Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER presents a balanced 1080p and 1440p configuration for Lockdown Protocol, with the data indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. Benchmark results show a clear and predictable scaling pattern across the three tested resolutions, with the most significant performance drop occurring between 2560x1440 and 3840x2160. This combination ranks in the 39th percentile of tested configurations for this game, placing it at position 2270 out of 3714 combos. The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of how this hardware handles the game's demands across different quality presets, allowing for specific recommendations based on resolution and desired frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling pattern in Lockdown Protocol reveals a steep performance curve that strongly indicates GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 109 to 80, representing a 26.6% reduction in frame rate. This scaling is relatively modest and suggests the system has enough headroom at 1080p to maintain high frame rates, but the transition to 1440p begins to expose the RTX 2070 SUPER's limitations. The drop becomes much more pronounced when moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, where the High preset average falls from 80 to 51 FPS, a 36.3% decrease. This steeper decline at 4K resolution points to the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute capabilities being stretched to their limits.

At Low settings, the scaling story remains consistent but with higher absolute numbers. The 1080p Low preset achieves 163 FPS, which drops to 129 FPS at 1440p and further to 83 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 20.9% from 1080p to 1440p and 35.7% from 1440p to 4K, showing that even at the lowest quality settings, the pixel throughput demands of 4K significantly impact performance. This pattern suggests that the RTX 2070 SUPER with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is well-suited for 1080p and capable at 1440p, but 4K gaming requires substantial compromises in settings to maintain playable frame rates.

The Medium preset data, which includes minimum and maximum FPS values, provides additional insight into frame time consistency across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the average is 125 FPS with a range from 106 to 143 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 91 FPS with a range from 78 to 105 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 59 FPS with a range from 50 to 68 FPS. The consistency of the frame rate ranges relative to the averages indicates that the GPU is handling the workload steadily, without major stuttering or frame pacing issues, even as the overall performance degrades with resolution. The Ultra preset shows the most demanding scenario, with 4K Ultra dropping to just 39 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay in a fast-paced FPS title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the dominant component in determining Lockdown Protocol's performance at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the FPS scaling data. This GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The TU104 chip, built on a 12 nm process, contains 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The GPU's base clock is 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and it delivers 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance. These specifications translate to a Passmark G3D score of 18169, placing the GPU in the 65th percentile of all tested GPUs.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB appears sufficient for Lockdown Protocol at the tested settings, as the game does not seem to exceed this limit even at 4K Ultra, which achieves an average of 39 FPS. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is likely a critical factor in the performance scaling from 1440p to 4K, as the increased pixel count at 4K demands significantly more memory throughput. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M with an average score of 20480 (1% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534 (1.2% higher), the Intel Arc B570 at 20556 (1.3% higher), and the Intel Arc A750 at 20582 (1.5% higher). This clustering indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER is competitive with these alternatives despite its older architecture.

The GPU's Turing architecture includes 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, which may impact Lockdown Protocol's performance if the game leverages ray tracing or DLSS features, though the measured data does not specify whether these features were enabled. The pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for the game's rendering workload. The RTX 2070 SUPER's performance in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, scoring 1651, and Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 90637, further corroborates its mid-range positioning relative to other GPUs, with the synthetic benchmarks aligning with the measured FPS results that show strong 1080p performance and acceptable 1440p performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 109 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and approaches the 144 Hz refresh rate territory for competitive play. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 82 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 24.8% performance cost for the visual improvements. For players prioritizing frame rate at 1080p, the Low preset offers 163 FPS, which is nearly double the High preset's output, but the visual quality trade-off may not be worth it for most users. The Medium preset at 1080p provides a balanced 125 FPS, making it a strong recommendation for those seeking a compromise between visual fidelity and performance.

At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 80 FPS, which is adequate for most gaming scenarios but may not satisfy players with high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 91 FPS, which is the best balance for this resolution, offering a 13.8% improvement over High while retaining decent visual quality. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 60 FPS, which is exactly at the standard refresh rate threshold but may experience occasional dips below this level during intense gameplay sequences. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 129 FPS, making it the only settings combination that approaches high-refresh-rate territory at this resolution, but the visual compromise is substantial.

At 3840x2160, the recommendations become more constrained. The Medium preset offers 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target but still playable for less demanding scenarios. The High preset at 4K achieves 51 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced sections but could struggle in fast-paced FPS combat. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 39 FPS, which is not recommended for a competitive FPS game due to the significant frame rate penalty. The Low preset at 4K provides 83 FPS, making it the only 4K option that maintains smooth performance, but the visual quality reduction is severe enough that players may prefer to drop to 1440p with higher settings instead)Skip to the data: the 1080p Medium preset's 125 FPS with a range of 106-143 FPS offers the most consistent experience relative to its average, making it the safest recommendation for general use.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination ranks 2270 out of 3714 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 38.9th percentile of all configurations. This ranking indicates that the combo performs below the median of tested systems, which is expected given the CPU's age and mid-range positioning. The CPU itself sits in the 47th percentile of all CPUs based on average benchmark scores, while the GPU performs better relative to its peers, sitting in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. This disparity suggests that the CPU may be holding back the GPU in some scenarios, though the FPS data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The combo's rank of 2270 out of 3714 places it in the lower half of tested systems, but the actual performance numbers reveal a more nuanced picture. At 1080p High settings, the combo achieves 109 FPS, which is competitive with many higher-ranked configurations that may include newer CPUs but similar or slightly better GPUs. The ranking is likely influenced by the CPU's single-thread performance, which is modest compared to modern processors. The Intel Core i5-9400's Cinebench R23 single-core score is 935, and its multicore score is 6629, which is on the lower end for a 6-core processor released in 2018. The Geekbench single-core score of 1389 and multicore score of 5141 further illustrate the CPU's mid-range standing.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the performance delta is minimal. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 has an average score of 2259, which is 0.2% lower than the i5-9400's 2254 average. The Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248, which is 0.3% higher than the i5-9400. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, 0.4% higher, and the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264, 0.4% lower. These negligible differences suggest that CPU choice in this performance tier has minimal impact on the overall combo ranking for Lockdown Protocol, and the GPU's performance is the primary differentiator. The RTX 2070 SUPER's nearest rivals also show tight clustering, with deltas ranging from 1% to 1.5%, indicating that this GPU is competitively positioned within its performance class.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400's role in Lockdown Protocol's performance is secondary to the GPU, but it still matters for maintaining minimum frame rates and enabling consistent performance. This CPU features 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It is built on the 14 nm Coffee Lake architecture, which is now several generations old but still provides adequate performance for gaming workloads. The CPU has 9 MB of shared L3 cache, with 64 KB of L1 cache per core and 256 KB of L2 cache per core. Its dual-channel DDR4 memory support provides 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is sufficient for feeding the GPU at 1080p but may become a bottleneck at higher resolutions if the CPU is under heavy load.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its Cinebench R20 multicore score is 2784, and the single-core score is 392cardiovascular, while Cinebench R23 shows a multicore score of 6629 and single-core score of 935. These scores indicate that the i5-9400 is a competent but not exceptional processor for gaming, with its 6-core/6-thread configuration being adequate for most modern games that typically utilize fewer cores. The lack of hyper-threading means that the CPU cannot handle as many concurrent threads as processors with higher thread counts, which could impact performance in games that are heavily multithreaded.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and end-of-life production status suggest that it was designed for mainstream desktop systems, and its performance in Lockdown Protocol reflects its mid-range positioning. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 163 FPS, which is likely limited by the GPU rather than the CPU, as the RTX 2070 SUPER is capable of producing frame rates well above 200 FPS in less demanding titles. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo drops to 39 FPS, which is almost certainly GPU-limited, as the CPU's workload at this resolution is less demanding relative to the GPU's pixel processing requirements. The CPU's boost clock of 4.10 GHz is sufficient for maintaining playable frame rates, but it may cause occasional stutters in CPU-intensive scenes if the game utilizes more than 6 threads effectively.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Lockdown Protocol with this combo provides a complete picture across all three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves the highest average FPS at 163, followed by Medium at 125, High at 109, and Ultra at 82. The Medium preset's minimum FPS is 106 and maximum is 143, indicating a range of 37 FPS during gameplay. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 129 FPS, Medium averages 91 FPS with a range of 78 to 105, High averages 80 FPS, and Ultra averages 60 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 83 FPS, Medium averages 59 FPS with a range of 50 to 68, High averages 51 FPS, and Ultra averages 39 FPS.

The progression from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent pattern of performance degradation across all settings. The Low preset loses 49.1% of its frame rate going from 1080p to 4K (163 to 83 FPS), while the Medium preset loses 52.8% (125 to 59 FPS), the High preset loses 53.2% (109 to 51 FPS), and the Ultra preset loses 52.4% (82 to 39 FPS). This consistency suggests that the scaling is primarily driven by pixel count and GPU bandwidth, rather than settings-specific effects. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 40 FPS, making it unsuitable for competitive play but potentially acceptable for single-player scenarios.

The data also reveals that the step from Medium to High has a notable impact on performance at all resolutions. At 1080p, this step costs 16 FPS (from 125 to 109), at 1440p it costs 11 FPS (from 91 to 80), and at 4K it costs 8 FPS (from 59 to 51). The step from High to Ultra costs more: 27 FPS at 1080p (from 109 to 82), 20 FPS at 1440p (from 80 to 60), and 12 FPS at 4K (from 51 to 39). This indicates that the Ultra preset carries a significant performance penalty relative to High, and players may prefer High for a better balance of visual quality and frame rate. The Medium preset offers the best consistency with measured minimum and maximum values, making it a reliable choice for maintaining smooth gameplay across all resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 60+ FPS consistently?

A: The 2560x1440 High preset achieves 80 FPS average, and the 2560x1440 Medium preset achieves 91 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS, making 1440p the highest resolution where all settings except Ultra maintain 60+ FPS. At 4K, only the Low preset (83 FPS) achieves 60+ FPS, while Medium (59 FPS) and High (51 FPS) fall short.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER's performance compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 20282, which is 1% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480), 1.2% lower than the RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), 1.3% lower than the Intel Arc B570 (20556), and 1.5% lower than the Intel Arc A750 (20582). This indicates the GPU is slightly below these alternatives in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 163 FPS average, while the Ultra preset achieves 82 FPS, representing a 49.7% reduction in frame rate. The Medium preset at 125 FPS and High at 109 FPS provide intermediate steps between these extremes.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo for Lockdown Protocol?

A: The GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops from 1440p to 4K (e.g., High settings drop from 80 to 51 FPS). The CPU, with its 6 cores and 6 threads, is likely sufficient for maintaining frame rates at 1080p, but its 47th percentile ranking suggests it could bottleneck in CPU-intensive scenarios.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 2270 out of 3714 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 38.9th percentile. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking (relative to all GPUs) is higher than the CPU's 47th percentile ranking, indicating the CPU is the weaker component in this pairing.

Q: At 4K, which settings preset provides the best playable experience?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 offers 59 FPS average with a minimum of 50 FPS, which is the only preset above the 4K Ultra setting that maintains near-60 FPS performance. The Low preset at 83 FPS provides smoother performance but with significant visual compromises, while High (51 FPS) and Ultra (39 FPS) may be too inconsistent for fast-paced gameplay.