 FPS average versus 76 FPS at 1440p Medium, indicating GPU-bound scaling.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo, and at what settings?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 42 FPS at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum is 64 FPS, and at 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum is 88 FPS. These figures provide the frame-time floor for each resolution's Medium preset.