Fix: Black Ops Cold War FPS Drops

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has finally released the PC version. So far, the game is working steadily with its servers. But the gameplay is taking some heat. Many players have reported that they are facing issues with maintaining the frames in the game. Occasionally they are encountering FPS drops with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Here in this article, we will look at some of the solutions that give the game a nice boost in gameplay. Most of these solutions are geared towards setting the performance of the PC at its maximum capacity. If you are having trouble getting some decent game time with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, this article will help you out. So without any further ado, let’s get into it.

How to fix Cold War FPS Drops?

Try out all the solutions mentioned below, one after the other, until one of them improves your FPS in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Close background applications:

Windows has several programs and applications running simultaneously when the PC is on. It can be an antivirus or a demanding browser running in the background that might cause the game to lag or slow down a bit. It would be best to close all these background processes and then try playing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War again.

• Right-click on the taskbar and choose Task Manager.
• Click on the Processes tab and look for running applications using a high percentage of the CPU.
• Right-click on such applications and choose the option “End Task.”

• Click on the Startup tab and look for applications that you don’t really use much. Right-click on such applications and choose Disable. Keeping unnecessary programs disabled on startup reduces the stress on the CPU.

Now try launching and playing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War again. If you still experience FPS drops in the gameplay, then go for the next solution mentioned below.

Change game’s priority in Task Manager:

You have the option of setting priority to a particular application in Windows. By default, every program running on Windows runs on equal priority, but you can increase the priority on a particular application.

• Right-click on the taskbar and choose Task Manager.
• Click on the Processes tab and look for Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.
• Right-click on it and choose “Go to details.”
• You will be in the details tab with BlackOpsColdWar.exe highlighted. Right-click on it, hover the mouse pointer over to Set priority, and select it as “High.”
• To confirm the action, click on “Change priority” in the pop-up that shows up.

Once you have changed the priority and set it to high for Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, try playing the game again. If you still experience lags and frame drops in the game, try the next solution mentioned below.

Update video card drivers:

Outdated or fault graphics card drivers often result in slow frame rate and occasional drops in frames. So it is necessary to keep the graphics card drivers up to date to ensure that they are free from bugs and are compatible with the new applications. There are three ways to update the graphics drivers, let Windows do it automatically, download the setup file manually and install it, or use a third-party driver utility application that automatically takes care of everything.

Using Windows Device Manager:

• Press Windows Key + X and choose “Device Manager” from the list of options that show up.
• Look for “Display adapters” and double-click on it to expand it.
• Right-click on your graphics card model and choose “Update driver.”

• After that, follow the on-screen instructions and let Windows download and install the latest version of the drivers onto your computer.

Downloading the setup file manually:

You need to open up AMD or NVIDIA’s official website and look for the latest drivers’ setup file. If you have a graphics card from AMD, then you need to download the drivers from AMD’s website. On the other hand, if you have a graphics card from NVIDIA, then you need to download the drivers from NVIDIA’s website. Depending on the build and version of Windows you are using, download the setup file accordingly.

Once you have downloaded the file, open it up and install all the latest driver files for your graphics card onto your system.

Using a third-party driver utility program:

There are several driver utility programs for Windows that take care of a Windows user’s driver issue. It is not easy to keep track of every new driver update, and doing it individually for every driver can be tiring. So we have numerous programs now that automatically scan the system for any missing or outdated drivers. If there are any such drivers, the program automatically installs the latest version of the driver files required by the system. These programs often charge a bit for their service, but it is a good investment since you don’t need to worry about any driver issues for your system ever again.

You can use such an application to update your graphics card drivers.

If, even after updating the graphics card drivers, you are still stuck with Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War’s laggy gameplay, try the solution mentioned below.

Optimize Windows 10 for gaming:

Windows 10 comes with a few built-in features that enhance the gaming experience on a Windows system. However, many users have reported that having these features sometimes works against them, and they end up facing frame drops in games. So you need to turn off these gaming features in your Windows 10 system and then try playing Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War again.

• Click on the search bar and look for “game mode settings.” Once it shows up in the results, open it up.

• You will be in the game mode menu. Turn off the toggle for “Game Mode” here.

• Click on the captures tab on the left of this settings window and turn off the toggle for “Record in the background while I’m playing a game.”

Now close every window and launch Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. If you encounter FPS drops again, try the next solution.

Disable fullscreen optimizations:

Fullscreen optimizations are something that was added as a feature for gamers. It allowed gamers to take up the entire screen, run at full speed, support fast alt-tab switching, and support overlays. But having this turned on has resulted in some people facing low FPS numbers on Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. If you have this enabled, you need to disable it right away.

• Open the Battle.net launcher and go to Call of Duty: BOCW.
• Click on the “Options” menu and then choose “Show in Explorer.” This will take you to the game folder directory.
• Open the folder Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.
• Look for the “Black Ops Cold War Launcher” file and right-click on it. Then select “Properties.”
• Click on the compatibility tab on top and check the box next to Disable full-screen optimizations.
• Now click on “Change High DPI settings.”
• Check the box next to “Override high DPI scaling behavior” and click on Ok.
• You will be in the compatibility tab again. Here, click on Apply and then click on Ok.
• Do the same with the “BlackOpsColdWar” application file too.

Now relaunch the game and check whether you reencounter any FPS drop issues. If you do face the same lag issues again, try the next solution.

Optimize NVIDIA Control Panel settings:

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card on your system, then you can tweak around NVIDIA settings to maximize the FPS on your games. Let see how you can do the same with Black Ops Cold War.

• On your desktop, right-click on an empty space and choose “NVIDIA Control Panel.”
• On the left panel, click on Manage 3D settings.
• Click on the tab Program settings and then click Add to add a program for customization.

• Select Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War from the list of programs that show up when you click on Add.
• Then click on “Add Selected Program.”
• Now make sure that the CUDA setting is set to your dedicated GPU(NVIDIA graphics card).
• Set the “Power management mode” option down in the list to “Prefer maximum performance.”
• Set the “Texture filtering Quality” option to “Performance.”
• Now close everything and try playing the game again.

If you reencounter the same FPS drop issues, try the next solution mentioned below.

Change in-game settings:

Certain settings in the game are set to a specific setting when you first load the game. These default settings can sometimes result in laggy gameplay if the system has low-powered specifications.

• Open up the game and go to Settings.
• Firstly, open up Graphics settings. Here, in the hardware section, set the Display Mode to Fullscreen. Then set Gameplay V-Sync and Menu V-Sync to disabled.
• Go to the Details & Texture section, and set the Texture Quality and Texture Filtering Quality to Low/Medium. If you have a decently powered system, then set it to Medium; if not, then stick to Low. Then disable Screen Space Reflection and set the Object View Distance to High.
• Next, head to the Advanced section. Here, click on Restart Shaders Compilation which will take a minute to complete.
• Now move from graphics settings to Interface settings.
• Here, in the telemetry section, make sure that FPS Counter, GPU Temperature, GPU Clock, GPU Time, CPU Time, VRAM Usage, and System Clock are all set as “Shown.” Here, take a look at your GPU temperature, clock, and every other detail to get an idea about what is causing the lag in your game. Whether it is the heat or the GPU is just not powerful enough for this title.

After making all the graphics changes in the game, you should witness an improvement in the gameplay. If you still encounter lag and FPS drops while gaming, then try the final solution mentioned below.

Compile shaders in-game:

When you open up Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, you will see a message on the top about shaders. Let the shaders download and compile because that will significantly improve the Black Ops Cold War gameplay. If you have a slow connection, then the download may take a while, but it is good to have shaders compiled for this game. It will certainly improve any FPS drop issues in the gameplay.

These are all the solutions that you can try to fix the FPS drop issue in Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. If you have any questions or queries about this article, then comment down below, and we will get back to you. Also, be sure to check out our other articles on iPhone tips and tricks, Android tips and tricks, PC tips and tricks, and much more for more useful information.