Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 produces a system that handles Lockdown Protocol with clear resolution-based trade-offs: it delivers playable frame rates at 1080p across all settings, becomes marginal at 1440p on higher presets, and drops below 60 FPS at 4K on every setting except Low. Benchmark results indicate the RTX 5050 is the primary performance driver, while the Core i5-9400 provides sufficient headroom at lower resolutions but begins to constrain performance as pixel count rises. The measured data shows a system that ranks 1831st out of 2828 tested combinations for this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the performance distribution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound workload with predictable scaling behavior. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 104 at 1920x1080 to 76 at 2560x1440, then to 49 at 3840x2160. This represents a 26.9% reduction when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 35.5% reduction when moving from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 52.9%, which is consistent with a game that scales heavily with pixel count rather than CPU throughput.

The Low settings row tells a similar story with higher absolute numbers: 163 FPS at 1080p, 123 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 24.5% and 35.8% respectively, showing that even at Low settings, the GPU remains the limiting factor. The 4K Low result of 79 FPS is notable because it exceeds the 1080p Ultra result of 78 FPS, indicating that settings adjustments matter more than resolution reductions in this title.

Medium settings show the most complete data with min/max values included. At 1080p Medium, the average is 119 FPS with a range of 101 to 137. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 87 FPS with a range of 74 to 100. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 56 FPS with a range of 48 to 65. The min FPS at 4K Medium (48) drops below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that even Medium settings at 4K will produce noticeable stutter during demanding scenes.

Ultra settings produce the steepest scaling curve. The system delivers 78 FPS at 1080p Ultra, which drops to 57 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and further to 37 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured value across all configurations, and the 52.6% drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings indicates that this preset is designed for higher-end GPUs than the RTX 5050.

The scaling pattern across all settings suggests that Lockdown Protocol is heavily pixel-bound. The consistent percentage drops between resolution steps regardless of settings preset indicate that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any configuration. Even at 1080p Low with 163 FPS, the Core i5-9400 with 6 cores and 6 threads at a boost clock of 4.10 GHz appears capable of feeding the GPU without causing frame rate stalls.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly favors Medium settings as the optimal balance for this hardware combination. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 119 FPS average with a minimum of 101 FPS, providing smooth gameplay with headroom above typical 60 FPS displays. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs only 27% of the frame rate (from 163 to 119 FPS) while presumably offering substantial visual improvements. Moving from Medium to High at 1080p costs an additional 12.6% (from 119 to 104 FPS), and the step to Ultra costs another 25% (from 104 to 78 FPS).

At 1440p, Medium remains the recommended preset with 87 FPS average and a minimum of 74 FPS. This configuration keeps the minimum above 60 FPS, which is critical for maintaining consistent gameplay in an FPS title. High at 1440p drops to 76 FPS average, and while this is still playable, the lack of min/max data for High settings means the frame time consistency is unknown. Ultra at 1440p falls to 57 FPS average, which dips below the 60 FPS target and is not recommended for competitive play.

For 4K, the data suggests that only Low settings (79 FPS) provide a comfortable experience. Medium at 4K averages 56 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS, which will produce visible frame drops during intense firefights. High at 4K drops to 49 FPS, and Ultra falls to 37 FPS, both of which are below acceptable thresholds for a fast-paced FPS. Players with 4K displays should either accept Low settings or reduce their resolution to 1440p to unlock the Medium preset.

The frame rate differences between presets at the same resolution are substantial enough to warrant careful selection. At 1080p, the spread from Low (163 FPS) to Ultra (78 FPS) represents a 52.1% performance range. At 1440p, the spread from Low (123 FPS) to Ultra (57 FPS) is 53.7%. At 4K, the spread from Low (79 FPS) to Ultra (37 FPS) is 53.2%. This consistent ~53% spread across resolutions indicates that each settings tier imposes a similar relative cost on the GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 320.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This specification is adequate for Lockdown Protocol at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results suggest that memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at higher pixel counts. The GPU's boost clock of 2572 MHz and base clock of 2317 MHz deliver 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which places it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs in the benchmark database.

The RTX 5050's benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance. The GPU scores 17326 in Passmark G3D and 2502 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, with a Passmark DirectX 12 score of 66. These synthetic benchmarks align with the measured Lockdown Protocol results, showing a GPU that handles modern titles at mainstream resolutions but struggles at 4K. The nearest rival comparison shows the RTX 5050 at 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, and 1.6% behind the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile in average benchmark score.

The GPU's memory configuration of 8 GB GDDR6 is sufficient for Lockdown Protocol at the tested settings. The measured results show no signs of texture thrashing or memory-related stuttering at 1080p or 1440p. At 4K, the 8 GB capacity may be a contributing factor to the steep performance drop, as higher resolutions require larger texture buffers and more memory for frame data. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, while modest by current standards, proves adequate for this game's requirements at 1080p and 1440p Medium settings.

The RTX 5050's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility ensure that Lockdown Protocol can utilize modern rendering features. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 80 TMUs provide sufficient geometry and texture processing capability for the game's FPS environments. The pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s and texture rate of 205.8 GTexel/s are consistent with the measured frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Lockdown Protocol at 60 FPS on 1080p?

A: Yes, all four settings presets at 1920x1080 exceed 60 FPS average. Low runs at 163 FPS, Medium at 119 FPS, High at 104 FPS, and even Ultra achieves 78 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium is 101, well above the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gameplay?

A: Medium is the recommended preset at 2560x1440, delivering 87 FPS average with a minimum of 74 FPS. High runs at 76 FPS average but lacks min/max data, while Ultra drops to 57 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with the RTX 5050 in this game?

A: Only at Low settings, which produces 79 FPS average. Medium at 4K averages 56 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS, causing visible frame drops. High (49 FPS) and Ultra (37 FPS) are not recommended for 4K play.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to similar GPUs?

A: The RTX 5050 ranks in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. It scores 1.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT in average benchmark score, while trailing the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL by 0.6% and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile by 1.6%.

Q: Does the Core i5-9400 bottleneck the RTX 5050 in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K follows a consistent GPU-bound pattern, with the CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads at 4.10 GHz boost providing sufficient throughput even at the 163 FPS 1080p Low result.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: The system delivers 78 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is the most demanding tested configuration at 1080p, and while it remains above 60 FPS, players seeking higher refresh rates should consider High (104 FPS) or Medium (119 FPS) presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides 6 cores and 6 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This Coffee Lake architecture processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process, delivers benchmark scores that place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and single-core score of 935 indicate modest computational capability, yet the Lockdown Protocol results show that this CPU does not constrain gaming performance at the tested settings.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2% higher average score), Intel Core i7-10710U (0.3% lower), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (0.4% lower), and Intel Core i3-10305 (0.4% higher). These narrow margins, all within 0.4% of the i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254, suggest that the CPU is competitive with other mid-range processors from its era.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The evidence lies in the consistent frame rate scaling across resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see diminishing frame rate differences between 1080p and 1440p, as the GPU would have more headroom at lower resolutions. Instead, the data shows proportional drops at every resolution step, indicating that the RTX 5050 is saturated before the CPU reaches its limits.

The i5-9400's 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate data throughput for the game. The CPU's 65 W TDP and lack of overclocking capability (multiplier is locked) mean that users cannot extract additional performance through manual tuning, but the stock configuration proves sufficient for this game.

For players considering CPU upgrades, the data suggests that such changes would yield minimal gains in Lockdown Protocol at the tested settings. The system's 1831st rank out of 2828 combinations places it in the lower-middle range, but the bottleneck is clearly the GPU. Upgrading to a higher-core CPU would not meaningfully improve frame rates unless paired with a more powerful GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for Lockdown Protocol with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 163 FPS average
• Medium: 119 FPS average, 101 FPS minimum, 137 FPS maximum
• High: 104 FPS average
• Ultra: 78 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 123 FPS average
• Medium: 87 FPS average, 74 FPS minimum, 100 FPS maximum
• High: 76 FPS average
• Ultra: 57 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 79 FPS average
• Medium: 56 FPS average, 48 FPS minimum, 65 FPS maximum
• High: 49 FPS average
• Ultra: 37 FPS average

The Medium settings rows provide the only min/max data in the measured results, offering insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the 101 FPS minimum represents a 15.1% drop from the 119 FPS average, indicating reasonable frame pacing. At 1440p Medium, the 74 FPS minimum is a 14.9% drop from the 87 FPS average. At 4K Medium, the 48 FPS minimum is a 14.3% drop from the 56 FPS average. This consistent ~15% minimum-to-average ratio across resolutions suggests that the game's frame time spikes scale proportionally with overall performance.

The performance gaps between settings presets are consistent across resolutions. Moving from Low to Medium costs approximately 27% performance at 1080p (163 to 119 FPS), 29.3% at 1440p (123 to 87 FPS), and 29.1% at 4K (79 to 56 FPS). Moving from Medium to High costs 12.6% at 1080p, 12.6% at 1440p, and 12.5% at 4K. The final step from High to Ultra costs 25% at 1080p, 25% at 1440p, and 24.5% at 4K. This consistent percentage-based scaling indicates that each settings tier imposes a similar relative cost regardless of resolution.

The system's overall ranking of 1831st out of 2828 combinations for Lockdown Protocol places it in the 35th percentile of tested systems. The RTX 5050's 66th percentile GPU ranking versus the i5-9400's 47th percentile CPU ranking confirms that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing. The measured FPS data supports this assessment, showing that the system performs best at 1080p across all settings and remains viable at 1440p with Medium settings, while 4K gaming is limited to Low settings for smooth frame rates.