Hi there, I recently got Call of Duty World at War for the PC last week, and was expecting my PC to run it without any problems (see specs below)

AMD Athlon 5600+ Dual Core (2.8 Ghz)
nVidia Gainward 8800GT 512MB GDDR3
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4
Artic 600W PSU
Asus M2N-Sli Deluxe PCI - E motherboard (AM2 socket)

This can run COD 4 on max settings without any problems at all, can set it to max of 70fps via console and happily play away.

But when I play COD 5 WoW, performance wise has dropped which was expected since its a new game but its dropped big time.

Minimum I can get 27fps and Max I can get 70 fps, and its varys on the action. Rumour has that COD 5 is affecting its performance, causing the systems to not reach its full capability than it did in COD 4.
Is an upgrade needed? I don't mind the upgrades at all, because I anticipated myself to upgrade sometime next month or January, but which upgrade is neccessary for COD 5?

- Quad Core?
- Another Graphics Card? (make it Sli)
- Another 2gb of RAM?

It's a bit of a bother because the lack of FPS does bug me when I try to snipe in long distances.

Just to note, none of the systems are overclocked at all.

i don't think CoD uses multiple cores(not sure). so a quadcore won't be necessary. Some more ram will be better. You need 64bit OS though. the graphics card is OK.

64bit OS?

COD5 does use multiple cores (I've attached a screenshot, look at the CPU Usage displayed in SpeedFan). As for the poor performance it could be a problem with COD5 (a new patch could fix it) or it could be a problem with graphics drivers (I know, for example, that ATi cards had a hotfix for performance). The specs you've posted should be pretty decent to run the game at a reasonably steady framerate.

Quote from BigDave2967 :

64bit OS?

if you want 4GB or more Ram, you need 64bit windows.

Quote from amp88 :

COD5 does use multiple cores (I've attached a screenshot, look at the CPU Usage displayed in SpeedFan). As for the poor performance it could be a problem with COD5 (a new patch could fix it) or it could be a problem with graphics drivers (I know, for example, that ATi cards had a hotfix for performance). The specs you've posted should be pretty decent to run the game at a reasonably steady framerate.

Fancy a trade of my specs for yours? :P

I just ordered another 2gb of RAM for my PC (the same ones I bought last year, so shouldn't really be any issue at all) So that will make things a bit easier, didn't mind anyway, was only 30 quid.

Any nvidia drivers that are recommended that would keep COD 5 steady until new drivers and a new COD 5 patch may repair any issues the game currently has?

Quote from Bose321 :

if you want 4GB or more Ram, you need 64bit windows.

Should have that, plus with the new ram thats coming in a few days time, it will be 4gb, can't get anymore, as there are only 4 slots to put them in.

cod5 should run ok on your system. i am running a socket 939 amd (duel core) 4800+ and 2gb of ddr1 ram and a 8800gt card. cod5 runs mint for me. updated your drivers lately?

Quote from dadge :

cod5 should run ok on your system. i am running a socket 939 amd (duel core) 4800+ and 2gb of ddr1 ram and a 8800gt card. cod5 runs mint for me. updated your drivers lately?

Yeah, I had to reformat my PC the other day, but installed the latest nvidia driver, and installed the latest motherboard drivers, haven't installed the latest dual core driver though, had a bit of trouble searching for that.

I tried COD 4 on multiplayer alone, I got 45-55 fps on an empty server :S. And 30 fps on COD 2 when I encounter smoke.

I'm sure that I need a few drivers that I missed out to correct the issues.

You should try maximizing CoD WaW by pressing ctrl+alt+delete ingame, then right clicking on the game and pressing maximize. It worked for me, my fps in game increased amazingly.

Quote from BigDave2967 :

Should have that, plus with the new ram thats coming in a few days time, it will be 4gb, can't get anymore, as there are only 4 slots to put them in.

You know there are RAM sticks with more capacity then 1gig..

RAM won’t make any difference to your FPS.

I think you're jumping a few steps and going too fast, it could be something very simple which you'll miss by needlessly upgrading or formatting....oopps.

Probably just that COD5 is more demanding, you might have to just drop the graphics settings do get some FPS back or like other have said it could be a known issue.

I don't think you need to upgrade just to max out games again, if you do that you'll be splashing out loads of cash all the time. You'd also need to check if you motherboard can accept a TRI or QUAD core as they are AM2+.

Quote from Scrabby :

You know there are RAM sticks with more capacity then 1gig..

Yeah I'm aware of that, was explaining the situation .

Quote from garph :

RAM won’t make any difference to your FPS.



I think you're jumping a few steps and going too fast, it could be something very simple which you'll miss by needlessly upgrading or formatting....oopps.



Probably just that COD5 is more demanding, you might have to just drop the graphics settings do get some FPS back or like other have said it could be a known issue.

EDIT: I had a bit of messing about with the graphics details on COD 5 and with nividia settings, from high performance - high quality settings, it hasn't made any changes in FPS performance at all, even resolution change, may turn out to be an known issue after all.



I don't think you need to upgrade just to max out games again, if you do that you'll be splashing out loads of cash all the time. You'd also need to check if you motherboard can accept a TRI or QUAD core as they are AM2+.

Good call, I'll have a look into that over the next few days.

Just found it frustrating that I bought these last year, runs COD 4 like dadges smooth arse, and then see it get ragged quite a bit

Just decided to do a little experiment.

I decided to go back to the default graphic settings (1024 x 768 resolution was the default settings in the game) just to see if there was any improvement, and changed the nvidia settings to play in High Performance.



Suprisingly, I got this. 35fps, you can clearly see the ragged edges, because I changed to high performance, and the resolution being 1024 x 768

Changed it back to High Quality, and 1680 x 1050, and voila, same fps but more sharper detail, as you'll see below.



May as well be an actual issue from COD 5 itself, than the own PC.

The higher and newer cards actually run better with the higher resolutions. At lower resolutions games become more CPU limited.

Have you looked into doing a slight overclock?

Quote from tonyfreak215 :

The higher and newer cards actually run better with the higher resolutions. At lower resolutions games become more CPU limited.

Have you looked into doing a slight overclock?

In the CPU or Graphics card?

I haven't actually done an overclock on the CPU before, but I'm aware that you can adjust the settings in the BIOs, how is that done? But I don't really intend to do it at the time, not been having any problems at all.

and why would he want to overclock? he has a better cpu than me (his amd (am2) 5600 duel core. mine amd (939) 4800 duel core. he uses DDR2 ram. i use DDR1. we have more or less the same graphic card. yet i can run it fine. so, again. why does he need to overclock?