Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core Ultra 7 265K + AMD Radeon RX 7600

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers a mid-range gaming experience in Lockdown Protocol, with measured frame rates spanning from 38.3 FPS at 4K Ultra to 159.3 FPS at 1080p Low. The CPU sits in the 97th percentile among all processors with an average benchmark score of 79,102, placing it just 0.2% behind the Core Ultra 7 265KF and Core i9-14900KF, while the GPU ranks in the 63rd percentile with an average score of 20,258. This combination ranks 1,136th out of 1,637 tested hardware combos in this specific game, indicating a system that is capable but not top-tier for Lockdown Protocol's demands.

FAQ

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

A: At 1080p, the system delivers playable frame rates across all settings, ranging from 74.1 FPS on Ultra to 159.3 FPS on Low. At 1440p, High settings yield 72.8 FPS, while 4K performance drops below 60 FPS on every preset except Low, which achieves 78.2 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The 265K scores 79,102 on average, which is 0.2% lower than both the Core Ultra 7 265KF (79,240) and the Core i9-14900KF (79,245), and 0.9% behind the Core i9-14900K (79,824). It also trails the AMD EPYC 7413 by 1.2%, which scores 80,041.

Q: What is the GPU's performance position relative to comparable cards?

A: The Radeon RX 7600's average benchmark score of 20,258 places it 0.6% above the RX 7600 XT (20,146) and 0.8% above the RX 460 (20,088), but 1.3% below the RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534) and 1.5% below the Intel Arc B570 (20,556).

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck the system in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data suggests the GPU becomes the primary limiter at higher resolutions. Moving from 1080p Low (159.3 FPS) to 1440p Low (117.5 FPS) represents a 26.2% drop, while the CPU's strong single-threaded performance (7,060 in Cinebench R23 single-core) indicates it is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of this CPU?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K had a launch MSRP of $394, and it features 20 cores with 20 threads, a base clock of 3.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz.

Q: How does the system's overall ranking in Lockdown Protocol compare to other hardware combinations?

A: The combination ranks 1,136th out of 1,637 tested combos, placing it in roughly the 69th percentile of all tested systems for this game, which aligns with the GPU's mid-range positioning.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Lockdown Protocol shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate across the four available presets. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 116.8 FPS, which is 18.2% higher than High (98.7 FPS) and 57.6% higher than Ultra (74.1 FPS). The Low preset reaches 159.3 FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium costs 42.5 FPS while providing substantially better visuals. For competitive play, Medium at 1080p offers the best balance, maintaining well above 100 FPS while keeping the frame rate 42.7 FPS higher than High.

At 1440p, Medium delivers 81.5 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High drops to 72.8 FPS, still playable, but Ultra falls to 52.5 FPS, which may introduce noticeable stutter in fast-paced FPS action. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the optimal choice for this resolution, providing a 28.9 FPS advantage over High while staying within acceptable performance bounds for most displays.

For 4K gaming, the situation becomes more constrained. Only the Low preset achieves a playable 78.2 FPS, while Medium drops to 54 FPS and High falls to 49.7 FPS. Ultra is effectively unplayable at 38.3 FPS. Given these figures, users with 4K displays should either select Low settings or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p, where Medium offers a 27.5 FPS improvement over 4K Medium. The overall recommendation is Medium at 1080p for the best experience, as it provides the highest frame rate above 100 FPS while maintaining reasonable visual quality.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the Radeon RX 7600 scales under increasing resolution load. At Low settings, performance drops from 159.3 FPS at 1080p to 117.5 FPS at 1440p (a 26.2% reduction) and finally to 78.2 FPS at 4K (a 50.9% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the pixel throughput demand outpaces the card's 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability.

At Medium settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30.2% (116.8 to 81.5 FPS), and the further drop to 4K is 53.8% from the 1080p baseline (116.8 to 54 FPS). The High preset shows similar behavior: 98.7 FPS at 1080p, 72.8 FPS at 1440p (26.2% reduction), and 49.7 FPS at 4K (49.6% reduction). Ultra settings exhibit the steepest absolute decline, from 74.1 FPS at 1080p to 52.5 FPS at 1440p (29.1% reduction) and 38.3 FPS at 4K (48.3% reduction).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The CPU's high single-threaded score of 7,060 in Cinebench R23 and 20 cores at up to 5.50 GHz boost ensure that it can feed frames adequately at lower resolutions, but the RX 7600's 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The 4K Low result of 78.2 FPS versus 4K Medium's 54 FPS suggests that texture and shading complexity in this game heavily taxes the GPU's 64 ROPs and 128 TMUs at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates across all settings. Low delivers 159.3 FPS, Medium reaches 116.8 FPS, High produces 98.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 74.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 85.2 FPS, with each successive preset costing between 17.5% and 26.1% of the previous setting's performance. Medium represents the most efficient step, dropping 42.5 FPS from Low while likely providing noticeably improved visuals.

At 2560x1440, performance scales down predictably. Low yields 117.5 FPS, Medium achieves 81.5 FPS, High produces 72.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 52.5 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 65 FPS, with Medium offering a 36 FPS improvement over Ultra while still maintaining smooth frame rates. The High preset at 1440p provides 72.8 FPS, which is 0.7 FPS higher than the 4K Low result, indicating that resolution has a more significant impact on performance than preset selection in this range.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become apparent. Low manages 78.2 FPS, which is the only 4K preset above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium falls to 54 FPS, High drops to 49.7 FPS, and Ultra reaches just 38.3 FPS. The degradation from Low to Ultra at 4K is 39.9 FPS, a 51.0% reduction. Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p Medium result (116.8 FPS) is 49.5% higher than the 1440p Medium result (81.5 FPS), and the 1440p Medium is 50.9% higher than 4K Medium (54 FPS), showing a consistent performance penalty per resolution step.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, is the determining factor for Lockdown Protocol's performance at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves insufficient for 4K Ultra settings where the game demands 38.3 FPS. The GPU's boost clock of 2655 MHz and game clock of 2250 MHz represent the card's operational range, and the measured results indicate that the memory subsystem, rather than raw compute, is the primary constraint at 4K.

The GPU's benchmark scores correlate with its in-game performance. Its Passmark G3D score of 16,634 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,310 place it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, which aligns with the mid-range frame rates observed. The card's 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s, but these capabilities are increasingly taxed as resolution scales. The FP32 throughput of 21.75 TFLOPS supports playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p Medium, but the 4K results show that the card operates beyond its comfortable envelope.

The RX 7600's 6 nm process node and 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die contribute to its 165 W TDP, but these specifications do not translate into high-resolution dominance. The GPU's nearest rivals — the RX 7600 XT (0.6% higher score), RX 460 (0.8% higher), RTX 3070 Mobile (1.3% lower), and Arc B570 (1.5% lower) — all sit within a narrow performance band, confirming that this card occupies a specific mid-range tier. The measured FPS data shows that the RX 7600 is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p with Medium settings, where it can maintain frame rates above 81 FPS, while 4K gaming is only viable at Low settings, reflecting the card's 8 GB memory capacity and 128-bit interface as its limiting architectural features.