Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol, an FPS released in March 2024, shows a clear GPU-bound pattern for the tested configuration of an Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB. The data indicates that this combo occupies the 1897th rank out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it just past the midpoint of the database. At 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 193 FPS, demonstrating that the CPU can drive high frame rates, but the experience degrades predictably as resolution and settings increase, with 4K Ultra dropping to 42 FPS. The component analysis shows a stark contrast in benchmark standings: the CPU sits at the 85th percentile among all processors, while the GPU rests at only the 24th percentile, making the graphics card the definitive limiting factor in this pairing.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank in Lockdown Protocol compared to other tested systems?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB ranks 1897th out of 3714 tested combinations. This places the configuration near the 51st percentile in the game's performance hierarchy, meaning slightly more than half of all tested combos perform better, while just under half perform worse.

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 193 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best result is 141 FPS at 2560x1440 with Low settings, showing that dropping resolution from 1080p to 1440p costs 52 FPS even at the lowest quality preset.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark standing compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36938 across all tested workloads, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its closest competitor, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores 36945, a delta of 0 percent. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37018, which is 0.2 percent higher, while the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093, 0.4 percent higher, and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37112, 0.5 percent higher. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming terms.

Q: What is the GPU's benchmark position relative to other graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4093, placing it in the 24th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel HD Graphics 630, scores 4075, which is 0.4 percent lower. The NVIDIA Quadro K2100M scores 4151 (1.4 percent higher), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M scores 4033 (1.5 percent lower), and the AMD Radeon R5 M330 scores 4170 (1.8 percent higher). This places the GPU in a low-performance tier that heavily influences the overall combo ranking.

Q: How does frame rate scale between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 141 FPS, High delivers 88 FPS, Medium delivers 100 FPS, and Ultra delivers 66 FPS. The gap from Low to Ultra is 75 FPS, representing a 53 percent reduction in average frame rate. Notably, Medium outperforms High by 12 FPS at this resolution, suggesting the High preset applies settings that are disproportionately expensive relative to their visual impact.

Q: Does the CPU's single-thread performance support high frame rates in Lockdown Protocol?

A: Yes, the CPU's benchmark results indicate strong single-thread capability. In Cinebench R23 single-core, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 scores 3655 points. PassMark single-thread testing yields a score of 4412. These results support the 193 FPS figure seen at 1080p Low, where the CPU is less burdened by GPU-side rendering tasks and can feed frames at a high rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB is the dominant factor in Lockdown Protocol's performance for this system. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1700 MHz and a boost clock of 3130 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2530 MHz. Memory runs at 2518 MHz, which translates to 20.1 Gbps effective, across a 128-bit bus for a total bandwidth of 322.3 GB/s. The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is a critical constraint, particularly at higher resolutions and settings.

The GPU's low benchmark percentile of 24 is evident in the measured results. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 120 FPS, but this drops to 88 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 57 FPS at 3840x2160. The 8 GB memory capacity becomes a limiting factor when moving to 4K, where the High preset yields only 57 FPS. The data shows that the GPU's shading units (2048), texture mapping units (128), and render output units (64) are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, even when settings are lowered to Medium, which produces 65 FPS at that resolution.

The GPU's RDNA 4.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process with 29,700 million transistors, provides a peak FP32 throughput of 25.64 TFLOPS. However, the pixel rate of 200.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 400.6 GTexel/s are not enough to keep Lockdown Protocol fluid at Ultra settings, where the 4K average sinks to 42 FPS. The card's 150 W TDP and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface do not compensate for its raw performance tier. In this game, the RX 9060 XT behaves as a 1080p-class card with playable 1440p performance at medium-to-low presets, but 4K is only viable at Low settings, where it manages 91 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB achieves a rank of 1897 out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the system in the lower-middle portion of the performance distribution, and the ranking is almost entirely determined by the GPU's limitations. The CPU's 85th percentile standing among all processors contrasts sharply with the GPU's 24th percentile, creating an imbalance where the processor is capable of far more than the graphics card can deliver.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this pairing. In Cinebench R23 multicore, the processor scores 25891, and in single-core it scores 3655, both respectable figures. The nearest rival comparisons show the CPU trading blows with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Ryzen 5 5500X3D, with deltas under 1 percent. Meanwhile, the GPU's nearest rivals are integrated or mobile-class parts like the Intel HD Graphics 630 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M, which underscores how far the RX 9060 XT sits from mainstream discrete graphics cards in synthetic benchmarks.

The combo rank of 1897 means that 1847 other configurations outperform this one in Lockdown Protocol. This is a direct consequence of the GPU's low score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where it manages 4093 points. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would dramatically improve the in-game frame rates, given that the processor's headroom is not being fully utilized. The measured FPS figures show a system that is GPU-limited at every resolution and settings combination tested, with the CPU waiting on the graphics card to complete rendering tasks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Lockdown Protocol covers three resolutions and four settings levels, providing a comprehensive view of performance. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 193 FPS on Low, 137 FPS on Medium, 120 FPS on High, and 90 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 158 FPS, indicating some frame pacing variability, but the overall averages are smooth. The step from Low to Medium costs 56 FPS, while Medium to High costs 17 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 30 FPS, showing that Ultra is disproportionately expensive at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, performance drops across all settings. Low yields 141 FPS, Medium yields 100 FPS with a minimum of 85 and maximum of 116, High yields 88 FPS, and Ultra yields 66 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by 52 FPS at Low, 37 FPS at Medium, 32 FPS at High, and 24 FPS at Ultra. This pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming more stressed as resolution increases, but the relative cost of Ultra settings diminishes slightly because the GPU is already near its limits.

At 3840x2160, the results reveal the GPU's ceiling. Low settings produce 91 FPS, Medium produces 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 and maximum of 75, High produces 57 FPS, and Ultra falls to 42 FPS. The 4K results show a narrow range between High and Ultra, with only 15 FPS separating them, while the jump from Low to Medium costs 26 FPS. None of the 4K settings achieve the 120 FPS target that is met at 1080p High, and only Low at 4K exceeds the 90 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. The data indicates that 4K gaming with this combo requires Low settings for a playable experience, and even then, frame times may not be consistent enough for competitive play.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling in Lockdown Protocol reveals a classic GPU-bound behavior for this system. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Low settings reduces the average frame rate from 193 FPS to 141 FPS, a 27 percent drop. The same resolution step at High settings reduces performance from 120 FPS to 88 FPS, a 27 percent drop as well. At Medium, the drop is from 137 FPS to 100 FPS, a 27 percent reduction, and at Ultra, from 90 FPS to 66 FPS, a 27 percent drop. This consistent scaling across all settings indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to maintain the same level of instruction throughput regardless of resolution.

The jump from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 shows a more severe degradation. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 141 FPS to 91 FPS, a 35 percent reduction. High settings drop from 88 FPS to 57 FPS, a 35 percent reduction. Medium drops from 100 FPS to 65 FPS, a 35 percent reduction, and Ultra drops from 66 FPS to 42 FPS, a 36 percent reduction. The steeper decline at 4K points to the 8 GB memory capacity becoming a limiting factor, as the larger frame buffer demands exceed what the 128-bit bus and 322.3 GB/s bandwidth can efficiently supply. The GPU's 64 ROPs are also likely saturated, given the pixel rate of 200.3 GPixel/s is insufficient for 4K at high quality settings.

The scaling behavior confirms that the limiting component is the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain flat or improve at lower resolutions, but the data shows a nearly linear decline with pixel count. The consistent 27 percent drop from 1080p to 1440p and 35 percent drop from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU's compute and memory subsystems are fully utilized at all tested settings. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 10 threads, has a boost clock of 4.90 GHz and a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25891, which is more than enough to sustain the frame rates observed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing ample processing power that goes largely untapped in Lockdown Protocol. The processor features 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Built on a 3 nm process from TSMC with 17,800 million transistors, the CPU has 20 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. In Cinebench R23, it scores 25891 in multicore and 3655 in single-core, while PassMark single-thread testing yields 4412 points.

The CPU's benchmark percentile of 85 places it well above the GPU's 24th percentile, indicating a significant performance imbalance. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F with an average score of 36945, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D with 37018, the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 with 37093, and the Intel Core i9-12900T with 37112. The deltas range from 0 to 0.5 percent, showing that this processor is competitive with mid-range and some high-end parts from other generations.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The measured FPS at 1080p Low, which reaches 193 FPS, demonstrates that the CPU can handle high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck. Even at 4K Low, where the GPU produces 91 FPS, the CPU is not strained, as evidenced by the fact that lowering settings at the same resolution yields higher frame rates. The 10-core, 10-thread configuration is sufficient for this FPS title, and the data suggests that a more powerful GPU would allow the CPU to deliver even higher frame rates. The processor's 3 nm process node and 4.90 GHz boost clock provide strong single-thread performance, which is critical for games that rely on a primary game thread. However, the GPU's limitations cap the system's overall performance, making the RX 9060 XT the clear target for any future upgrade.