Lockdown Protocol

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile delivers a top-tier gaming experience in Lockdown Protocol, placing this combination in the top 22% of all tested configurations. The benchmark data shows a system that is exceptionally well-balanced at high resolutions but reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as settings and resolution change. This analysis breaks down the CPU and GPU contributions, scaling characteristics, and optimal settings based on the measured performance rows.

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

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 3, built on Intel's 3 nm Panther Lake architecture. It operates with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, providing substantial single-thread headroom that is critical for an FPS title like Lockdown Protocol. The processor's L3 cache is 18 MB shared, with 3 MB of L2 per core, and its memory bandwidth is rated at 153.6 GB/s via LPDDR5X support.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911 and a single-core score of 2200.5. Its PassMark single-thread score of 4280 and multithread score of 36811 indicate strong per-core performance that translates directly to game logic and physics calculations. The processor sits at the 88th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44466. Its closest rival is the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, which scores 44573, a marginal delta of -0.2%, meaning the Intel chip is essentially neck-and-neck with that competitor. It is also 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i9-13950HX and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13600 in average score.

For Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to maintain high frame rates without becoming a limiting factor. At 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 262 FPS on average, which is a scenario where the CPU's single-thread performance is heavily exercised. The data shows that even at this extreme frame rate, the processor does not cap performance, as the GPU is still the primary driver of output. The strong single-core score of 2200.5 in Cinebench R23 is the key metric here, as FPS games typically rely on a few heavily utilized threads for enemy AI, hit detection, and network interpolation. The 16-core configuration ensures that background tasks and game threads are handled without contention, but the 16-thread count (equal to cores) suggests a design focused on efficiency rather than multithreaded throughput, which is less relevant for this genre.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is the undisputed performance leader in this setup. It is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. The GPU has 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores, and its FP32 compute is rated at 32.98 TFLOPS. It comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 2250 MHz, translating to 18 Gbps effective, while the GPU base clock is 1335 MHz and boost clock is 1695 MHz.

In benchmark tests, the RTX 4090 Mobile achieves a PassMark G3D score of 27212 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 180831. It sits at the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43667. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A6000, which scores 44075, a delta of -0.9%, meaning the RTX 4090 Mobile trails that workstation card by less than 1%. It is 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 and 0.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile.

For Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role is to render the scene at high resolutions and detail levels. The 16 GB VRAM is ample for this title, as the data shows no memory-related frame drops even at 4K Ultra settings. The GPU's high texture rate of 515.3 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 189.8 GPixel/s allow it to push exceptionally high frame rates. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 262 FPS, which is a GPU-bound scenario at that setting. The RTX 4090 Mobile's performance is so robust that it only becomes the limiting factor when settings are cranked to Ultra or the resolution is raised to 4K, where the pixel fill rate and shader complexity take precedence over CPU logic.

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

The measured FPS data reveals a classic scaling pattern that indicates the RTX 4090 Mobile is the dominant performance driver at higher resolutions. At 1080p High, the system averages 162 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average drops to 119 FPS, a decrease of 43 FPS or roughly 26.5% from 1080p. At 4K High, the average falls to 77 FPS, which is 52.5% lower than the 1440p figure and 52.5% lower than the 1080p figure. This progressive decline with resolution is a hallmark of GPU-bound performance, as the CPU has more than enough headroom to feed frames at these rates.

The scaling is even more pronounced at Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system hits 262 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 192 FPS, a 26.7% reduction. At 4K Low, it falls to 124 FPS, which is 35.4% lower than the 1440p result and 52.7% lower than the 1080p result. The percentage drops are similar across High and Low settings, which confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck in both cases. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see a plateau or a much smaller delta between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings, where the GPU load is lower.

The data also shows that the gap between 1440p and 4K is larger than the gap between 1080p and 1440p. For example, at Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 186 at 1080p to 136 at 1440p (a 26.9% drop) and then to 88 at 4K (a 35.3% drop). This increasing sensitivity to resolution indicates that the GPU is working harder to fill pixels as the resolution scales, and the RTX 4090 Mobile's 576.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is being utilized more heavily. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient to avoid any swapping, so the frame rate drops are purely due to compute and bandwidth limits rather than memory capacity.

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

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for most players. At 1440p Medium, the system averages 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS. This frame rate is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and provides a 15 FPS buffer above the High preset's 119 FPS average at the same resolution. The min FPS of 116 indicates that the system does not experience severe dips, ensuring consistent responsiveness during fast-paced FPS action.

For players with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, the Medium preset at 1080p is the recommended choice. It averages 186 FPS with a minimum of 158 FPS, which is a 24 FPS improvement over the High preset's 162 FPS average. The min FPS of 158 is still above 144 Hz, meaning the system can maintain a locked 144 FPS experience without stutter. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 262 FPS, but the visual degradation is likely not worth the extra 76 FPS for most users, as the Medium preset already exceeds the refresh rate of most gaming displays.

At 4K, the situation is more nuanced. The Medium preset at 4K averages 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS, which is playable for a single-player experience but may be borderline for competitive FPS. The High preset at 4K drops to 77 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and not recommended for smooth gameplay. For 4K users, the Medium preset is the sweet spot, as it provides a 14 FPS improvement over High while maintaining a minimum of 75 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS floor.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile ranks 806th out of 3714 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places the combo in the top 21.7% of all configurations, which is a strong showing given the extremely high performance ceiling of the RTX 4090 Mobile. The rank reflects the overall system balance, where the CPU's 88th percentile standing and the GPU's 84th percentile standing contribute to a cohesive gaming experience.

The rank of 806 out of 3714 means that there are 805 combinations that perform better, likely featuring desktop-class GPUs or higher-tier mobile variants. However, the data indicates that this combo is far ahead of the vast majority of systems, with only the most extreme hardware configurations outperforming it. The delta between this combo and the top performers is not quantified in the data, but the percentile rankings suggest that the CPU and GPU are both in the top 16% of their respective categories, which is a rare combination in a mobile form factor.

The benchmark results show that this combo is particularly effective at high refresh rates, as the CPU's single-thread performance does not bottleneck the GPU at 1080p. The rank also implies that the system is well-suited for Lockdown Protocol's specific demands, which likely include a mix of CPU-bound game logic and GPU-bound rendering. The fact that the combo ranks 806th out of 3714, rather than lower, suggests that the RTX 4090 Mobile's performance is not being held back by the CPU in this particular game, a common issue with high-end mobile GPUs paired with weaker processors.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p Medium settings for this combo?

A: The system averages 186 FPS at 1080p Medium, with a minimum of 158 FPS and a maximum of 214 FPS, based on the measured data.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D's score of 44573, making them effectively equal in performance.

*Q: Is the GPU's VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in Lockdown Protocol?*

A: Yes, the RTX 4090 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, and the measured FPS data at 4K shows no signs of memory-related stuttering, with the Medium preset averaging 88 FPS.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the system averages 262 FPS, while at 4K Low it averages 124 FPS, representing a 52.7% reduction in frame rate due to the resolution increase.

Q: Which preset provides the highest minimum FPS below 4K?

A: At 1440p Medium, the system has a minimum FPS of 116, which is the highest recorded minimum for that resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 158 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's PassMark G3D score compare to the RTX A6000?

A: The RTX 4090 Mobile scores 27212 on PassMark G3D, which is 0.9% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000's score of 44075 on the average benchmark score metric, though the G3D scores are different metrics.