Lockdown Protocol

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data for Lockdown Protocol with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 570 covers three resolutions and four quality presets. The most important observation is that playable performance, defined as an average of at least 60 FPS, only appears at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

At 3840x2160, the combination struggles across the board. The High preset delivers an average of 22 FPS. Dropping to Medium raises the average to 26 FPS, with a minimum of 22 FPS and a maximum of 30 FPS. Low settings improve the average to 36 FPS, while Ultra falls to 17 FPS. None of these numbers approach the 60 FPS threshold, and even the best case, Low at 36 FPS, is only slightly more than half of what would be considered playable.

Moving to 2560x1440 shows a meaningful step up, but the results remain below the playable line. High averages 35 FPS. Medium reaches 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. Low jumps to 56 FPS, which is close to 60 but still short. Ultra drops to 26 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 30 FPS, which indicates that the preset choice has a very large influence on the frame rate.

At 1920x1080, the picture changes considerably. Low settings average 77 FPS, clearing the 60 FPS threshold with a comfortable margin. Medium averages 54 FPS, with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS. High averages 47 FPS. Ultra drops to 36 FPS. The spread from Ultra to Low is 41 FPS, the largest range observed across all resolutions. This suggests that at 1080p, the GPU is the limiting factor and the settings slider has substantial control over the outcome.

The data also shows that the RX 570 has a narrow operating window. Even at 1080p, only the Low preset stays above 60 FPS on average. Medium at 54 FPS is close, but the minimum of 46 FPS means there will be visible dips during intense scenes. The lack of min and max values for several presets, including all Low and High entries, limits the depth of the analysis, but the averages alone are sufficient to classify the system.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Lockdown Protocol at 60 FPS on a 4K monitor?

A: No. The recorded data shows no 3840x2160 preset reaches 60 FPS. The best result is Low at 36 FPS, which is well below the playable threshold of 60 FPS.

Q: What is the highest setting that maintains 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: Low is the only preset at 1920x1080 that stays at or above 60 FPS, with an average of 77 FPS. Medium at 54 FPS, High at 47 FPS, and Ultra at 36 FPS all fall short.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its closest rival, the RX 6800M?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 28766, while the AMD Radeon RX 6800M scores 28874. The RX 570 is 0.4 percent behind, a negligible difference in overall compute performance.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p Low to 4K Low?

A: The average frame rate drops from 77 FPS at 1920x1080 Low to 36 FPS at 3840x2160 Low, a reduction of 41 FPS. That is roughly a 53 percent decrease.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus significantly faster than the Core Ultra 9 285K?

A: The 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, while the Core Ultra 9 285K scores 83807. The 290K Plus is 0.2 percent ahead, which is effectively a tie in synthetic CPU benchmarks.

Q: Does the system rank highly among all tested combos for Lockdown Protocol?

A: No. The combo ranks 3544 out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it in the lower portion of the database for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3544 out of 3714 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol. This places the system in the bottom percentile of the database, with roughly 95 percent of tested combos delivering higher frame rates in this game. The rank reflects the GPU's limitations more than the CPU's capabilities, as the CPU itself sits in the 96th percentile among all processors.

The ranking is consistent with the measured FPS data. At 4K, the best preset averages 36 FPS, and at 1440p the best preset averages 56 FPS. Only at 1080p Low does the system clear the playable threshold. A combo ranked this low in the database typically struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at higher resolutions, and the recorded numbers confirm that pattern for Lockdown Protocol.

The gap between the CPU and GPU in relative standing is striking. The processor ranks in the top 4 percent of all CPUs, while the graphics card ranks in the 74th percentile among all GPUs. In a game like Lockdown Protocol, an FPS title, the GPU usually dominates the performance equation, and the low combo rank reflects that the RX 570 cannot fully utilize the headroom offered by the 290K Plus.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus are all close in average score. The Core Ultra 9 285K scores 83807, a 0.2 percent difference. The AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 83090, a 1.1 percent difference. The AMD EPYC 9135 scores 82980, a 1.2 percent difference. The AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85072, which is 1.3 percent higher than the 290K Plus. In gaming terms, these differences are negligible, and any of these processors would produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the same GPU.

For the AMD Radeon RX 570, the nearest rivals are similarly close. The AMD Radeon RX 6800M scores 28874, which is 0.4 percent higher. The AMD Radeon R9 M295X scores 28580, 0.7 percent lower. The AMD Radeon RX 470 scores 28996, 0.8 percent higher. The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 scores 28421, 1.2 percent lower. Any of these GPUs would deliver nearly the same performance in Lockdown Protocol, meaning the measured FPS values would shift by only a frame or two at most.

The practical implication is that a system with any of these rival CPUs or GPUs would land in the same performance band. The RX 570 and RX 470, in particular, share the same Polaris architecture and similar compute resources, so users upgrading between them would see no meaningful change in Lockdown Protocol. The RX 6800M, despite being a mobile part, scores within 0.4 percent of the RX 570 in the database's aggregate benchmark, which is surprising but reflected in the data.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the dominant constraint in this pairing. Evidence comes from the scaling between resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 77 FPS at 1080p to 56 FPS at 1440p, then to 36 FPS at 4K. This steep decline as resolution increases is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load grows faster than the graphics card can process.

The CPU's role is secondary. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with 24 cores and 24 threads, a 5.80 GHz boost clock, and a 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, provides far more compute headroom than the RX 570 can use. In an FPS title at 1080p Low, where the CPU typically matters most, the system still only manages 77 FPS. If the processor were the bottleneck, the frame rate would be expected to stay relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the data shows a 41 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor.

The preset scaling reinforces this conclusion. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 41 FPS, a 53 percent reduction in average frame rate. At 4K, the same preset change costs 19 FPS, a 53 percent drop from 26 to 17 FPS. The proportional impact of settings is consistent across resolutions, which is expected when the GPU is saturated at every quality level. A CPU-bound system would show less sensitivity to preset changes at higher resolutions, but the data does not show that pattern.

The Verdict

The verdict by resolution is clear. At 3840x2160, no preset is playable. The best average is 36 FPS on Low, which is far below the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, no preset is playable either. Low averages 56 FPS, close but still short of the threshold, and Medium, High, and Ultra all fall further behind. At 1920x1080, the system is playable only on Low, which averages 77 FPS.

The database marks the playable settings at 1920x1080 as only Low, with a best average of 77 FPS at that setting. This means the system can run Lockdown Protocol, but only under a specific configuration. Players who want to use Medium or higher presets, or who play at 1440p or 4K, will need a more capable graphics card. The RX 570 is end-of-life hardware, and the measured data shows it is adequate for 1080p Low in this title, nothing more.

This is not a system for high-refresh-rate monitors or high-detail gaming. The 1080p Low result of 77 FPS is workable for casual play, but the 46 FPS minimum on Medium preset and the 47 FPS High average leave little room for demanding scenes. The verdict is conditional playability at 1080p Low only.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS does not exist; the best available average is Low at 36 FPS, which is below the threshold. No setting at this resolution is recommended for playable frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the same situation applies. Low averages 56 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 40 FPS, High at 35 FPS, and Ultra at 26 FPS are all lower. No preset at 1440p reaches the playable mark.

At 1920x1080, the best settings are Low, which averages 77 FPS. This is the only preset that clears the 60 FPS threshold at any resolution. Medium at 54 FPS is the next closest, but its average falls below the line, and its minimum of 46 FPS means drops below 60 FPS are common. For users who must play at 1080p, Low is the only settings configuration that satisfies the playable threshold, and it does so with an average of 77 FPS, roughly 17 FPS of headroom above the minimum requirement.