Lockdown Protocol

Resolution Scaling

Lockdown Protocol's frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics solution at higher resolutions, while the CPU has more headroom at lower settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 88 FPS average. Dropping to 1440p Low yields 65 FPS, a 26% reduction, and moving to 4K Low produces 42 FPS, a further 35% drop from 1440p. The scaling pattern indicates that the Intel Arc B390's performance envelope is relatively narrow, and the frame rate losses are steep as pixel count rises.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically with resolution. At 1080p, the spread between Low (88 FPS) and Ultra (41 FPS) is 47 FPS. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 35 FPS (65 versus 30). At 4K, the spread is 23 FPS (42 versus 19). This tightening range suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is saturated regardless of settings, and the absolute ceiling for this combo in Lockdown Protocol is around 42 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that 1080p is the only resolution where the combo approaches playable frame rates across all settings, with Ultra dipping to 41 FPS — a marginal result for a fast-paced FPS.

The Medium preset provides the only complete FPS range data across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the average is 63 FPS with a minimum of 53 and maximum of 72. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 46 FPS with a range of 39 to 53. At 4K Medium, the average is 30 FPS with a range of 25 to 34. The minimum frame rates at 1440p and 4K Medium fall below 40 FPS, which is a threshold where competitive shooter gameplay becomes noticeably stuttery. The 1080p Medium minimum of 53 FPS is the only preset in the entire dataset where the minimum stays above 50 FPS.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on Intel's 3 nm process. Its boost clock reaches 2500 MHz with a base clock of 300 MHz, and it operates within an 80 W TDP. The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation units, along with 12 ray tracing cores. Its FP32 throughput is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS, while FP16 performance reaches 15.36 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s.

Memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with no dedicated VRAM. The memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," meaning performance scales with the host system's DDR4 memory configuration. This is a critical limitation for Lockdown Protocol, as the game's texture streaming and geometry processing will compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth. The 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth of the i5-11400F's dual-channel DDR4 setup becomes the effective ceiling for GPU memory access, and this is likely the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings.

In the GPU benchmark hierarchy, the Arc B390 scores 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. This places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, indicating extremely low absolute performance. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all legacy NVIDIA parts: the GeForce GT 520MX (score 1463, delta 1.3%), GeForce 800M (score 1460, delta 1.5%), GeForce GT 625 OEM (score 1446, delta 2.5%), and GeForce GT 710 (score 1443, delta 2.7%). The Arc B390 is 1.3% faster than the GT 520MX and 2.7% faster than the GT 710, but the differences are negligible in real-world gaming terms. This is a GPU that competes with integrated and entry-level discrete solutions from over a decade ago, and Lockdown Protocol's results reflect that positioning.

The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which means it has modern API feature support. However, the raw performance is insufficient to leverage those features at playable frame rates in this game beyond 1080p Low. The 4K Ultra result of 19 FPS average is essentially a slideshow, and even 1080p Ultra at 41 FPS fails to deliver the smooth experience expected from an FPS title.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database's combo ranking for Lockdown Protocol, this configuration of the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the Intel Arc B390 ranks 2512 out of 2828 tested combinations. This places it in the bottom 11% of all tested combos for this game. The ranking reflects the GPU's severe performance limitation rather than the CPU's capability, as the i5-11400F is a mid-range desktop processor from 2021 with a 71st percentile ranking across all CPUs in the database.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 17177 places it near several interesting rivals. The AMD EPYC 7H12 scores 17120, a 0.3% difference. The Intel Core i5-12450H scores 17239, a -0.4% difference. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G scores 17278, a -0.6% difference. The Intel Core Ultra 7 164U scores 17074, a 0.6% difference. These deltas are all within 1%, indicating that the i5-11400F's computational performance is statistically indistinguishable from these other processors in synthetic benchmarks. The practical takeaway is that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo — the GPU's 9th percentile ranking is what drags the overall gaming performance down.

The combination of a 71st percentile CPU with a 9th percentile GPU creates a severely imbalanced system for gaming. The i5-11400F has sufficient compute headroom to handle Lockdown Protocol's game logic and physics, but the Arc B390 cannot translate that headroom into frame rate. The 2512th rank out of 2828 combos confirms that this pairing is among the weakest tested for this specific title.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Lockdown Protocol at 1080p with playable frame rates?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo averages 88 FPS. At 1080p Medium, it averages 63 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS. At 1080p High, it averages 55 FPS. At 1080p Ultra, it drops to 41 FPS. The Medium preset is the highest setting that maintains an average above 60 FPS, though the minimum of 53 FPS may cause occasional hitches.

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

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. It is 1.3% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (score 1463), 1.5% faster than the GeForce 800M (score 1460), 2.5% faster than the GeForce GT 625 OEM (score 1446), and 2.7% faster than the GeForce GT 710 (score 1443). These are all sub-1500 scores, placing the Arc B390 in the 9th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system?

A: The data shows 1080p Low provides the highest average FPS at 88. For a balance of visual quality and performance, 1080p Medium at 63 FPS average is the recommended target, as it is the only setting/resolution pair where the minimum FPS (53) stays above 50. All 1440p and 4K configurations fall below 65 FPS average, and 4K Ultra averages only 19 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system for Lockdown Protocol?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The i5-11400F ranks in the 71st percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 17177, while the Arc B390 ranks in the 9th percentile of GPUs with a score of 1482. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows steep drops as resolution increases, which is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios.

Q: How does the i5-11400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17177 is 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120), 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239), 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278), and 0.6% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074). All deltas are within 1%.

Q: Does the Arc B390 have dedicated VRAM?

A: No. The GPU uses system-shared memory, with the memory type, bus width, and bandwidth all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent." The effective bandwidth depends on the host system's DDR4 memory configuration, which for the i5-11400F is dual-channel with 51.2 GB/s peak bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data for Lockdown Protocol with the Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B390 covers three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 88 FPS average, the Medium preset achieves 63 FPS average with a minimum of 53 and maximum of 72, the High preset achieves 55 FPS average, and the Ultra preset achieves 41 FPS average. The Medium preset is the only one at 1080p that includes full min/max data, showing a 19 FPS range between minimum and maximum.

At 1440p, the Low preset delivers 65 FPS average, the Medium preset delivers 46 FPS average with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 53, the High preset delivers 40 FPS average, and the Ultra preset delivers 30 FPS average. The Medium preset's 14 FPS range is tighter than at 1080p, indicating more consistent frame pacing at the cost of lower overall performance. The drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is 23 FPS, while the drop from 1080p Medium to 1440p Medium is 17 FPS.

At 4K, the Low preset delivers 42 FPS average, the Medium preset delivers 30 FPS average with a minimum of 25 and maximum of 34, the High preset delivers 26 FPS average, and the Ultra preset delivers 19 FPS average. The Medium preset at 4K has a 9 FPS range, the narrowest of any resolution. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows the following reductions: Low drops from 65 to 42 FPS (35% loss), Medium drops from 46 to 30 FPS (35% loss), High drops from 40 to 26 FPS (35% loss), and Ultra drops from 30 to 19 FPS (37% loss). The consistent ~35% loss across all settings when moving from 1440p to 4K indicates a purely GPU-limited scenario, as the relative performance penalty is uniform regardless of settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a peak bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes from the CPU. It was released in March 2021 with a launch MSRP of $157 and is now end-of-life.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-11400F demonstrates solid single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 14340 for multi-core and 2024 for single-core. Geekbench scores are 7737 multi-core and 1777 single-core. The 3DMark threaded tests show scaling from 1691 at 2 threads to 5652 at max threads, indicating that the 6-core/12-thread configuration scales well up to 8 threads (4691) but gains only marginal performance beyond that (5652 at max vs 5619 at 16 threads). This suggests the CPU's performance plateaus around 8 threads for most workloads.

For Lockdown Protocol, the CPU's 71st percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 17177 indicate it has ample compute headroom. The nearest rivals are all within 1% of its average score, meaning the i5-11400F is a well-balanced mid-range processor. However, the CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is shared with the GPU's system-shared memory, which creates a potential bottleneck when the GPU needs to access game assets. The FPS data supports this interpretation: the CPU can feed the GPU at 1080p Low (88 FPS), but as resolution increases, the GPU's computational limits become the dominant constraint, and the shared memory bandwidth further restricts performance.

The combination of a strong CPU with a weak GPU in this configuration means that Lockdown Protocol's frame rates are almost entirely determined by the Arc B390's capabilities. The i5-11400F's 4.40 GHz boost clock and 12 MB L3 cache provide sufficient single-thread performance for the game's core logic, but the system's overall ranking of 2512 out of 2828 combos underscores that the GPU holds this pairing back. For users considering this combo, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield substantial frame rate improvements, while the CPU would not need replacement for this title.