Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol places the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination in the upper echelon of tested systems, securing rank 806 out of 3714 total combos. This positioning puts the pairing in the top 21.7% of all configurations evaluated, a strong showing for a mobile CPU paired with a flagship discrete GPU. The data indicates that the system is far more likely to be limited by the processor in certain scenarios than by the graphics card, given the GPU’s immense raw throughput. However, the ranking also reflects that many desktop-based combinations with higher-tier CPUs and equally powerful GPUs will outpace this mobile-first setup in a title that appears to scale well with core-heavy processors.

The combination’s percentile placement is consistent across both major components. The CPU sits at the 91st percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 88th percentile among all graphics cards. The slight discrepancy between the two suggests that the processor is the more competitive component relative to its peers, but the GPU still delivers class-leading performance. In the context of Lockdown Protocol, a fast-paced FPS, the balance between these two parts is critical; the data shows that the GPU can push extremely high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the CPU’s 14-core, 14-thread configuration may become a bottleneck when frame generation demands are highest.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows reveal a clear hierarchy across the four presets, with the optimal choice depending heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers a staggering 262 FPS average, while the Medium preset drops to 186 FPS and High to 162 FPS. The Ultra preset still manages a very playable 122 FPS at this resolution. Given that the title is a competitive FPS, the data strongly suggests that the Low preset at 1080p is the best for maximum responsiveness, as the 262 FPS average provides a significant advantage over the 186 FPS of Medium. The jump from Low to Medium costs 76 FPS, which is a substantial trade-off for visual fidelity that may not be worth it in fast-paced combat.

At 2560x1440, the picture becomes more nuanced. The Low preset still leads with 192 FPS, but the Medium preset delivers 136 FPS, and High drops to 119 FPS. The Ultra preset remains above the 60 FPS threshold at 89 FPS. For 1440p gaming, the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot, offering a 136 FPS average with a minimum of 116 FPS, which ensures smooth gameplay without sacrificing too much visual quality. The delta between Low and Medium is 56 FPS, but the visual uplift from Medium is typically more pronounced than the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p. The High preset is also viable at 119 FPS, but the min FPS is not recorded, making the Medium preset’s guaranteed floor more attractive.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits relative to the CPU. The Low preset averages 124 FPS, which is excellent for 4K, but the Medium preset drops to 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS. The High preset averages 77 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 58 FPS. For 4K, the Low preset is the clear recommendation for competitive play, as it is the only setting that maintains an average above 120 FPS. The Medium preset is still playable at 88 FPS, but the 36 FPS drop from Low is steep. The Ultra preset at 58 FPS is technically playable but borders on the edge of what is acceptable for a fast-paced shooter. Overall, the data indicates that the Low preset is the safest choice across all resolutions for maintaining the highest frame rates, with Medium being a reasonable alternative at 1440p and 4K for those prioritizing visuals.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable pattern that underscores the GPU’s dominance in this pairing. At the Low preset, the frame rate drops from 262 FPS at 1920x1080 to 192 FPS at 2560x1440, a 26.7% reduction, and then to 124 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 35.4% reduction from 1440p. This linear scaling is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 4090’s raw compute is the primary driver. The 4K Low result of 124 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows the GPU can still maintain high refresh rates even at the most demanding resolution, leaving headroom for the CPU to keep up.

At the Medium preset, the scaling is steeper. The 1920x1080 result of 186 FPS drops to 136 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 26.9% drop) and then to 88 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 35.3% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions when the settings are increased. However, the gap between the Low and Medium presets widens as resolution increases, suggesting that the added visual complexity of Medium places more stress on the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shader throughput.

The High preset shows a similar trend, with 162 FPS at 1080p, 119 FPS at 1440p (a 26.5% drop), and 77 FPS at 4K (a 35.3% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset is the most demanding, falling from 122 FPS at 1080p to 89 FPS at 1440p (a 27.0% drop) and 58 FPS at 4K (a 34.8% drop from 1440p). The consistent ~27% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~35% drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets is a strong indicator that the RTX 4090 is the bottleneck, not the CPU. The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and lower settings, where the frame rates exceed 200 FPS, but the data shows that even at 1080p Low, the system does not experience a CPU-induced plateau, as the 262 FPS average is still exceptionally high.

FAQ

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

A: The combo ranks 806 out of 3714 tested configurations, placing it in the top 21.7% of all systems evaluated.

Q: What is the best settings preset for competitive play at 1920x1080?

A: The Low preset provides the highest average frame rate at 262 FPS, which is 76 FPS higher than Medium and 140 FPS higher than Ultra, making it the optimal choice for maximum responsiveness.

Q: How does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at the Medium preset?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 186 at 1920x1080 to 136 at 2560x1440, and further to 88 at 3840x2160, representing a 26.9% drop and then a 35.3% drop respectively.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter across all resolutions and settings, as the percentage drops in FPS from 1080p to 4K are consistent at roughly 27% and 35%, regardless of preset.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only recorded minimum FPS values are at the Medium preset: 158 FPS at 1920x1080, 116 FPS at 2560x1440, and 75 FPS at 3840x2160. No minimums are listed for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX has an average benchmark score of 52073, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X’s 51947 and 0.7% higher than the Intel Core i9-13900F’s 51730.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed performance driver in this configuration, and its specifications explain why it dominates Lockdown Protocol’s frame rates. The GPU is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with an AD102 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, which allows it to sustain high frequencies under load. The memory subsystem is equally impressive, with 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This massive bandwidth is crucial for 4K gaming, as it allows the GPU to feed its 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units without starving them.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU’s performance is evident in the measured FPS. At 4K Low, the card averages 124 FPS, which reflects its raw compute power. The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate allow it to handle the game’s visual effects at high resolutions. The 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores, while not directly measured in this game’s benchmarks, contribute to the GPU’s ability to handle modern rendering techniques. The GPU’s 88th percentile ranking among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 60347, places it just ahead of the Intel Arc Pro A60 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, but the data shows it is 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M in average score.

The memory clock of 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective, is a key factor in the scaling behavior observed. The consistent FPS drops from 1080p to 4K indicate that the GPU’s memory bandwidth is being fully utilized at higher resolutions, particularly at the Medium and High presets. The RTX 4090’s 24 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as no VRAM-related stutters or frame drops are evident in the data. The GPU’s launch MSRP of 1,599 USD reflects its flagship status, and its end-of-life production status suggests it is being phased out, but its performance in this title remains exceptional.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX serves as the supporting pillar in this combo, and its specifications reveal a processor designed for high-end mobile gaming. This is a 14-core, 14-thread chip based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, which is a substantial frequency range that allows it to scale from efficiency to performance as needed. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 3 MB of L2 cache per core, provides ample data storage for game logic and physics calculations. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which is adequate for feeding the GPU’s demands.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU’s role becomes apparent at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 262 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that requires strong single-thread performance. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4903 and Passmark single-thread score of 4683 indicate it has the single-threaded capability to handle this load. However, the 14-thread configuration is not overly generous for a game that may utilize multiple cores, as modern FPS titles often scale well with additional threads. The CPU’s multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 34731, is solid but not class-leading, which is why it ranks 91st percentile among all CPUs.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 52073 puts it in close competition with the AMD EPYC 8124P (52121, -0.1% delta), AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (51947, +0.2%), Intel Core i7-14700 (52301, -0.4%), and Intel Core i9-13900F (51730, +0.7%). This tight grouping suggests that the Ultra 5 235HX is competitive with previous-generation desktop flagships in synthetic benchmarks, but its mobile design may limit sustained performance in extended gaming sessions. The CPU’s 55W TDP is modest for a high-performance chip, but the 5.10 GHz boost clock shows it can still reach high frequencies. In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the CPU does not appear to be a limiting factor at any resolution, as the frame rates are consistently high across all presets. The data suggests that the CPU has enough headroom to keep up with the GPU’s output, even at 4K Ultra where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck.