Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is a fast-paced FPS that rewards high frame rates, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a strong showing across the board. The measured data indicates that this combination is capable of high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K remaining viable at medium settings. The benchmark results show a clear hierarchy where the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases, while the CPU's 20 cores provide ample headroom at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across different presets reveals a clear optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 179 FPS, which is only slightly lower than the Medium preset's 206.8 FPS but offers substantially better visual quality. The Low preset pushes to 287.4 FPS, but this is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much graphical detail. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 132.3 FPS, which is still smooth but begins to approach the threshold where competitive advantage is lost. For the best experience at 1080p, High settings are the sweet spot, providing a 35% improvement over Ultra while maintaining a frame rate well above 144Hz.

At 2560x1440, the High preset remains the recommended choice with 131.3 FPS, which is ideal for 144Hz monitors. The Medium preset offers 149.5 FPS, providing a 14% boost, but the visual downgrade is noticeable in a game like Lockdown Protocol where spotting enemies at range matters. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 96.6 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a competitive FPS. At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The High preset averages 85 FPS, which is smooth for casual play, but the Medium preset at 98.9 FPS is the better trade-off for maintaining a higher refresh rate. The Low preset at 137.2 FPS is the only way to approach high-refresh territory at 4K, but the visual compromise is significant. The Ultra preset at 63.8 FPS is only suitable for slower-paced content.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the defining component in this combination's high-resolution performance. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, the card delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Lockdown Protocol's texture-heavy environments. The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz and 7168 shading units drive the frame rates, but the data shows a steep performance curve as resolution scales. At 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor, as even the High preset (179 FPS) leaves headroom. However, at 1440p, the GPU's workload increases, and at 4K, the RTX 4070 SUPER becomes the clear bottleneck. The drop from 179 FPS at 1080p High to 85 FPS at 4K High represents a 53% reduction, indicating that the GPU's pixel throughput is the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

The GPU's 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores suggest ray tracing and DLSS capabilities, but the measured data does not include these features, so their impact on Lockdown Protocol cannot be assessed. The card's 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs puts it in a solid mid-to-high tier, but its nearest rivals (RTX A6000, RX 7650 GRE) show that it sits in a competitive performance band. The 220 W TDP is moderate, and the 1x 16-pin power connector is standard for this class. For Lockdown Protocol, the RTX 4070 SUPER is well-matched to 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates at High settings, but it is not a 4K powerhouse unless settings are reduced.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K provides a robust foundation for this gaming combination. With 20 cores and 20 threads, the CPU has more than enough parallel throughput for Lockdown Protocol's game logic and physics. The 3.90 GHz base clock and 5.50 GHz boost clock ensure strong single-thread performance, which is critical for FPS games that rely on a primary simulation thread. The CPU's 30 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, and the dual-channel DDR5 support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth prevents memory bandwidth from becoming a constraint. The benchmark results show the CPU's strength: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 50009 and a single-core score of 7060 place it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 287.4 FPS, which is likely CPU-bound, as the GPU is not fully taxed at this setting. The CPU's 20 cores handle the game's background tasks, while the high boost clock ensures that the main thread does not bottleneck. The data shows that from 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drops by 27% at High settings (179 to 131.3 FPS), which suggests the GPU is beginning to take over as the limiting factor. The CPU's nearest rivals (Core Ultra 7 265KF, Core i9-14900KF) show a negligible performance delta of -0.2%, indicating that this CPU is well-positioned. For Lockdown Protocol, the 265K provides ample CPU headroom, ensuring that the GPU is the primary driver of performance at 1440p and above.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 274th out of 1637 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the top 17% of all configurations, which is a strong result for a mid-to-high-end pairing. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's strong single-thread performance and the GPU's capable 1440p throughput. The combo outperforms the majority of systems, but the ranking also shows that there are many higher-performing combinations, likely featuring more powerful GPUs like the RTX 4080 or 4090. The data indicates that this combo is not the absolute top tier, but it is well above average for competitive play.

The rank of 274 suggests that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting factor in this pairing. The CPU's 97th percentile ranking is significantly higher than the GPU's 84th percentile, meaning the CPU has more headroom than the GPU. This is a typical configuration for a balanced gaming build, but it also means that upgrading the GPU would yield a more substantial performance increase than upgrading the CPU. For Lockdown Protocol specifically, the combo rank indicates that this system is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p high-refresh gaming, but it will not push 4K Ultra at high frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a linear scaling pattern that highlights the GPU's dominance as resolution increases. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 179 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 131.3 FPS, a 27% reduction. At 4K High, the frame rate falls to 85 FPS, a further 35% reduction from 1440p. This consistent drop indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution. The pattern is similar across all settings: at Low settings, the drop from 1080p (287.4 FPS) to 1440p (210.6 FPS) is also 27%, and the drop to 4K (137.2 FPS) is another 35%.

This scaling behavior is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 4070 SUPER's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are insufficient to maintain 1080p performance levels at 4K. The data shows that at 1080p, the combo is partially CPU-bound, as the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's single-thread performance is a factor. However, at 1440p and above, the GPU becomes the sole constraint. For users with 4K displays, the data suggests that dropping to Medium settings (98.9 FPS) is necessary to stay above 60 FPS, while Low settings (137.2 FPS) provide a smoother experience but compromise visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 287.4 FPS average
• Medium: 206.8 FPS average
• High: 179 FPS average
• Ultra: 132.3 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 210.6 FPS average
• Medium: 149.5 FPS average
• High: 131.3 FPS average
• Ultra: 96.6 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 137.2 FPS average
• Medium: 98.9 FPS average
• High: 85 FPS average
• Ultra: 63.8 FPS average

The data shows a clear progression where each resolution step halves the performance gap between settings. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 155 FPS (287.4 to 132.3), but at 4K, the difference narrows to 73.4 FPS (137.2 to 63.8). This compression is due to the GPU becoming the bottleneck at higher resolutions, reducing the impact of CPU-bound settings changes. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, at 63.8 FPS, which is still playable but not ideal for competitive play. For the best balance, the High preset at 1440p (131.3 FPS) or the Medium preset at 4K (98.9 FPS) offer the most sensible performance-per-visual-quality trade-offs.