Lockdown Protocol

Measured FPS Breakdown

Lockdown Protocol's measured frame rates for this Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT combination show a system that scales cleanly across resolutions and presets. The data set covers three resolutions (3840x2160, 2560x1440, 1920x1080) and four quality settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), with average FPS recorded for every configuration and min/max values captured for the Medium preset at each resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system delivers an average of 82 FPS on High settings. Dropping to Low raises the average to 133 FPS, while Medium lands at 94 FPS with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS. Ultra is the demanding option here, producing an average of 62 FPS — still above the 60 FPS playability threshold, but with less headroom than lower presets. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 71 FPS, indicating that the GPU has substantial scaling headroom as settings increase.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages climb considerably. Low settings produce 206 FPS, Medium reaches 146 FPS with a min/max range of 124 to 168 FPS, High delivers 127 FPS, and Ultra still manages 96 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra here is 110 FPS, showing that resolution scaling is more pronounced than preset scaling at this tier. Every preset at 1440p clears the 60 FPS mark with room to spare.

At 1920x1080, the system hits very high frame rates across the board. Low settings average 280 FPS, Medium averages 199 FPS with a min of 169 and max of 229, High settles at 174 FPS, and Ultra holds at 130 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p is more than double the 60 FPS threshold, which makes this resolution the obvious choice for high-refresh-rate displays. The min FPS values at Medium — 80 FPS at 4K, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 169 FPS at 1080p — all stay comfortably above playable levels, suggesting consistent frame delivery rather than spikes and drops.

The data reveals a few notable patterns. First, the difference between Low and High at each resolution is significant but not enormous: 51 FPS at 4K, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 1080p. Second, the jump from High to Ultra costs 20 FPS at 4K, 31 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 1080p — meaning Ultra is the most expensive preset in relative terms. Third, the min/max data available for Medium at each resolution shows tight ranges: 80–108 at 4K, 124–168 at 1440p, and 169–229 at 1080p. These bands indicate that frame pacing remains stable even when the average is high.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT shifts as resolution changes. At 1920x1080, the CPU's 20 cores and 20 threads have more influence on the upper frame rates, since lower resolution reduces the GPU's rendering load. The 280 FPS average on Low settings at 1080p is a strong indicator that the CPU can feed frames quickly, but the Ultra average of 130 FPS shows that the GPU still matters even at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the GPU begins to take a more dominant role. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is evident: Low drops from 280 to 206 FPS, Medium from 199 to 146, High from 174 to 127, and Ultra from 130 to 96. These reductions of 74, 53, 47, and 34 FPS respectively show that the RX 7900 XT's rendering capacity is the limiting factor as pixel count increases. The CPU-side headroom visible at 1080p is less relevant at 1440p, where the GPU's 800.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 51.48 TFLOPS FP32 compute are doing the heavy lifting.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The averages fall to 133 FPS on Low, 94 on Medium, 82 on High, and 62 on Ultra. The CPU has enough throughput to keep up, but the GPU's pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s are taxed heavily at 4K. The fact that Ultra still holds 62 FPS at 4K suggests that the RX 7900 XT's 20 GB of GDDR6 memory and 320-bit bus provide adequate capacity for high-resolution assets without causing stutter or memory pressure.

The preset scaling at each resolution reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 150 FPS; at 1440p, it costs 110 FPS; at 4K, it costs 71 FPS. The shrinking delta as resolution increases confirms that GPU load grows faster than CPU load when both resolution and quality rise. Players targeting maximum refresh rates should stay at 1080p or 1440p with lower presets, while those prioritizing visual fidelity can push Ultra at 4K and still stay above 60 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the CPU and GPU in this combination provide context for what similar hardware would deliver. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 sits close to several AMD EPYC processors in average benchmark score. The AMD EPYC 4464P scores 64823, which is 0.3% higher than the Core Ultra 7 265's 64640 average — effectively a tie in synthetic testing. The AMD EPYC 9124 scores 65104, 0.7% above, while the AMD EPYC 7343 scores 64202, 0.7% below. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265F scores 64438, 0.3% lower, meaning it would behave nearly identically in Lockdown Protocol. None of these rivals deviate more than 0.7% from the Core Ultra 7 265 in average score, so any of them would produce essentially the same frame rates when paired with the RX 7900 XT.

On the GPU side, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT's nearest rivals are more varied. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile scores 13821, 0.5% above the RX 7900 XT's 13745 average. The AMD Radeon 660M scores 13812, also 0.5% above. The AMD Radeon RX 570X scores 13871, 0.9% above. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT scores 13543, 1.5% below. These deltas are small, but the RX 9070 XT's 1.5% deficit is the largest gap in the group, which could translate to a few fewer frames at 4K Ultra. The RX 570X's 0.9% advantage might yield one to two extra FPS at the same settings. In practice, any of these GPUs would produce frame rates within a few percent of the measured values — the differences are within run-to-run variance for most games.

It is worth remembering the GPU's percentile rank of 55 against all GPUs is lower than the CPU's percentile rank of 93 against all CPUs. This means the RX 7900 XT is closer to the middle of the GPU performance distribution, while the Core Ultra 7 265 sits near the top of the CPU distribution. In Lockdown Protocol, this asymmetry favors the CPU side at lower resolutions, where the processor's strong single-thread and multithread scores (5960 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 42216 in multi-core) can push frame rates higher.

The Verdict

The data shows that this PC can run Lockdown Protocol at every resolution and preset tested. At 3840x2160, all four presets clear the 60 FPS threshold, with Ultra averaging 62 FPS, High at 82, Medium at 94, and Low at 133. The 4K Ultra result is the tightest margin — 62 FPS is only 2 FPS above the playable threshold — so players who want headroom at 4K should consider High or Medium instead. At 2560x1440, every preset averages well above 60 FPS: Low at 206, Medium at 146, High at 127, and Ultra at 96. At 1920x1080, the system is effectively uncapped for competitive play, with Low at 280 FPS, Medium at 199, High at 174, and Ultra at 130. No configuration in the measured data falls below the 60 FPS floor.

The verdict across all three resolutions is the same: playable. The best settings at each resolution — the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS — are Ultra at every resolution. At 4K, Ultra averages 62 FPS, which barely qualifies; at 1440p, Ultra averages 96 FPS; at 1080p, Ultra averages 130 FPS. The system has enough GPU horsepower to run maxed-out settings even at 4K, and enough CPU throughput to avoid bottlenecking at high refresh rates on lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This CPU-GPU combination ranks 685 out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 18.4% of all configurations. The rank reflects the balance between the Core Ultra 7 265's strong CPU performance and the RX 7900 XT's solid GPU output. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking against all CPUs is the stronger contributor, while the GPU's 55th percentile against all GPUs is comparatively modest. This means the combo's overall rank is driven more by the processor than the graphics card — a useful insight for players considering upgrades. Swapping the RX 7900 XT for a higher-ranked GPU would likely improve the combo's position more than replacing the CPU, since the CPU already sits near the top of the distribution.

Best Settings per Resolution

For players who want the highest visual quality while maintaining at least 60 FPS, the data points to Ultra at every resolution. At 3840x2160, Ultra averages 62 FPS — the only setting in the measured data that comes close to the threshold, so players with variable-refresh-rate displays should be comfortable, but those on fixed 60 Hz monitors may prefer High at 82 FPS for extra margin. At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 96 FPS, which provides a 36 FPS buffer above the threshold and is the clear choice for high-refresh 1440p panels. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 130 FPS, giving a 70 FPS buffer and making it suitable for 144 Hz displays.

The Medium preset offers the only complete min/max data in the set, which is useful for understanding frame consistency. At 4K Medium, the range is 80–108 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 124–168 FPS; at 1080p Medium, it is 169–229 FPS. These ranges show that the system maintains smooth delivery even when settings are moderate. For players who prioritize frame rate stability over absolute visual fidelity, Medium is a safe fallback that never drops near the 60 FPS floor — the lowest recorded min is 80 FPS at 4K Medium. Low settings are only necessary for extreme refresh rates, such as 280 FPS at 1080p, which exceeds what most monitors can display.