Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D + Intel Arc B390

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and Intel Arc B390 sits at rank 2512 out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the bottom 11% of all configurations measured. The data shows a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics component, with the CPU demonstrating far stronger relative performance than the GPU across the benchmark suite.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2512 out of 2828 places this configuration in the lower tier of systems tested for Lockdown Protocol. This is a decisive indicator that the overall gaming experience will be limited, particularly at higher resolutions and quality settings. The ranking is not surprising when examining the individual component benchmarks: the Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, while the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D achieves the 85th percentile among all CPUs. This massive disparity between the two components' relative standings is the defining characteristic of this pairing.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 places it in direct competition with very old discrete graphics solutions. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX at 1463 (1.3% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M at 1460 (1.5% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446 (2.5% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 at 1443 (2.7% behind). These are all entry-level or legacy parts, which contextualizes why this combo ranks so poorly for a modern FPS title.

Meanwhile, the CPU's average benchmark score of 37018 places it within a tight cluster of competitors. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F scores 36945 (0.2% behind), the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 scores 36938 (0.2% behind), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093 (0.2% ahead), and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37112 (0.3% ahead). This shows the 5500X3D is exceptionally well-matched against these rivals, with all four falling within a 0.5% performance band.

The measured FPS data confirms the rank's implication: this system cannot deliver consistently smooth frame rates at any resolution above 1080p with medium or higher settings. Even at 1080p Low, the average of 88 FPS is the only configuration that clears the 60 FPS threshold with comfortable headroom. The combination's rank should be interpreted as a warning that Lockdown Protocol's demands outstrip what this GPU can provide, regardless of the capable CPU behind it.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for playable performance?

A: The data indicates 1920x1080 with Low settings produces an average of 88 FPS, which is the only measured configuration above 60 FPS. 2560x1440 Low drops to 65 FPS average, while 3840x2160 Low falls to 42 FPS.

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

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M, 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is overwhelmingly the limiting factor. The CPU ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 9th percentile. Resolution scaling also shows larger FPS drops than would be expected if the CPU were the bottleneck.

Q: What is the CPU's multithreaded performance relative to its competitors?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500X3D's average benchmark score of 37018 is within 0.3% of all four nearest rivals: the Ryzen 5 5600F, Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, Core Ultra 5 225, and Core i9-12900T.

Q: Does the Arc B390 have dedicated VRAM?

A: No. The GPU uses System Shared memory for both its memory size and type, with its bus width also listed as System Shared. Memory bandwidth is described as System Dependent.

Q: What API features does the Arc B390 support for this game?

A: The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so it is feature-complete for modern FPS titles in terms of API compatibility.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on Intel's 3 nm process. Its chip is codenamed Panther Lake, and it belongs to the Arc Graphics-M generation. The GPU operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with a TDP of 80 W. It contains 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster output units, and 12 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS and FP16 performance of 15.36 TFLOPS (2:1).

The most critical aspect of this GPU's specifications is its memory configuration. The Arc B390 has no dedicated VRAM; instead, it relies on System Shared memory, with the memory type and bus width both listed as System Shared. Memory bandwidth is described as System Dependent. This means the GPU must contend with the CPU for memory access, which is particularly detrimental in a fast-paced FPS like Lockdown Protocol where texture streaming and frame buffer operations are memory-intensive.

The GPU's benchmark performance is stark: a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 puts it at the 9th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts from over a decade ago, with the gap between them being minimal. This places the Arc B390's raw graphics throughput far below what modern discrete GPUs offer, and the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol reflects this reality.

At 3840x2160, the GPU manages only 26 FPS on High settings, dropping to 19 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p results are more usable but still modest: 55 FPS on High and 41 FPS on Ultra. The ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support suggest architectural modernity, but the integrated nature and shared memory arrangement severely limit practical performance in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combination's performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 88 FPS on Low settings, 63 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 53 and maximum of 72), 55 FPS on High, and 41 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows the only recorded frame time variance at 1080p, spanning a 19 FPS range.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low settings yield 65 FPS, Medium produces 46 FPS (minimum 39, maximum 53), High delivers 40 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a 14 FPS range between minimum and maximum, indicating some frame pacing inconsistency. Notably, every 1440p result except Low falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable for a competitive FPS. Low settings produce 42 FPS, Medium yields 30 FPS (minimum 25, maximum 34), High drops to 26 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 19 FPS. The 4K Medium result shows the tightest variance in the entire dataset, with only a 9 FPS spread between minimum and maximum.

The scaling pattern across settings is consistent: Low to Medium typically costs between 20-28% performance, Medium to High costs 12-15%, and High to Ultra costs 25-27%. This suggests the game's quality presets have diminishing returns at the higher end, with Ultra being particularly punishing for this GPU. The minimum FPS figures, where available, show that the system maintains reasonable frame consistency even when average FPS is low, but the averages themselves are the limiting factor for gameplay quality.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, performance drops from 88 FPS at 1080p to 65 FPS at 1440p (a 26.1% decrease) and further to 42 FPS at 4K (a 35.4% decrease from 1440p). At Medium settings, the progression is 63 to 46 to 30 FPS, representing a 27.0% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 34.8% drop from 1440p to 4K.

High settings show 55 to 40 to 26 FPS, with a 27.3% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 35.0% decrease from 1440p to 4K. Ultra settings follow the same pattern: 41 to 30 to 19 FPS, dropping 26.8% and then 36.7%. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is telling—it indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the dominant constraints, rather than any CPU-side limitation.

If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p to be minimal, since the CPU workload would remain roughly constant while the GPU handles more pixels. Instead, the uniform ~27% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~35% drop from 1440p to 4K across all quality presets points squarely at the GPU's rendering capabilities. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D, with its strong multithreaded score of 20363 in PassMark and 85th percentile ranking, is clearly not the limiting factor here.

The practical implication is that players must choose between resolution and quality. The system can approach playable frame rates at 1080p with medium settings (63 FPS) or low settings (88 FPS), but any attempt to run at 1440p or above will require dropping to Low settings to stay near 60 FPS, and 4K remains firmly in the field of 19-42 FPS regardless of settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration for this combo in Lockdown Protocol is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers 88 FPS average. This is the only measured setup that provides substantial headroom above the 60 FPS mark, which is typically desirable for an FPS title where frame rate consistency matters for aiming and reaction time. The 1080p Medium preset at 63 FPS is also viable, with a minimum of 53 FPS that stays within acceptable bounds for most players.

For players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, 1080p High at 55 FPS is the highest quality setting that remains reasonably playable. The Ultra preset at 41 FPS is borderline, as it drops below the 60 FPS threshold by a significant margin and would likely feel sluggish in fast-paced combat scenarios. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset (65 FPS) is recommended for playable performance; Medium at 46 FPS and High at 40 FPS are marginal, while Ultra at 30 FPS is not advisable.

The 4K resolution is not recommended for this combination under any settings. Even Low at 42 FPS falls short of playable standards for a competitive FPS, and the Ultra preset's 19 FPS average is well below any reasonable threshold. The data suggests that this system is best suited to 1080p gaming, with Medium settings representing the sweet spot between visual fidelity and performance. The Medium preset's measured variance (53-72 FPS at 1080p) also indicates that frame pacing remains stable enough for a smooth experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename. It operates on the AMD Socket AM4 platform with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz, consuming 105 W TDP. The CPU features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and includes ECC memory support.

In PassMark benchmarks, the 5500X3D demonstrates strong all-around performance. Its multithreaded score is 20363, with single-thread performance at 2941. The integer math score is 60033, floating point math is 34511, and extended instructions score is 15925. Data compression work scores 230392, while data encryption is 13967. The physics score is 2282, and random string sorting hits 23675. These results place the CPU in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37018.

The CPU's nearest rivals all fall within a remarkably tight performance band. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F scores 36945 (0.2% behind), the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 scores 36938 (0.2% behind), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093 (0.2% ahead), and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37112 (0.3% ahead). This indicates the 5500X3D is perfectly positioned in its performance class, neither outperforming nor underperforming its direct competition by any meaningful margin.

In the context of Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with game state data, handle physics calculations, and process AI. With 6 cores and 12 threads, it has sufficient parallel processing capability for modern FPS titles. However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU's potential is largely unrealized because the GPU cannot keep up. The uniform resolution scaling pattern confirms that the system is GPU-bound in all tested configurations, meaning the 5500X3D is effectively waiting on the Arc B390 at every frame.