Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

This combo pairs a modern 14-core Intel desktop processor with a legacy Turing-based GPU, and the measured frame rates reveal a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at every resolution. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 sits in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, while the GTX 1660 Ti lands in only the 41st percentile among GPUs — a clear mismatch that shapes the entire performance profile. The data shows a 1080p Low average of 122 FPS that collapses to 27 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck across the board.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, confirming that pixel throughput is the dominant limiting factor. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 122 at 1920x1080 to 90 at 2560x1440 — a 26% reduction — and then to 58 at 3840x2160, which is another 36% cut. This pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario: as resolution increases, the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth demands grow, and the GTX 1660 Ti's 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 84.96 GPixel/s pixel rate become increasingly insufficient.

The Medium preset tells a similar story with additional data points. At 1920x1080, the average is 87 FPS, dropping to 64 at 2560x1440, and further to 41 at 3840x2160. The min-to-max ranges at Medium — 74-100 at 1080p, 54-73 at 1440p, and 35-47 at 4K — show that the spread narrows as resolution climbs, meaning the GPU is consistently saturated at higher pixel counts rather than experiencing occasional spikes or dips.

High settings amplify the trend. The 1080p average is 76 FPS, slipping to 56 at 1440p and 36 at 4K. Ultra settings produce the lowest numbers: 57 FPS at 1080p, 42 at 1440p, and 27 at 4K. The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial — 65 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K — which indicates that while the GPU is the main constraint, the settings overhead still matters significantly. The CPU has headroom to spare; its PassMark multithread score of 37816 and single-thread score of 4516 place it well above the GPU's capabilities, so resolution scaling is almost purely a GPU workload.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of running Lockdown Protocol at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at lower presets. The measured data shows 58 FPS at 4K Low and 41 FPS at 4K Medium, while High drops to 36 FPS and Ultra falls to 27 FPS. For a playable experience at 4K, Low or Medium settings are required.

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming?

A: Medium provides the best balance, with an average of 87 FPS and a min-max range of 74-100. Low hits 122 FPS but sacrifices visual quality, while High drops to 76 FPS and Ultra to 57 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 Ti compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 7723, placing it 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon 540 (7673), 1.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 (7580), 2.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon R7 250 (7557), and 2.3% ahead of the Intel Arc A310 (7550). It ranks in the 41st percentile among all GPUs.

Q: What is the CPU's standing relative to other processors?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062, which is 0.1% above the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030) and 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 4364P (45970) and AMD EPYC 7303 (45960). It sits 0.1% below the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098). The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The CPU's single-thread score of 4516 and multi-thread score of 37816 far exceed the GPU's capabilities. The frame rate scaling with resolution confirms the GPU is the limiting component.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at different settings?

A: Only the Medium preset has min and max values recorded. At 1080p, the range is 74-100 FPS around an 87 average; at 1440p it is 54-73 around 64; at 4K it is 35-47 around 41. The spread tightens at higher resolutions, suggesting steadier frame pacing when the GPU is fully loaded.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows support a clear hierarchy for this combo. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an 87 FPS average with a 74-100 FPS range, which is the most consistent playable experience relative to the visual uplift from Low. Low pushes to 122 FPS, but the gain over Medium is 35 FPS — a 40% increase — while High and Ultra drop to 76 and 57 FPS respectively. For competitive play, Low offers the highest headroom, but Medium provides a better balance for the majority of scenarios.

At 2560x1440, the situation tightens. Medium averages 64 FPS with a 54-73 range, while Low reaches 90 FPS. High sits at 56 FPS and Ultra at 42 FPS. The 26 FPS gap between Low and Medium at this resolution suggests that Low is the safer choice for maintaining a smooth experience, especially since the min FPS at Medium (54) is close to the average of High (56). For 1440p, Low is the recommended preset unless the user prioritizes visual fidelity over frame rate stability.

At 3840x2160, the options are limited. Low achieves 58 FPS, which is the only preset above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 41 FPS with a 35-47 range, High to 36, and Ultra to 27. The data indicates that 4K gaming is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the average is below 60 FPS. Users targeting 4K should expect to compromise on visual quality or accept sub-60 frame rates.

Overall, the best experience per the measured rows is at 1080p Medium, which offers the highest average FPS (87) among presets that still provide meaningful visual enhancements over Low. The 74 FPS minimum ensures that dips remain within a playable range, and the 100 FPS maximum shows the system can handle lighter scenes without capping out.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2441 out of 2828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the bottom 14% of the field. This low ranking is unsurprising given the GPU's percentile standing: the GTX 1660 Ti sits at the 41st percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 89th percentile. The pairing effectively wastes the CPU's potential, as the graphics card cannot keep up with the processor's capabilities.

In practical terms, this ranking means that most other CPU-GPU combinations tested in this game deliver higher frame rates. The GPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Radeon 540, Radeon Pro WX 3100, Radeon R7 250, and Intel Arc A310 — all score within 2.3% of the GTX 1660 Ti's average benchmark score, so the performance tier is well established. The CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and Intel Core i9-13900HX, have nearly identical average scores (within 0.2%), which means the processor is not the differentiating factor in this combo's rank.

The rank reflects the GPU constraint more than the CPU's ability. At 1080p Low, the 122 FPS average is respectable, but the drop to 57 FPS at Ultra shows how quickly the GPU becomes the ceiling. For users comparing combos, this pairing is best suited for lower-resolution, lower-settings play; it will not compete with systems that pair the same CPU with a more powerful GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 brings 14 cores and 14 threads, a base clock of 3.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its architecture is Arrow Lake-S, built on a 3 nm process at TSMC, with a 24 MB shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 14769 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2085 in single-core, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 37816 and single-thread score of 4516.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is largely one of providing a stable platform that does not bottleneck the GPU. The game's frame rates scale linearly with resolution and settings, which is the signature of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p Low, the 122 FPS average shows the CPU can push beyond 120 FPS, but the GPU cannot sustain that at higher settings. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking and its close benchmark parity with rivals like the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% delta) and Core i9-13900HX (-0.1% delta) indicate that swapping the processor would yield minimal FPS changes in this game.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and DDR5 support ensure that data delivery to the GPU is not a limiting factor. The 14 threads are more than sufficient for a modern FPS title, and the boost clock of 5.00 GHz provides strong single-thread performance for game logic and physics. The data suggests that the CPU is overqualified for this GPU pairing; users would see no meaningful FPS gain from a faster processor unless the GPU is also upgraded.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are: Low at 122 FPS, Medium at 87 FPS (min 74, max 100), High at 76 FPS, and Ultra at 57 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 65 FPS drop, with each preset tier costing roughly 15-35 FPS. The Medium range of 74-100 FPS indicates frame times that vary but remain within a playable band.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 90 FPS, Medium at 64 FPS (min 54, max 73), High at 56 FPS, and Ultra at 42 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 48 FPS, and the Medium range compresses to 54-73. The 1440p numbers are roughly 70-75% of the 1080p values, consistent with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 58 FPS, Medium at 41 FPS (min 35, max 47), High at 36 FPS, and Ultra at 27 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 31 FPS, and the Medium range is 35-47. The 4K results are approximately half the 1080p numbers, reflecting the fourfold pixel increase.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset is the only one with complete min-max data. The ranges show that the system maintains a relatively tight frame time distribution, with the max FPS staying within 15-20% of the average at each resolution. This consistency suggests that the GPU's 6 GB GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus are adequate for the game's texture and geometry loads at Medium settings, though the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes a constraint at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the decisive component in this combo. Its Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process, features 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost of 1770 MHz, and the 6 GB GDDR6 memory runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU delivers 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and scores 12871 in PassMark G3D, placing it in the 41st percentile.

The GPU's performance in Lockdown Protocol is the primary driver of the measured FPS. At 1080p, it can exceed 120 FPS only at Low settings, and the 57 FPS at Ultra shows the limit of its shading and texture throughput. The 4K results — 58 FPS at Low and 27 FPS at Ultra — highlight the GPU's inability to handle high pixel loads, with the pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s and texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s being insufficient for 3840x2160 at high quality.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its mid-range status. Its average benchmark score of 7723 is just 0.7% above the AMD Radeon 540 and 2.3% above the Intel Arc A310, indicating that it sits at the lower end of modern GPU performance. The DirectX 12 score of 51 and DirectX 11 score of 103 in PassMark suggest that the GPU handles contemporary APIs adequately but not exceptionally. In the context of this game, the GTX 1660 Ti is the bottleneck, and users seeking higher frame rates would need to reduce resolution, lower settings, or upgrade the GPU. The 120 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU indicate the card is power-efficient, but that does not compensate for its compute limitations in this title.