Best Black Ops 4 Settings
COD Black Ops 4 FPS Boost
Welcome to the Black Ops 4 / Blackout Settings and FPS Boost guide.
Black Ops 4 and Blackout finally arrived, but what is each setting doing? What are the best settings and tips for maximum FPS in Black Ops 4 and Blackout? Find the answer in our Black Ops 4 / Blackout FPS Boost guide.
Black Ops 4 (Blackout) High FPS Config
Even though the Black Ops 4 in-game settings are already quite fulfilling, there are some graphic settings you can either not change at all or can't go as low in the menu as you can in the config file. A (growing) list of commands is something that you can find under Black Ops 4 Config Commands.
What I provide here are two different configs: One Call of Duty Black Ops 4 High FPS config for everybody who doesn't care about graphics at all and just wants the maximum frames his (maybe low- to mid-end) system can provide. And one where we only just go a little bit under the lowest in-game settings. Both configs shouldn't be used by graphic aficionados though. You can also just try them both and see which one works out better for you.
- Download the Maximum High FPS or Slight High FPS Config
- Replace the existing config in the main game folder: /Call of Duty Black Ops 4/players/
- Make sure to either copy your existing settings like sensitivity & volume levels by hand or set them again in the menu. Just don't touch the graphic settings in-game, otherwise some commands might get overwritten again.
Attention: At least in the Blackout Beta there were configuration bugs, affecting in-game and config changes. At least some of them were publicly acknowledged by the developers, so chances are high they will be fixed with the release.
Black Ops 4 In-game settings
What in-game graphic settings does Black Ops 4 provide and what should you set them too?
Display Mode
FULLSCREEN is the best option to get the maximum performance and least input lag.
Monitor
Here you can choose the monitor to use the game. Useful if you shouldn't play on your primary monitor. It doesn't have any performance impact though.
Refresh Rate
If you want to use a custom refresh rate, you can set it here. For the least input lag and best feeling, you usually want to go with the highest option your monitor provides.
Display Resolution
The right display resolution is a mix of preference and performance reasons. Usually the resolution to go is still 1080p (1920x1080), if your monitor supports it and you have an high end system, you might also be able to play on 1440p.
At least in the beta right now, Black Ops 4 isn't running that great though. Even on high end systems with a 8700k and a 1080TI we saw deep drops, even under 144 FPS. On 1080p and all low that is.
So, if you have a lower to mid-end system, you might want to go on a lower resolution for more FPS. 1600 x 900 is a popular option, if you want to stay on a 16:9 aspect ratio.
If you can spare some screen estate on the left and right, you can also go with a 16:10 resolution like 1400x900, saving another 15% pixels that need to get rendered.
4:3 in Black Ops 4
If you're really old school or need even more FPS, you can think about playing on a 4:3 resolution like 1280x960. To get the right aspect ratio or make it stretch via your GPU driver, you need to set the aspect ratio in the config file. 4:3 is currently not supported in the menu, but the game itself supports it.
Setting 4:3 in the config file
Open the config.ini which you can find in the /players/ folder in your main Black Ops 4 installation directory. Find the aspect_ratio command and change it to 4:3, so it looks like this:
aspect_ratio = "4:3"
And you're done. Enjoy 4:3.
Render Resolution
The render resolution is a percentage value and defines the final resolution Black Ops 4 will render in.
Example: If you set your Display Resolution to 1920 x 1080 and a Render Resolution of 100, the game will render in 1920x1080. If you set the Render Resolution to 80, your Black Ops 4 will only render in 1536 x 684 (= 1920*0.8 x 1080 * 0.8).
Aspect Ratio
Black Ops 4 gives you the option to set an specific aspect ratio in-game. In-game you have the options for an automatic mode, 16:10, 16:9, 21:9 and 32:9.
Some competitive players might miss two aspect ratios though. 4:3 and 5:4 can only be set via config file right now.
Vertical Sync
Vertical Sync is a technique used to synchronize frames between your GPU and monitor. Competitive players usually don't want to use it though, because it introduces input lag by default.
If you want synched frames, you should use NVIDIA's G-SYNC or AMD's FreeSync.
Gameplay Framerate Limit
Black Ops 4 comes with a built-in option to limit your frames. If you're using GSYNC or FreeSync or want want to limit your FPS for another reason, this is the option for you. It will set the maximum FPS in-game. You should always compare it to an external solution like RTSS, because you might get better and more stable frametimes with it.
HDR
HDR does not only cost performance but also introduces input-lag. Both things you don't want in Black Ops 4.
Brightness
You usually want to go at least a little bit over the default value. But it depends on the rest of your setup, especially your monitor settings.
Display Gamma
The display gamma option is not a typical gamma slider, but the option to choose between two color profiles. The deeper sRGB profile, which you usually want to choose and the REC.709, typically used for TV screens.
Display Adapter
Choose your main GPU. It usually is already defaulted.
Texture Quality
Texture Quality sets the in-game texture resolution.
Special Effects Quality
The Special Effects Quality setting sets the quality of different special effects. This includes things like explosions, smoke or muzzle flash for example.
Model Quality
The model quality sets the LOD (level of detail) of models.
Screen Space Reflection
Screen Space Reflection (SSR) is a technique used to render more realistic and smooth reflections - at the cost of performance.
Shadow Quality
Sets the shadow quality and resolution.
Dynamic Shadows
If this setting is enabled the game will remove shadows on (most) dynamic objects, like grenades for example.
Anti-Aliasing Quality
Anti-aliasing is a technique used to smooth pixelated edges - it gets rid of the "staircase effect". You can disable it completely to get the maximum FPS and performance or use one of the provided techniques.
- FXAA
Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA, sometimes also referred to as Fast Sample Anti-aliasing (FSAA)) does require the least performance of the anti-aliasing options in Black Ops 4. FXAA comes with a slight blur. - SMAA
SMAA is similar to FXAA but a better, upgraded "version". It produces less blur, but costs a little bit more performance. It is usually still the choice if you want to use AA and get the best balance of anti-aliasing quality and performance. - Filmic SMAA
Filmic SMAA is a softened version of SMAA. - SMAA T2x
SMAA T2x is a combination of SMAA and TAA. - Filmic SMAA T2x
Softened version of SMAA T2x
Ambient Occlusion Quality
Ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed surfaces are to ambient lighting.
Motion Blur
Motion Blur is quite self-explanatory. If enabled, your motion gets slightly blurred when you move.
Subsurface Scattering
Subsurface scattering is used to get better lighting results for skin.
Order Independent Transparency
Order Independent Transparency (OIT) is a technique used to make sure transparent layers render in the right order. If you have for example a smoke, a transparent window and transparent foliage, you have three different layers of transparency. OIT makes sure those get rendered in the right order from the players point of view.
Field of View
The field of view is the horizontal view in degrees. In Call of Duty Black Ops 4 you have the option to set it to very low 60 to a high 120. You usually want to go higher than the default value but maybe also not too high. A FoV value too high might not only cost you a little bit too much performance, but will also worsen the visibility on long ranges, especially if you play on lower resolutions.
Black Ops 4 Launch Options
I don't know of any Black Ops 4 launch options that improve performance.
Launch options you find in many games, like -sm4, -d3d10, -malloc=system, -maxMem or -USEALLAVAILABLECORES do not work and aren't even from the right engine/game.
COD Black Ops 4 Config Commands
You'll find the Black Ops 4 config file in the /players/ folder under the main game folder.
We'll take a look at every config command soon.
Black Ops 4 Nvidia optimization
You probably won't see much improvement, especially if your system is clean and running as it should. If you experience slight stutters or similar problems, things like changing the power management mode might help you though.
Call of Duty BO4 Nvidia Control Panel Settings:
- Anistropic filtering: Off
- Antialiasing – FXAA: Off
- Antialiasing – Gamma correction: Off
- Antialiasing – Mode: Off
- Antialiasing – Setting: None
- Antialiasing – Transparency: Off
- Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1
- Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
- Shader Cache: On
- Texture filtering – Anistropic sample option: Off
- Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Allow
- Texture filtering – Quality: High performance
- Texture filtering – Trilinear optimization: Off
- Threaded optimization: On
- Triple buffering: Off
- Vertical sync: Off
Black Ops 4 Windows & Hardware Optimizations
In many guides you will find more and more optimization tips beyond ingame- and config options. But do those really help? Are some of them maybe even costing performance? Let's take a look at the most of them.
Disable WINDOWS 10 GAME DVR for a Black Ops 4 FPS Boost
Windows 10 has a game recording feature called Game DVR, which includes background recording option. Disable it to for maximum performance.
WINDOWS 10 GAME MODE (/ GAME BAR)
Windows 10 is coming with Game Mode, a feature that (tries to) prioritize running games to provide them the maximum possible system ressources. In theory it's a great idea, but only a small amount of people does profit from it. Ours and other benchmarks show regularly, that a clean and for gaming moderately optimized system don't profit from the Game Mode at all.
Enable Windows 10 Game Mode for more FPS in Black Ops 4?
Yes, but only when your system isn't really cleaned and optimized and maybe already a bit older. If you have many background processes running that shouldn't take any performance but still do, you might profit from enabling the Windows 10 Game Mode.
Disable Windows 10 Game Mode for more FPS in BO4 / Blackout?
As much as enabling it won't give performance improvements in most cases, disabling doesn't either. Using the game bar and disabling / enabling the Game Mode gets difficult though if you disable the Windows 10 fullscreen optimizations, because the Game Bar won't show up in normal, exclusive fullscreen mode. If you don't use other features of it, like the game recording, feel free to disable it.
DISABLE HYPER-THREADING (INTEL) OR SMT (AMD) FOR A BO4 FPS BOOST?
Yes! Benchmarks show regularly that games, even if they utilize basic multithreading, often don't profit from Hyper-Threading / SMT. It then costs performance and might cause stuttering and worse frametimes.
How to disable HT / SMT?
First of all, make sure your CPU even supports Hyper-Threading (Intel) or SMT (AMD). If it does, you can disable it in the BIOS. Check your manual on how to do it with your specific mainboard.
But, there is always a but:
Players who have processes running the background that heavily utilize HT or SMT (like streaming) might lose performance with disabled HT / SMT, depending on their CPU. Just give it a quick test!
DISABLE HPET FOR MORE FPS IN BLACK OPS 4 / BLACKOUT?
(HPET is a hot topic with really much misinformation. We will publish a special more in-depth HPET article in the future.)
HPET (High Precision Event Timer) is a hardware timer which can cause stutters/lags and lower performance in games. It should be disabled by default, but depending on your system, os version and software installed it might be active and causing lower fps and stutters.
Black Ops 4 - Other Optimizations & MISC
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