Lockdown Protocol

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 sits within a tight cluster of competitors. It trails the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 by 0.2% (which scores 2259) and the Intel Core i3-10305 by 0.4% (which scores 2264), while leading the Intel Core i7-10710U by 0.3% and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 by 0.4%. This places the CPU at the 47th percentile of all processors.

Q: What is the GPU's performance ranking relative to all graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 sits at the 59th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16129, putting the RX 9060 0.7% behind. It leads the AMD Radeon R9 370X by 1% (15862) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 by 1% (15852).

Q: Which resolution provides the highest average frame rate for this combo?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 delivers the highest frame rates across all settings. At Low settings, the combo averages 163 FPS, which drops to 124 FPS at Medium and 109 FPS at High. The most demanding Ultra preset still manages 81 FPS at this resolution.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra experience compare to 1080p Low?

A: There is a substantial gap. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 39, while 1920x1080 at Low produces 163 FPS — a difference of 124 FPS. This represents a roughly 4.2x performance differential between the most and least demanding configurations measured.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at lower resolutions?

A: At 1080p, the frame rates (up to 163 FPS at Low) suggest the GPU is still handling the workload effectively, but the scaling pattern indicates the CPU begins to matter more as resolution drops. The GPU's 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB VRAM become less of a constraint at lower pixel counts, allowing the i5-9400's six cores to become more relevant.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a balanced 1440p experience?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 provide the most balanced measured result, with an average of 91 FPS and a minimum of 77 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS target, while High drops to 80 FPS average and Ultra falls to exactly 60 FPS average.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy across all three resolutions. For players targeting smooth, competitive frame rates, the Low preset is the standout choice at every resolution: it delivers 163 FPS at 1080p, 128 FPS at 1440p, and 83 FPS at 4K. These are the highest averages recorded in the entire dataset, and they indicate that Low settings minimize the GPU's workload enough to let the Intel Core i5-9400 stretch its legs.

However, Low settings are not always the best experience. The jump from Low to Medium costs 39 FPS at 1080p (163 to 124), 37 FPS at 1440p (128 to 91), and 24 FPS at 4K (83 to 59). The Medium preset offers a meaningful visual uplift while retaining playability at all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium's 124 FPS average with a 106 FPS minimum is still far above the refresh rate of most displays. At 1440p, the 91 FPS average with a 77 FPS floor is ideal for high-refresh monitors. Even at 4K, the 59 FPS average is borderline but playable, with the 50 FPS minimum representing the only sub-60 dip in that configuration.

High settings present a steeper cost. Compared to Medium, High drops frame rates by 15 FPS at 1080p (124 to 109), 11 FPS at 1440p (91 to 80), and 8 FPS at 4K (59 to 51). The 4K High result of 51 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold, making it a poor choice for that resolution. At 1080p and 1440p, High remains viable but offers diminishing returns over Medium.

Ultra settings are the most demanding and should be reserved for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate. At 1080p, Ultra still achieves 81 FPS, which is acceptable. At 1440p, the average falls to exactly 60 FPS — playable but with no headroom for demanding scenes. At 4K, Ultra produces a 39 FPS average, which is not smooth enough for a fast-paced FPS.

The recommended presets are: Medium for 1080p and 1440p, and Low for 4K. Medium at 1440p (91 FPS average) offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, while Low at 4K (83 FPS) is the only way to get a genuinely smooth experience at that resolution. Ultra is only worth considering at 1080p, where the 81 FPS average keeps gameplay fluid.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions, but with notable CPU involvement at the low end. At Low settings, the progression from 1080p (163 FPS) to 1440p (128 FPS) to 4K (83 FPS) shows a fairly linear decline: 1440p retains 78.5% of 1080p performance, and 4K retains 50.9%. This pattern is consistent with a GPU that has a 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth — the pixel throughput demands at 4K begin to saturate that interface.

At Medium settings, the scaling is slightly less aggressive. The 1080p result of 124 FPS drops to 91 FPS at 1440p (73.4% retention) and 59 FPS at 4K (47.6% retention). The 4K Medium result is notable because it includes a measured minimum of 50 FPS and maximum of 68 FPS, indicating frame time variance that could cause occasional stutter in fast action.

High settings show the most consistent scaling. From 109 FPS at 1080p, the frame rate drops to 80 FPS at 1440p (73.4% retention) and 51 FPS at 4K (46.8% retention). This consistency suggests that High settings are well-balanced for this GPU, with no single resource becoming a bottleneck.

Ultra settings exhibit the steepest drop-off. The 81 FPS at 1080p falls to 60 FPS at 1440p (74.1% retention) and 39 FPS at 4K (48.1% retention). The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured in the entire dataset, confirming that the RX 9060's 8 GB VRAM and 21.43 TFLOPS compute are insufficient for maximum quality at 4K.

The limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the high frame rates (up to 163 FPS) suggest the GPU is still the primary constraint, but the i5-9400's six cores and 6 threads begin to matter more as the GPU finishes frames faster. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with the 4K Low result of 83 FPS being the only configuration that approaches the 1080p Ultra performance of 81 FPS. The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s is a likely culprit — at 4K, the GPU must move significantly more pixel data per frame, and the 128-bit bus limits how quickly that data can be shuffled.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The full range of settings is playable here. Low produces the highest average at 163 FPS. Medium delivers 124 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS, giving a tight 37 FPS spread. High averages 109 FPS. Ultra drops to 81 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold but represents a 50% reduction from Low. The gap between Medium and High is 15 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 28 FPS — indicating that Ultra's additional quality settings have a disproportionate performance cost.

2560x1440: This resolution shows a clear tiering. Low averages 128 FPS, which is the only 1440p preset that exceeds 120 FPS. Medium averages 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS and maximum of 105 FPS — the 28 FPS spread is the widest measured at this resolution, suggesting some scene-to-scene variance. High averages 80 FPS. Ultra averages exactly 60 FPS, making it the minimum viable option for smooth gameplay. The step from Medium to High costs 11 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 20 FPS.

3840x2160: This is the most demanding resolution, and the results reflect it. Low averages 83 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that clears 60 FPS comfortably. Medium averages 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and maximum of 68 FPS — the 18 FPS spread indicates that some scenes will drop below playable thresholds. High averages 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. Ultra averages 39 FPS, which is not suitable for competitive play. The step from Low to Medium costs 24 FPS, while Medium to High costs 8 FPS and High to Ultra costs 12 FPS.

The data shows that the RX 9060 + i5-9400 combo is most comfortable at 1080p, where even Ultra remains playable. At 1440p, the choice is between Medium (91 FPS) and High (80 FPS) for the best experience. At 4K, only Low (83 FPS) and Medium (59 FPS) are worth considering, with Medium's 50 FPS minimum being a risk.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the Navi 44 chip using RDNA 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 4 nm process by TSMC. The die contains 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² area, giving a transistor density of 149.2M per mm². The GPU has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, 64 raster operations pipelines, and 28 ray tracing cores. Its compute capability is rated at 21.43 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio), with a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s.

The memory subsystem is a potential limiting factor. The 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM is paired with a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). At 4K Ultra, the 39 FPS average suggests that both the VRAM capacity and bandwidth are strained. The 8 GB capacity is sufficient for this game at 4K, but the 128-bit bus limits the rate at which texture and geometry data can be fed to the shading units.

Clock speeds are aggressive: base clock 1700 MHz, game clock 2400 MHz, and boost clock 2990 MHz. The 1290 MHz difference between base and boost indicates a wide dynamic range, allowing the GPU to scale down when thermal or power constraints apply and scale up during lighter scenes. The 132 W TDP and dual-slot cooler with a single 8-pin connector suggest this is a power-efficient design that should maintain near-boost clocks under sustained load.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its mid-range positioning. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3322, Geekbench OpenCL score of 88183, and Vulkan score of 39476 all place it near the RTX 3060 Ti in synthetic tests. The Passmark G3D score of 17631 and GPU Compute score of 9919 are consistent with this tier. The GPU sits at the 59th percentile of all graphics cards.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role is most evident at 4K and at higher settings presets. The 4K Low result of 83 FPS versus the 4K High result of 51 FPS shows a 32 FPS swing purely from settings changes, highlighting how much headroom the GPU has when visual effects are reduced. The RT cores are largely unused in this title, but the 64 ROPs handle the pixel throughput required at 4K, albeit with diminishing returns at Ultra settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy consists of 64 KB L1 per core, 256 KB L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 over a dual-channel interface, providing 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU uses PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes and includes UHD 630 integrated graphics, though these are irrelevant for gaming with a discrete GPU.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark scores show its age. Cinebench R15 multicore scores 668 and singlecore 94. Cinebench R20 multicore scores 2784 and singlecore 392. Cinebench R23 multicore scores 6629 and singlecore 935. Geekbench multicore scores 5141 and singlecore 1389. The average benchmark score is 2254, placing the CPU at the 47th percentile of all processors.

The nearest rivals show how closely matched this CPU is to its contemporaries. The i7-1068NG7 scores 2259 (-0.2% relative), the i7-10710U scores 2248 (+0.3%), the Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 (+0.4%), and the i3-10305 scores 2264 (-0.4%). This clustering indicates that the i5-9400 is neither a standout nor a laggard in its segment — it performs exactly as expected for a mid-range 6-core part.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most pronounced at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the primary bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the 163 FPS average suggests the CPU is keeping up with the GPU's frame production. However, the lack of hyper-threading (6 threads for 6 cores) means there is no headroom for background tasks or heavily threaded game logic. The 4.10 GHz boost clock helps with single-threaded performance, which is critical for frame pacing in FPS titles.

The 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth is a potential constraint. While this is sufficient for most gaming scenarios, the GPU's 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is 6.7x higher, meaning the CPU can only feed data to the GPU at a fraction of the GPU's consumption rate. This is unlikely to cause issues at 1080p, but it could contribute to the frame rate variance seen at 4K Medium (50 FPS minimum) where the CPU must prepare more draw calls for a larger pixel space.

The CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads are adequate for this game, which appears to scale well across cores based on the measured results. The biggest CPU-related takeaway is that the i5-9400 does not hold back the RX 9060 at any resolution — the GPU is always the limiting factor at 4K, and even at 1080p, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus are more likely constraints than the CPU's compute capability. The 47th percentile CPU ranking is slightly below the GPU's 59th percentile, but the measured FPS data shows no obvious CPU bottleneck in the tested configurations.