Following up Charles Matthews' idea, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclaurin%27s_inequality">Maclaurin's inequality</a> gives

$$\frac{x_1 + x_2 + x_3}{3} \ge \sqrt{ \frac{3n^2 - 2n + a}{3} } \ge \sqrt[3]{ n^3 + an - b}.$$

The second inequality in particular expands out to an inequality of the form $-54n^5 + \text{lower order terms} \ge 0$, so does in fact provide an upper bound for $n$ in terms of $a$ and $b$. If you don't expect the statement to be true, from here it is possible to search for counterexamples. 

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If I'm not mistaken, the above inequality never holds when $a = b = 1$, so no such $n$ exists in this case. In general in order to get a reasonable number of possibilities for $n$, $a$ needs to be large compared to $b$. Are you sure you meant to ask the question about any possible $a, b$?