Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

The combination of Intel's Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080 produces a system that ranks 132nd out of 2,828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 4.7% of all combos. This pairing pairs a 10-core, 10-thread Arrow Lake desktop processor with a Blackwell-architecture GPU that carries 16 GB of GDDR7 memory, and the measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher quality presets. The data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p with Low settings the combo reaches 345 FPS average, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 76 FPS, suggesting that the RTX 5080's raw throughput is the dominant factor in most scenarios, with the CPU only becoming a meaningful constraint at the lowest resolution and quality settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 345, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is followed by 253 FPS at 2560x1440 Low and 245 FPS at 1920x1080 Medium.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems in Lockdown Protocol?

A: This combination ranks 132nd out of 2,828 tested combos, placing it in the top 4.7% of all configurations. The data indicates a strong overall position, though not at the very top tier of performance.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded?

A: The lowest average FPS is 76, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. At 4K High the average is 101 FPS, and at 4K Medium it is 116 FPS, so even the most demanding preset remains playable.

Q: Which settings preset produces the largest FPS difference between 1080p and 4K?

A: The Low preset shows the largest absolute drop, going from 345 FPS at 1080p to 163 FPS at 4K, a difference of 182 FPS. The Ultra preset drops from 160 FPS at 1080p to 76 FPS at 4K, a difference of 84 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU have a higher or lower benchmark score than its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36,938, which is essentially identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F at 36,945 (0% difference). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D by 0.2% (36,938 vs 37,018) and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 by 0.4%.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the GPU and how does it compare to the CPU's memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 5080 has a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s across a 256-bit bus with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 supports dual-channel DDR5 with a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, meaning the GPU has roughly 9.4 times the memory bandwidth of the CPU's system memory interface.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the clear performance driver in this configuration for Lockdown Protocol. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2617 MHz, built on the GB203 chip using a 5 nm process with 45,600 million transistors. It carries 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, with 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores supporting Blackwell 2.0 architecture features. The memory subsystem is substantial: 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for handling the texture streaming and geometry loads in a modern FPS title.

The GPU benchmarks show a strong overall position, with a Passmark G3D score of 36,565 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 21,789. The GPU's percentile ranking against all GPUs is 87th, and its average benchmark score is 56,083. When compared to nearest rivals, the RTX 5080 leads the AMD Radeon 8060S by 0.6% and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 0.7%, while trailing the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by 2.2%. These rival deltas are small, indicating that the RTX 5080 sits in a competitive performance band.

In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the GPU's role is most evident in the scaling between settings presets. At 4K resolution, moving from Low to Ultra reduces average FPS from 163 to 76, a 53% drop. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where the rendering workload, including pixel fill rate (293.1 GPixel/s) and texture rate (879.3 GTexel/s), directly determines frame throughput. The RTX 5080's FP32 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS provides the compute headroom, but the data shows that Ultra presets at 4K still demand more than the card can deliver at high refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, though the magnitude varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 345 at 1080p to 253 at 1440p (a 27% reduction) and then to 163 at 4K (a 36% further reduction from 1440p, 53% total from 1080p). This steep scaling curve at Low settings suggests that the CPU and GPU are both contributing to the limit, as the lower graphical workload allows the system to push very high frame rates where other bottlenecks emerge.

At Medium settings, the averages are 245 FPS at 1080p, 180 FPS at 1440p, and 116 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 27% from 1080p to 1440p and 36% from 1440p to 4K, showing a nearly identical relative scaling to Low settings. High settings produce 214 FPS at 1080p, 157 FPS at 1440p, and 101 FPS at 4K, with reductions of 27% and 36% respectively. Ultra settings show 160 FPS at 1080p, 118 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K, with drops of 26% and 36%.

The consistent percentage drops across settings presets indicate that resolution scaling is governed by the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth. The RTX 5080's 960.0 GB/s bandwidth and 293.1 GPixel/s pixel rate are the limiting factors as pixel count increases. The fact that the drops are proportionally similar whether at Low or Ultra settings suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck across all configurations, with the CPU only becoming relevant at the very highest frame rates (345 FPS at 1080p Low) where per-frame CPU overhead starts to matter.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for different priorities. For competitive play at high refresh rates, the 1080p Low preset delivers 345 FPS average, which far exceeds any current display's refresh rate capability and provides maximum responsiveness. At 1440p Low, the 253 FPS average still offers headroom above 240 Hz displays, making this a strong choice for high-refresh 1440p monitors.

For balanced visual quality and performance, the Medium preset appears optimal. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 245 FPS with a minimum of 208 FPS and maximum of 282 FPS, providing smooth gameplay with better visual fidelity than Low. At 1440p Medium, the 180 FPS average (minimum 153 FPS, maximum 207 FPS) remains well above 144 Hz display thresholds and offers a meaningful visual upgrade. The measured minimum FPS values for Medium settings indicate that frame pacing remains consistent, with the 1440p Medium showing a minimum of 153 FPS, which is 85% of the average.

The High preset at 1440p delivers 157 FPS average, which is still sufficient for 144 Hz displays, and at 1080p High it reaches 214 FPS. The Ultra preset only achieves 118 FPS at 1440p and 76 FPS at 4K, which may be acceptable for slower-paced play but falls short of competitive refresh rate targets. Given that the Medium preset shows the best balance between quality and frame rate stability, with the only min/max data available in the measurements, it is the recommended starting point for most players.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 132nd out of 2,828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 4.7% of all systems tested. This rank reflects a very strong overall position, though the gap to the very top performers is likely driven by CPU limitations at lower resolutions and settings. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 holds an 85th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36,938. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores 36,945 (0% difference), while the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37,018 (0.2% higher).

The RTX 5080 holds an 87th percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 56,083. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 8060S, scores 55,757 (0.6% lower), while the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE scores 57,367 (2.2% higher). Both components sit in the upper echelon of their respective categories, and the combo rank of 132 out of 2,828 suggests that the pairing is well-matched for this game.

The data implies that the RTX 5080 is capable of higher performance than the CPU can feed at low resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 345 FPS average likely approaches the CPU's limit for frame generation in Lockdown Protocol, given that the Core Ultra 5 225 has 10 cores and 10 threads with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and single-core score of 3,655 provide the computational foundation, but the lack of hyper-threading (10 threads for 10 cores) may limit performance in scenarios with many concurrent game threads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values by settings preset are: Low at 345 FPS, Medium at 245 FPS with a minimum of 208 FPS and maximum of 282 FPS, High at 214 FPS, and Ultra at 160 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 185 FPS, representing a 54% reduction in frame rate when moving to the highest quality preset.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 253 FPS, Medium at 180 FPS with a minimum of 153 FPS and maximum of 207 FPS, High at 157 FPS, and Ultra at 118 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 135 FPS, a 53% reduction. Compared to 1080p, each preset loses approximately 27% of its frame rate when moving to 1440p, showing consistent scaling.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 163 FPS, Medium at 116 FPS with a minimum of 99 FPS and maximum of 133 FPS, High at 101 FPS, and Ultra at 76 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is 87 FPS, a 53% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K, each preset loses approximately 36% of its frame rate, indicating that the GPU's pixel throughput becomes increasingly strained at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset is the only settings level with complete min/max data across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 208 FPS is 85% of the average, at 1440p Medium the minimum of 153 FPS is 85% of the average, and at 4K Medium the minimum of 99 FPS is 85% of the average. This consistency in frame pacing suggests that the RTX 5080 maintains stable performance without significant stuttering or frame time spikes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 provides the computational foundation for this system, built on the Arrow Lake-S architecture with a 3 nm process from TSMC. It features 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at lower resolutions and settings where frame rates are highest. At 1080p Low, the 345 FPS average suggests that the CPU is approaching its frame generation limit, as the GPU would likely be capable of even higher output given its 56.28 TFLOPS compute capability. The CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655 and Passmark single-thread score of 4,412, is strong but not exceptional for a 10-core part.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are reflected in its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and Passmark multithread score of 30,459. In an FPS game like Lockdown Protocol, which typically relies more heavily on single-thread performance for game logic and physics, the Core Ultra 5 225's 10 threads may be sufficient, but the data at 1080p Low suggests a ceiling. The 253 FPS at 1440p Low and 163 FPS at 4K Low show that as resolution increases and GPU workload grows, the CPU's influence diminishes, confirming that the processor is not a limiting factor at higher resolutions but becomes relevant at extreme frame rates.

The CPU's 85th percentile ranking and near-identical benchmark scores to its nearest rivals (AMD Ryzen 5 5600F at 0% difference, AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D at -0.2%) indicate that it is a solid mid-to-upper range desktop processor. However, the lack of hyper-threading (10 threads for 10 cores) may be a consideration for games that can utilize more threads, as Lockdown Protocol's frame rates at 1080p Low suggest the CPU is working at its limits. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 support provide adequate bandwidth for most gaming workloads, though the 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth is significantly lower than the GPU's 960.0 GB/s, which is expected given the different memory architectures.