Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol with an Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT presents a classic high-end GPU pairing with a mid-range CPU. The measured data shows a system capable of high frame rates across all tested resolutions, though the scaling patterns reveal where the bottlenecks lie. This analysis breaks down the FPS figures, settings behavior, and component roles based solely on the provided benchmark rows.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but consistent with a GPU-bound title at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 137 at 1920x1080 to 110 at 2560x1440, then to 71 at 3840x2160. That is a 26 FPS loss from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 39 FPS loss from 1440p to 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 48%, meaning the RX 6800 XT loses nearly half its frame rate when pixel count quadruples. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is likely holding back the GPU, while at 4K, the GPU fully saturates.

Looking at Low settings, the pattern is even more revealing. The system hits 163 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, and 115 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 16 FPS, but from 1440p to 4K it is 32 FPS. This suggests that even with minimal graphical load, the i5-9400 cannot push much beyond 163 FPS at 1080p, capping the system’s ceiling. At 4K Low, the 115 FPS figure shows the GPU still has headroom, but the scaling curve is flattening due to CPU limits at lower resolutions.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend with more granular data. At 1080p Medium, the average is 144 FPS with a minimum of 122 and maximum of 165. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 126 FPS, with min/max of 107/145. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 81 FPS, with min/max of 69/94. The minimum frame rates at 4K Medium (69 FPS) are notably lower than the 1080p minimum (122 FPS), indicating that 4K introduces more variance and potential stutter in demanding scenes.

Ultra settings show the most severe scaling. The system delivers 113 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and just 53 FPS at 4K Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is another 29 FPS. This 4K Ultra result is the only measured row below 60 FPS, making it the sole configuration where the experience falls below the smooth threshold. The data clearly shows that resolution scaling is exponential with settings, and the RX 6800 XT’s 16 GB VRAM and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth are not enough to keep Ultra playable at 4K.

The limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the i5-9400’s 6 cores and 6 threads (base 2.90 GHz, boost 4.10 GHz) appear to be the constraint, as the FPS differences between Low and Ultra are relatively small (163 vs 113). At 4K, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, evidenced by the wide spread between Low (115 FPS) and Ultra (53 FPS). The sweet spot for this combo is 1440p, where the scaling is balanced and the GPU is utilized without the CPU fully capping performance.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, Medium settings at 1440p offer the most balanced performance. The 126 FPS average with a 107 FPS minimum ensures consistent frame times, and the 145 FPS maximum shows headroom for less demanding scenes. This is superior to High at 1440p, which drops to 110 FPS average with no recorded minimum, suggesting potential dips below the Medium’s floor.

At 1080p, Medium is also the recommended preset. The 144 FPS average with a 122 FPS minimum is nearly identical to High (137 FPS) but provides a more stable floor. Low at 1080p yields 163 FPS, but the visual trade-off is substantial for only a 19 FPS gain over Medium. For competitive play, Low might be tempting, but the data shows Medium maintains high refresh rates while preserving more graphical detail.

For 4K, the choice is between High and Medium. Ultra is off the table due to the 53 FPS average, which will feel sluggish in a fast-paced FPS. High at 4K delivers 71 FPS, which is playable but close to the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 4K provides 81 FPS with a 69 FPS minimum, making it the safer choice for smooth gameplay. The 10 FPS difference between High and Medium at 4K is worth the visual downgrade if it prevents frame drops below 70 FPS.

If the goal is maximum frame rate regardless of visuals, Low at 1080p (163 FPS) is the only configuration that exceeds 160 FPS. However, the jump from Medium to Low at 1080p is only 19 FPS, which is marginal on a 144 Hz display. The data suggests that Medium is the default recommendation across all resolutions, with High reserved for 1080p/1440p users who prioritize visuals over a few extra frames.

The measured rows show that Ultra provides diminishing returns. At 1080p, Ultra (113 FPS) is 31 FPS slower than Medium (144 FPS), yet the visual difference in a fast-paced shooter is often negligible during movement. The 4K Ultra result (53 FPS) is the only unplayable configuration, reinforcing that this preset is meant for slower, visually-driven titles rather than competitive FPS games.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for high-resolution textures. The GPU’s 4608 shading units and 128 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s, and the boost clock of 2250 MHz (base 1825 MHz, game clock 2015 MHz) keeps it ahead of most rivals.

In the benchmark data, the GPU’s role is most visible at 4K. The difference between Low (115 FPS) and Ultra (53 FPS) at 4K is 62 FPS, showing the GPU is the primary scaling factor. The 16 GB VRAM is not fully stressed at these settings, but the memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at Ultra, where the 53 FPS result suggests the GPU cannot feed the render pipeline fast enough. The texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s and FP32 performance of 20.74 TFLOPS are sufficient for High settings, but Ultra pushes the card to its limits.

The RX 6800 XT’s percentile rank of 85 vs all GPUs places it in the upper tier. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile, scores 1.5% lower on average, while the Intel Arc A550M is 2.5% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is 3% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 is 3% higher. This positioning means the RX 6800 XT is competitive but not top-tier, which aligns with the 4K Ultra result of 53 FPS.

Clocks play a measurable role in the FPS variance. The GPU’s boost clock of 2250 MHz is 13% higher than the base clock, and the game clock of 2015 MHz sits between. In the measured data, the Medium preset at 1440p shows a min/max spread of 107-145 FPS, a 38 FPS range that likely reflects clock fluctuations during intense scenes. The 4K Medium min/max of 69-94 FPS shows a similar 25 FPS range, indicating the GPU’s boost behavior is consistent but not perfectly stable.

The GPU’s 128 ROPs are well-suited for Lockdown Protocol’s FPS genre, where fill rate matters for particle effects and explosions. The 288.0 GPixel/s pixel rate ensures that even at 4K High (71 FPS), the rasterization is not the bottleneck. However, the 53 FPS at 4K Ultra suggests that the shader workload (20.74 TFLOPS) or memory bandwidth (512.0 GB/s) is the constraint, not the ROPs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 163 FPS on Low, 144 FPS on Medium (min 122, max 165), 137 FPS on High, and 113 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data, showing a floor of 122 FPS and a ceiling of 165 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 50 FPS, with each settings tier costing roughly 15-20 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the numbers drop to 147 FPS on Low, 126 FPS on Medium (min 107, max 145), 110 FPS on High, and 82 FPS on Ultra. The Medium min/max spread is 38 FPS (107-145), which is wider than at 1080p, indicating more variance at higher resolution. The drop from Low to Ultra is 65 FPS, showing that settings have a larger impact at 1440p than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the results are 115 FPS on Low, 81 FPS on Medium (min 69, max 94), 71 FPS on High, and 53 FPS on Ultra. The Medium min/max spread narrows to 25 FPS (69-94), suggesting the GPU is more consistently loaded at 4K. The Low to Ultra drop is 62 FPS, similar to 1440p’s 65 FPS, but the absolute numbers are much lower. The 4K Ultra result of 53 FPS is the only row below 60 FPS in the entire dataset.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings, the 1080p to 1440p drop is 16 FPS on Low, 18 FPS on Medium, 27 FPS on High, and 31 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p to 4K drop is 32 FPS on Low, 45 FPS on Medium, 39 FPS on High, and 29 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows the largest 4K drop (45 FPS), while Ultra shows the smallest (29 FPS), indicating that Ultra is already so demanding that resolution scaling has less relative impact.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo can achieve?

A: The highest measured average is 163 FPS at 1920x1080 on Low settings. The next highest is 147 FPS at 2560x1440 on Low, followed by 144 FPS at 1080p on Medium.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with the RX 6800 XT and i5-9400?

A: No, the measured average at 3840x2160 Ultra is 53 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 4K Medium preset (81 FPS) is the highest playable option at that resolution.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, which is 0.2% slower than the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259), 0.3% faster than the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248), 0.4% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246), and 0.4% slower than the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264).

Q: What is the frame rate variance at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 Medium, the measured minimum is 107 FPS and the maximum is 145 FPS, giving a 38 FPS spread. This is the widest variance of any measured Medium preset, indicating occasional dips during intense scenes.

Q: Does the RX 6800 XT’s 16 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is not a limiting factor in the measured rows, as even the lowest FPS (53 at 4K Ultra) does not indicate VRAM exhaustion. The 512.0 GB/s bandwidth is more relevant, as it correlates with the performance drop at 4K Ultra.

Q: How does the GPU rank against its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 6800 XT has an average benchmark score of 48477, which is 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (47743), 2.5% lower than the Intel Arc A550M (49737), 3% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49957), and 3% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50001).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is the weaker link in this pairing, and its impact is most visible at 1080p. With 6 cores and 6 threads running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost of 4.10 GHz, the CPU has a 47th percentile rank vs all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 2254 places it just below the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (-0.2%) and just above the Intel Core i7-10710U (+0.3%) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (+0.4%). The nearest rival above it is the Intel Core i3-10305 at 2264, which is 0.4% faster.

The CPU’s 6 threads are a limitation in modern FPS titles, which often leverage more than 6 threads. In the measured data, the 1080p Low result of 163 FPS is likely the CPU’s ceiling, as increasing resolution to 1440p only drops FPS to 147 (a 10% reduction). If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, the 1440p Low result would be much closer to 1080p. The fact that 1440p Low (147 FPS) is only 16 FPS below 1080p Low (163 FPS) suggests the CPU is limiting both, with the GPU having spare capacity.

At 4K Low, the 115 FPS result shows the CPU is still keeping up, but the GPU is now the primary constraint. The CPU’s 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR4 dual-channel) are adequate for feeding the GPU, but the 6-thread limit means the CPU cannot push beyond 163 FPS in any configuration. This is confirmed by the fact that 1080p Ultra (113 FPS) is only 50 FPS below 1080p Low (163 FPS), a smaller gap than what a GPU-bound system would show.

The CPU’s boost clock of 4.10 GHz is important for single-threaded performance, which is reflected in its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935. However, the multicore score of 6629 shows that scaling beyond 6 threads is poor, which matters for Lockdown Protocol’s background simulation. The Geekbench scores (5141 multicore, 1389 single-core) align with the CPU’s mid-range positioning, and the 47th percentile rank places it below half of all CPUs.

The i5-9400’s 65W TDP and Intel Socket 1151 platform are older technology, but the measured FPS shows it does not bottleneck the RX 6800 XT at 4K. The real issue is at 1080p and 1440p high-refresh scenarios, where the CPU’s 163 FPS cap prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential. For a 144 Hz monitor, the 144 FPS at 1080p Medium is sufficient, but for a 165 Hz display, the 163 FPS Low result is just shy of the refresh rate.

The CPU’s role is further clarified by the Medium preset min/max data. At 1080p Medium, the min/max is 122/165 FPS, a 43 FPS spread that likely reflects CPU thread scheduling during complex scenes. At 1440p Medium, the spread widens to 38 FPS (107-145), and at 4K Medium it narrows to 25 FPS (69-94). This narrowing at higher resolutions indicates that as the GPU becomes more loaded, the CPU’s variability has less impact on overall frame rate. The i5-9400 is adequate for 4K gaming, but its age shows in 1080p esports scenarios where high FPS is paramount.