Lockdown Protocol

Best Settings per Resolution

For Lockdown Protocol, the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination delivers 60 FPS or higher at every tested resolution, but the ceiling for visual quality shifts considerably as resolution climbs. At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that holds at or above 60 FPS is High settings, where the recorded average lands at 70 FPS. That leaves Ultra out of reach at 4K, since it drops to 53 FPS on average, below the playable threshold. Medium at 4K runs at 80 FPS, and Low hits 113 FPS, but High is the sweet spot for maximum fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

Moving to 2560x1440, the story improves dramatically. Here the system can run every preset above 60 FPS, including Ultra, which averages 81 FPS. That makes Ultra the best settings choice at this resolution, as it delivers the full visual feature set while still maintaining a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS floor. High runs at 109 FPS, Medium at 124 FPS, and Low at 175 FPS, but none of those offer the same combination of image quality and performance as Ultra.

At 1920x1080, the same pattern holds: all four presets clear 60 FPS, and Ultra is the recommended setting with an average of 111 FPS. High reaches 148 FPS, Medium hits 170 FPS, and Low tops out at 239 FPS. Since Ultra is both playable and the most demanding option, it is the obvious pick for 1080p gaming. The data shows a clear progression: 4K users should settle for High, while 1440p and 1080p users can max the game out.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that the RTX 4080 is doing the heavy lifting in Lockdown Protocol, but the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is not a bottleneck at any resolution. The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the balance shifts. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 239 FPS, which is nearly four times the 60 FPS threshold. That high frame rate at low resolution suggests the GPU is still well within its limits, and the CPU is keeping up without issue. The Core Ultra 5 135H, with 14 cores and 18 threads, has enough headroom to feed the RTX 4080 at these speeds, especially given its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11875.5 and single-core score of 1700.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS drops by roughly 27% to 36% across presets compared to 1080p, depending on the settings level. For example, Ultra goes from 111 FPS at 1080p to 81 FPS at 1440p, a 27% reduction. Low goes from 239 FPS to 175 FPS, a 26.8% drop. This consistent scaling indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiter as pixel count increases, while the CPU maintains its role as a stable foundation. The same pattern holds when moving from 1440p to 4K: High drops from 109 FPS to 70 FPS (35.8% reduction), and Medium from 124 FPS to 80 FPS (35.5% reduction). These are substantial declines that point squarely at the graphics card.

The CPU's influence is most visible at lower resolutions and lower settings, where frame rates are extremely high. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 239 FPS, a number that approaches what even a high-end desktop CPU might cap out at. The Core Ultra 5 135H's PassMark single-thread score of 3521 and multi-thread score of 22422 suggest it can handle the game's logic and draw calls without creating a significant bottleneck. At 4K Ultra, the system averages only 53 FPS, which is below the playable threshold. This is almost certainly a GPU limitation, as the RTX 4080 is being pushed to its limits at 8.3 million pixels per frame with maximum settings. The CPU is not the issue here; the GPU simply runs out of headroom.

In summary, the RTX 4080 dominates the performance equation at 1440p and 4K, while the Core Ultra 5 135H provides sufficient processing power to avoid holding back frame rates at 1080p. The measured data shows that resolution scaling is the key factor, with each step up in resolution producing a predictable decline in FPS that aligns with GPU-bound behavior.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data for this combo covers three resolutions and four settings levels each, with some entries including minimum and maximum frame times. At 3840x2160, the averages are as follows: Low runs at 113 FPS, Medium at 80 FPS (with a minimum of 68 FPS and maximum of 92 FPS), High at 70 FPS, and Ultra at 53 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the only entry in the entire dataset that includes min and max values, showing a spread of 24 FPS between the lowest and highest frames. That range indicates some frame time variability, but the average remains comfortably above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the numbers climb significantly. Low averages 175 FPS, Medium averages 124 FPS (minimum 106 FPS, maximum 143 FPS), High averages 109 FPS, and Ultra averages 81 FPS. The Medium preset again shows a 37 FPS spread between min and max, which is the largest range recorded at any resolution. This suggests that at 1440p Medium, the system occasionally hits higher frame rates but also dips under pressure, though the average still lands well above the playable threshold.

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptional across the board. Low averages 239 FPS, Medium averages 170 FPS (minimum 144 FPS, maximum 195 FPS), High averages 148 FPS, and Ultra averages 111 FPS. The Medium preset has a 51 FPS spread, the widest of any recorded entry, but even the minimum of 144 FPS is more than double the 60 FPS threshold. This indicates that at 1080p, the system never drops below a very smooth level, regardless of settings.

Looking at the full dataset, a few patterns emerge. The difference between Low and Ultra is consistent: at 1080p, Low beats Ultra by 128 FPS (239 vs 111); at 1440p, the gap is 94 FPS (175 vs 81); at 4K, it narrows to 60 FPS (113 vs 53). This shrinking gap at higher resolutions reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the workload. Also noteworthy is that the High preset at 4K (70 FPS) performs almost identically to the Ultra preset at 1440p (81 FPS), showing that users can trade resolution for settings and achieve similar frame rates.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Lockdown Protocol? The answer is yes, with caveats at the highest resolution. According to the verdict data, the combo is playable at 3840x2160 with High, Low, or Medium settings, with High being the best choice at 70 FPS average. Ultra at 4K is not playable, as it averages 53 FPS, below the 60 FPS threshold. For users with a 4K display, the recommendation is clear: stick to High settings to maintain smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, every preset is playable, including Ultra at 81 FPS. This is the ideal resolution for this combo if you want maximum visual quality without compromises. The 1440p Ultra experience delivers 81 FPS, which is 35% above the playable threshold, leaving headroom for demanding scenes or background tasks. At 1920x1080, the system is fully unlocked: Ultra runs at 111 FPS, and even the most demanding settings never dip close to 60 FPS.

In practical terms, this system is a strong match for Lockdown Protocol. It can handle 1080p and 1440p at maximum settings with high frame rates, and it can manage 4K at High settings. The only failure point is 4K Ultra, where the GPU simply cannot keep up with the combination of high resolution and maxed-out graphics. For most players, that is a minor limitation, since 1440p Ultra offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance. The data confirms that this combo clears the 60 FPS bar in 11 out of 12 tested configurations, with the single exception being 4K Ultra.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H sits in a competitive position among CPUs based on average benchmark scores. Its closest rival is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, which scores 29123 compared to the Core Ultra 5 135H's 29093, a delta of just -0.1%. In practical terms, these two processors are nearly identical in raw performance, so users switching between them should see no meaningful difference in Lockdown Protocol frame rates. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT scores 28940, which is 0.5% lower than the Core Ultra 5 135H, again a negligible gap. On the other side, the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 scores 29245 (0.5% higher) and the Intel Core i5-13500HX scores 29270 (0.6% higher). All four rivals fall within a 1.1% range of the Core Ultra 5 135H, meaning any of them would deliver essentially identical CPU-bound performance in this game.

For the GPU side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 has a very close neighbor in the RTX 4080 SUPER, which scores 54209 versus 54247 for the standard RTX 4080, a delta of just 0.1%. This means the RTX 4080 SUPER would perform virtually the same in Lockdown Protocol, with maybe a frame or two difference at most. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, which is 1.1% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698, 2.6% higher. The AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55757, 2.7% higher. These AMD alternatives would provide slightly better raw GPU throughput, which could translate to a few extra FPS at 4K or in GPU-bound scenarios, though the differences are small enough that the gameplay experience would be nearly identical.

The combination of these near-identical rivals means that if the Core Ultra 5 135H or RTX 4080 were replaced with any of their closest counterparts, the benchmark results for Lockdown Protocol would remain essentially unchanged. The 4K Ultra setting would still likely fall below 60 FPS, and the 1440p Ultra setting would still deliver around 80 FPS. The performance envelope is tightly clustered across this hardware tier.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database's testing of 3714 CPU and GPU combinations for Lockdown Protocol, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks at position 1202. That places it in the top third of all tested configurations, specifically at the 32.3rd percentile (1202 divided by 3714). This is a solid ranking, though not elite, which makes sense given that the CPU is a mobile part with a 28 W TDP while the GPU is a high-end desktop card.

The rank reflects the combination's overall capability across all tested conditions, not just this game. The RTX 4080's PassMark G3D score of 34457 and the Core Ultra 5 135H's PassMark multi-thread score of 22422 contribute to this position. The 81st percentile ranking of the CPU among all processors and the 86th percentile of the GPU among all graphics cards indicate that both components are above average, but the mobile CPU holds the combo back from the top tiers. Desktop CPUs with higher sustained clocks and more aggressive power limits would likely push this combo higher in the rankings.

For Lockdown Protocol specifically, the rank of 1202 out of 3714 means there are over 2500 combinations that perform better, but also over 1200 that perform worse. The practical impact of this ranking is that the system delivers a very playable experience at 1080p and 1440p, with only 4K Ultra being problematic. The gap between this combo and higher-ranked ones would be most visible at 4K, where a stronger CPU might allow the RTX 4080 to stretch its legs a bit further, potentially pushing the Ultra preset from 53 FPS closer to 60 FPS. At lower resolutions, the ranking difference would be less noticeable, as the GPU becomes the dominant factor and the frame rates are already very high.