Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This configuration pairs Intel's flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus processor with NVIDIA's RTX 4090, the top consumer GPU of the Ada Lovelace generation, producing benchmark results that place this combo in the 58th position out of 2,828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a system with substantial headroom at lower resolutions, while 4K Ultra presents the only scenario where the hardware approaches its limits.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K demonstrates classic scaling behavior for a high-end CPU-GPU pairing. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 228 at 1920x1080 to 167 at 2560x1440, then further to 108 at 3840x2160. This represents a 26.8% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 52.6% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern indicates that at 1080p, the system is largely CPU-bound, as the RTX 4090's capabilities exceed what the game demands at that resolution.

Examining the Low preset reveals even more dramatic scaling. At 1920x1080 Low, the system produces 368 FPS average, which drops to 270 at 2560x1440 (a 26.6% reduction) and 174 at 3840x2160 (a 52.7% reduction from 1080p). The nearly identical percentage drops between High and Low presets across resolutions suggest that the limiting factor shifts predictably as pixel count increases, with the GPU becoming the primary constraint at 4K regardless of quality settings.

The Medium preset at 4K shows an average of 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 and maximum of 142, providing the only complete frame time data in the measured set. At 1440p Medium, the average rises to 192 FPS with a range of 163 to 220, while 1080p Medium reaches 261 FPS with a spread of 222 to 301. The minimum-to-maximum spread of approximately 30% at each resolution indicates that Lockdown Protocol's frame pacing varies significantly even on this high-end hardware.

Ultra settings produce the steepest scaling curve. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 81 FPS, which is 52.6% lower than the 171 FPS achieved at 1080p Ultra. The 1440p Ultra result of 125 FPS sits exactly 26.9% below the 1080p figure, mirroring the scaling pattern seen in other presets. This consistent scaling behavior suggests that the game's rendering pipeline scales linearly with pixel count, with no unexpected bottlenecks emerging at intermediate resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus brings 24 cores and 24 threads using the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. With a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.80 GHz, this processor delivers substantial single-thread and multi-thread performance that directly supports high frame rates in Lockdown Protocol. The 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 per core provide the memory hierarchy needed to feed the GPU at high resolutions.

Benchmark data places this CPU in the 96th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 84,003. The nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83,807, representing a 0.2% advantage for the 290K Plus. The AMD EPYC 4584PX trails by 1.1%, while the AMD EPYC 9135 is 1.2% behind. The AMD EPYC 7F72 actually outperforms the 290K Plus by 1.3%, showing that this processor sits in a tightly contested performance cluster despite its high percentile ranking.

In Lockdown Protocol specifically, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at 1080p where frame rates reach 368 FPS on Low settings. Such high frame rates require rapid draw call processing and physics calculations, areas where the 24-core configuration with high boost clocks excels. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51,731 and single-core score of 7,303 indicate strong performance in both threaded and single-threaded workloads, which translates to consistent frame delivery in this FPS title.

The processor's 125 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 115.2 GB/s bandwidth provide sufficient memory throughput for the game's data streaming needs. The ECC memory support and PCIe Gen 5 with 20 CPU lanes represent forward-looking features that, while not directly impacting Lockdown Protocol's current performance, ensure the platform can handle future game demands. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU offers a fallback display output, though the discrete RTX 4090 handles all rendering in this configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 employs the AD102 chip on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The GPU's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray-traced effects and DLSS features, though the measured results in Lockdown Protocol reflect standard rasterization performance. The boost clock of 2520 MHz (base 2235 MHz) drives the 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 throughput that powers high-resolution rendering.

Memory configuration is a defining strength: 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus delivers 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, with memory clocked at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). This bandwidth proves critical at 4K resolutions where the game's texture streaming and buffer requirements scale with pixel count. The 4K Ultra result of 81 FPS average, while the lowest measured, remains playable and demonstrates that the 24 GB frame buffer avoids capacity-related stuttering that could affect cards with less memory.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 38,194 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 255,416, with Vulkan reaching 271,631. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 indicates strong DirectX 12 performance, which is relevant for Lockdown Protocol's modern rendering API. The RTX 4090's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the upper echelon, though the nearest rivals in the average benchmark score list include the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 0% delta and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 0.3% — these are workstation cards with different performance profiles, suggesting the aggregate score metric doesn't fully capture gaming-specific capability.

The GPU's 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler with a 16-pin power connector require robust system cooling, and the 850 W suggested PSU provides adequate headroom for peak power draws during intense gaming scenes. With 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate and 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate, the RTX 4090 can sustain high fill rates even at 4K, which the measured FPS confirms.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 58 out of 2,828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the top 2% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the synergistic pairing of a top-tier CPU and GPU, though the 58th position indicates that some combinations deliver higher frame rates in this specific title. The data shows that while both components independently sit in high percentiles (96th for CPU, 88th for GPU), their combined rank suggests that Lockdown Protocol may benefit from different hardware pairings.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks — the Core Ultra 9 285K, EPYC 4584PX, EPYC 9135, and EPYC 7F72 — all fall within 1.3% of its average score, indicating that processor choice in this performance tier yields minimal impact on overall system capability. For Lockdown Protocol, this means the GPU likely dominates the performance equation at higher resolutions, while the CPU contributes more at 1080p where frame rates exceed 300 FPS.

The RTX 4090's nearest rivals by average benchmark score — Arc Pro A60, Radeon Pro Vega 48, Radeon Pro W6600M, and Radeon PRO V710 — are all professional workstation GPUs with different driver optimizations and feature sets. The 4090's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its position as a high-end consumer part, though the ranking data suggests that workstation cards can achieve comparable aggregate scores in compute-oriented benchmarks that don't necessarily translate to gaming performance.

At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 81 FPS, which is 52.6% below the 1080p Ultra result of 171 FPS. This scaling factor aligns with the pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K (4x), suggesting that the system maintains roughly 2x performance per pixel at Ultra settings. The 58th rank out of 2,828 combos means 2,770 tested configurations perform worse, while 57 perform better — a strong result that validates this pairing for Lockdown Protocol.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 368, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next highest is 270 FPS at 2560x1440 Low, followed by 261 FPS at 1920x1080 Medium.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K resolution across different quality settings?

A: At 3840x2160, the combo delivers 174 FPS on Low, 124 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 105 and maximum of 142), 108 FPS on High, and 81 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra represents a 53.4% performance difference.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded for this configuration?

A: The only measured minimum FPS values are 105 at 3840x2160 Medium, 163 at 2560x1440 Medium, and 222 at 1920x1080 Medium. All other preset and resolution combinations lack minimum FPS data in the measurements.

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

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K at 83,807. It outperforms the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2%, but trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking and how does it compare to nearby rivals?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks in the 88th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 60,347. The Intel Arc Pro A60 matches this score exactly (0% delta), while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 0.3% ahead, the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% ahead, and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 is 2.9% behind.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Lockdown Protocol?

A: This configuration ranks 58th out of 2,828 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.1% of all tested system configurations for this game. The data is measured, not estimated.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the High preset at 3840x2160 delivers 108 FPS average, which balances visual quality with smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 81 FPS, a 25% performance penalty that may not justify the visual improvements. The Medium preset at 4K provides 124 FPS with a minimum of 105, offering the best combination of frame rate stability and quality if High's visual features aren't essential.

For 1440p monitors, the High preset at 2560x1440 produces 167 FPS, which pairs well with high-refresh-rate displays. The Medium preset at 192 FPS offers additional headroom above 165 Hz panels, making it the recommended choice for competitive play where frame rate matters more than minor visual details. The Ultra preset at 125 FPS still exceeds 120 Hz refresh rates, providing a viable option for those prioritizing image quality.

At 1080p, the High preset achieves 228 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most gaming monitors. The Medium preset at 261 FPS better utilizes 240 Hz displays, while the Low preset at 368 FPS approaches the limits of even the fastest esports panels. The Ultra preset at 171 FPS remains above 144 Hz, making it the best choice for 1080p users with high-refresh displays who want maximum visual fidelity.

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the most consistent frame delivery across all resolutions, as it is the only setting tier with complete minimum and maximum FPS measurements. At 4K Medium, the 105 FPS minimum remains above the 100 FPS threshold for high-refresh 4K displays, while the 142 maximum indicates occasional headroom. The 1440p Medium minimum of 163 FPS comfortably exceeds 144 Hz, and the 1080p Medium minimum of 222 FPS supports 200 Hz panels without dips below their refresh rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data reveals clear performance tiers across resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 368 FPS, which is the highest measurement in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 261 FPS with a minimum of 222 and maximum of 301. The High preset averages 228 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 171 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 53.5% performance reduction, with each quality step costing between 25% and 15% of the previous tier's performance.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 270 FPS, representing a 26.6% drop from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 192 FPS with a minimum of 163 and maximum of 220. The High preset averages 167 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 125 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, with reductions of 26.6% (Low), 26.4% (Medium), 26.8% (High), and 26.9% (Ultra).

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 174 FPS, which is 52.7% lower than the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 and maximum of 142. The High preset averages 108 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 81 FPS. The 4K scaling shows reductions of 52.7% (Low), 52.5% (Medium), 52.6% (High), and 52.6% (Ultra) compared to 1080p, demonstrating consistent scaling behavior regardless of quality settings.

The Medium preset provides the only complete FPS data with minimum and maximum values at all three resolutions. The frame time spread, calculated as the difference between maximum and minimum, is 79 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that GPU-bound scenarios produce more consistent frame delivery than CPU-bound scenarios, where rapid fluctuations in draw call processing can cause larger FPS swings.