Lockdown Protocol

Measured FPS Breakdown

Lockdown Protocol presents a demanding workload for the Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the Intel Arc B390. The recorded data across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics solution, with playable performance only appearing at lower resolutions and settings.

At 3840x2160, the combination struggles across the board. The Low preset delivers an average of 42 FPS, which is the only configuration at this resolution to exceed 30 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 30 FPS average, with a minimum of 25 FPS and a maximum of 34 FPS, indicating inconsistent frame pacing. High settings produce 26 FPS, while the Ultra preset bottoms out at 19 FPS. None of these figures approach the 60 FPS playable threshold, and the data shows that even the least demanding preset at 4K falls 18 FPS short of playability.

Stepping down to 2560x1440 yields a meaningful improvement. The Low preset achieves 65 FPS average, crossing the 60 FPS line with some headroom. Medium settings produce 46 FPS average with a range of 39 to 53 FPS, while High delivers 40 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p matches the 4K Medium result at 30 FPS average. The gap between Low and Medium at this resolution is 19 FPS, suggesting that the transition from minimal to moderate graphical load significantly impacts the Arc B390.

At 1920x1080, the picture improves further. Low settings deliver 88 FPS average, a strong result that leaves ample margin above the playability threshold. Medium settings hold at 63 FPS average with a minimum of 53 FPS and maximum of 72 FPS, making it the most demanding playable preset in the entire dataset. High settings fall to 55 FPS, just below playable, and Ultra drops to 41 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 25 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs only 8 FPS, indicating diminishing returns in the mid-range of quality settings.

The frame time consistency, where recorded, shows tighter ranges at lower resolutions. The 1080p Medium spread of 53 to 72 FPS represents a 36% variance from average, while the 1440p Medium spread of 39 to 53 FPS shows a similar proportional variance. The 4K Medium range of 25 to 34 FPS demonstrates that at higher resolutions, the system is operating near its limits with less stable frame delivery.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 3,714 tested combinations for Lockdown Protocol, this specific pairing ranks 3,302nd. That places it in the bottom 11% of all recorded configurations, a position that reflects the Arc B390's performance class rather than the CPU's capabilities. The Intel Core i5-14600KF sits in the 90th percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 49,394. The Arc B390, by contrast, ranks in the 9th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 1,482.

The disparity between component rankings explains the overall combo position. A top-decile CPU paired with a bottom-decile GPU produces a system that is bottlenecked almost entirely by graphics throughput. The combo rank of 3,302 out of 3,714 suggests that in Lockdown Protocol, which appears to be a GPU-bound title at the resolutions tested, the processor's headroom is largely unused.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 with an average score of 49,228 (0.3% lower), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G at 49,196 (0.4% lower), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 at 48,995 (0.8% lower), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 at 49,796 (0.8% higher). These deltas are minimal, meaning any of these processors would behave nearly identically when paired with the same GPU in this game.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are significantly weaker in the database's overall rankings: the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX at 1,463 (1.3% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M at 1,460 (1.5% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1,446 (2.5% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 at 1,443 (2.7% higher). These are all legacy or entry-level discrete GPUs, and the fact that the Arc B390 sits among them in the GPU percentile chart reinforces that this is an integrated-class graphics solution in terms of raw compute.

Best Settings per Resolution

The playable threshold for this analysis is 60 FPS average. At 3840x2160, no preset achieves this mark. The best result is the Low preset at 42 FPS, which is 18 FPS below playable. The database records no playable settings at 4K for this combination, meaning users targeting this resolution would need to accept sub-60 FPS performance or reduce their display resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only playable option, delivering 65 FPS average. This is the single configuration at 1440p that clears the threshold, and it does so with 5 FPS of headroom. The Medium preset at 46 FPS is 14 FPS short of playable, making Low the clear choice for a 60 FPS experience at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, two presets are playable. The Low preset achieves 88 FPS, which is 28 FPS above the threshold and represents the highest frame rate in the entire measured dataset. The Medium preset achieves 63 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS, meaning it stays at or above 60 FPS on average but can dip below during demanding scenes. The database designates Medium as the best settings at 1080p, since it is the most demanding preset that maintains an average at or above 60 FPS. High settings at 55 FPS fall just short, and Ultra at 41 FPS is not viable for smooth gameplay.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For users considering this specific CPU and GPU pairing, the nearest rivals in the database provide context for what comparable hardware would deliver. On the CPU side, the differences are negligible. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 all sit within 0.8% of the Core i5-14600KF's average benchmark score. Swapping any of these processors in would produce essentially identical frame rates in Lockdown Protocol, since the game's performance at these settings is dictated by the GPU.

The GPU's nearest rivals are more instructive. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710 all score within 2.7% of the Arc B390's average. This means a system built around any of these GPUs would deliver similar FPS in Lockdown Protocol, though the Arc B390 has a slight edge over each of them in the database's aggregate scoring. The delta percentages are small enough that real-world gameplay differences would be within a few frames per second.

It is importantly the Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution (IGP class) with system-shared memory, whereas the nearest GPU rivals are discrete cards. The shared memory architecture means the Arc B390's performance is dependent on system memory bandwidth, which the database records as "System Dependent." This could introduce variability between different system configurations that would not affect discrete GPU users.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data makes clear that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing for Lockdown Protocol. The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz and an average benchmark score in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. The Arc B390, with its 1,536 shading units and 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, ranks in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. This massive gap in relative capability ensures that the graphics processor is the bottleneck at every resolution and preset tested.

Evidence for this comes from the scaling patterns. At 1080p, dropping from Medium to Low increases FPS from 63 to 88, a 40% improvement. At 1440p, the same preset drop increases FPS from 46 to 65, a 41% improvement. At 4K, the Low to Medium gap is 42 to 30 FPS, a 40% drop when moving to higher quality. These consistent proportional changes across resolutions indicate GPU-bound behavior; a CPU-bound scenario would show less variation from graphics settings changes.

Resolution scaling further confirms the GPU bottleneck. At Low settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS from 88 to 65, a 26% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low reduces FPS from 65 to 42, a 35% decrease. The increasing penalty at higher resolutions is characteristic of a GPU that runs out of fill rate or memory bandwidth as pixel count rises. The Arc B390's 24 ROPs and system-shared memory architecture are the likely constraints, though the database does not provide direct evidence of which specific resource is exhausted.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent only at the lowest resolution and settings, where 1080p Low at 88 FPS represents the only point in the dataset where the processor might begin to matter. However, even here, the 60 FPS threshold is cleared by a wide margin, and the CPU's 90th percentile ranking suggests it has substantial headroom remaining. The 14-core, 20-thread configuration with 24 MB of shared L3 cache is well-suited to modern game workloads, and Lockdown Protocol as an FPS title is unlikely to stress all cores simultaneously.

At 4K, the CPU is effectively idle from a gaming perspective. The 42 FPS at Low settings is a GPU limitation, not a processor one. Users considering this pairing should understand that upgrading the CPU would yield no measurable benefit in this game, while upgrading the GPU would produce substantial gains across all resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Lockdown Protocol at 1080p?

A: Yes. The Low preset achieves 88 FPS average and the Medium preset achieves 63 FPS average at 1920x1080. High settings fall just short at 55 FPS, and Ultra is not playable at 41 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with the Core i5-14600KF and Arc B390?

A: No. The highest recorded average at 3840x2160 is 42 FPS on Low settings, which is 18 FPS below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The database records no playable settings at this resolution for this combination.

Q: What is the best quality setting at 1440p?

A: The Low preset is the only playable option at 2560x1440, delivering 65 FPS average. The Medium preset at 46 FPS does not meet the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1,482 in the database, which is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M, 2.5% higher than the GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% higher than the GT 710. Performance differences are minimal.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck at all tested resolutions and settings. The CPU ranks in the 90th percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks in the 9th percentile. Resolution and settings scaling patterns confirm GPU-bound performance.

Q: What happens if I swap the Core i5-14600KF for a different processor?

A: The nearest CPU rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, and Intel Core Ultra 5 245, all score within 0.8% of the Core i5-14600KF. Frame rates in Lockdown Protocol would remain essentially unchanged.