Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT

The Intel Core i5-9400 pairs with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT to form a 1080p-focused gaming combination that lands in the 2471st position out of 3714 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. The CPU, a six-core, six-thread Coffee Lake part with a 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.10 GHz boost, sits at the 47th percentile among all processors, while the GPU reaches the 65th percentile among all graphics cards. This asymmetry — a mid-pack CPU with a slightly stronger GPU — shapes everything about how Lockdown Protocol performs across resolutions and settings, as the data reveals a system that can hit playable frame rates at 1080p but struggles to maintain consistency as resolution climbs.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Core i5-9400 brings six physical cores without hyper-threading, meaning six threads total, which is a modest configuration for a 2024 FPS title. Its Coffee Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process, delivers a single-core Cinebench R23 score of 935 and a multi-core score of 6629, placing it at the 47th percentile against all CPUs. In the context of Lockdown Protocol, a fast-paced FPS that typically relies on strong single-thread performance for game logic and physics, the 935 single-core score is the more relevant figure; the 4.10 GHz boost clock provides the headroom needed for responsive frame pacing, but the lack of additional threads means background tasks or heavily threaded game systems could introduce stutter.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (average score 2259, delta -0.2%), the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, +0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4%), all of which bracket the i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254. This tight cluster, with deltas under half a percent, indicates that the i5-9400's compute performance is essentially interchangeable with those parts, meaning any frame rate differences in Lockdown Protocol come down to architecture-specific behaviors rather than raw throughput. The CPU's 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for feeding the GPU, though the 65 W TDP and end-of-life production status suggest this is a platform that has reached its limits.

In Lockdown Protocol's measured results, the CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 163 average FPS. That figure, the highest across all tested configurations, suggests the i5-9400 can feed the RX 6650 XT sufficiently at lower settings where the GPU is not the bottleneck. However, the gap between 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra (163 vs 77 FPS) is larger than what a purely GPU-bound scenario would produce, indicating the CPU's single-thread performance begins to constrain the frame rate as settings increase and more game logic is processed per frame.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

At 1080p, the data shows a clear progression: Low delivers 163 FPS, Medium 117 FPS (with a minimum of 100 and maximum of 135), High 103 FPS, and Ultra drops to 77 FPS. The Medium preset at 117 FPS with a 100 FPS minimum is the strongest recommendation for competitive play, because it maintains a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold while the minimum frame time data suggests consistency — the 100 FPS floor is 85% of the average, indicating no severe hitches. High at 103 FPS is playable, but the 14 FPS gap between Medium and High is a substantial visual improvement for only a 12% performance cost, making High the choice for players who prioritize image quality over maximum smoothness.

At 1440p, Medium (86 FPS, minimum 73) becomes the sweet spot, as Low (121 FPS) over-delivers on speed but sacrifices too much visual fidelity, while High (75 FPS) and Ultra (56 FPS) fall below the 1440p high-refresh threshold. The 73 FPS minimum on Medium is still comfortably above 60, making it the only 1440p preset that combines playable averages with acceptable frame consistency. At 4K, the situation inverts: Low (78 FPS) is the only preset that breaks 60 FPS, with Medium (56 FPS) and High (49 FPS) dropping below, and Ultra (36 FPS) becoming a slideshow. For 4K users, Low is the only viable option, but the visual compromise is severe.

The overall best experience per the measured rows is 1080p Medium. It offers 117 FPS average with a 100 FPS minimum, which is smooth on standard 60 Hz displays and competitive on 144 Hz panels, while the visual quality jump from Low is significant. Players with 1440p monitors should accept Medium at 86 FPS, and anyone targeting 4K must use Low and accept 78 FPS as the ceiling.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The scaling behavior across resolutions reveals a system that becomes increasingly GPU-bound as pixel count rises. From 1080p Medium (117 FPS) to 1440p Medium (86 FPS), the frame rate drops by 26.5%, while the pixel count increases by 77.8%. This disproportionate drop indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is partially limiting performance, and the GPU has headroom that gets consumed as resolution increases. From 1440p Medium to 4K Medium (56 FPS), the drop is 34.9% against a 125% pixel increase, which is closer to linear scaling with pixel count, suggesting the GPU is now the primary bottleneck.

The Low preset tells a similar story: 163 FPS at 1080p, 121 FPS at 1440p (a 25.8% drop), and 78 FPS at 4K (a 35.5% drop from 1440p). The fact that 1080p Low produces 163 FPS — a very high number — while 4K Low produces 78 FPS indicates that the RX 6650 XT's raw rendering throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, not the CPU. At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely the constraint, as the GPU could probably render more frames if the i5-9400 could feed it faster.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling: 77 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p (a 27.3% drop), and 36 FPS at 4K (a 35.7% drop). This consistent pattern across all settings — roughly a 26% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 35% drop to 4K — strongly indicates that the RX 6650 XT's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus are the primary constraints at higher resolutions, as the GPU's compute resources scale predictably with pixel count. The CPU's role diminishes as resolution rises, which is typical for a six-core part paired with a mid-range GPU.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination ranks 2471st out of 3714 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 33rd percentile (lower third) of all systems in the database. This is a modest result for a CPU that sits at the 47th percentile and a GPU at the 65th percentile, suggesting that Lockdown Protocol is particularly demanding on one or both components. The rank implies that roughly two-thirds of tested combinations deliver higher average frame rates in this game, which is consistent with the measured FPS numbers: at 1080p Ultra, the system manages only 77 FPS, which many modern FPS titles would consider entry-level for high-refresh displays.

The gap between the GPU's 65th percentile standing and the combo's 33rd percentile rank is notable. It suggests that the i5-9400 holds the RX 6650 XT back in Lockdown Protocol, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is more significant. At 1080p Low, the 163 FPS result is respectable, but the CPU's six-thread limit likely prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential in less demanding scenes. Players with this combination should expect performance comparable to systems with slightly weaker GPUs but stronger CPUs, as the ranking reflects the combined bottleneck rather than either component's individual capability.

The nearest rival combos in the database are not specified, but the CPU's nearest rivals (all within 0.4% average score) and the GPU's nearest rivals (all within 0.8% average score) provide context for what the combo's performance envelope looks like. The GPU's rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (average score 19885, delta -0.6%), AMD FirePro D300 (19637, +0.7%), and AMD FirePro W7000 (19905, -0.7%), which are all workstation-class parts with different driver optimizations, so direct gaming comparisons are limited.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is built on the Navi 23 chip using RDNA 2.0 architecture on a 7 nm process from TSMC, with 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 280.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is the critical specification for Lockdown Protocol at higher resolutions. The GPU's game clock is 2410 MHz, with a boost clock of 2635 MHz, and it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 17166, placing it at the 65th percentile among all GPUs.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for 1080p and 1440p in this title, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate drops from 1080p to 1440p are consistent with pixel-count scaling rather than memory thrashing. However, at 4K, the Ultra preset's 36 FPS result suggests that the combination of memory bandwidth and compute resources is overwhelmed; the 280.3 GB/s bandwidth is a limiting factor when rendering at 8.3 million pixels. The GPU's 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs provide 168.6 GPixel/s of pixel fill rate, which translates to roughly 20 pixels per cycle at 4K — insufficient for high settings at playable frame rates.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database include workstation cards (Tesla K40m, FirePro D300, FirePro W7000, Quadro K5200), all with average scores within 0.8% of the RX 6650 XT's 19765 average. These rivals are not gaming-focused, so the RX 6650 XT's actual gaming performance in Lockdown Protocol is likely better than the raw benchmark scores suggest, but the ranking data does not separate gaming-specific deltas. The GPU's 10.79 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the raw throughput figure, and the measured FPS shows that this is sufficient for 1080p Medium at 117 FPS but insufficient for 4K Ultra at 36 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best results across all settings. Low produces 163 FPS average, Medium 117 FPS with a minimum of 100 and maximum of 135, High 103 FPS, and Ultra 77 FPS. The 86 FPS spread between Low and Ultra is the largest of any resolution, confirming that settings have the most impact at 1080p. The Medium preset's 100 FPS minimum is the strongest floor among all tested configurations, indicating that the CPU and GPU combination can sustain playable frame rates even in demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, the averages drop predictably: Low 121 FPS, Medium 86 FPS (minimum 73, maximum 99), High 75 FPS, and Ultra 56 FPS. The Medium preset's 73 FPS minimum is still above 60, making it the only 1440p setting that guarantees a smooth experience on standard displays. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 65 FPS, showing that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases. High at 75 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 56 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider acceptable for an FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapses: Low 78 FPS, Medium 56 FPS (minimum 47, maximum 64), High 49 FPS, and Ultra 36 FPS. Only Low breaks 60 FPS, and even that is marginal. The Medium preset's 47 FPS minimum is a significant drop from the 73 FPS at 1440p, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth is saturated at 4K. The 42 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest of any resolution, confirming that the GPU is the sole bottleneck and settings adjustments have diminishing returns.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows that 1080p Medium is the optimal configuration, delivering 117 FPS average with a 100 FPS minimum. This is the only tested setting that combines a high average frame rate with a strong minimum frame rate, making it suitable for both smooth gameplay and competitive responsiveness.

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

A: Only at Low settings, which produces 78 FPS average. Medium drops to 56 FPS, High to 49 FPS, and Ultra to 36 FPS, all below the 60 FPS threshold. The GPU's 8 GB memory and 280.3 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for higher settings at 4K.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance compared to the GPU?

A: At 1080p, the CPU's six-thread configuration limits performance, as shown by the 163 FPS at Low settings versus the GPU's theoretical capability. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, with frame rates scaling closely with pixel count. The CPU's 47th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 65th percentile indicates the CPU is the weaker link.

Q: Is the RX 6650 XT a good match for the i5-9400 in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2471st out of 3714 tested, which is below average. The performance gap between the CPU's and GPU's individual percentiles suggests the i5-9400 holds back the GPU at lower resolutions, while the GPU's limitations dominate at higher resolutions. A stronger CPU would likely improve 1080p performance.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low produces 163 FPS while Ultra produces 77 FPS, a difference of 86 FPS (52.8% lower). This large spread indicates that the system has significant headroom at lower settings but becomes constrained as graphical demands increase.

Q: Does the Medium preset provide consistent frame times across all resolutions?

A: The data shows minimum FPS values only for Medium settings: 100 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. The 1080p minimum is 85% of the average (117 FPS), the 1440p minimum is 85% of the average (86 FPS), and the 4K minimum is 84% of the average (56 FPS), indicating consistent frame pacing across resolutions.