Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has arrived on PC
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 arrives on PC
Another year, another Call of Duty. Black Ops 6 has arrived, and with it comes some BIG changes to the franchise, at least on PC and Xbox. Now, gamers on PC and Xbox can access Call of Duty through Game Pass. That means that playing the newest Call of Duty game is more affordable than ever.
Call of Duty’s Game Pass release is excellent news for lovers of the game’s single-player campaigns. These campaigns are generally great (let’s ignore Modern Warfare III (2023)…), and Game Pass allows gamers to play them without a heavy investment. For those uninterested in multiplayer, this is a godsend. Beyond that, Game Pass gives gamers access to a huge library of other titles.
Today, we will be testing the Steam version of Black Ops 6. Like other recent Call of Duty titles, Black Ops 6 is part of the Call of Duty launcher, Activision’s attempt to unify the Call of Duty series under a single application. To say the least, the Call of Duty app is a disaster. Moving to Black Ops 6’s single-player campaign often requires several reboots of the game, temporarily landing players on their desktop screen for no real reason. Simply put, the Call of Duty app wastes time and is needlessly annoying to navigate. Activision would do well to separate their Call of Duty games into separate applications again.
Currently, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has some issues on PC. We will discuss these issues later and how they ruin what is otherwise an excellent PC release. Now, without further ado, let’s get started.
Review Contents
- CPU Performance
- Memory Performance
- Preset Scaling – Minimum to Extreme
- OC3D Optimisation Tips and Settings
- DLSS 3 Upscaling
- FSR 3.1 Upscaling
- 1080p
- 1440p
- 4K
- Conclusion
GPU Drivers
When testing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on PC, we used the newest Nvidia and AMD GPU drivers available at the time of the game’s launch. These drivers were AMD Software 24.10.1 and Nvidia’s GeForce 566.03 driver for Windows 10/11.
Test Setup – OC3D’s New Test Rig
Last year, OC3D started conducting new game testing and GPU reviews on a new test system. Thanks to Corsair, Intel, and ASUS, we have created a new testing system that will allow us to properly test new graphics cards and the newest PC releases. This system features Intel’s i9-13900K processor and a ROG Strix Z790-F Gaming motherboard, with all other components coming from Corsair.
Our new test system is powered, cooled, and operated using Corsair components. The OS we will be using is Windows 11, and the case we will be using is Corsair’s airflow-optimised iCUE 5000T.
System Specs
Below are the full specifications of our new GPU/Games testing system and links to all the components we used.
OC3D GPU/Games Test System Specifications (Affiliate Links below)
CPU – Intel i9-13900K
Cooling – Corsair iCUE H150i Elite CAPELLIX XT
Motherboard – ASUS ROG Strix Z790-F Gaming WiFi
Memory – Corsair Vengeance 2x16GB (32GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory
Storage – Corsair MP600 PRO NH 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Case – Corsair iCUE 5000T RGB
Power Supply – Corsair HX1500i
OS – Windows 11
Nvidia GPUs Tested
When testing new games, we like to use a large number of graphics cards to see how well titles run on both old and new PC hardware configurations. To do this, we use a large selection of AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, including recently released graphics cards from Nvidia’s RTX 40 series to older GeForce graphics cards like Nvidia’s RTX 2060.
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 WindForce
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Eagle
- Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Eagle
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Founders Edition
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 6GB
AMD GPUs Tested
On the Radeon side of the GPU spectrum, we can test the following selection of GPUs, which include both RX 7000 and RX 6000 series GPUs.
- Radeon RX 7900 XT
- Radeon RX 6800 XT
- Radeon RX 6800
- Radeon RX 6700 XT
- ASUS ROG Radeon RX 6600 XT Strix
- PowerColor RX 6600 Fighter