CoD: Black Ops on a (very) weak system

Hi. My (3 year old) laptop's specs are in my signature.

I tried to play Bo, but predictably it was pretty much unplayable (800x600 and all lows of course). In the Havana bar right at the beginning it ran (relatively) acceptably, but as sure as I went outside, things got really bogged down.

This of course is not very surprising, but I read on a site (can't remember which) that BO requires a similar amount of resources as World at War (which was more than playable for me - at low-mid details of course).

So, are there any .ini/.cfg file "hacks" that I can use to improve my performance(turn off effects etc.)? I understand that it uses the same engine as WaW.

I know it's a long shot, but it can't hurt to ask

Thanks in advance, and Happy New Year!!

 

turn off the bullet shell ejections. this will improve FPS while firing. i don't know the command to do so, however.

also, disable DOF.

 

Have you turned shaders off?

 

Black Ops runs terrible compared to previous Call of Duty games. I can't run it with playable framerates on my desktop, with a Core 2 Duo at 3.0GHz, 4GB DDR2 memory, and a GTS 250 1GB graphics card. The game just stutters constantly and I'm lucky if I get 30 frames per second at 800x600 with all settings on minimum. This same machine can max out World at War and Modern Warfare 2 with a steady 60+ fps.

 

You need to update BO then, as my weak desktop can max out BO. My desktops specs: Intel Pentium Dual Core E6300 2.8GHz, 2GB DDR2, GT 240 512MB GDDR5.

Here's a video I maid of my desktop playing BO maxed out(jeff posted it for me)

width='480' height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TmnlBxUtkBo?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TmnlBxUtkBo?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='480' height="385"></embed></object>

 

Something not right there, I could maxed BO at 1920x1080 with AA using 1GB GTS 250 with Phenom II X4 955BE @ 3.4GHz and 4GB DDR2 RAM

 

The camera in that video is very shaky and the video's own framerate is very low, so I can't really tell how the game is running.

There is a huge difference between a 3.4GHz quad-core processor and a 3.0GHz dual-core. Most people have said Black Ops works significantly better with a quad than a dual, but I'm not about to build a new computer for one mediocre game when it runs everything else I play just fine, especially when that one game is based on an engine that's been around since before multi-core processors even existed.

 

Either way, I play it on my afore mentioned desktop on 1280x1024, high settings, and shader's on. It plays in the 30-35 FPS range.

The video may be shaky, but you can still tell the game runs fluidly.

When I fix my desktop tomorrow, I'll load up FRAPS and steady the camera, then post the results.

 

30-35 fps is not playable or fluid for me. That's pretty much the framerates I get.

 

Oh, Ok.

I thought most people say over 30 FPS is good?

 

It depends on who you ask, I guess. I am personally uncomfortable with anything less than 60 average, because I can "feel" the lag, and my inputs aren't as responsive. Some people are perfectly happy with 30, and if that's the case, more power to them.

 

Whoops, I thought CoD BO is not sensitive to more than dual cores but I was wrong

About the framerate, its not just the average is important, its the minimum that's important, its no use to have 30-40fps average if it dips to below 20 in heavy fight. When you see huge framerate dip, you see lag

 

check out this config:

&bull; View topic - cActUsjUiCe's FPS/Competition Config (7 Yrs of Experience)

It's really...really...really good for low end systems

BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES

Stock Configuration (No Tweaks)



Public Configuration 1.5 (High Level of Tweaks)

 

@ Mega Man : Thanks for the link ! That helped things out a bit. Not by very much, but enough to make this game (relatively) playable, although it's still behaving a bit odd.

If I stay still and just look around (or even shoot), it's VERY smooth, but as soon as I start moving(even a little), the fps drops to less than 10 for a few seconds then gradually recovers. It's annoying, but I guess that's a stupid bug of the game engine.

Still, it's quite something for my ancient x1700 to run a 2010 game.

Thanks again for the help!!

 

It depends on the type of game, too. For me, FPS is most important in a FPS (first-person shooter) game, as being able to see someone first is often the difference between survival and death. I run COD4:MW (the FPS I play online the most) with settings that achieve 90 FPS average on all maps except Pipeline (47 FPS average, probably all the grass) on my machine, so even when it dips I rarely notice it. The lower Pipeline FPS affects my score a bit, mainly when it dips due to smokebombs or whatnot. Native res is also important IMO, although not as much as FPS.

For racing games, I find 40 FPS is generally required. 35 is acceptable if it's steady. Anything below 30, even if it's a dip, and it's too jerky and I'm more likely to hit walls. The more the merrier, of course.

Turn-based strategy, for instance, I don't care if I'm getting 15 FPS, and real-time strategy I wouldn't care as much as racing.

30 is a good baseline, but it depends on the game and person. For me 40 is a better number, and avoiding low dips is also quite important.

 

Hmm, I just checked with FRAPS, and my Macbook (in sig) runs an average of 34 FPS. Maybe thats why I kinda suck at BO(never over 20 kills), but normally get over 100 kills in CoD 1? In CoD 1 I get like 90 FPS.

 

Most people can't tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps in video games. I think the general consensus is that 30+FPS is smooth enough to play, any lower and it's not.

 

its not a bug of the game engine but a sign your X1700 is just too old.. You really should invest in a new laptop. Even a old NVIDIA 9600M GT is able to run it so you could get a ton of laptops with that.

Panther214