Lockdown Protocol

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 achieves a rank of 205 out of 3,714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the configuration in the top 5.5% of all tested combinations, a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The data indicates that this combo sits comfortably above the median performer, with the CPU's 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs and the GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs contributing to a balanced, high-tier overall position.

When examining the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ultra 5 235 posts an average benchmark score of 46,062, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375's 46,030 (a 0.1% advantage for the Intel part) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX's 46,098 (a 0.1% deficit). The AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303 trail slightly with scores of 45,970 and 45,960 respectively, representing 0.2% gaps. This tight clustering suggests that in broader CPU workloads, the Ultra 5 235 is essentially performance-equivalent to these rivals, meaning the combo's in-game rank is likely driven more by GPU performance and game-specific optimization than by CPU differentiation.

For the RTX 4080, the nearest rival comparisons show an average benchmark score of 54,247, which is 0.1% ahead of the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209) and 1.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828). The AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and Radeon 8060S post higher average scores at 55,698 and 55,757, representing 2.6% and 2.7% leads respectively. Despite these synthetic benchmark deltas, the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol demonstrates that the RTX 4080 delivers excellent real-world performance, and the combo's rank reflects that.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 333 FPS average, which is the highest measured result. At 2560x1440 Low, it drops to 244 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it reaches 157 FPS. The 1440p resolution offers a strong balance, with High settings at 151 FPS and Medium at 173 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46,062, placing it 0.1% above the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46,030) and 0.2% above both the AMD EPYC 4364P (45,970) and EPYC 7303 (45,960). It trails the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46,098) by 0.1%. These differences are negligible in practical terms.

Q: What is the GPU's synthetic benchmark standing?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209) but 1.1% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828). The AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698) and Radeon 8060S (55,757) lead by 2.6% and 2.7% respectively.

Q: Which settings preset provides the smoothest experience at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset offers 112 FPS average with a minimum of 95 FPS and maximum of 129 FPS. High settings yield 98 FPS, while Ultra drops to 73 FPS. The Medium preset provides a more consistent frame rate and is the highest setting with a recorded minimum FPS above 90.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the FPS ranges from 155 (Ultra) to 333 (Low), with High at 206 and Medium at 236. The large spread across settings indicates that graphical load significantly impacts performance, suggesting the GPU is the primary limiting factor even at this lower resolution, as the CPU's 14 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock are sufficient for high frame rates.

Q: How does the combo rank overall among tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 205th out of 3,714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 5.5% of all configurations. This is a strong result, reflecting the high percentile rankings of both the CPU (89th) and GPU (86th) among their respective categories.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This design, combined with DDR5 memory support and a dual-channel memory bus delivering 102.4 GB/s bandwidth, provides substantial computational headroom for game logic and physics in Lockdown Protocol.

In this game, the CPU's role is evident from the measured FPS data. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 333 FPS average, indicating that the CPU can feed frames at a very high rate. The single-thread performance, reflected in a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,085, is critical for games that rely on a primary thread for simulation tasks. The multi-core score of 14,769 in Cinebench R23 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 37,816 suggest that the 14 cores handle background tasks and multi-threaded game systems without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's benchmark percentile of 89 versus all CPUs means it outperforms the vast majority of processors available. Its nearest rivals in average score—the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, Intel Core i9-13900HX, and AMD EPYC 4364P—all cluster within 0.2% of the Ultra 5 235's score, indicating that in synthetic workloads, there is little to separate them. However, the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol shows that this CPU, when paired with the RTX 4080, delivers frame rates that are competitive with any high-end configuration, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is more pronounced.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). At 1080p, the combo achieves 333 FPS on Low, 236 FPS on Medium (with a min of 201 and max of 272), 206 FPS on High, and 155 FPS on Ultra. The 236 FPS Medium result includes a 201 FPS minimum, indicating that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays well above 200 FPS.

Moving to 1440p, the performance scales down predictably: Low delivers 244 FPS, Medium 173 FPS (min 147, max 199), High 151 FPS, and Ultra 113 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 131 FPS, showing that settings have a pronounced effect on performance. The Medium preset's minimum of 147 FPS suggests that this setting provides a consistent high-refresh-rate experience for 144Hz monitors.

At 4K (3840x2160), the combo produces 157 FPS on Low, 112 FPS on Medium (min 95, max 129), 98 FPS on High, and 73 FPS on Ultra. The 112 FPS Medium result with a 95 FPS minimum means that even at 4K, this configuration can maintain near-100 FPS performance at medium settings. Ultra at 4K drops to 73 FPS, which is still playable but shows the significant GPU load of the highest preset at this resolution.

The data reveals a clear pattern: the RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle all tested configurations, but the performance drop from Low to Ultra is substantial at every resolution. The largest relative drop occurs at 4K, where Ultra is 53.5% slower than Low, while at 1080p, Ultra is 53.5% slower than Low as well, indicating a consistent scaling factor.

Resolution Scaling

Analyzing the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K provides insight into which component limits performance. At Low settings, the combo delivers 333 FPS at 1080p, 244 FPS at 1440p, and 157 FPS at 4K. This represents a 26.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 52.9% drop from 1080p to 4K. The fact that FPS does not scale linearly with pixel count (4K has 4x the pixels of 1080p, yet FPS only drops by roughly half) suggests that the CPU is contributing to frame rate limits at lower resolutions, particularly at 1080p where the GPU has more headroom.

At High settings, the FPS values are 206 (1080p), 151 (1440p), and 98 (4K). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 26.7%, and from 1080p to 4K is 52.4%. This pattern is similar to Low settings, indicating that the relative scaling is consistent regardless of preset. At Medium settings, the values are 236 (1080p), 173 (1440p), and 112 (4K), with drops of 26.7% and 52.5% respectively. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings implies that the limiting component's behavior is uniform: the GPU becomes increasingly the bottleneck as resolution rises, while at 1080p, the CPU's 14 cores and high boost clock keep frame rates high enough that GPU load is the primary constraint.

The 4K Ultra result of 73 FPS represents a 53.5% drop from 1080p Ultra's 155 FPS, which is the largest relative reduction across all settings. This indicates that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully saturated, and the RTX 4080's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the determining factors. In contrast, 1080p Low at 333 FPS suggests that the CPU's single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 score of 2,085) and the game's engine are capable of very high frame generation, but the GPU's rendering pipeline becomes the ceiling as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 236 FPS with a minimum of 201 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any high-refresh-rate monitor. At 1440p, Medium provides 173 FPS with a 147 FPS minimum, ensuring smooth gameplay on 144Hz displays. At 4K, Medium achieves 112 FPS with a 95 FPS minimum, which is ideal for 100Hz or 120Hz monitors.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rates. At 1080p, High yields 206 FPS, at 1440p it produces 151 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 98 FPS. For those with 60Hz displays at 4K, High is a reasonable choice, but the 98 FPS average is close to the 95 FPS minimum observed at Medium, suggesting that High may have occasional dips below 60 FPS in demanding scenes, although no minimum FPS was recorded for High.

Ultra settings are only recommended for 1080p or 1440p use, where the combo maintains 155 FPS and 113 FPS respectively. At 4K, Ultra's 73 FPS average may be acceptable for slower-paced gameplay but is less ideal for competitive FPS titles. Low settings, while delivering the highest frame rates (333 FPS at 1080p, 244 FPS at 1440p, 157 FPS at 4K), sacrifice too much visual quality for most users, and the data shows that Medium provides a substantial improvement in visual fidelity with only a 29.1% reduction in FPS at 1080p (from 333 to 236).

The combination of the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM and the Ultra 5 235's computational power means that Medium at 4K is the sweet spot, offering 112 FPS average and a 95 FPS minimum. This is the only 4K preset with a recorded minimum FPS, making it the most predictable choice for consistent performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is based on the AD103 chip using the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It features 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, along with 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The card's FP32 performance is rated at 48.74 TFLOPS, and it achieves a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s.

In Lockdown Protocol, the RTX 4080's role is clearly demonstrated by the FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 333 FPS result shows that the GPU can render frames at a rate limited by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls. As resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become more critical, and the FPS drops accordingly. The 16 GB VRAM capacity ensures that even at 4K Ultra, there is no memory-related stuttering, as evidenced by the 73 FPS average at that setting.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores corroborate its high-end positioning. A PassMark G3D score of 34,457 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,567 place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, has a nearly identical average score (54,209 vs 54,247, a 0.1% difference), confirming that the RTX 4080 is at the top of its class. The GPU's 22.4 Gbps effective memory speed and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are well-suited for high-resolution textures and effects, which Lockdown Protocol's presets likely utilize.

The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4080 is the primary determinant of performance at 4K, where the difference between Low (157 FPS) and Ultra (73 FPS) is 84 FPS. This 53.5% reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K mirrors the 53.5% reduction at 1080p (333 to 155 FPS), indicating that the GPU's rendering pipeline handles settings changes consistently regardless of resolution. The GPU's 320 W TDP and triple-slot cooler design are typical for this performance class, and the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for the card's data transfer needs.