Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide
Conclusion
Conclusion – A decent PC version, but it could be so much better
PC gamers expect certain things from a modern game release. Obviously, there are the basics: unlocked framerates, mouse/keyboard support, and a robust graphical options menu. Today, we can add to the list a lack of Shader Compilation Stutter (thanks DX12 for making this a major issue), ultrawide monitor support, high-fidelity upscaling support (DLSS, XeSS, FSR), and accessibility options (colourblind mode etc). Sadly, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 doesn’t meet all of these requirements.
Thankfully, shader compilation stutter is not an issue (if you give the game time to compile shaders). That said, upscaler support leaves a lot to be desired. Don’t get us wrong, DLSS, XeSS, and FSR are supported, but none perform well. Enabling DLAA dropped framerates by 40%, and DLSS Quality Mode delivered worse performance than native resolution rendering. Only DLSS Balanced mode and lower delivered performance gains over native resolution rendering. The same is true for FSR 3 and XeSS. Frame Generation (FSR and DLSS) work as expected, but their upscaling portions don’t.
Upscaling support needs to be fixed!
Right now, many PC gamers are enabling their upscaler of choice and are getting poor performance as a result. Not many of them are switching back to native resolution rendering, as they wouldn’t expect it to run better than DLSS or FSR in Quality mode. As a result, many gamers are having sub-par experiences. This issue needs to be addressed urgently.
If upscaler support is fixed, gamers can then take advantage of the performance-boosting nature of these features and play Call of Duty at higher framerates. That’s a win for everyone. As it stands, PC gamers are having performance issues, and many don’t know why.
Otherwise, BLOPS 6 has a solid PC version
If we ignore this game’s upscaling issues, Black Ops 6 the game has a solid PC version. It doesn’t require ultra-high-end hardware to run; it makes use of additional CPU cores (even Intel E-cores) and has a wealth of graphical options to tinker with. Honestly, if DLSS, FSR, and XeSS worked as intended, there wouldn’t be anything to complain about. It’s baffling that this game’s upscaling issues made it past quality assurance. Most PC gamers today use some form of upscaling, making FSR, DLSS, and XeSS critical features that must work properly at launch.
Hopefully, Black Ops 6 will be patch soon to address this issue. When this happens, we plans to retest this game to confirm its functionality. Stay tuned.
You can join the discussion on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s PC version on the OC3D Forums.
