Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + AMD Radeon RX 9070

The measured frame rates for Lockdown Protocol with this Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination span from 54 FPS at 4K Ultra to 245 FPS at 1080p Low, demonstrating a system that scales predictably across resolution and quality tiers. The combo ranks 790th out of 2828 tested configurations, placing it in the upper quartile of all tested hardware pairings for this FPS title. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, component roles, and measured performance data to give a complete picture of what this pairing delivers.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 152 at 1920x1080 to 112 at 2560x1440, a 26% reduction, and then to 72 at 3840x2160, a further 36% decline. This steepening curve between 1440p and 4K indicates the Radeon RX 9070 becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises, while the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus maintains sufficient headroom.

The Low settings row tells a similar story but with larger absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the system produces 245 FPS average, which falls to 180 FPS at 1440p and 116 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 27% from 1080p to 1440p and 36% from 1440p to 4K, nearly identical to the High setting deltas. This consistency suggests the scaling penalty is resolution-driven rather than setting-driven, pointing to the GPU's pixel throughput as the bottleneck.

Medium settings show the most complete dataset with min and max FPS recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average sits at 174 FPS with a range of 148 to 200 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium drops the average to 128 FPS (range 109 to 147), and 4K Medium lands at 82 FPS (range 70 to 95). The frame time consistency appears to hold well, as the spread between min and max remains proportionally similar across resolutions.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates across the board. The 4K Ultra average of 54 FPS represents the most demanding configuration measured, while 1440p Ultra reaches 84 FPS and 1080p Ultra hits 114 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is a 26% drop, and from 1440p to 4K it is 36%, matching the pattern seen at other settings. This uniformity indicates the game's rendering pipeline scales predictably with pixel count when the CPU is not the constraint.

The data suggests that at 1080p, particularly at Low and Medium settings, the CPU still contributes meaningfully to frame delivery, as the 245 FPS Low result shows the system's ability to push very high frame rates. But at 4K, even at Low settings, the GPU takes over as the limiting component, with the 116 FPS result being only 47% of the 1080p Low figure. This is typical behavior for a fast modern CPU paired with a mid-range GPU in a competitive FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for Lockdown Protocol's demands at all tested resolutions. The GPU's base clock of 1330 MHz boosts to 2520 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2070 MHz, providing the compute headroom needed for the frame rates observed in the measured data.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU's 54 FPS average indicates it is heavily loaded, and the lack of min/max data for that configuration suggests the benchmark run was stable enough to report only the average. The RDNA 4.0 architecture with 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units handles the pixel fill requirements of 4K rendering, though the 322.6 GPixel/s pixel rate appears to be the limiting factor at the highest quality preset.

The GPU's 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 56 ray tracing cores contribute to the settings scaling observed in the data. Moving from Low to Ultra at any given resolution costs roughly 50-60% of the frame rate, which reflects the increasing shader and memory bandwidth demands of higher quality presets. At 1080p, the difference between Low (245 FPS) and Ultra (114 FPS) is 131 FPS, while at 4K the same settings gap is only 62 FPS, confirming the GPU saturates at higher resolutions regardless of quality level.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23877. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER at 24170 (1.2% higher) and the AMD Radeon RX 6800S at 24063 (0.8% higher), showing this GPU sits in a competitive mid-range performance tier. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 131539 provide additional context for its compute capabilities, though the in-game results are the more relevant metric for Lockdown Protocol.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The highest measured average is 245 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 1080p Medium, it achieves 174 FPS, and at 1080p High, 152 FPS.

Q: Can this system maintain 60+ FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, at Low settings it averages 116 FPS, at Medium 82 FPS, and at High 72 FPS. Only at Ultra settings does it drop below 60 FPS, averaging 54 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 23877, which is 0.8% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6800S (24063) and 1.2% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24170). It sits 0.6% above the GTX TITAN Z (23736).

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at Medium settings?

A: The data shows tight ranges at Medium settings. At 1080p, the range is 148-200 FPS around a 174 average; at 1440p, it is 109-147 FPS around a 128 average; and at 4K, it is 70-95 FPS around an 82 average.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807) and 1.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090). It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85072) by 1.3%.

Q: What percentile does this combo rank in for Lockdown Protocol?

A: This combo ranks 790th out of 2828 tested combinations, placing it in the top 28% of all tested hardware pairings for this game.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the High preset at 72 FPS average offers the best balance between visual quality and playable frame rates. The Medium preset at 82 FPS provides a smoother experience with only a modest visual reduction, while Ultra at 54 FPS dips below the 60 FPS threshold that many competitive FPS players consider minimum. The Low preset at 116 FPS is the only 4K option that provides high-refresh-rate comfort, but it sacrifices significant visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the High preset at 112 FPS is the recommended choice for most users, as it clears the 100 FPS mark while maintaining good visual quality. Medium at 128 FPS offers a substantial frame rate boost for players prioritizing smoothness, and Low at 180 FPS is exceptional for competitive play on high-refresh monitors. Ultra at 84 FPS remains playable but gives up 28 FPS compared to High for marginal visual gains.

For 1080p, the data supports using High settings at 152 FPS as the default recommendation, as it provides excellent frame rates with strong visual quality. Players with 240 Hz displays may prefer Low at 245 FPS or Medium at 174 FPS, both of which exceed 144 Hz thresholds. Ultra at 114 FPS is the least attractive option at this resolution, offering the lowest frame rate with only incremental quality improvements over High.

The Medium preset consistently shows the tightest min/max ranges across all resolutions, indicating more stable frame delivery. For users sensitive to frame pacing, Medium at 1440p (128 FPS average, 109 min) or 4K (82 FPS average, 70 min) may provide a more consistent experience than High or Ultra presets, which lack recorded min/max data.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 790th out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it comfortably in the top 28% of all configurations tested. This ranking reflects a strong pairing where the CPU's high single-thread performance complements the GPU's capable mid-range throughput.

The CPU alone sits at the 96th percentile among all processors with an average benchmark score of 84003, while the GPU is at the 69th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 23877. This disparity suggests the GPU is the constraining factor in most scenarios, and the combo's overall ranking in-game is likely limited by the graphics card rather than the processor.

Relative to other tested combos, this pairing's rank of 790 indicates it outperforms 2038 other configurations while trailing 789. The top 28% placement is respectable for a mid-range GPU paired with a high-end CPU, and the measured FPS data confirms the system is well-suited for 1440p gaming and capable at 4K with adjusted settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 245 FPS average, Medium produces 174 FPS with a range of 148 to 200 FPS, High produces 152 FPS, and Ultra produces 114 FPS. The 131 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at this resolution shows the significant impact of quality presets when the CPU has ample headroom.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but show clear GPU scaling. Low settings average 180 FPS, Medium averages 128 FPS with a range of 109 to 147 FPS, High averages 112 FPS, and Ultra averages 84 FPS. The 96 FPS spread between Low and Ultra is narrower than at 1080p, indicating the GPU begins to constrain performance more noticeably.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings average 116 FPS, Medium averages 82 FPS with a range of 70 to 95 FPS, High averages 72 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The 62 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest of any resolution, confirming that pixel throughput limits the system regardless of quality preset.

The Medium settings data provides the only complete min/max measurements in the dataset. At 1080p Medium, the range is 52 FPS wide (148-200); at 1440p Medium, it is 38 FPS wide (109-147); and at 4K Medium, it is 25 FPS wide (70-95). This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests more consistent frame delivery when the GPU is heavily loaded.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus features 24 cores and 24 threads with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.80 GHz. This Arrow Lake Refresh processor on the Intel Socket 1851 platform delivers strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its 7303 Cinebench R23 single-core score and 4823 Passmark single-thread score.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The 245 FPS result at 1080p Low demonstrates that the processor can feed frames quickly enough to avoid becoming a bottleneck at high frame rates. The 24 threads help maintain performance during intense gameplay moments, though the game likely benefits more from the high boost clock than the core count.

The CPU's benchmark scores show it outperforms its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, by 0.2% in average benchmark score. Its 1.3% deficit to the AMD EPYC 7F72 is notable but irrelevant for gaming scenarios, as server-class processors rarely deliver better frame rates in FPS titles. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all processors confirms it is a top-tier gaming processor.

The 125 W TDP and 36 MB of shared L3 cache provide adequate power and data locality for game workloads. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 115.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed the GPU without memory bottlenecks, particularly at 1080p where frame rates are highest. At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes as the GPU becomes the limiting factor, but the processor's strong single-thread performance ensures it never holds back the system in this title.