Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The data presents a high-refresh-rate FPS pairing: the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 deliver triple-digit average frame rates across all tested configurations in Lockdown Protocol, with the combo ranking 58th out of 2,828 tested combinations. The measured results show a system capable of extreme frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, while 4K remains firmly in high-refresh territory. This analysis walks through the measured FPS data, settings behavior, and the individual contributions of the CPU and GPU based solely on the provided facts.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how Lockdown Protocol scales with resolution for this combo. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 368 FPS average; moving to 1440p Low drops that to 270 FPS, and at 4K Low it reaches 174 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is approximately 26.6% (from 368 to 270), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is approximately 35.6% (from 270 to 174). This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the GPU is becoming progressively more stressed as pixel count increases, but the CPU still has headroom to feed high frame rates at 1080p.

Looking at High settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute values: 228 FPS at 1080p, 167 FPS at 1440p, and 108 FPS at 4K. The relative drops are 26.8% (1080p to 1440p) and 35.3% (1440p to 4K), nearly identical to the Low settings pattern. This consistency suggests that the scaling behavior is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven, pointing to the GPU as the primary limiter as resolution increases.

At Medium settings, where min/max FPS data is available, the 1080p result is 261 FPS average (min 222, max 301), 1440p drops to 192 FPS (min 163, max 220), and 4K falls to 124 FPS (min 105, max 142). The average FPS drops are 26.4% and 35.4% respectively, again mirroring the Low and High patterns. The min FPS values at 1440p Medium (163) and 4K Medium (105) show that even the worst-case frame rates remain above 100 FPS, which is notable for a 4K resolution.

Ultra settings provide the clearest evidence of GPU limitation: 171 FPS at 1080p, 125 FPS at 1440p, and 81 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 26.9% and 35.2%, following the same trend. The 4K Ultra result of 81 FPS is the lowest measured average, but it still exceeds 60 FPS. The consistent scaling percentages across all four settings presets — approximately 27% from 1080p to 1440p and 35% from 1440p to 4K — indicate that Lockdown Protocol's frame rate is governed by pixel throughput rather than CPU physics or logic at these resolutions. The GPU, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, is the component that scales with resolution, and the data supports that conclusion.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance on which preset delivers the best experience for this combo. At 4K, the difference between Medium and High is 16 FPS (124 vs 108), while the jump from High to Ultra costs 27 FPS (108 to 81). The Medium preset at 4K delivers 124 FPS average with a min of 105 FPS, which keeps frame pacing well above typical 60 Hz display refresh rates. Given that the min FPS at 4K Medium is 105, this setting provides a consistent experience without dipping into lower frame rate territory.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 192 FPS average (min 163, max 220), while High drops to 167 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 125 FPS, which is still high but represents a 34.9% reduction from Medium. For 1440p, the Medium setting offers the best balance because the min FPS of 163 remains above any commonly used refresh rate threshold, and the 192 average provides substantial headroom. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 270 FPS, but that level of frame rate is beyond most display capabilities and likely sacrifices visual quality unnecessarily.

At 1080p, the situation is different. The Medium preset gives 261 FPS average (min 222, max 301), while High drops to 228 FPS. The Ultra preset still delivers 171 FPS. The data shows that at 1080p, even Ultra maintains frame rates above 170 FPS, so the choice depends on whether the user prioritizes visual fidelity or maximum frame rate. The Low preset at 368 FPS is excessive for typical 240 Hz or 360 Hz displays, and the Medium setting at 261 FPS with a 222 FPS minimum provides a robust experience without requiring the lowest visual quality.

Comparing across resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best combination of high average FPS and high minimum FPS. At 4K Medium, the 105 FPS minimum is the weakest point in the measured data, but it still exceeds the minimum FPS of the High presets at lower resolutions. The recommendation based on the measured rows is to use Medium settings at any resolution, as it provides the best measured min FPS relative to the average FPS, indicating stable frame delivery.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS measured for this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 368 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 270 at 2560x1440 Low, followed by 261 at 1080p Medium.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 81, which exceeds 60 FPS. The minimum FPS for that configuration was not measured, but the average indicates comfortable 60 FPS capability.

Q: How much FPS is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 228 at 1080p to 167 at 1440p, then to 108 at 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 120 FPS, which represents a 52.6% reduction.

Q: Which settings preset shows the largest difference between average and minimum FPS?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p shows a difference of 39 FPS between average (261) and minimum (222). At 1440p Medium, the difference is 29 FPS (192 average vs 163 minimum), and at 4K Medium it is 19 FPS (124 vs 105).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to limit performance at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 368 FPS average, which is the highest measured value. Given that the GPU has substantial compute resources (82.58 TFLOPS FP32), the CPU's 20 cores and 5.30 GHz boost clock are likely the limiting factor at this low resolution and settings level.

Q: What is the lowest measured average FPS across all configurations?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 81 at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the only configuration that drops below 100 FPS average, and it remains above 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 58th out of 2,828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 2.1% of all tested pairings. This rank reflects the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 working together in this specific game. The CPU alone holds a 93rd percentile ranking versus all CPUs in general benchmarks, while the GPU holds an 88th percentile ranking versus all GPUs. The combo's game-specific rank of 58 out of 2,828 is stronger than either component's standalone percentile would suggest, indicating that Lockdown Protocol responds well to this pairing.

The CPU's nearest rivals in general benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 4464P (delta -0.3%), the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (delta 0.3%), the AMD EPYC 7343 (delta 0.7%), and the AMD EPYC 9124 (delta -0.7%). These delta percentages are all within 1% of the Ultra 7 265's average benchmark score of 64,640, showing that the CPU sits in a tightly clustered performance tier. For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 (delta 0%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (delta 0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (delta -2.5%), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (delta 2.9%). The GPU's average benchmark score is 60,347, and its nearest rival deltas range from -2.5% to 2.9%.

Given the combo's rank of 58 out of 2,828, the data shows that only 57 other combinations achieve higher frame rates in Lockdown Protocol. This places the pairing in the top percentile of tested systems. The rank considers the combined effect of both components, and the measured FPS data supports the high placement: even at the most demanding setting (4K Ultra), the combo produces 81 FPS average, which is well above playable thresholds.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 features 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This is a 3 nm process chip from TSMC, with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 30 MB shared L3. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU's average benchmark score is 64,640, with a 93rd percentile ranking versus all CPUs.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p Low settings, where the combo achieves 368 FPS. At such high frame rates, the CPU must process game logic and draw calls quickly enough to feed the GPU. The 5.30 GHz boost clock is critical here, as single-thread performance often dictates FPS ceilings in CPU-bound scenarios. The CPU's single-core benchmark results — 600 in Cinebench R15, 884 in R20, 5,960 in R23, and 4,689 in PassMark single-thread — indicate strong per-core performance that supports high frame rates.

The 20 threads matter for background tasks and multi-threaded game engines, but Lockdown Protocol's frame rate at 1080p Low suggests the game's primary thread(s) are well-served by the high boost clock. The CPU's 65 W TDP indicates efficient power delivery, which allows sustained boost clocks without thermal throttling. The PassMark multithread score of 49,682 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42,216 show that the CPU can handle heavily threaded workloads, though the game's performance at 1080p Low is more indicative of single-thread dependency.

The CPU's position among rivals — within 0.7% of the AMD EPYC 4464P, Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, AMD EPYC 7343, and AMD EPYC 9124 — means that swapping to any of these would yield nearly identical CPU-bound performance. However, the combo's 58th rank out of 2,828 suggests that the CPU is not holding back the GPU in most configurations, as the FPS scaling with resolution follows a GPU-limited pattern.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, for a total of 12 configurations. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 368 FPS, Medium 261 FPS (min 222, max 301), High 228 FPS, and Ultra 171 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 197 FPS, with each settings tier reducing frame rate by roughly 30-40 FPS. The Medium preset's min FPS of 222 is notably higher than the Ultra preset's average of 171, showing that settings have a substantial impact at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 270 FPS, Medium 192 FPS (min 163, max 220), High 167 FPS, and Ultra 125 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 145 FPS. The Medium preset's min FPS of 163 exceeds the High preset's average of 167 only slightly, indicating that the Medium preset provides near-High performance with more stable frame delivery. The Ultra preset at 125 FPS is still suitable for high-refresh displays but represents a significant drop from Low.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 174 FPS, Medium 124 FPS (min 105, max 142), High 108 FPS, and Ultra 81 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 93 FPS. The Medium preset's min FPS of 105 is close to the High preset's average of 108, meaning that Medium offers comparable performance to High with better stability. The Ultra preset at 81 FPS is the only configuration that approaches the 60 FPS threshold, but it still maintains a comfortable margin.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently shows the smallest gap between average and minimum FPS: 39 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 19 FPS at 4K. This suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent frame pacing, with min FPS values that are proportionally closer to the average. The Low preset has no min FPS data, but its high averages (368, 270, 174) indicate substantial headroom. The High and Ultra presets also lack min FPS data except for Medium, so the Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max measurements across all three resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the AD102 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture on a 5 nm TSMC process, containing 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. It features 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. The GPU has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. Its base clock is 2,235 MHz with a boost clock of 2,520 MHz, and memory runs at 1,313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The GPU's average benchmark score is 60,347, with an 88th percentile ranking versus all GPUs.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. The consistent percentage drops in FPS from 1080p to 1440p (approximately 27%) and from 1440p to 4K (approximately 35%) across all settings indicate that the GPU's pixel throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The 24 GB VRAM capacity ensures that even at 4K Ultra, memory capacity is not a constraint, allowing the GPU to focus on compute rather than memory swapping.

The GPU's compute capabilities — 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate — are more than sufficient for Lockdown Protocol's demands, as evidenced by the 368 FPS at 1080p Low. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s aligns with the resolution scaling pattern: as pixel count increases from 2.07 million (1080p) to 3.69 million (1440p) to 8.29 million (4K), the FPS drops proportionally to the pixel throughput limits. The boost clock of 2,520 MHz provides the high-frequency operation needed for these frame rates.

The GPU's position among rivals shows a mixed picture: the Intel Arc Pro A60 is exactly matched (0% delta), while the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% faster and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 is 2.9% slower. These deltas are small, but the RTX 4090's 88th percentile ranking and its measured performance in Lockdown Protocol demonstrate that it is a top-tier GPU. The combo's 58th rank out of 2,828 likely owes much to the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K, where the CPU's role diminishes and the GPU's raw throughput becomes the primary determinant.