Lockdown Protocol

Lockdown Protocol is an FPS title released on 2024-03-11, and the measured combination of an Intel Core i3-12100F with an Intel Arc B390 delivers playable results only at lower resolutions and settings, with the data showing a hard performance ceiling that makes 4K Ultra a non-starter for smooth gameplay.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU and GPU pairing?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 Low delivers 88 avg FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo. At 2560x1440 Low, the average drops to 65 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low it falls to 42 FPS. For a balance of visual quality and frame rate, 1920x1080 Medium (63 avg FPS) or 2560x1440 Low (65 avg FPS) are the only rows that remain above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo holds a rank of 2512 out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol, placing it in the bottom 11% of all configurations. This low standing is consistent with the GPU’s overall benchmark percentile of 9, meaning it outperforms only a small fraction of all GPUs in the database.

Q: Does the Intel Arc B390 have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The GPU uses System Shared memory for both capacity and bandwidth, meaning its VRAM allocation is dependent on the system’s main memory rather than dedicated video memory. The memory type and bus width are also System Shared, so performance will scale with system memory configuration, but the measured frame rates indicate this shared memory arrangement does not provide a competitive advantage in Lockdown Protocol.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The CPU has 4 cores and 8 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and its benchmark scores show a single-thread performance of 893 in 3dmark_single_thread and 1932 in geekbench_singlecore. However, at 1920x1080 Low the FPS drops from 88 to 55 when moving to High settings, which suggests the GPU is the limiting factor since the CPU’s workload does not change with graphics settings.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: At 3840x2160 Medium, the measured min FPS is 25 with an average of 30. At 2560x1440 Medium, the min FPS is 39 with an average of 46. At 1920x1080 Medium, the min FPS is 53 with an average of 63. These min FPS values show that 4K Medium will experience significant stutter, while 1080p Medium remains relatively stable.

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

A: The Intel Arc B390’s 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score is 1482, 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. These deltas are all under 3%, meaning the Arc B390 sits in a performance class with decade-old entry-level discrete GPUs.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is built on the Xe3-LPG architecture with a Panther Lake chip, fabricated on a 3 nm process. It has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output pipelines, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The base clock is 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2500 MHz, and the pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is 7.680 TFLOPS, which is modest for modern gaming.

The memory configuration is entirely system-dependent: the memory size, type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as System Shared or System Dependent. This means the GPU does not have dedicated VRAM, which is a significant disadvantage for a game like Lockdown Protocol that requires consistent memory bandwidth. The measured FPS data reflects this limitation. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 88 avg FPS, but at 1920x1080 Ultra it drops to 41 avg FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 47 FPS drop, which indicates the GPU’s compute and memory capabilities are quickly saturated as settings increase.

The GPU’s 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are the GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710 — all with scores between 1443 and 1463. The deltaPct values range from 1.3% to 2.7%, meaning the Arc B390 is only marginally faster than these legacy parts. In practical terms, the Arc B390 behaves like an entry-level GPU that can handle 1080p gaming at low-to-medium settings but struggles with higher resolutions or demanding presets.

The 80 W TDP and IGP slot width suggest this is an integrated-class part, but it is paired with the i3-12100F which has no integrated graphics of its own. The GPU’s display outputs are listed as Portable Device Dependent, which further indicates this is designed for mobile or compact systems rather than a dedicated desktop graphics card. For Lockdown Protocol, the data shows the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all settings above Low.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend on whether the priority is maximum frame rate or visual fidelity. The data shows 1920x1080 Low produces 88 avg FPS, which is the highest measured value across all resolutions and settings. This is the only configuration that approaches the 90 FPS mark, making it the best choice for competitive play where frame rate matters most.

For a smoother visual experience without sacrificing too much performance, 1920x1080 Medium is the most balanced option. It delivers 63 avg FPS with a min FPS of 53 and a max FPS of 72. The min FPS of 53 means the game will occasionally dip below 60, but the overall experience remains playable. At 2560x1440 Low, the average is 65 FPS, which is slightly higher than 1080p Medium, but the lack of min FPS data for that row makes it harder to assess stability.

Moving to High settings at 1080p drops the average to 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. At 1440p High, the average falls to 40 FPS, and at 4K High it drops to 26 FPS. Ultra settings are not viable for this combo: 1080p Ultra averages 41 FPS, 1440p Ultra averages 30 FPS, and 4K Ultra averages 19 FPS. The 4K Ultra row is the worst measured result, with an average below 20 FPS.

The data indicates that Medium settings at 1080p provide the best compromise between image quality and playability. The 63 avg FPS with a 53 min FPS is the only Medium row that stays close to the 60 FPS line. If the user prefers higher resolution, 1440p Low at 65 avg FPS is a viable alternative, but it lacks the min FPS data to confirm stability. For users who want the highest frame rate possible, 1080p Low at 88 avg FPS is the clear winner, though it requires accepting the lowest visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F + Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2512 out of 2828 tested combos in Lockdown Protocol. This places it in the 88.8th percentile of all combos, meaning nearly 89% of tested systems perform better. The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU’s weak benchmark standing, as the CPU itself sits at the 68th percentile of all CPUs.

The GPU’s percentile vs all GPUs is 9, which is extremely low. Its nearest rivals are all NVIDIA parts from 2011-2013 era: GT 520MX (1463 score), GeForce 800M (1460), GT 625 OEM (1446), and GT 710 (1443). All these rivals are within 2.7% of the Arc B390’s score of 1482. This means the GPU is performing at a level comparable to a GT 710, which is a card that was never intended for modern gaming.

The CPU, in contrast, is a more capable component. Its avg benchmark score is 13494, and its nearest rivals are the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492, 0% delta), Core i5-9500 (13452, 0.3% delta), Core 5 120UL (13594, -0.7% delta), and Core i7-1250U (13351, 1.1% delta). The i3-12100F has 4 cores and 8 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 11860 with a single-core score of 1674. In Passmark multithread, it scores 14015, and in 3dmark max threads it scores 4023.

The massive gap between the CPU’s 68th percentile and the GPU’s 9th percentile explains why the combo rank is so low. The i3-12100F is a solid budget CPU that can handle modern titles, but the Arc B390 holds it back significantly. The measured FPS data confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the frame rates at 1080p Low (88 avg) are still not exceptional, and they drop drastically with any increase in settings or resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how the combo scales across three resolutions: 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 88 at 1080p to 65 at 1440p (a 26.1% reduction) and then to 42 at 4K (a 35.4% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 46 FPS, which represents a 52.3% decrease.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 63 avg FPS at 1080p drops to 46 at 1440p (27% reduction) and then to 30 at 4K (34.8% reduction). The total drop is 33 FPS, or 52.4%. At High settings, the numbers are 55 at 1080p, 40 at 1440p (27.3% reduction), and 26 at 4K (35% reduction). The total drop is 29 FPS, or 52.7%. At Ultra settings, the progression is 41 at 1080p, 30 at 1440p (26.8% reduction), and 19 at 4K (36.7% reduction). The total drop is 22 FPS, or 53.7%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is notable. Regardless of whether the game runs at Low or Ultra, moving from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 26-27% of performance, and moving from 1440p to 4K costs roughly 35-37%. This uniform scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, because a CPU bottleneck would show less variation at higher resolutions. In fact, the slight increase in the percentage drop at higher settings (from 52.3% at Low to 53.7% at Ultra) suggests that the GPU’s rendering workload scales nearly linearly with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

The practical implication is that the Arc B390 simply does not have the raw throughput to handle 4K resolution in Lockdown Protocol. Even at Low settings, 4K only achieves 42 avg FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The 1080p to 4K scaling shows that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are insufficient for high-resolution rendering, and no amount of CPU headroom can compensate for that limitation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 88 avg FPS (highest measured)
• Medium: 63 avg FPS, min 53, max 72
• High: 55 avg FPS
• Ultra: 41 avg FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 65 avg FPS
• Medium: 46 avg FPS, min 39, max 53
• High: 40 avg FPS
• Ultra: 30 avg FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 42 avg FPS
• Medium: 30 avg FPS, min 25, max 34
• High: 26 avg FPS
• Ultra: 19 avg FPS

The 1080p Low row is the only configuration that exceeds 80 FPS, and it does so by a wide margin over the next best row (1440p Low at 65). The 1080p Medium row is the only Medium setting that stays above 60 FPS, with a min of 53 that indicates occasional dips below the threshold. The 1440p Low row at 65 avg FPS is the second-fastest measured configuration, but it lacks min/max data for stability assessment.

At 4K, all settings produce average FPS below 45. The best 4K result is 42 avg FPS at Low settings, which is still below the 60 FPS target. The 4K Ultra row at 19 avg FPS is effectively unplayable, and even the 4K Medium row with its 25 min FPS would produce constant stuttering. The min FPS values that do exist (53 at 1080p Medium, 39 at 1440p Medium, 25 at 4K Medium) show that the combo struggles to maintain consistent frame delivery as resolution increases.

The data also reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (88) and Ultra (41) is 47 FPS. At 1440p, the difference is 35 FPS (65 vs 30). At 4K, the difference is 23 FPS (42 vs 19). This narrowing gap indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even reducing settings to Low cannot fully compensate for the pixel count. The Arc B390’s 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 60 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply inadequate for 4K rendering in this title.

For users who insist on 4K, the data suggests the game is not playable at any settings level with this combo. For 1440p, only Low settings achieve a playable 65 FPS average. For 1080p, Low and Medium settings are viable, with High being borderline at 55 FPS and Ultra falling to 41 FPS. The sweet spot is clearly 1080p Medium, which offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability, with a 63 avg FPS and a 53 min FPS that just barely keeps the experience above the 50 FPS threshold.