Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The combination of Intel's 6-core Core i5-9400 (Coffee Lake, 14nm) and NVIDIA's RTX 3080 (Ampere, 8nm) produces a fascinating split in Lockdown Protocol's performance profile. The data shows a system that delivers excellent frame rates at every resolution tested, yet the scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K reveals a nuanced interaction between the 2.90 GHz base / 4.10 GHz boost CPU and the 10 GB GDDR6X GPU. With the RTX 3080 sitting in the 80th percentile of all GPUs and the i5-9400 at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, this combo ranks 677th out of 1637 tested configurations in this game — a solidly mid-tier placement that belies the raw frame counts.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern: moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 produces progressively larger performance hits, but the magnitude varies dramatically by settings preset. At Low settings, the game runs at 162.4 FPS at 1080p, drops to 147.9 FPS at 1440p (a 8.9% reduction), and falls to 117.5 FPS at 4K (a 27.6% reduction from 1080p). This relatively gentle scaling at Low suggests the GPU remains the primary bottleneck even at 4K, since the i5-9400's 6 cores and 6 threads can feed frames quickly at these lighter settings.

The High preset tells a different story. The 1080p result is 136.4 FPS, which drops to 112.5 FPS at 1440p (a 17.5% loss) and then to 75.8 FPS at 4K (a 44.4% loss from 1080p). The steeper decline at High indicates the RTX 3080's 8704 shading units and 272 TMUs are being pushed harder, yet the CPU's influence becomes more visible. The Ultra preset amplifies this: 115.2 FPS at 1080p, 82.4 FPS at 1440p (a 28.5% drop), and 54.4 FPS at 4K (a 52.8% drop). This scaling curve at Ultra suggests that the i5-9400's 9 MB shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth start to constrain the frame delivery as pixel counts rise.

The most telling observation is the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the spread is 47.2 FPS (from 162.4 to 115.2). At 4K, that spread grows to 63.1 FPS (from 117.5 to 54.4). This widening gap indicates that as resolution increases, the RTX 3080's raw compute — 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 and 465.1 GTexel/s texture rate — becomes the dominant factor, while the CPU's role diminishes. The data implies that Lockdown Protocol is GPU-limited at 4K even with this mid-range processor, but at 1080p, the i5-9400's 6 threads may be holding back what the RTX 3080 could otherwise deliver.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The maximum recorded average FPS is 162.4, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next closest is 147.9 FPS at 2560x1440 Low, showing that this pairing can push well past 144 FPS at 1080p and remains above 100 FPS at 1440p on lighter presets.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, the average FPS is 75.8, which is playable. At 4K Medium, it rises to 82.7 FPS. However, 4K Ultra drops to 54.4 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many competitive FPS players target. The data suggests 4K is viable for casual play but not ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080's average benchmark score is 35787. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, scores 35860, which is 0.2% higher. The AMD Radeon 880M is 0.4% lower at 35646, while the Radeon RX 7900 GRE is 0.9% higher at 36101. The RTX 5070 Ti Mobile trails by 1% at 35435. These are all statistical ties, but the RTX 3080's 80th percentile ranking confirms its competitiveness.

Q: What is the performance difference between the i5-9400 and its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-9400's average benchmark score is 2305. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300 (0.2% lower), the Core i3-1125G4 scores 2299 (0.2% lower), and the Xeon E-2134 scores 2295 (0.4% lower). The Core i7-8809G is 0.6% higher at 2319. This places the i5-9400 in a four-way statistical tie, reinforcing its 50th percentile standing.

Q: Does the 10 GB VRAM of the RTX 3080 limit 4K performance?

A: The data cannot directly confirm VRAM capacity as a limiting factor, but the 10 GB GDDR6X memory with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth is substantial. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 54.4 suggests either VRAM pressure or compute limits, but without memory usage metrics, the bottleneck remains ambiguous. The 320-bit bus width and 19 Gbps effective memory speed are competitive, yet the 4K Ultra result is the weakest measured.

Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming?

A: The measured data shows this combo excels at 1440p. At High settings, 1440p delivers 112.5 FPS versus 136.4 FPS at 1080p — a 17.5% penalty that is acceptable. At Medium, the gap narrows: 143.3 FPS at 1080p versus 130.3 FPS at 1440p. The 1440p results remain above 82 FPS even at Ultra, making it the sweet spot for balancing visual quality and frame rate.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080's specifications paint a picture of a high-end Ampere part with 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Its 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, built on Samsung's 8nm process, give it a transistor density of 45.1M per mm². The boost clock of 1710 MHz (up from a 1440 MHz base) drives a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s. These figures translate directly to the measured FPS: at 4K, the 54.4 FPS Ultra result suggests the GPU's FP32 throughput of 29.77 TFLOPS is being taxed heavily.

The memory subsystem is a critical part of this equation. The 10 GB GDDR6X runs at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) across a 320-bit bus, yielding 760.3 GB/s bandwidth. In Lockdown Protocol, this bandwidth appears sufficient at all tested resolutions, since the 4K High result of 75.8 FPS is only 33.3% lower than the 1080p High result of 136.4 FPS — a reasonable scaling for a 4x pixel increase. The RTX 3080's 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present but their impact on this FPS title is not directly measurable from the data.

The GPU's benchmark percentile (80th) aligns with its in-game behavior. Its nearest rival, the Radeon Pro Duo, scores only 0.2% higher on average, and the RX 7900 GRE is 0.9% ahead. Yet in Lockdown Protocol, the RTX 3080's 4K Ultra result of 54.4 FPS indicates that even this high-end part struggles when the i5-9400 is feeding it. The data suggests the GPU is rarely the sole bottleneck except at 4K Ultra, where its compute limits surface.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range shows a tight grouping: Low runs at 162.4 FPS, Medium at 143.3 FPS, High at 136.4 FPS, and Ultra at 115.2 FPS. The 47.2 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is the smallest of any resolution, indicating that the CPU can maintain high frame delivery even as GPU load increases. The i5-9400's 6 cores at 2.90 GHz base (4.10 GHz boost) appear sufficient to keep the RTX 3080 fed at this resolution, though the 115.2 FPS Ultra result hints at diminishing returns.

At 2560x1440, the spread widens to 65.5 FPS: Low hits 147.9 FPS, Medium 130.3 FPS, High 112.5 FPS, and Ultra 82.4 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 30.1 FPS (26.7% reduction), which is a significant penalty for the visual upgrade. The 1440p results are strong overall, with even Ultra staying above 80 FPS. This resolution represents the best balance, as the GPU's 320-bit memory bus and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are more fully utilized.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals the steepest declines. Low delivers 117.5 FPS — a 27.6% drop from 1080p Low — while Medium falls to 82.7 FPS. High manages 75.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 54.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 63.1 FPS, the largest spread across all resolutions. This pattern suggests that at 4K, the RTX 3080's shading units and TMUs become the primary constraint, and the CPU's 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth becomes less relevant. The 4K Low result of 117.5 FPS is notable: it shows the GPU can still pump frames when pixel work is light, but Ultra pushes it to its limits.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 677 out of 1637 tested configurations places it in the 41st percentile of all combos tested in Lockdown Protocol. This is lower than the GPU's standalone 80th percentile, which is unsurprising given the i5-9400's 50th percentile CPU standing. The data implies that the CPU is the weaker link in this pairing, dragging the overall rank down despite the RTX 3080's strength.

Comparing to the nearest rivals, the i5-9400's closest CPU competitors (i3-10305, i3-1125G4, Xeon E-2134, i7-8809G) all score within 0.6% of it, suggesting that swapping to any of these would produce negligible in-game differences. Similarly, the RTX 3080's GPU rivals (Radeon Pro Duo, Radeon 880M, RX 7900 GRE, RTX 5070 Ti Mobile) are all within 1% in synthetic tests, meaning the measured FPS would likely shift by only a few frames with any of these alternatives.

This ranking of 677th out of 1637 means the combo sits in the upper-middle tier. It is not a top-100 configuration, but it outperforms over 960 other tested combos. The data suggests that the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM and 29.77 TFLOPS are somewhat wasted at 1080p, where the CPU limits frame rates, but at 4K, the combo's rank likely improves because the GPU becomes the dominant factor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium settings as the best experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 143.3 FPS — only 11.8% below the Low maximum of 162.4 FPS — while providing better visual fidelity. At 1440p, Medium hits 130.3 FPS, which is 11.1% higher than High and 58.1% higher than Ultra. At 4K, Medium achieves 82.7 FPS, which is 9.1% faster than High and 52.0% faster than Ultra.

For players prioritizing frame rate, Low settings at 1080p (162.4 FPS) or 1440p (147.9 FPS) are the clear choices, especially for competitive FPS play where high refresh rates matter. The 4K Low result of 117.5 FPS is also respectable for a 4K display. However, the jump from Low to Medium costs only 8.9% at 1080p (from 162.4 to 143.3 FPS), 11.9% at 1440p (from 147.9 to 130.3 FPS), and 29.6% at 4K (from 117.5 to 82.7 FPS). The 4K penalty for Medium is steep but still playable.

Ultra settings are not recommended based on this data. At 1080p, Ultra drops to 115.2 FPS — a 20.4% loss from High — and at 4K it falls to 54.4 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. The visual improvements from High to Ultra are rarely worth a 30-40% frame rate reduction in a fast-paced FPS. The sweet spot is Medium at 1440p, delivering 130.3 FPS with a balance of quality and speed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake Refresh generation, built on Intel's 14nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz boosts to 4.10 GHz, and it features a 9 MB shared L3 cache with 64 KB L1 and 256 KB L2 per core. Memory support is dual-channel DDR4 with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth, and the CPU connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes. The integrated UHD 630 graphics are present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU setup.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-9400 scores 7969 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1125 in single-core. These scores place it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals all within 0.6%. The 6-thread limitation (no Hyper-Threading) is a known constraint, and the data suggests this affects Lockdown Protocol at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU must generate frames faster than at 4K, and the 6 threads may struggle to keep up with the RTX 3080's capacity. The 1080p Low result of 162.4 FPS versus the 4K Low result of 117.5 FPS shows how resolution shifts the bottleneck.

The i5-9400's 4.10 GHz boost clock helps mitigate its older architecture, but the 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth and 9 MB L3 cache are modest by modern standards. In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears to be frame delivery at 1080p and 1440p, while at 4K, the GPU's pixel throughput dominates. The data implies that upgrading to a CPU with more threads (like the i7-8809G, which scores 0.6% higher) would yield marginal gains at best, since the i5-9400 is already within 0.4% of its closest rivals.

The 65W TDP and Intel Socket 1151 compatibility make this a modestly powered chip, but its end-of-life status and 2018 release date (versus the RTX 3080's 2020 release) highlight a generational gap. The combo's 677th rank out of 1637 suggests that this pairing is acceptable but not optimal — the RTX 3080 deserves a stronger CPU to fully unlock its potential, particularly at 1080p where frame rates are highest.