Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a lopsided combination: a capable mobile CPU anchored to one of the fastest desktop GPUs ever made. In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU dominates the experience, and the recorded frame rates reflect that. At 1080p and 1440p, this combo obliterates the 60 FPS target at every preset, while 4K remains playable at High and Medium settings, with Ultra dipping just below the threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database contains measured average FPS for three resolutions and four presets, with min and max values recorded only for the Medium preset at each resolution.

At 1920x1080, the combo is exceptionally fast. On Low settings, the average frame rate reaches 262 FPS. Moving up to High drops the average to 162 FPS, while Medium sits at 186 FPS with a minimum of 158 FPS and a maximum of 214 FPS. Ultra is still very smooth at 122 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra is 140 FPS, which shows that even at the highest settings, the RTX 4090 has ample headroom at this resolution. The CPU is likely the limiting factor at Low, since the 262 FPS figure approaches what a high-end mobile processor can feed into the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down but remain far above playable. Low averages 192 FPS, High averages 119 FPS, and Medium averages 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS. Ultra still delivers 89 FPS on average. The drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is 70 FPS, which is a larger relative decline than the drop from 1080p High to 1440p High (43 FPS). This suggests that at Low settings, the GPU is still partially waiting on the CPU, while at High settings, the GPU workload becomes more dominant.

At 3840x2160, the picture changes. Low averages 124 FPS, High averages 77 FPS, and Medium averages 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 101 FPS. Ultra falls to 58 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is 66 FPS, narrower than at lower resolutions. The recorded data shows that the RTX 4090 can handle 4K High with room to spare, but the transition from High to Ultra costs 19 FPS, which is a significant penalty for the final preset tier.

The min and max figures at Medium are worth noting. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 158 FPS is still far above any refresh-rate concern. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 116 FPS remains smooth. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 75 FPS is still comfortably above 60 FPS, so even the worst 1% or 0.1% lows recorded stay playable.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database, the CPU and GPU each have close neighbors that would produce broadly similar results in Lockdown Protocol, assuming the other component stays the same.

For the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX, the closest match is the AMD EPYC 8124P, which scores 0.1% lower on average. The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is 0.2% ahead, the Intel Core i7-14700 is 0.4% behind, and the Intel Core i9-13900F is 0.7% ahead. These deltas are tiny, all within one percentage point of each other. In a GPU-bound game like Lockdown Protocol, swapping the Ultra 5 235HX for any of these alternatives would change frame rates by less than a percent, which is imperceptible in practice. The Ryzen 9 5950X and Core i9-13900F are older desktop parts, but the benchmark scores show they still trade blows with this newer mobile chip.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, the nearest rivals are surprising. The Intel Arc Pro A60 matches it at 0.0% delta, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 0.3% ahead. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% behind, and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 is 2.9% ahead. These are professional workstation GPUs, not gaming cards, but the aggregate benchmark scores place them in the same percentile band. That said, in a real FPS title like Lockdown Protocol, the RTX 4090’s gaming-specific features and driver optimization would almost certainly widen the gap. The database’s average benchmark score treats all workloads equally, so the proximity of these workstation cards does not mean they would deliver identical frame rates in this game. The practical takeaway is that no consumer gaming GPU sits close to the RTX 4090 in this dataset, so there is no cheaper alternative that would behave the same in Lockdown Protocol.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded FPS scaling shows that the GPU is the dominant component for Lockdown Protocol at every resolution, but the CPU still matters at low settings and high frame rates.

At 1080p Low, the combo hits 262 FPS. Compare that to 1440p Low at 192 FPS and 4K Low at 124 FPS. The GPU workload increases by roughly 78% from 1080p to 1440p (based on pixel count), and the frame rate drops by 27%. From 1440p to 4K, the pixel count doubles, and the frame rate drops by 35%. These are not linear relationships, which indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is contributing to the frame rate ceiling. The 1080p Low result is likely closer to the CPU’s maximum output than the GPU’s.

At High settings, the pattern changes. 1080p High averages 162 FPS, 1440p High averages 119 FPS, and 4K High averages 77 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27%, and the drop from 1440p to 4K is 35%. The relative declines are similar to Low, but the absolute numbers are lower. At Ultra, 1080p averages 122 FPS, 1440p averages 89 FPS, and 4K averages 58 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27%, and from 1440p to 4K is 35%, again consistent.

The consistent percentage drops across settings suggest that Lockdown Protocol scales with resolution in a predictable way, and the GPU is the primary bottleneck once the settings exceed Low. The CPU’s influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where the 262 FPS result is far above what the RTX 4090 would need to saturate at higher settings. For most users running High or Ultra, the RTX 4090 is doing the heavy lifting, and the Core Ultra 5 235HX is more than sufficient.

The data also shows that raising settings from Low to Ultra costs more FPS at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the difference is 140 FPS (262 to 122). At 1440p, it is 103 FPS (192 to 89). At 4K, it is 66 FPS (124 to 58). This makes sense: at 4K, the GPU is already stressed, so the relative cost of each preset tier is smaller. At 1080p, the GPU has so much headroom that the preset change has a larger absolute impact.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC can run Lockdown Protocol. The verdict by resolution is clear.

At 3840x2160, the playable settings are High, Low, and Medium. High averages 77 FPS, Low averages 124 FPS, and Medium averages 88 FPS. Ultra falls to 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold, so it is not recommended for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, every preset is playable. High averages 119 FPS, Low averages 192 FPS, Medium averages 136 FPS, and Ultra averages 89 FPS. Even the most demanding setting clears 60 FPS by a wide margin.

At 1920x1080, every preset is also playable. High averages 162 FPS, Low averages 262 FPS, Medium averages 186 FPS, and Ultra averages 122 FPS. This resolution is the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate monitors, as even Ultra stays well above 120 FPS.

Best Settings per Resolution

The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at each resolution is as follows.

At 3840x2160, the best settings are High, with an average FPS of 77. This is the only preset above Medium that clears 60 FPS, and it does so with 17 FPS of headroom. Medium is also playable at 88 FPS, but High offers better visual quality while still remaining smooth.

At 2560x1440, the best settings are Ultra, with an average FPS of 89. This is the top preset, and it clears 60 FPS by 29 FPS. Users who want the maximum visual fidelity can run Ultra without any concern about frame rate.

At 1920x1080, the best settings are also Ultra, with an average FPS of 122. This is more than double the playable threshold, so there is no reason to drop below the highest preset at this resolution.

The pattern is clear: at 1440p and below, Ultra is the recommended preset. At 4K, High is the ceiling, and Ultra should be avoided unless the user is willing to accept an average of 58 FPS, which will occasionally dip below 60.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Lockdown Protocol, this specific CPU and GPU pairing ranks 806 out of 3714 combos. That places it in the top 22% of all tested systems. The rank reflects the overall performance of the combo, which is dominated by the RTX 4090’s strong showing in this game.

The ranking is solid but not elite. The RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product with a percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs, meaning 12% of GPUs in the database score higher on aggregate benchmarks. The Core Ultra 5 235HX has a percentile rank of 91 among all CPUs. Despite both components being near the top of their respective categories, the combo rank of 806 suggests that many other pairings, likely with even faster CPUs or more specialized gaming hardware, achieve higher frame rates in Lockdown Protocol.

The gap between this combo and the top 800 ranks is not visible in the measured FPS data, since the RTX 4090 already delivers playable frame rates at 4K High and excellent results at lower resolutions. The rank is informative for comparing against other database entries, but for a practical user, the numbers that matter are the 77 FPS at 4K High, the 89 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and the 122 FPS at 1080p Ultra. Those results confirm that this system is more than capable of running Lockdown Protocol smoothly at any resolution below 4K, and at 4K with a modest setting reduction.