Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is a sharply imbalanced combination on paper: a 94th-percentile desktop CPU mated to a 70th-percentile GPU. In Lockdown Protocol, that imbalance resolves predictably. Measured results show the pairing clears the 60 FPS playable threshold at every preset at 1920x1080, at three of four presets at 2560x1440, and only at Low settings at 3840x2160. The GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution, which is exactly what the data should show given the CPU's benchmark headroom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured average frame rates; minimum and maximum frame rate data were not captured for this configuration.

At 1920x1080, the pairing scales from Low to Ultra as follows:

• Low: 159.6 FPS
• Medium: 112.3 FPS
• High: 99.2 FPS
• Ultra: 74.2 FPS

Even the most demanding preset stays well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the Low preset more than doubles it. The drop from Low to Ultra is significant in absolute terms — 85.4 FPS — but the floor remains comfortably playable.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 114.8 FPS
• Medium: 84.5 FPS
• High: 70.6 FPS
• Ultra: 54.6 FPS

Three of the four presets clear 60 FPS. Ultra is the exception, falling 5.4 FPS short of the threshold. High is the practical ceiling here, delivering a 10.6 FPS margin over the playable line.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 75.3 FPS
• Medium: 52.5 FPS
• High: 48.9 FPS
• Ultra: 33.4 FPS

This resolution exposes the RX 6600 XT's limits. Only Low clears 60 FPS. Medium misses by 7.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to less than half the Low result. Note also the unusual inversion at 4K: Medium (52.5) actually outperforms High (48.9) by a modest 3.6 FPS, which is atypical but consistent within this dataset.

How This Combo Ranks

Against all 3714 tested CPU/GPU combinations in Lockdown Protocol, this pairing ranks 2697th — placing it in the bottom third of the database for this specific title. That ranking is not a reflection of the CPU, which sits in the 94th percentile of all tested processors with an average benchmark score of 70879. It is a direct consequence of the GPU: the RX 6600 XT's average benchmark score of 24442 puts it in the 70th percentile of all GPUs.

In other words, the Core Ultra 7 265K is a top-tier anchor attached to a mid-range, now end-of-life graphics card. Lockdown Protocol's performance is being dictated almost entirely by the weaker half of the pair. A rank of 2697 of 3714 tells the story accurately: the combo plays the game, but it is far from the strongest configuration the database has measured.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Lockdown Protocol at 1080p on max settings?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080 on Ultra, the combo averages 74.2 FPS, clearing the 60 FPS playable threshold with a 14.2 FPS margin. All four presets are playable at 1080p.

Q: Can it run the game at 4K?

A: Only on Low settings. At 3840x2160, Low averages 75.3 FPS, while Medium (52.5 FPS), High (48.9 FPS), and Ultra (33.4 FPS) all fall below 60 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the bottleneck here?

A: The GPU. The Core Ultra 7 265K ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the RX 6600 XT sits in the 70th percentile of all GPUs. The large frame-rate drops as resolution and preset quality rise — from 159.6 FPS at 1080p Low to 33.4 FPS at 4K Ultra — are characteristic of GPU-bound behavior.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 7 265K compare to rival CPUs?

A: Its average benchmark score of 70879 puts it within a tight cluster: 1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700KF, 1.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon 6511P, and 0.7% behind the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270.

Q: What is the best preset to use at 1440p?

A: High. It averages 70.6 FPS at 2560x1440 — the most demanding preset that stays at or above the 60 FPS threshold. Stepping up to Ultra drops the average to 54.6 FPS.

Q: Does the game get more CPU-dependent at higher settings?

A: No — the opposite. Increasing load pushes the system further into GPU-bound territory. At 1080p Low the combo averages 159.6 FPS, which is where the CPU would begin to matter most; at 4K Ultra it averages 33.4 FPS, entirely constrained by the GPU.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC can run Lockdown Protocol — with caveats tied to resolution.

• 1920x1080: Fully playable at every preset. All four settings clear 60 FPS, topping out at 74.2 FPS on Ultra and 159.6 FPS on Low. Best settings: Ultra at 74.2 FPS.
• 2560x1440: Playable at Low, Medium, and High. Ultra misses the threshold at 54.6 FPS. Best settings: High at 70.6 FPS.
• 3840x2160: Playable only at Low, averaging 75.3 FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra all fail the 60 FPS bar.

The overall verdict: a strong 1080p and 1440p machine for this title, and a marginal 4K machine restricted to the lowest preset. For an FPS where frame rate matters, the 1080p and 1440p results — 74.2 FPS at 1080p Ultra and 70.6 FPS at 1440p High — are the sensible operating points.

Similar Performance Alternatives

On the CPU side, the Core Ultra 7 265K's average score of 70879 places it in a dense cluster of near-equals. The Intel Xeon 6511P (0.2% faster), Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (0.7% faster), Intel Core i7-14700KF (1% slower), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (1.3% slower) would all deliver effectively indistinguishable processor-side performance in this game. Since Lockdown Protocol performance here is GPU-limited, any of these substitutes would leave the measured frame rates essentially unchanged.

On the GPU side, the RX 6600 XT's average score of 24442 has near-neighbors in the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (0.7% slower), Intel Arc A350M (0.8% faster), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (0.8% slower), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% slower). Swapping in any of these cards would be expected to reproduce the measured Lockdown Protocol results within a narrow band. The RX 6600 XT itself is an RDNA 2.0 part on the Navi 23 chip with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus and 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth — specifications that matter at 4K, where the Medium-through-Ultra results collapse.

Best Settings per Resolution

• 1920x1080 — Ultra, 74.2 FPS. The most demanding preset in the game still clears 60 FPS by a 14.2 FPS margin. No reason to drop below Ultra at this resolution.
• 2560x1440 — High, 70.6 FPS. Ultra averages 54.6 FPS and fails the threshold, so High is the ceiling. The margin over 60 FPS is 10.6.
• 3840x2160 — Low, 75.3 FPS. The only preset that clears the bar, with a 15.3 FPS margin. Medium at 52.5 FPS is the nearest miss.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data identifies the GPU as the dominant component at every resolution. Consider the spread between the best and worst measured result at each resolution: at 1920x1080, frame rates span 74.2 to 159.6 FPS depending on preset; at 2560x1440, 54.6 to 114.8 FPS; at 3840x2160, 33.4 to 75.3 FPS. That consistent, heavy sensitivity to pixel load is the signature of a GPU-bound system.

Holding a preset fixed and raising resolution tells the same story. On Low, the average drops from 159.6 FPS at 1080p to 114.8 at 1440p and 75.3 at 4K. On Ultra, it drops from 74.2 to 54.6 to 33.4. In every case the decline is steep and monotonic — the RX 6600 XT, with its 8 GB frame buffer and 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, simply runs out of capacity as pixel count climbs.

The Core Ultra 7 265K, by contrast, never appears to be the constraint. With 20 cores and 20 threads, a 5.50 GHz boost clock, a Passmark single-thread score of 4928, a Passmark multithread score of 58594, and a Geekbench multicore score of 23085, it ranks in the 94th percentile of all tested CPUs and outperforms rivals like the Core i7-14700KF by 1% and the Ryzen 7 9700F by 1.3% on average benchmark score. The only scenario in which the CPU could plausibly become the limiter is the 1080p Low result of 159.6 FPS, where frame-rate ceilings of this kind are typically processor-limited — but even there, the data shows the pairing sustaining a very high frame rate.

Practical implication: upgrading the GPU would lift Lockdown Protocol performance at 1440p and 4K almost proportionally, while upgrading the CPU would change nothing. The pairing's rank of 2697 out of 3714 tested combinations for this game reflects the graphics card, not the processor, and any component targeting should follow that asymmetry.