Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol pairs the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, and the measured results show a combo that scales aggressively with resolution and settings. At 1080p, frame rates are exceptionally high, but the data reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution climbs. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, component roles, and how this specific pairing ranks against 2,827 other tested combinations.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combination in Lockdown Protocol?

A: This combo ranks 50th out of 2,828 tested combinations, placing it in the top 2% of all tested pairings for this game.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5090 compared to its closest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090’s average benchmark score is 79,842, which is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605) and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X scores slightly higher at 80,959, a 1.4% lead over the 5090.

Q: What is the CPU’s single-thread and multi-thread performance profile?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 scores 4,412 in PassMark single-thread tests and 30,459 in PassMark multithread tests. In Cinebench R23, it achieves 3,655 points single-core and 25,891 points multi-core.

Q: Does the CPU have a high core count for gaming workloads?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225 has 10 cores and 10 threads, which is a modest count for modern desktop CPUs. Its 3.30 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock help compensate in lightly threaded scenarios, but the data shows the GPU handles most of the heavy lifting in this game.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory capacity and bandwidth?

A: The RTX 5090 features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is far beyond what Lockdown Protocol requires at any tested resolution.

Q: Are there any settings where the frame rate drops below 100 FPS?

A: Yes, at 4K Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 83. At 4K High, the average is 111 FPS, while 4K Medium holds at 127 FPS. All 1440p and 1080p settings stay well above 100 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications align with the measured frame rates. The GPU runs at a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with 21,760 shading units driving the rendering pipeline. This hardware configuration produces a PassMark G3D score of 39,650, placing the GPU in the 92nd percentile of all tested GPUs.

The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is a critical asset for Lockdown Protocol. Even at 4K Ultra settings, where the game demands the most from the memory subsystem, the GPU maintains 83 average FPS. The memory bus width of 512 bits and the effective 28 Gbps memory speed ensure that texture streaming and high-resolution assets are not a limiting factor. The data shows that the GPU’s compute capabilities, measured at 104.8 TFLOPS FP32, are sufficient to push frame rates well above 170 FPS at 1440p High settings.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 79,842 places it 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 0.6% ahead of the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB. This narrow margin suggests that the RTX 5090’s raw compute power is comparable to those data-center oriented cards, but its gaming-focused architecture with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores provides the specific features that Lockdown Protocol leverages. The GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking versus all GPUs confirms that this is a top-tier part, and the measured FPS in this game reflects that positioning.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a consistent and predictable drop as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 346 at 1080p to 276 at 1440p (a 20% reduction) and then to 178 at 4K (a 49% reduction from 1080p). This pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling factor, as the CPU’s workload does not change significantly with resolution.

The scaling behavior changes with settings. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 175 at 1080p to 128 at 1440p (a 27% reduction) and then to 83 at 4K (a 53% reduction from 1080p). The larger percentage drop at Ultra settings compared to Low settings suggests that the GPU’s shading and memory bandwidth are being stressed more heavily at higher quality presets. The 4K Ultra result of 83 FPS is the only tested configuration that falls below the 100 FPS threshold, indicating that this is where the combination finally meets its match.

The interpolation between resolutions reveals the limiting component. At 1080p, the CPU’s 10 cores and 10 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, resulting in very high frame rates. As resolution increases, the GPU’s rendering workload grows, and the frame rate drops proportionally. The data shows that the RTX 5090 is the bottleneck at 4K, while at 1080p, the CPU’s single-thread performance (4,412 PassMark score) becomes more relevant, capping the maximum achievable FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are consistently high across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 346 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 268 FPS with a minimum of 227 and a maximum of 308. High settings yield 234 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 175 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 171 FPS, showing that quality presets have a substantial impact even at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain impressive but show more differentiation. Low settings average 276 FPS, Medium settings average 196 FPS with a minimum of 167 and a maximum of 226, High settings average 171 FPS, and Ultra settings average 128 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 148 FPS, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the load of higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the results are the most telling. Low settings average 178 FPS, Medium settings average 127 FPS with a minimum of 108 and a maximum of 146, High settings average 111 FPS, and Ultra settings average 83 FPS. The minimum FPS recorded at 4K Medium is 108, which is still playable, but the Ultra preset’s average of 83 FPS suggests that this configuration is best used with High or lower settings for a consistent experience at 4K.

The data shows a clear hierarchy: Low settings always deliver the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, then High, and finally Ultra. The Medium settings results include min/max data, showing a consistent frame time distribution across all three resolutions, with the widest range at 1080p (227 to 308 FPS) and the narrowest at 4K (108 to 146 FPS).

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 50th out of 2,828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the top 1.8% of all tested pairings, which is a strong result given the CPU’s relatively modest specifications.

The CPU itself sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 36,938. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36,945, 0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37,018, -0.2% delta). The CPU is essentially tied with these competitors, showing that the Core Ultra 5 225’s performance is well within the expected range for its class.

The GPU, on the other hand, ranks in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs with an average score of 79,842. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, is only 0.3% slower, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is 1.4% faster. This narrow spread indicates that the RTX 5090 is at the very top of the GPU performance curve.

The combo ranking of 50th out of 2,828 suggests that the CPU is not holding back the GPU significantly. If the CPU were a severe bottleneck, the combo would rank much lower despite the GPU’s high performance. The fact that this combo achieves top-50 status implies that the Core Ultra 5 225 provides enough throughput to keep the RTX 5090 fed in most scenarios, although the 4K Ultra result of 83 FPS hints that the CPU may be limiting the maximum achievable frame rate in the most demanding settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake-S architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4,412 and multithread score of 30,459 provide context for its gaming performance.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s role is to prepare frames for the GPU to render. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 346 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame generation capability. The CPU’s 10 cores and 10 threads are sufficient for this game, as it does not appear to be heavily multithreaded. The single-thread performance is more relevant, and the 4.90 GHz boost clock helps maintain high FPS in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and single-core score of 3,655 indicate solid performance for a 65W TDP part. The memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 is adequate for feeding the GPU, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes provides plenty of bandwidth for the RTX 5090.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this combination, except potentially at 1080p Low settings where the frame rate reaches 346 FPS. At higher resolutions and settings, the GPU’s rendering workload dominates, and the CPU’s performance becomes less critical. The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking versus all CPUs confirms that it is a capable mid-range part, and its performance in this game validates that positioning. The combo’s 50th place ranking out of 2,828 combinations further confirms that the CPU and GPU work well together, with neither component severely limiting the other in most tested scenarios.