Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has officially launched on PC worldwide. So far, it’s looking like a smooth release in terms of server stability and downtime. Some players are experiencing low FPS, but there are some fixes you can do to get a nice boost and more smooth gameplay. Here’s a few Call of Duty Cold War low FPS fixes you can try on PC to ensure you are running the most optimal settings for performance.
Call of Duty Cold War Low FPS Fixes
Here are a few fixes you can try to boost your FPS in Call of Duty Cold War:
- Update video card drivers
- Compile shaders in-game
- Adjust in-game settings
- Close background applications
- Change game priority in task manager
Update Video Card Drivers
Long gone are the days of not worrying about having to download new drivers. Video card technology is changing rapidly, and so are the games. New drivers release every few days, and even every day if you opt into running beta drivers. Whether you have an NVIDIA or AMD GPU, you will want to make sure you are running the most up-to-date drivers for Call of Duty Cold War. The new drivers drastically improve performance, mostly if you have not updated in weeks or longer.
To update NVIDIA drivers, open up the GeForce Experience and make sure to log in. Navigate to the Drivers tab and select Check for updates on the far top right of the window. Download and install any new drivers and restart your computer afterward.
To update AMD drivers, head to the official website here. Download the Auto-Detect and Install Radeon Graphics Drivers for Windows program. Install the program to detect your video card, download and install the latest drivers for you.
Compile shaders in-game
After launching Call of Duty Cold War, you will most likely see a message at the top of the screen about shaders. Let the shaders download and compile because these will significantly affect in-game performance and optimize the gameplay on your computer. The download may take a while because the shaders files are large, but it’s a step you should not overlook.
Adjust in-game settings
The most critical Call of Duty Cold War low FPS fix is probably adjusting your in-game settings. Open up the menu and head into Settings. Try using these in-game settings for max FPS, which tend to have the biggest effect on performance:
- Framerate Limit: Unlimited
- Shadow Quality: Low
- NVIDIA DLSS: Ultra Performance
- Gameplay V-Sync: Off
- Texture Quality: Medium
- Refresh Rate: Max for your monitor (144/240)
Close background applications
Background processes can significantly affect the performance of Call of Duty Cold War, or any game for that matter. Make sure to close chrome and any other background processes that use a lot of memory or CPU. Open up the Task Manager from the Windows Start Menu, and click on the Processes tab. Sort the processes by CPU, and close anything that is using a lot of resources.
Change game priority in task manager
Lastly, while you’re still in Task Manager, look for the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War process under the Details tab. Find BlackOpsColdWar.exe, right-click on it, and go to Set Priority. Try changing this from Normal to Real-time and seeing if it makes any difference in your performance. For some players, this tends to help quite a bit.
