Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol places the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti combination near the very bottom of the tested hardware pool. The combo ranks 2797 out of 2828 tested combinations, placing it in the 99th percentile of the database's slowest configurations for this title. The data indicates a system that can achieve playable frame rates only under the most restrictive settings and resolutions, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck across all measured scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings presets, revealing a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics processor. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 61 FPS at 1920x1080 to 45 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 26.2%, before collapsing to 29 FPS at 3840x2160, which is 52.5% lower than the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is saturated at lower resolutions and cannot maintain its throughput as pixel count increases.

The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 44 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 32 FPS at 1440p (a 27.3% decline), and further to 21 FPS at 4K (a 52.3% decline from 1080p). High settings follow the same pattern with 38 FPS at 1080p, 28 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset, while starting from a lower baseline, exhibits the largest relative drop: 29 FPS at 1080p, 21 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K—a 51.7% reduction from the starting resolution.

The consistent ~50% performance loss from 1080p to 4K across all presets indicates that the limiting component is the GPU's raw fill rate and memory bandwidth rather than the CPU. The GTX 1050 Ti's 4 GB GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 112.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is insufficient for the pixel throughput demanded by 3840x2160 rendering. The data shows that even at Low settings, the card cannot maintain 30 FPS at 4K, confirming that resolution scaling is purely a GPU-bound exercise for this combination.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 2797 out of 2828 tested combinations, this system sits in the bottom 1.1% of all configurations benchmarked in Lockdown Protocol. This placement is unsurprising given the GPU's age and market position. The GTX 1050 Ti holds a percentile rank of 25 against all GPUs in the database, meaning it outperforms only a quarter of the graphics cards tracked. Its average benchmark score of 4193 places it in close competition with the AMD Radeon R5 M330 (4170, 0.6% slower), NVIDIA Quadro K2100M (4151, 1% slower), NVIDIA Quadro K3000M (4241, 1.1% faster), and AMD Radeon Vega 3 (4268, 1.8% faster). These rivals are all entry-level or mobile-oriented parts, underscoring how far behind modern desktop GPUs this card sits.

The CPU, by contrast, is a much stronger component. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 ranks in the 90th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48995. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196, 0.4% faster), AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228, 0.5% faster), Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698, 0.6% slower), and Intel Core i5-14600K (48618, 0.8% slower). The processor is clearly not the limiting factor in this pairing; the data shows a massive imbalance where a top-decile CPU is paired with a bottom-quartile GPU.

The combo's rank of 2797, combined with the GPU's 25th percentile and the CPU's 90th percentile, tells a clear story: this system is held back entirely by its graphics card. Any improvement in frame rates would require a GPU upgrade rather than a CPU change, as the processor has ample headroom to drive a faster graphics solution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is built on the Pascal architecture using the GP107 chip, fabricated on a 14 nm process at Samsung. It features 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The card operates at a base clock of 1291 MHz with a boost clock of 1392 MHz, and its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1752 MHz (7 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus.

These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 44.54 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 66.82 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 2.138 TFLOPS. The card's memory bandwidth of 112.1 GB/s is a critical constraint in Lockdown Protocol, especially at higher resolutions. The measured frame rates reflect this limitation: at 1080p Medium, the card produces 44 FPS average with a minimum of 37 FPS and maximum of 50 FPS, while at 1440p Medium, the average drops to 32 FPS with a range of 27 to 37 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 21 FPS with a range of 18 to 24 FPS.

The GPU's DirectX 12 support (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility are technically sufficient for Lockdown Protocol, but the hardware's age shows in compute-heavy scenes. The card's PassMark G3D score of 6340 and DirectX 12 score of 26 indicate minimal headroom for modern rendering workloads. The 75 W TDP and lack of power connectors mean the card draws entirely from the PCIe slot, which further limits its sustained performance under load. The data shows that the GTX 1050 Ti is simply outclassed by the demands of Lockdown Protocol at any resolution above 1080p with medium-to-high settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the only viable configuration for this combo is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which produces an average of 61 FPS. This is the sole preset and resolution where the system achieves a frame rate above the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider smooth. The 1080p Low setting provides a playable experience, though the lack of minimum frame rate data for this specific row means there is no information on frame time consistency.

At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 44 FPS with a minimum of 37 FPS and maximum of 50 FPS. This is still acceptable for a slower-paced FPS, but the 37 FPS minimum indicates that demanding scenes will cause noticeable stutter. The 1080p High setting yields 38 FPS average, which is borderline playable but risks dropping below 30 FPS in intense combat. The 1080p Ultra setting at 29 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the playability threshold.

At 1440p and above, no settings preset achieves a playable frame rate. The best 1440p result is 45 FPS at Low settings, which might be acceptable for some users, but the 4K results are uniformly below 30 FPS, making them unsuitable for gameplay. The data indicates that users should prioritize 1080p Low or Medium settings for the best balance of performance and visual quality, accepting that the system cannot handle higher resolutions without sacrificing frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its best results. Low settings deliver 61 FPS average, Medium settings deliver 44 FPS (minimum 37, maximum 50), High settings deliver 38 FPS, and Ultra settings deliver 29 FPS. The progression shows a clear inverse relationship between visual fidelity and performance, with the Low preset offering more than double the frame rate of Ultra.

At 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low settings produce 45 FPS, Medium produces 32 FPS (minimum 27, maximum 37), High produces 28 FPS, and Ultra produces 21 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 26.2% at Low to 27.6% at High, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth becomes progressively more constrained as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playability. Low settings yield 29 FPS, Medium yields 21 FPS (minimum 18, maximum 24), High yields 18 FPS, and Ultra yields 14 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with even the Low preset failing to reach 30 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 15 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the gap at lower resolutions but starts from a much lower baseline.

The data reveals that the system's performance envelope is narrow: from 14 FPS at 4K Ultra to 61 FPS at 1080p Low. This 47 FPS spread across the entire resolution and settings matrix highlights the GPU's limited ability to scale with graphical demands.

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 at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, along with PCIe Gen 5 connectivity.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and a single-core score of 4648. Its PassMark multi-thread score of 38706 and single-thread score of 4394 place it in the top decile of all processors. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking confirms that it is a high-performance part capable of handling demanding workloads.

However, in Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is largely secondary. The measured FPS data shows that the system is GPU-bound at all resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the CPU could theoretically drive higher frame rates, but the GTX 1050 Ti's 2.138 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 112.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth create a hard ceiling. The CPU's 14 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient for the game's physics and AI calculations, but they cannot compensate for the GPU's rendering limitations.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database—the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, AMD Ryzen 9 7900, Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, and Intel Core i5-14600K—all have similar average scores within 0.8%, yet none of them would meaningfully change this system's performance in Lockdown Protocol. The bottleneck is unequivocally the GPU, and the CPU's substantial headroom suggests that it could support a much more powerful graphics card without becoming a limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The only configuration that achieves an average frame rate above 60 FPS is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which produces 61 FPS. The 1080p Medium preset delivers 44 FPS with a minimum of 37 FPS, which is also playable.

Q: Why does the system perform so poorly at 4K resolution?

A: The GTX 1050 Ti has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory with 112.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is insufficient for 3840x2160 rendering. At 4K, even Low settings only produce 29 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 14 FPS, indicating the GPU's memory subsystem is the limiting factor.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this combination?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU ranks in the 90th percentile of all processors with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924, while the GPU ranks in the 25th percentile. The measured frame rates show consistent GPU-bound behavior across all resolutions.

Q: How does this system compare to other tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol?

A: This combo ranks 2797 out of 2828 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 1.1% of all configurations. This is consistent with the GPU's 25th percentile ranking among all graphics cards.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system produces an average of 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS threshold but may be acceptable for some users.

Q: Does the CPU's high core count help in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads provide ample processing power, but the game's performance is limited by the GPU's rendering capabilities. The CPU's single-thread score of 4648 in Cinebench R23 indicates strong per-core performance, yet this headroom cannot be utilized due to the GPU bottleneck.