Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol’s measured performance on the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT shows a system that scales predictably with settings and resolution, but with a few interesting inflection points. The data covers 12 distinct configurations, and the analysis below interprets those numbers in context with the hardware’s specifications and the broader combo ranking.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows make it clear that the Low preset is the outlier in terms of raw speed, but the jump from Low to Medium is not linear across resolutions. At 1920x1080, Low delivers 277.5 FPS, while Medium drops to 201.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 27%. That is a steep cost for what is likely a modest visual upgrade in a competitive FPS. The High preset at 1080p still holds 171.9 FPS, which is above most high-refresh monitors’ practical ceiling, so for players prioritizing smoothness, High at 1080p is the sweet spot—it stays well above 144 FPS without sacrificing the detail level that Medium introduces.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low hits 203.6 FPS, Medium 145.2 FPS, and High 128 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is only about 12%, while the gap between Low and Medium is nearly 29%. This suggests that the Medium preset is the better value at 1440p if you want a meaningful visual upgrade without halving your headroom. Ultra at 1440p drops to 95.1 FPS, which is still playable but begins to feel less like a high-refresh experience. At 3840x2160, the story changes entirely: Low is 134 FPS, Medium is 91.4 FPS, High is 84.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 63.7 FPS. Here, the Low preset is the only one that keeps the system comfortably above 100 FPS, and even that is a significant step down from the 1080p Low figure.

The data implies that for a 1080p or 1440p monitor, High is the recommended preset—it preserves competitive frame rates while offering more visual fidelity than Medium. At 4K, the recommendation flips to Low if frame rate is the priority, since Ultra’s 63.7 FPS average is below the 70 FPS threshold many players consider minimum for smooth motion in an FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the primary driver of these results, and its specs explain the scaling pattern. With 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus delivering 800.0 GB/s bandwidth, the card has ample capacity for Lockdown Protocol’s textures, even at 4K. The boost clock of 2394 MHz and game clock of 2025 MHz are high for a RDNA 3.0 part, and the 5376 shading units combined with 192 ROPs give it strong rasterization throughput. The pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s suggest that the card is not bandwidth-starved in most scenarios.

The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (63.7 FPS) versus 4K Low (134 FPS) shows a 2.1x swing, which is substantial but not unusual for a game where settings dramatically alter shading and post-processing loads. The card’s 51.48 TFLOPS FP32 compute is high, but the Ultra preset at 4K still drops below 70 FPS, indicating that Lockdown Protocol’s ultra settings push geometry and pixel work that stresses even a high-end GPU. The RX 7900 XT sits at the 82nd percentile among all GPUs in the database, and its nearest rivals are mostly mobile RTX 40-series parts, which underscores its desktop-class dominance. The data suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K Ultra, but at 1080p Low, the CPU likely becomes more relevant, which leads to the next section.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K has 20 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz and a base clock of 3.90 GHz. This is a high-core-count desktop part with a 125 W TDP, and its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 50009 places it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs. The single-core score of 7060 is also strong, which matters for a game like Lockdown Protocol that may rely on a few primary threads for game logic. The L3 cache is 30 MB shared, and the system uses DDR5 memory with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth, which is more than enough for gaming workloads.

The CPU’s role becomes evident when comparing 1080p Low (277.5 FPS) to 1440p Low (203.6 FPS) and 4K Low (134 FPS). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27%, and from 1440p to 4K is 34%. If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, the 4K drop would be steeper relative to 1080p, but the fact that 1080p Low still reaches 277.5 FPS suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well beyond typical refresh rates. The Cinebench R15 multicore score of 5040 and Passmark multithread score of 58838 indicate strong parallel performance, which helps in scenes with many AI-driven NPCs or physics objects. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the CPU has plenty of headroom to spare. The data implies that the 265K will not hold back the RX 7900 XT at any resolution tested, making the GPU the primary variable for settings tuning.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 335th out of 1637 combinations for Lockdown Protocol. That places it in the top 20% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a desktop setup with a high-end GPU and a recent CPU. The CPU’s percentile rank of 97 versus the GPU’s 82 shows that the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card, which aligns with the 4K Ultra results where the GPU is the weak link.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF, which scores 0.2% higher on average, and the Intel Core i9-14900K, which scores 0.9% higher. These are marginal differences, meaning the 265K is effectively at parity with its immediate competitors. The GPU’s nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (0.6% higher), which are both mobile parts, so the RX 7900 XT is notably ahead of most laptop GPUs but roughly on par with a high-end desktop-class card. The rank of 335 suggests that while this combo is fast, there are over 300 combinations in the database that achieve higher average FPS in this specific game, likely featuring even stronger GPUs or CPUs. The data indicates that this is a well-balanced mid-to-high-end system, not an absolute top-tier combo.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is not uniform across settings, which reveals the bottleneck behavior. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 277.5 (1080p) to 203.6 (1440p) to 134 (4K), representing a 51% drop from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the same progression is 171.9 to 128 to 84.7, a 51% drop as well. Interestingly, the percentage drop is nearly identical between Low and High, suggesting that the scaling is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound in these cases. At Medium, the drop is 201.8 to 145.2 to 91.4, which is a 55% reduction from 1080p to 4K, slightly steeper. At Ultra, the drop is 130.2 to 95.1 to 63.7, a 51% drop again.

The consistency of the ~50% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings points to the GPU being the primary limiter at higher resolutions, as pixel count scales linearly. However, the fact that 1080p Low hits 277.5 FPS while 1080p Ultra is 130.2 FPS shows that settings have a large impact at the same resolution, with a 2.1x difference. This indicates that the GPU is heavily loaded by Ultra settings even at 1080p, but the CPU is not a constraint until frame rates approach 300 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 63.7 FPS is the only sub-70 FPS figure in the entire dataset, reinforcing that 4K Ultra is the most demanding configuration and the only one where the system struggles to maintain high refresh rates.

FAQ

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

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 128 FPS, while Medium hits 145.2 FPS and Low reaches 203.6 FPS. Given the small gap between Medium and High (about 12%), High is recommended for better visuals without a major frame rate penalty.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this setup?

A: No. The 1080p Low result of 277.5 FPS shows the CPU can feed the GPU well beyond typical refresh rates. At 4K Ultra (63.7 FPS), the GPU is clearly the limiter, as the CPU has ample headroom based on its 97th percentile ranking.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: It ranks 335th out of 1637 combos for Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 20%. The CPU is stronger relative to all CPUs (97th percentile) than the GPU is relative to all GPUs (82nd percentile).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 171.9 at 1920x1080 to 128 at 2560x1440 and 84.7 at 3840x2160, a 51% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 63.7, which is below the 70 FPS threshold many would consider smooth for an FPS. It is technically playable but not recommended for competitive play.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XT compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: Its average benchmark score is 38358, which is within 0.6% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile and 0.3% of the NVIDIA CMP 70HX. It outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 by 0.4%.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset of measured average FPS is as follows, organized by resolution and settings. All figures are average FPS; no min or max values were recorded.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 277.5 FPS, Medium achieves 201.8 FPS, High achieves 171.9 FPS, and Ultra achieves 130.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 147.3 FPS, indicating a wide range of performance depending on visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, Low hits 203.6 FPS, Medium hits 145.2 FPS, High hits 128 FPS, and Ultra hits 95.1 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 26.6% (Low) to 27.3% (High), showing consistent scaling.

At 3840x2160, Low runs at 134 FPS, Medium at 91.4 FPS, High at 84.7 FPS, and Ultra at 63.7 FPS. This is the only resolution where Low remains above 100 FPS, and Ultra is the only configuration across all tests that falls below 70 FPS. The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p Low is the fastest measured setup, while 4K Ultra is the slowest, with a 4.4x difference between those two extremes.