Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol with the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 presents a clear case of a capable mid-range pairing that is heavily influenced by graphical settings and resolution. The measured data shows a system that can deliver high refresh rate experiences at 1080p with adjusted settings, but which struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K on higher presets. The following analysis breaks down the performance characteristics based on the measured FPS data, component specifications, and relative rankings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent performance hierarchy across all resolutions: Low delivers the highest frame rates, followed by High, then Medium, with Ultra being the most demanding. The optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution and the user's preference for visual fidelity versus frame rate smoothness.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 146 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play on high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the High preset still delivers a very strong 90 FPS average, offering a substantial visual upgrade with only a moderate performance cost. The Medium preset sits at 103 FPS, which is a balanced choice. Ultra at 68 FPS is playable but drops below the 70 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth action in a fast-paced FPS. For most users at 1080p, the High preset appears to be the sweet spot, providing a significant improvement in visual quality over Low while maintaining a frame rate well above 60 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance picture changes. The Low preset still delivers an impressive 107 FPS average, making it a viable option for high refresh rate gaming. High drops to 66 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS baseline but susceptible to dips in intense scenes. Medium offers 76 FPS, which provides a better safety margin over High while still looking noticeably better than Low. Ultra falls to 50 FPS, which is below the ideal smoothness threshold for an FPS. The data suggests that Medium is the most balanced preset at 1440p, as it maintains a comfortable frame rate while offering a good middle ground in visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the RX 6600 is clearly pushed to its limits. The Low preset is the only one that achieves a playable average, hitting 69 FPS. High drops to 43 FPS, which is marginal for a single-player experience but problematic for competitive play. Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS, indicating noticeable stutter. Ultra is the worst performer, averaging just 32 FPS, which is generally considered unplayable for this genre. Therefore, for 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only reasonable recommendation, and even then, the experience will be on the edge of smoothness.

The data indicates that the most effective strategy for this combo is to prioritize the High preset at 1080p, the Medium preset at 1440p, and the Low preset at 4K to achieve the best balance of visual quality and playable frame rates.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is the primary bottleneck in this system for Lockdown Protocol, a fact made clear by the significant frame rate drops as resolution increases. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This memory configuration appears to be sufficient for the game's needs at 1080p and 1440p, but the data suggests it may be a limiting factor at 4K, where the demand for texture memory and fill rate increases exponentially.

The GPU's clock speeds are a key indicator of its performance ceiling. It has a base clock of 1626 MHz and a boost clock of 2491 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz. The boost clock is the theoretical maximum, but sustained gaming loads will likely hover closer to the game clock. The RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on a 7 nm process, contains 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs, which process the final pixel output. The pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are moderate figures that explain the GPU's difficulty at higher resolutions.

The performance deltas in the GPU's nearestRivals underscore its positioning. Its average benchmark score is within 0.4% of the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation and within 0.1% of the RTX 4050 Mobile. This indicates the RX 6600 is a solid mainstream performer, but it is not designed for high-end 4K gaming. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the GPU's compute capabilities, while adequate for 1080p and 1440p, are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K on demanding presets.

The relationship between the GPU's VRAM and the game's performance is another critical factor. At 1080p, the 8 GB frame buffer is likely not a constraint, as evidenced by the playable frame rates on High and Ultra presets. At 4K, however, the combination of higher resolution textures and increased geometric complexity can easily exceed 8 GB, leading to potential texture swapping and a subsequent drop in performance. The data shows a 43 FPS average on High at 4K, which is likely a result of both raw compute limits and memory bandwidth constraints.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2213 out of 2828 combos for Lockdown Protocol. This position places it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems, indicating that while it can run the game, it is far from a top-tier performer. The percentile ranking for the CPU is high (90th percentile vs all CPUs), but the GPU sits at the 63rd percentile, highlighting the mismatch in capability for this specific workload.

The CPU's performance is relatively strong compared to its direct rivals. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995, which is only 0.4% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and 0.5% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900. It is also 0.6% faster than the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.8% faster than the Intel Core i5-14600K. This suggests the processor is not the limiting factor in most scenarios, as it can keep pace with or exceed its contemporaries.

However, the GPU's ranking tells a different story. With an average benchmark score of 19036, it is essentially tied with the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (0% delta) and slightly behind the RTX 4050 Mobile (-0.1%). This places the RX 6600 in a performance class that is not suited for high-resolution, high-detail gaming. The combo's overall rank of 2213 reflects this GPU limitation. In a pool of 2828 combos, being in the bottom 22% suggests that most other tested systems, likely with more powerful GPUs, will deliver a superior experience in Lockdown Protocol, especially at higher resolutions and settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Lockdown Protocol with this combo?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the most viable resolution. At 1080p, the High preset achieves 90 FPS and Low reaches 146 FPS, while at 2560x1440, the best playable option is Low at 107 FPS. At 3840x2160, only the Low preset reaches a playable 69 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 48995. It is 0.4% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and 0.5% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900. It is 0.6% faster than the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.8% faster than the Intel Core i5-14600K.

Q: Is the AMD Radeon RX 6600 a good match for this CPU in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2213 out of 2828, which is below average. While the CPU is a top-tier performer (90th percentile), the GPU is only in the 63rd percentile, making it the primary bottleneck, especially at 1440p and 4K.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1440p on Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 76 FPS at 2560x1440 on Medium settings, with a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 87 FPS.

Q: Should I use the Ultra preset with this hardware?

A: The Ultra preset is only playable at 1080p, where it averages 68 FPS. At 1440p it drops to 50 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 32 FPS. It is not recommended beyond 1080p.

Q: Does the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM cause issues?

A: The 8 GB frame buffer appears sufficient for 1080p and 1440p. However, the significant drop to 43 FPS on High at 4K suggests that the combination of high resolution and VRAM capacity is a limiting factor for this game on this GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the GPU-bound nature of this system. At 1080p with the Low preset, the game runs at 146 FPS. This drops to 107 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of approximately 27%. Moving to 4K, the frame rate plummets to 69 FPS, a further 36% reduction from the 1440p result. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K on Low settings is a 53% reduction in frame rate.

The scaling on the High preset tells a similar story. Starting at 90 FPS at 1080p, it drops to 66 FPS at 1440p and then to 43 FPS at 4K. This represents a 27% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 35% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K on High is 52%.

This consistent pattern, where the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is larger than from 1080p to 1440p, is a classic sign of a GPU that is becoming saturated. The RX 6600's rendering pipeline is being overwhelmed by the pixel count at 4K. The CPU, which is likely not fully utilized at lower resolutions, also becomes less of a factor as the GPU's rendering time dominates the frame time. The data suggests that the system is CPU-limited at 1080p to some degree, but becomes increasingly GPU-limited as resolution increases. The fact that the frame rate doesn't scale linearly with the pixel count (4K has 4x the pixels of 1080p, but the frame rate doesn't drop to 1/4) indicates that other bottlenecks, such as memory bandwidth, are also at play.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. With a TDP of 65 W, it is a power-efficient desktop part. Its benchmark scores are robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and a single-core score of 4648. This high single-core performance is crucial for gaming, as most game logic is still reliant on a few powerful threads.

In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that the game is heavily influenced by resolution, which is a GPU-centric workload. However, the CPU must be capable of feeding the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The Core Ultra 5 245's performance, ranking in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, suggests it is more than capable of this task. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and Intel Core i5-14600K, have nearly identical average scores, indicating that this CPU is not a source of significant performance variance in this game.

The data implies that at 1080p, where the GPU has more headroom, the CPU's performance is sufficient to allow frame rates to reach 146 FPS on Low settings. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's utilization likely decreases. The 14 cores and 24 MB of L3 cache provide ample processing power for modern game engines, which can utilize multiple threads for various tasks. The processor's 5.10 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded tasks, which are still common in game simulation, are executed with minimal latency. In summary, the CPU is a strong foundation for this system, but it is not the component that defines the gaming experience in Lockdown Protocol; that role is clearly held by the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average frame rates measured for the AMD Radeon RX 6600 paired with the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 in Lockdown Protocol.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| 1920x1080 | Low | 146 | N/A | N/A |

| 1920x1080 | High | 90 | N/A | N/A |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 103 | 88 | 119 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 68 | N/A | N/A |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 107 | N/A | N/A |

| 2560x1440 | High | 66 | N/A | N/A |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 76 | 64 | 87 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 50 | N/A | N/A |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 69 | N/A | N/A |

| 3840x2160 | High | 43 | N/A | N/A |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 49 | 42 | 56 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 32 | N/A | N/A |

The data reveals a clear and predictable trend. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers a high-refresh-rate experience, while the High preset remains smooth. The Medium preset offers a good balance at 103 FPS. At 1440p, performance drops by roughly 27-30% across all presets, making Low the only preset that consistently exceeds 100 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is borderline, with a 50 FPS average. At 4K, the GPU is overburdened; only the Low preset manages to stay above 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to an unplayable 32 FPS. The min and max FPS data for Medium settings at each resolution shows a variance of roughly 23-27%, indicating that the game has moments of significant frame time spikes, which could be perceptible as stutter.