CoD:Black Ops terrible performance

I'm running (or trying to run) black ops on my Alienware M15x

i7-740QM | 15.4" (1920 x 1080) | 8GB DDR3 | 1GB ATI 5850 @ 725 core| 500GB 7200RPM SATA | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit

but experiencing terrible lag, fps and stuttering issues.

I have tried:

• fresh install
• graphics on low
• no AA
• shadows disabled
• glow disabled
• blur disabled
• multithreading enabled
• multigpu disabled
• Sync Every Frame disabled
• decals disabled
• dof disabled
• minimal programs running in background
• checked and toggled stealth mode

Apart from the crazy stuttering, FPS can drop below 15 while outdoors (averaging at about 70 indoors, which is ok).

The menu also stutters when I mouseover any one of the buttons.

I've heard of others with my specs running the game at constant ~90 FPS maxed out, what gives?

FIXED: Noticed my graphics card underclocks itself to 400mhz core speed every time I reboot, so I have to clock it up every time.

 

Have you toggled stealth mode?

 

Yes, I'll add that to the list...

 

try changing the drivers :s

 

Try some config file tweaking... sometimes it has some completely wrong settings in there, for whatever reasons.

Go to the config file, should be at the following place wen you installed steam in the standar folder:

Code:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\call of duty black ops\players

Then you should see the multiplayer (config_mp.cfg) and the single player config file.

Open the files with Notepad, or even better Notepad++ and then search for the following entries (Ctrl +f):

Code:

seta r_multiGpu "0"

Code:

seta r_multithreaded_device "1"

This should be exactly like this, if multiGPU is set to "1" then change it to "0" and if multithreaded is set to "0" set it to "1".

Then see whether it helps.

 

460m if you're a nvidia guy, 5850 for best price/performance ratio, or 6970M wich is the best and most expensive card that you can get for the m15x (with a few tweaks). 460 and 5850 work plug'n'play and 6970 needs a fan controller

 

Except for the Dell 6970m, and anyway, the fan control is ready in 2 mins.
The 240m is really the weakest card the M15x offers, an upgrade to a 5850 or 460m will already give you a huge performance boost.