Lockdown Protocol

# Lockdown Protocol with AMD Ryzen 9 7900X + Intel Arc B390

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the Intel Arc B390 delivers playable frame rates at 1080p Low, but the combination struggles badly at higher resolutions and quality settings. The data shows a system where the GPU is the clear bottleneck, with the Arc B390's integrated-class performance holding back what is otherwise a very capable 12-core processor. This combo ranks 2512th out of 2828 tested combinations in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the bottom 11% of all tested systems.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 88 FPS, which drops to 65 FPS at 1440p Low (a 26% reduction) and further to 42 FPS at 4K Low (a 52% reduction from the 1080p baseline). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-limited scenario — the CPU has ample headroom, but the Arc B390 cannot maintain frame throughput as pixel count rises.

Moving from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings shows an even more dramatic collapse: 63 FPS at 1080p Medium falls to 46 FPS at 1440p Medium (27% drop), then to 30 FPS at 4K Medium (52% drop from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops across quality presets confirms that resolution, not settings, is the dominant factor limiting performance here.

At High settings, the trend continues: 55 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K at High is 53%, nearly identical to the Low preset's 52% reduction. This uniform scaling behavior indicates that the Arc B390's rendering pipeline saturates at roughly the same point regardless of quality level — the GPU simply runs out of fill rate and shading capacity as pixel count grows.

Ultra settings make the situation worse. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 41 FPS; at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 30 FPS; at 4K Ultra, it falls to 19 FPS. The 1080p-to-4K reduction at Ultra is 54%, again matching the pattern. What's notable is that the 4K Ultra result of 19 FPS is below the minimum playable threshold for an FPS game, suggesting that this resolution/settings combination is effectively unusable with this hardware.

The data strongly indicates the GPU is the limiting component. The Ryzen 9 7900X is a high-end desktop processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, and its performance headroom in this game is never stressed — the frame rate is dictated entirely by the Arc B390's ability to process frames. For players targeting 1440p or higher, this combo will require significant settings reductions to approach smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 7900X brings substantial processing power that goes largely underutilized in Lockdown Protocol at these frame rates. With 12 cores and 24 threads on the Zen 4 architecture, the CPU has a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its benchmark results confirm strong multi-threaded capability: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29300 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 19267. Single-thread performance is equally solid, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2016.5 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2617.

In CPU-bound scenarios, this processor would excel — its 3DMark scores scale well from 2137 at 2 threads to 12536 at max threads. The PassMark multi-thread score of 51406 places it in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD EPYC 7313P (0.2% higher average score) and the Intel Core i7-14700F (0.6% higher). This is a top-tier desktop CPU by any measure.

However, the measured FPS in Lockdown Protocol shows no evidence of CPU limitation. The fact that frame rates scale almost identically across resolution changes — regardless of settings — means the CPU is never waiting on game logic or draw calls; it's always waiting on the GPU to finish rendering. The 88 FPS at 1080p Low is likely near the practical ceiling for what this GPU can output, not what the CPU can feed.

The CPU's 64 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide ample bandwidth for game data. The 5 nm process node and 13,140 million transistors indicate a modern, efficient design. Yet in this specific game and GPU pairing, those capabilities are left on the table. Players upgrading from a weaker CPU to the 7900X while keeping the same GPU would see no frame rate improvement in Lockdown Protocol — the bottleneck lies elsewhere.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the decisive factor in this combo's performance. Its specifications reveal an integrated graphics solution: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 ROPs, with a base clock of 300 MHz and boost clock of 2500 MHz. The memory is "System Shared" with bandwidth listed as "System Dependent," meaning it draws from the host system's DDR5 RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. This architecture is fundamentally different from discrete gaming GPUs and explains the measured performance ceiling.

The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in the 9th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all legacy or entry-level parts: the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% higher), NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1.5% higher), and NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (2.7% higher). This is firmly in the territory of basic display adapters, not gaming hardware. The 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 rating and 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate sound respectable on paper, but the shared memory architecture and 80 W TDP constrain real-world performance.

The data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 88 FPS, but this is the best case scenario. The Arc B390's performance degrades rapidly with quality settings — 88 FPS at Low drops to 63 FPS at Medium (28% reduction), 55 FPS at High (38% reduction), and 41 FPS at Ultra (53% reduction). This sensitivity to settings is characteristic of a GPU with limited shading resources and memory bandwidth.

The GPU's 12 RT cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 mean it can technically render modern effects, but the measured results suggest those features come at a heavy performance cost. The fact that 4K Ultra produces only 19 FPS — barely a slideshow — indicates the GPU simply cannot handle the pixel throughput required at high resolutions with enabled effects.

Players should understand that this GPU is designed for basic display output, not gaming. The "System Shared" memory means performance will also depend on system RAM speed and capacity, which the FACT PACK lists as "System Dependent." In Lockdown Protocol, the Arc B390 is the limiting factor at every resolution and settings combination tested.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2512 out of 2828 tested combinations places it in the bottom 11% of all systems in the database for Lockdown Protocol. This is a poor result, but it's important to contextualize: the ranking reflects the GPU's limitations more than the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 9 7900X is a 91st-percentile CPU, while the Arc B390 is a 9th-percentile GPU — the combination drags the overall result down to the bottom tier.

Relative to other tested combos, this system sits just 316 spots from the very bottom of the list. That means roughly 89% of all tested CPU-GPU pairs outperform it in this game. The ranking makes sense given the measured FPS: at 1080p Ultra, 41 FPS is barely playable for a competitive FPS, and at 4K Ultra, 19 FPS is far below acceptable.

Looking at the individual component benchmarks, the disparity is stark. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 51406 is within 0.6% of the Intel Core i7-14700F and 0.2% of the AMD EPYC 7313P — all are high-performing processors. Meanwhile, the GPU's 3DMark score of 1482 is within 2.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710, a card from a much older generation. The combo's rank reflects this mismatch: a top-tier CPU paired with an entry-level GPU produces mid-to-low-tier gaming performance.

For context on what this ranking means practically: the system can handle 1080p Low at 88 FPS, which is smooth for an FPS game. But any attempt to increase quality or resolution pushes frame rates down quickly. Players seeking 1440p or 4K gaming at high settings would need a fundamentally different GPU to pair with this CPU.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Lockdown Protocol at 4K?

A: Only at Low settings, where it averages 42 FPS. At Medium, it drops to 30 FPS; at High, 26 FPS; and at Ultra, just 19 FPS. 4K is not a practical target for this hardware.

Q: What is the best settings/resolution combination for smooth gameplay?

A: The data shows 1080p Low delivers 88 FPS, which is the only tested configuration above 80 FPS. 1080p Medium at 63 FPS and 1440p Low at 65 FPS are also playable, but anything higher requires accepting sub-60 FPS.

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

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Ryzen 9 7900X is a 91st-percentile CPU, while the Arc B390 is a 9th-percentile GPU. Frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and settings, which indicates GPU limitation.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to other GPUs in the database?

A: Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% higher), NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1.5% higher), and NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% higher). It sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p High settings?

A: The measured average is 55 FPS. This is playable but not ideal for a competitive FPS. Dropping to Medium raises it to 63 FPS, and Low raises it further to 88 FPS.

Q: Is this combo ranked well among all tested systems?

A: No. It ranks 2512th out of 2828 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 11%. The CPU's strong performance is offset by the GPU's weak results in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table presents the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings combination tested:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 1920x1080 | Low | 88 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 63 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 55 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 41 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 65 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 46 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 40 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 30 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 42 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 30 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 26 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 19 |

For the Medium settings at each resolution, additional min/max data was recorded. At 1080p Medium, the FPS ranged from 53 to 72. At 1440p Medium, the range was 39 to 53. At 4K Medium, the range was 25 to 34. These ranges indicate frame pacing consistency: the 1080p Medium result has a 19 FPS spread, while 4K Medium has just a 9 FPS spread, suggesting the GPU is more consistently saturated at higher resolutions.

The complete dataset shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p Low is the only configuration exceeding 80 FPS, and every 4K configuration falls below 45 FPS. The difference between the best result (88 FPS at 1080p Low) and the worst (19 FPS at 4K Ultra) is 69 FPS — a 78% reduction. This wide spread underscores the GPU's limited headroom. The 1440p results cluster between 30 and 65 FPS, making that resolution viable only at Low or Medium settings for acceptable frame rates.

Players should note that the Ultra preset at any resolution produces frame rates below 45 FPS, which is generally considered too low for a fast-paced FPS. The Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance at 1080p, while Low is required for smooth 1440p play. At 4K, no settings combination achieves a consistently smooth experience, with even Low averaging only 42 FPS.