Lockdown Protocol

FAQ

Q: What average frame rate does this combo deliver at 1080p with High settings in Lockdown Protocol?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the Intel Arc B580 achieves an average of 93.8 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: How much performance is gained by switching from Ultra to Low settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate rises from 51 FPS on Ultra to 109.6 FPS on Low, a gain of 58.6 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B580 better suited for 1080p or 4K gaming based on the measured data?

A: The data shows a significant drop at 4K. At 1080p High, the combo averages 93.8 FPS, while at 4K High it averages 46.3 FPS, indicating the GPU is heavily taxed at the higher resolution.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1306 out of 1637 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 151 FPS. The large jump from High to Low suggests the GPU is the primary limiter, as reducing graphical load produces a substantial FPS increase.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and how does it compare to its nearest rival?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 37780, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Xeon 6353P's score of 37811.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture and features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 456.0 GB/s, with a base and boost clock of 2670 MHz. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 80 ROPs contribute to its pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s. These specifications position the card for 1080p and 1440p gaming, which is reflected in the measured performance.

In Lockdown Protocol, the GPU's role becomes evident when comparing settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, moving from Low (151 FPS) to Ultra (69.8 FPS) represents a drop of 81.2 FPS, demonstrating that the B580's compute and memory resources are heavily utilized by higher graphical presets. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at these settings, as the frame rate scaling is consistent with the GPU's compute load rather than memory capacity constraints.

The GPU's benchmark percentile of 66 places it above the median of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 23021 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon 760M (22999), which is 0.1% slower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 scores 23181, making it 0.7% faster than the B580. These close margins indicate the B580 is a mid-range performer, and the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol aligns with that positioning.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent drop as resolution increases. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 93.8 FPS at 1080p to 67.8 FPS at 1440p, and then to 46.3 FPS at 4K. This represents a 51.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a substantial scaling penalty that points to the GPU as the limiting component in this configuration.

The same pattern holds for other settings. At Medium, the drop is from 109.3 FPS at 1080p to 78.8 FPS at 1440p and 48.9 FPS at 4K. At Ultra, the figures are 69.8 FPS, 51 FPS, and 32.3 FPS respectively. The relative decrease from 1080p to 4K is remarkably consistent across settings, which indicates that the rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count.

This scaling behavior suggests that the CPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. If the CPU were limiting, the frame rate would remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the consistent drop indicates the Intel Arc B580's fill rate and shader throughput are saturated as resolution increases. The 4K results, particularly the 32.3 FPS on Ultra, are below the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered smooth for an FPS, making 4K a less practical target for this combo unless settings are reduced.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1306 out of 1637 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the lower portion of the overall ranking, roughly in the 20th percentile of all combos tested. The ranking reflects the balance of the CPU and GPU, where the high-end processor is paired with a mid-range graphics card.

The CPU's strong benchmark showing, 37780 average score, placing in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, suggests that the processor is not the limiting factor in this combo's ranking. Instead, the Intel Arc B580's 66th percentile GPU ranking and its average score of 23021 are more indicative of the overall system performance. The GPU is the weaker link, and the combo's ranking is accordingly constrained.

When compared to other potential pairings, this configuration sits below the median. The data does not list specific rival combos, but the individual component rankings imply that a system with a similarly strong CPU but a higher-performing GPU would rank better. Conversely, a weaker CPU paired with the same GPU might score similarly in game-specific tests, depending on how CPU-bound Lockdown Protocol is at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. This large L3 cache is a defining feature of the X3D line and can benefit games that rely on frequent data access.

The CPU's benchmark results are strong across the board. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 34004, and the single-core score is 4800. In Geekbench, it scores 18413 multi-core and 3341 single-core. The 3DMark multi-threaded tests show scaling from 2394 at 2 threads to 10067 at max threads, indicating good multi-threading efficiency. The average benchmark score of 37780 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs.

In Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's role is evidenced by the frame rate behavior at low settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 151 FPS, which is the highest measured result. This indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU with enough data to sustain high frame rates when the graphical load is low. The difference between 1080p Low (151 FPS) and 1440p Low (109.6 FPS) is 41.4 FPS, which is a significant drop that would not occur if the CPU were the bottleneck at both resolutions. The CPU is therefore capable of supporting high frame rates, but the GPU's limits are reached as resolution increases.

The nearest CPU rivals show a tight cluster of scores. The Intel Core i5-13600KF has an average score of 38028, which is 0.7% higher than the 9800X3D. The Intel Core i9-13900HK scores 38020, 0.6% higher. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming, suggesting that the 9800X3D is competitively positioned against these alternatives.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 151 FPS, which is more than double the Ultra result of 69.8 FPS. Medium settings yield 109.3 FPS, and High settings result in 93.8 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is not linear, with the largest drop occurring between Low and Medium (41.7 FPS), indicating that certain graphical features disproportionately impact performance.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease notably. Low settings average 109.6 FPS, which is still playable for an FPS. Medium settings drop to 78.8 FPS, and High settings to 67.8 FPS. Ultra settings produce the lowest result at 51 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 58.6 FPS, showing a wider gap than at 1080p, which suggests the GPU is under more pressure.

At 3840x2160, the highest resolution tested, the performance drops further. Low settings average 73.9 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 60 FPS. Medium settings fall to 48.9 FPS, High settings to 46.3 FPS, and Ultra to 32.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 41.6 FPS, and the Ultra result is below 40 FPS, which would likely be a poor experience in a fast-paced FPS.

Across all settings, the pattern is consistent: lower resolutions and lower settings produce higher frame rates, with the CPU maintaining sufficient headroom and the GPU becoming the limiting factor as resolution and graphical fidelity increase.