Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol places the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination in a specific performance tier, with measured results showing a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate across all tested resolutions. The data indicates that this pairing is capable of delivering smooth gameplay, but the optimal settings depend heavily on the target display resolution and the user's preference for frame rate over graphical detail.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combo suggests that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a significant frame rate uplift over High settings while maintaining playable performance. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves an average of 125 FPS, which is a substantial 16 FPS improvement over the High preset's 109 FPS. This difference becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions, where the Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 91 FPS compared to High's 80 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it maintains 59 FPS versus High's 51 FPS. The Medium preset is the only configuration at 4K that provides both an average FPS above 60 and a recorded minimum FPS of 50, indicating a more stable frame time experience.

For users with 1080p displays, the Low preset is a viable option for competitive play, as it pushes the average frame rate to 175 FPS, which is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the jump from Low to Medium only costs 50 FPS at 1080p while providing a noticeable improvement in visual quality, making Medium the recommended choice for most scenarios. At 1440p, the Low preset's 129 FPS average is excellent for fast-paced action, but the Medium preset's 91 FPS still provides a smooth experience with better graphics. The Ultra preset is generally not recommended for this combination, as it drops the average frame rate to 82 FPS at 1080p, 60 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K, with the latter two falling below the threshold for comfortable gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary performance limiter in this pairing, particularly at higher resolutions and quality settings. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The card's Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, includes 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and its memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The RTX 2070 SUPER also includes 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, which are relevant for games that support ray tracing and DLSS, though the benchmark data does not indicate whether Lockdown Protocol leverages these features.

The GPU's performance profile is reflected in its benchmark scores, with a Passmark G3D score of 18169 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651. The GPU sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc B570 and Intel Arc A750, both of which score slightly higher in average benchmark scores. In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the tested settings, as the frame rate drops from Low to Ultra are consistent across resolutions, indicating that the GPU is not running out of memory but rather hitting its compute limits at higher quality presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases, which points to the GPU being the dominant bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 175 FPS, which drops to 129 FPS at 1440p (a 26% reduction) and 83 FPS at 4K (a 53% reduction from 1080p). This scaling is even more pronounced at Ultra settings, where the 82 FPS at 1080p falls to 60 FPS at 1440p (a 27% drop) and 39 FPS at 4K (a 52% drop). The consistent percentage drops across different quality presets suggest that the performance scaling is primarily driven by resolution-dependent GPU workload rather than CPU limitations.

The frame rate behavior indicates that the CPU, with its high single-thread performance, is able to feed the GPU adequately at 1080p, but as resolution increases, the GPU becomes increasingly saturated. The 4K results are particularly telling: at Low settings, the combo manages 83 FPS, but at Medium it drops to 59 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 39 FPS. This steep decline at 4K Ultra (a 53% drop from Low to Ultra) highlights that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient for maxing out the game at this resolution. The data suggests that for a consistent 60 FPS experience, users should stick to 1080p or 1440p with Medium or High settings, or 4K with Low settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1634 out of 2828 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol. This places the combo in the lower-middle tier of all configurations, which is consistent with the GPU being a few generations old relative to the CPU. The CPU itself is a high-end part — the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 sits at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64640, placing it slightly above the AMD EPYC 4464P by 0.3% and slightly below the AMD EPYC 9124 by 0.7%. In contrast, the GPU ranks at the 65th percentile, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, is only 1% slower in average benchmark score.

This rank disparity between the CPU and GPU means that the combo's overall position in the game's rankings is held back by the graphics card. The CPU's high compute capability — evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and single-core score of 5960 — is not fully utilized in this game, as the frame rates are largely dictated by the GPU's rendering throughput. The 1634th rank out of 2828 combos indicates that there are 1194 other configurations that perform better in this title, which is expected given the GPU's age relative to the current generation of graphics cards.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It features a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a thermal design power of 65 W. The CPU has a total of 30 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 192 KB of L1 cache per core and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. Its memory support is DDR5 with a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. The processor also includes integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 32 execution units, though this is unlikely to be used for gaming when a discrete GPU is present.

In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw call submission, while the GPU renders the frames. The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops when moving from 1080p to 4K. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the data shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary constraint, meaning the CPU has enough headroom to support higher-end GPUs without becoming a bottleneck. The CPU's strong single-thread performance, as indicated by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5960, is particularly beneficial for FPS games like Lockdown Protocol, which typically rely heavily on single-threaded performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p display with this combo?

A: The Medium preset provides the best balance, achieving an average of 91 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS. The High preset offers 80 FPS average, while Low delivers 129 FPS for competitive play. Ultra drops to 60 FPS average.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. At 4K Low, the combo achieves 83 FPS average, and at Medium it drops to 59 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 39 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has a Passmark G3D score of 18169. It is 1% slower than the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, 1.2% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, and 1.3% slower than the Intel Arc B570.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 a bottleneck for the RTX 2070 SUPER in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. Frame rates drop significantly from 1080p to 4K, which is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios. The CPU's high performance, with a 93rd percentile ranking, provides ample headroom.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset achieves an average of 175 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 82 FPS. This represents a 93 FPS difference, or a 53% reduction in frame rate when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: Does the combo's performance ranking in the database reflect the CPU or GPU more?

A: The combo ranks 1634th out of 2828, which is held back by the GPU. The CPU ranks at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks at the 65th percentile, indicating the GPU is the weaker component in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 175 FPS
• Medium: Average 125 FPS, minimum 106 FPS, maximum 143 FPS
• High: Average 109 FPS
• Ultra: Average 82 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 129 FPS
• Medium: Average 91 FPS, minimum 78 FPS, maximum 105 FPS
• High: Average 80 FPS
• Ultra: Average 60 FPS

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 83 FPS
• Medium: Average 59 FPS, minimum 50 FPS, maximum 68 FPS
• High: Average 51 FPS
• Ultra: Average 39 FPS

The data shows a consistent pattern where the Medium preset provides the only configuration with recorded minimum FPS values, indicating that this settings level was tested with a frame time analysis. The absence of minimum and maximum FPS data for the Low, High, and Ultra presets suggests that only average FPS was captured for those configurations. Across all resolutions, the gap between Low and Ultra settings remains substantial, with the largest absolute difference observed at 1080p (93 FPS) and the smallest at 4K (44 FPS). This narrowing of the gap at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU becomes more saturated as pixel count increases, reducing the relative impact of quality settings on frame rate.