Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol, a 2024 FPS built on Unreal Engine, presents a demanding workload that stresses both the CPU and GPU. The data for this configuration—the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060—reveals a system with significant graphical headroom that is consistently held back by its six-core processor, especially at lower resolutions. The measured frames per second (FPS) across twelve distinct benchmark rows provide a clear picture of where this combination excels and where its limitations become starkly apparent.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a substantial visual upgrade over Medium without the severe performance penalty of Ultra. At 1080p, High delivers 127.1 FPS, which is 86.3 FPS higher than the Ultra preset's 90.8 FPS, while still being a significant jump from the 140.8 FPS of Medium. This pattern holds at 1440p, where High produces 89.7 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and only 19.1 FPS behind Medium's 104.9 FPS. Even at 4K, High maintains a playable 61.2 FPS, making it the only preset besides Low that can sustain above 60 FPS at that resolution.

For users prioritizing maximum smoothness over visual fidelity, the Low preset is the only option that consistently delivers high refresh rates. At 1080p, Low produces 163.6 FPS, which is 23.2 FPS ahead of Medium and 36.5 FPS ahead of High. The performance gap narrows at higher resolutions, with Low at 1440p producing 147.4 FPS and at 4K producing 93.9 FPS. The Medium preset represents a middle ground, but its performance curve is less compelling—at 4K it drops to 67.7 FPS, perilously close to the 60 FPS baseline. The Ultra preset is the clear outlier, sacrificing 47.2% of High's 1080p performance for marginal visual gains, making it unsuitable for competitive play.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its capabilities are evident in the benchmark results. With 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, the card offers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Lockdown Protocol's demands across all tested settings. The GPU's 3840 shading units and 120 texture mapping units, running at a boost clock of 2497 MHz, provide the raw compute power necessary to drive high frame rates. The card's 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is a key factor in its ability to handle the game's particle effects and lighting calculations.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the RTX 5060 becomes the primary bottleneck, with frame rates scaling almost linearly with settings changes. The transition from Ultra (43.6 FPS) to High (61.2 FPS) to Medium (67.7 FPS) to Low (93.9 FPS) demonstrates how the GPU's workload scales with pixel count and shader complexity. The card's 48 ROPs and 119.9 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient for 4K output, but the data suggests that the 8 GB VRAM capacity may be a limiting factor at Ultra settings, where texture streaming demands could exceed available memory.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system where the CPU bottleneck diminishes as resolution increases. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 127.1 FPS at 1080p to 89.7 FPS at 1440p (a 29.4% reduction) and then to 61.2 FPS at 4K (a 31.8% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the RTX 5060's workload increases proportionally with pixel count while the CPU has more time to prepare frames.

The Low preset tells a different story. At 1080p, the system achieves 163.6 FPS, but this only drops to 147.4 FPS at 1440p (a 9.9% reduction) and then to 93.9 FPS at 4K (a 36.3% reduction from 1440p). The relatively small drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings strongly indicates a CPU limitation at 1080p—the i5-9400 cannot feed frames to the GPU fast enough to fully utilize its potential. The larger drop from 1440p to 4K shows the GPU finally becoming the limiting factor. This pattern is even more pronounced at Ultra settings, where 1080p yields 90.8 FPS, 1440p yields 70.6 FPS, and 4K yields 43.6 FPS, showing a more consistent GPU-bound scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset achieves 163.6 FPS, while Medium reaches 140.8 FPS, High produces 127.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 90.8 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 72.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU has significant headroom even at the highest settings. The fact that Low only outperforms High by 36.5 FPS (28.7%) suggests that the CPU is becoming a factor even at 1080p, as the GPU should theoretically scale more aggressively with lower graphical loads.

At 2560x1440, the performance hierarchy remains consistent but the gaps narrow. Low leads with 147.4 FPS, followed by Medium at 104.9 FPS, High at 89.7 FPS, and Ultra at 70.6 FPS. The difference between Low and High is now 57.7 FPS (39.1%), showing that the GPU is more consistently the bottleneck at this resolution. The Medium preset's 104.9 FPS is notable for being the only non-Low setting to exceed 100 FPS at 1440p, making it a viable option for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more modest. Low produces 93.9 FPS, Medium drops to 67.7 FPS, High manages 61.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 43.6 FPS. The 50.3 FPS difference between Low and Ultra represents a 53.6% performance penalty for the highest settings. The High preset's 61.2 FPS is barely above the 60 FPS threshold, making it playable but not ideal for competitive play. The Low preset at 93.9 FPS is the only option that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration ranks #903 out of 1637 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the 44.8th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the significant imbalance between the RTX 5060's capabilities and the i5-9400's limitations. The GPU alone sits in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 50th percentile of all CPUs. The combination's ranking suggests that many other systems with comparable or even weaker GPUs but stronger CPUs achieve better performance in this game.

The ranking data implies that the i5-9400 is holding back the RTX 5060 in a meaningful way, particularly at 1080p where the CPU bottleneck is most apparent. The combo's position in the lower half of the 1637 tested combinations indicates that users with this pairing are likely leaving substantial performance on the table. The data suggests that upgrading the CPU to a more modern six-core or eight-core processor with higher single-thread performance would likely improve the ranking significantly, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125, placing it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% faster) and the Intel Core i7-8809G (0.6% slower), indicating that it sits in a tightly contested performance tier.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p with Low settings, where the 163.6 FPS result suggests that the processor is the limiting factor. The six-core/6-thread configuration is adequate for the game's logic and physics, but the lack of hyperthreading means that background tasks can compete for threads, potentially causing frame time spikes. The 4.10 GHz boost clock helps in single-threaded scenarios, but the aging Coffee Lake architecture cannot match the per-core performance of newer processors. At 4K, the CPU's influence wanes as the GPU's workload dominates, but at 1080p and 1440p, the i5-9400's limitations are the primary reason this combo does not rank higher.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The High preset at 127.1 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The Low preset reaches 163.6 FPS but sacrifices visual fidelity, while Ultra drops to 90.8 FPS, a 28.6% reduction from High.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low (93.9 FPS) and High (61.2 FPS) presets. Medium (67.7 FPS) also exceeds 60 FPS, while Ultra (43.6 FPS) falls short by 27.4%.

Q: Why is the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p so small at Low settings?

A: The drop from 163.6 FPS to 147.4 FPS (9.9%) indicates a CPU bottleneck at 1080p, where the Intel Core i5-9400 cannot feed the RTX 5060 fast enough. The GPU can handle more frames, but the CPU limits throughput.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 903rd out of 1637 total combinations, placing it in the lower half of tested systems. The RTX 5060's high GPU percentile (73rd) is offset by the i5-9400's average CPU percentile (50th).

Q: Is the RTX 5060's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for Lockdown Protocol?

A: The 8 GB GDDR7 memory appears sufficient across all tested settings and resolutions. The 4K Ultra preset's 43.6 FPS likely reflects shader and compute limitations rather than VRAM capacity, given the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Ultra and Low settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Ultra produces 70.6 FPS while Low produces 147.4 FPS, representing a 76.8 FPS (52.1%) performance penalty for the highest settings. Medium (104.9 FPS) and High (89.7 FPS) sit between these extremes.