Lockdown Protocol

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The benchmark data for Lockdown Protocol shows a predictable but steep performance curve as resolution climbs, with the most dramatic losses occurring at the top end. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 236.2 FPS, which drops to 170.2 FPS at 1440p Low and then to 109.6 FPS at 4K Low — a 53.6% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the lowest settings. This scaling pattern indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the primary constraint once pixel count rises, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K has ample headroom at lower resolutions.

The gap between settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 124.8 FPS (236.2 vs 111.4). At 1440p, that spread narrows to 91.4 FPS (170.2 vs 78.8). At 4K, the spread compresses further to 59.6 FPS (109.6 vs 50). This compression is classic GPU-bound behavior: as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the bottleneck regardless of quality preset, so the absolute impact of changing settings shrinks.

The most telling data point is the 4K Ultra result of 50 FPS, which is exactly half the 1080p Low figure. This suggests that even the most demanding settings at 4K are pushing the RX 7800 XT to its limits, with the 16 GB frame buffer and 624.1 GB/s memory bandwidth being taxed heavily. The 4K Medium result of 76.5 FPS and 4K High of 67.5 FPS confirm that the card can handle 4K at moderate settings, but Ultra is only marginal for smooth play.

At 1080p, the story is different. The 236.2 FPS Low result and 166.1 FPS Medium result indicate that the CPU is doing its part — the 20-core, 20-thread Arrow Lake processor with a 5.50 GHz boost clock is feeding frames fast enough that the GPU becomes the limiter only at Ultra settings. The 111.4 FPS Ultra result at 1080p is still respectable, but the scaling from Low to Ultra suggests the GPU is already being saturated.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the database of tested combinations for Lockdown Protocol, this pairing of Intel Core Ultra 7 265K with AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT sits at rank 624 out of 1637 total combos. That places it in the 62nd percentile of all tested systems — solidly above average but not among the elite configurations. The position reflects a mid-to-upper tier pairing where the GPU, while capable, does not push into the top quartile of performance.

The CPU itself ranks in the 97th percentile against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 79102. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF at -0.2% delta, the Intel Core i9-14900KF at -0.2%, the Intel Core i9-14900K at -0.9%, and the AMD EPYC 7413 at -1.2%. This places the 265K within a tight cluster at the top, where single-digit percentage differences separate the best desktop CPUs. The multicore strength is evident in the Cinebench R23 score of 50009, while single-core performance is equally strong at 7060.

The GPU's percentile is lower at 76, with an average benchmark score of 32619. Its nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 at +0.2%, the NVIDIA P104-100 at -0.4%, the NVIDIA T600 Mobile at -0.7%, and the AMD FirePro S10000 at +0.7%. These are not mainstream gaming cards, which highlights that the RX 7800 XT sits in a specific performance band where it competes more with workstation and professional-class hardware than with top-tier gaming GPUs.

The rank of 624 out of 1637 means the combo outperforms roughly 61.9% of all tested systems in this game. This is a respectable position, but it also indicates that Lockdown Protocol is not particularly demanding on this hardware — the game's FPS results are high across most settings, suggesting that the combo's rank is limited more by the GPU's ceiling than by any CPU constraint.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 236.2 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 170.2 at 2560x1440 with Low settings, followed by 166.1 at 1920x1080 with Medium settings.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 50, which is playable but not smooth by competitive standards. At 4K High, it reaches 67.5 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it hits 76.5 FPS. The 4K Low setting delivers 109.6 FPS, which is comfortably smooth.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K has an average benchmark score of 79102, which is 0.2% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i9-14900KF. It trails the Intel Core i9-14900K by 0.9% and the AMD EPYC 7413 by 1.2%.

Q: What is the GPU's position relative to other graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT ranks in the 76th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 32619. Its closest rival is the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 at +0.2%, while it edges out the NVIDIA P104-100 by 0.4%.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested systems?

A: The combination of Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT ranks 624th out of 1637 tested combos for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all configurations.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination provides the best balance of performance and quality?

A: Based on the data, 1440p Medium at 125.1 FPS offers an excellent balance — it delivers high frame rates with better visual fidelity than Low settings. For 4K users, Medium at 76.5 FPS is the sweet spot, as High and Ultra drop below 70 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results across all settings. Low settings produce 236.2 FPS average, Medium drops to 166.1 FPS, High reaches 145.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 111.4 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 52.8% performance loss, which is substantial but expected given the GPU's architecture.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are consistent. Low settings yield 170.2 FPS, Medium produces 125.1 FPS, High delivers 105.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 78.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 91.4 FPS, which is a 53.7% reduction — nearly identical to the 1080p scaling, indicating the GPU remains the dominant factor.

At 3840x2160, the results become more constrained. Low settings achieve 109.6 FPS, Medium reaches 76.5 FPS, High produces 67.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 50 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 59.6 FPS, a 54.4% reduction. Notably, the 4K Ultra result of 50 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS figure in the entire dataset, making it the single weakest point for this configuration.

The data shows that across all three resolutions, the relationship between settings is linear and consistent. The RX 7800 XT's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth allow it to handle the game's textures without stuttering, but the raw compute power of 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 is the limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The CPU's role is minimized at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the fact that 4K Low (109.6 FPS) is still higher than 1080p Ultra (111.4 FPS) — a near-tie that suggests the GPU is the bottleneck in both cases.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is built on the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1295 MHz, with a boost clock of 2430 MHz and a game clock of 2124 MHz. These specifications translate to 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's memory capacity appears sufficient across all tested settings. The 16 GB frame buffer is never a limiting factor, as evidenced by the consistent scaling between Low and Ultra at each resolution. The bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s is adequate for the game's texture streaming, and the fact that 4K Medium (76.5 FPS) is only 30.2% lower than 4K Low (109.6 FPS) suggests the memory subsystem is not the primary constraint.

The GPU's clock speeds tell a more nuanced story. The boost clock of 2430 MHz is competitive, but the actual performance in this game is dictated by the shader throughput. With 37.32 TFLOPS FP32, the card can handle moderate settings at 4K but falls to 50 FPS at Ultra, indicating that the compute units are fully saturated. The pixel rate of 233.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 583.2 GTexel/s are also relevant — at 4K Ultra, the fill rate requirements exceed what the card can sustain at high frame rates.

The GPU's benchmark scores support this analysis. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4157 and Passmark G3D score of 24176 place it in the 76th percentile of all GPUs. These are mid-range results that explain why the combo ranks 624th overall — the GPU is capable but not exceptional, and Lockdown Protocol's demands at 4K Ultra push it to its limits.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p, where the frame rates are high enough to expose any processing bottleneck. The 236.2 FPS Low result and 166.1 FPS Medium result indicate that the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them at lower settings. The 20 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's physics and AI systems, and the 5.50 GHz boost clock ensures single-thread performance is not a limiting factor.

The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 50009 and single-core score of 7060 confirm the CPU's strength. The Passmark multithread score of 58838 and single-thread score of 4904 further validate its capabilities. These figures place the 265K in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 97% of processors in general workloads.

However, the benchmark data shows that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor in this game. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is driven entirely by GPU load, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to maintain consistent frame delivery. The only scenario where the CPU might matter more is at 1080p Low, where 236.2 FPS approaches the practical limit of what even the fastest processors can sustain in an FPS title. The 20-core design, while not fully utilized by a single game, ensures that background tasks and streaming do not interfere with frame rendering.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For 1080p users, the data strongly favors Medium settings. The 166.1 FPS average is more than sufficient for any display refresh rate up to 165 Hz, and the visual improvement over Low is substantial. High settings at 145.5 FPS are also viable for 144 Hz monitors, while Ultra at 111.4 FPS is best reserved for 120 Hz panels. Low settings at 236.2 FPS are only recommended for competitive play where maximum frame rate trumps visual fidelity.

At 1440p, Medium settings provide the best overall experience with 125.1 FPS. This is comfortably above 60 FPS and approaches the threshold for 144 Hz displays. High settings at 105.9 FPS are still excellent, while Ultra at 78.8 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced FPS gameplay. Low settings at 170.2 FPS are the choice for esports-level performance, but the visual compromise is significant.

For 4K, the recommendation is more nuanced. Medium settings at 76.5 FPS offer the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, clearing the 60 FPS threshold with headroom. High settings at 67.5 FPS are also acceptable, but they leave less margin for demanding scenes. Ultra at 50 FPS is not recommended for competitive play, as the frame rate dips below the 60 FPS standard. Low settings at 109.6 FPS are viable for players prioritizing performance, but the visual downgrade at 4K is pronounced.

The overall verdict is that Medium settings are the sweet spot across all three resolutions. This preset delivers frame rates that are 50-70% higher than Ultra while maintaining visual quality that is indistinguishable from High in most scenes. For players with 144 Hz monitors, 1440p Medium (125.1 FPS) is the recommended configuration; for 4K display owners, 4K Medium (76.5 FPS) provides the best combination of smoothness and fidelity. The only exception is 1080p Low (236.2 FPS), which is ideal for players who prioritize maximum responsiveness over graphics.