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Call Of Duty: Black Ops II Graphics Performance, Benchmarked
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1. Call Of Duty: Black Ops II: Black To The Future

Just two weeks have passed since Medal Of Honor Warfighter was released (we covered that title's performance in Medal Of Honor Warfighter Performance, Benchmarked). Now, Call of Duty: Black Ops II is available as well.

I'll be honest. I wasn't very excited about yet another first-person shooter in the special operations genre. Sometimes, I feel like I've been bludgeoned by a steady stream of Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Medal of Honor sequels. Often, fans are fed cookie-cutter follow-ups intended to cash in on the franchise, but not necessarily do anything for gaming as an experience. And that's why we interviewed a retired Navy SEAL yesterday (Angelini Talks Gaming With DEVGRU Operator Craig Sawyer). We want to see the genre progress. Even the most successful formulas wear out if they're overused.

So, it might surprise you to learn that I really enjoyed this game. I certainly found myself in disbelief. If Call of Duty: Black Ops II taught me anything, it's that a well-executed and cohesive story can refresh a tired genre. The directors, producers, and writers cared about making it work. The pace was good, the plot kept me interested, and the characters developed over time (even the main antagonist). Call of Duty: Black Ops II doesn't take gaming in a new direction, but it's entertaining, which is no small achievement given my jaded perspective of shooters.

He's got a board with a nail in it! Run, Kodos!He's got a board with a nail in it! Run, Kodos!

Aside from the fact that this is the first Call of Duty title to venture into the future with high-tech weapons, there are no gimmicks. The fantastical equipment almost doesn't even matter. The true star of this game is the narrative and how well it wraps around the player. The story bounces back and forth in time between 2025 and the Vietnam War; each mission's decade (and technology) has surprisingly little impact on the experience. If it bleeds, we can kill it.If it bleeds, we can kill it.

It's clear that Treyarch worked to keep every level fresh, but each one is woven into the story well, and not distracting like they were in Medal of Honor Warfighter. Many different locations are involved, some of the futuristic missions involve remote-controlled robotics, and there's even a level that plays like an RTS. But most of the game is standard first-person shooter fare (aside from the fact that many of the game's characters are modeled after the recognizable actors that voice them; there's some major talent behind those microphones, which is cool).

CoD the RTSCoD the RTS

Are there downsides tied to such a dramatic plot line? Sure. Immersion suffers at the hands of implausibility. At one point, your avatar is standing on a cliff when the tree beside him gets struck by lightning, nearly dragging you down the mountainside. That's completely ridiculous, of course. But, in the moment, you're more worried about avoiding an impending death. Such over-the-top scenarios help pace the action, but some of them are just too silly. You feel like a character in a Michael Bay movie. Fortunately, even when that happens, you're having more fun than actually watching a Michael Bay movie.

Jeb Corliss, eat your heart out.Jeb Corliss, eat your heart out.

Regardless, our focus at Tom's Hardware is on component performance. So, we didn't spend any time playing around in the multi-player component or the zombie game. We spent the time that we had looking for the most demanding part of the single-player campaign to benchmark, which turns out to be the thick jungle firefight right after the wingsuit base jump in the "Celerium" level.

But before we get there, let's look at the game's image quality.

2. Image Quality And Graphics Settings

The characters and uniforms aren't bad, but it's no Crysis 2The characters and uniforms aren't bad, but it's no Crysis 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is based on an updated version of the IW 3.0 engine used in the original Call of Duty: Black Ops. That's particularly interesting because the game doesn't employ the IW 4.0 engine used in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It looks good, and very similar to all of the CoD titles since Modern Warfare, but it looks like the developers are going after accessibility over advanced graphics. Games like Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor, and Crysis 2 are arguably (Ed.: I don't think there's much to argue...) superior when it comes to lighting, texture quality, and graphics effects.

It looks nice, but it looks like CoD.It looks nice, but it looks like CoD.

Surprisingly, the game has no global detail presets, forcing us to adjust its image quality controls manually, creating combinations that we consider high, medium, and low for our benchmarking purposes.

In the animated sequence above, most of the detail differences come from texture quality and filtering adjustments most noticeable up close. There are some shadow and lighting differences as well, though. With FXAA enabled, even the low-detail screenshot doesn't suffer from noticeable jagged edges.

3. Test System And Graphics Hardware

As always, we strive to represent game performance across a wide range of graphics hardware. We're including cards ranging from the low-end Radeon HD 6450 and GeForce 210 to multi-card Radeon HD 7950 CrossFire and GeForce GTX 660 Ti setups.

We tried to include triple-monitor 5760x1080 results, but the game doesn't support Surround or Eyefinity. As such, the highest resolution we can test is 2560x1600 on a single monitor.

Testing Notes

We configured all overclocked cards to operate at reference frequencies to best represent a majority of products on the market. And as mentioned, we chose the demanding jungle area of the Celerium level for our benchmarks, reflecting worst-case performance. Frame rates are much higher in other parts of the game.

Test System
CPU
Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E), 3.3 GHz @ 4.25 GHz , Six Cores, LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3 Cache, Hyper-Threading enabled.
Motherboard
ASRock X79 Extreme9 (LGA 2011) Chipset: Intel X79 Express
Networking
On-Board Gigabit LAN controller
Memory
Corsair Vengeance LP PC3-16000, 4 x 4 GB, 1600 MT/s, CL 8-8-8-24-2T
Graphics
GeForce 210 1 GB DDR3
GeForce GT 630 512 MB GDDR5
GeForce GTX 650 2 GB GDDR5
GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB GDDR5
GeForce GTX 660 2 GB GDDR5
GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2 GB GDDR5
GeForce GTX 670 2 GB GDDR5

Radeon HD 6450 512 MB GDDR5
Radeon HD 6670 512 MB DDR3
Radeon HD 7750 1 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7770 1 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7850 1 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7870 2 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7950 Boost 3 GB GDDR5
Radeon HD 7970 3 GB GDDR5
Hard Drive
Samsung 470-series 256 GB (SSD)
Power
ePower EP-1200E10-T2 1200 W
ATX12V, EPS12V
Software and Drivers
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8
DirectX
DirectX 11.1
Graphics Drivers
Catalyst 12.11 beta 7, Nvidia 310.54 beta
Benchmarks
Call of Duty:
Black Ops II
"Celerium" Mission, after landing wingsuit base jump, Two-minute Fraps run
4. Low-Detail Benchmark Results

Despite its old engine, this game is demanding enough that low-end graphics hardware isn't playable at 1280x720. Configured for our lowest-detail preset at 1280x1024, the Radeon HD 6450 and GeForce 210 DDR3 are simply too slow.

See how the frame rates bounce up and down toward the end of the benchmark? That's a result of a difficult-to-render depth-of-field (DoF) effect as you zoom down your gun sights, run out of ammo, and zoom back out to reload. As you can see, DoF can slow the frame rate down considerably, even at this entry-level setting. We're expecting the impact to increase at higher detail settings.

The GeForce GT 630 GDDR5 (also known as the GeForce GT 440 GDDR5) and Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 are still viable at 1280x1024, but let's see what happens when the resolution increases to 1920x1080.

As we suspected would happen, the higher resolution is too much for AMD's Radeon 6670 DDR3 and Nvidia's GeForce GT 630 GDDR5. However, the GeForce GTX 650 and Radeon HD 7750 generate smooth-enough frame rates.

5. Medium-Detail Benchmark Results

Our medium-quality details add 2x MSAA and ambient occlusion, among other enhancements.

All of the cards we're testing are capable of handling this mid-range combination of settings at 1680x1050 with minimum frame rates in excess of 30 FPS. The Radeon HD 7750 and GeForce GTX 650 don't have much room to work with, though, so a higher resolution might push them over the edge.

At 1920x1080, the Radeon HD 7750 and GeForce GTX 650 do sustain frame rates in excess of 30 FPS. And, in light of the demanding nature of this scene, specifically, we're confident that both cards will deliver a solid experience through the rest of this game, at these image quality settings.

6. High-Detail Benchmark Results

Our high-detail preset enables 8x multi-sampling anti-aliasing, with every other image quality setting at its most demanding level. Moreover, we're starting at 1920x1080, which is a resolution that shouldn't be a problem for mid-range and high-end graphics hardware.

Unfortunately, AMD's Radeon HD 7770 is rendered unplayable, while the GeForce GTX 650 Ti is marginal, dipping down to a 27 FPS minimum. The rest of the cards easily chew through the highest detail settings this game offers.

Although the 1 GB Radeon HD 7850 makes it through 1920x1080, it really suffers at 2560x1600. The 2 GB Radeon HD 7870 and GeForce GTX 660 fare much better, but still can't achieve at least 30 FPS through the test run. It takes a GeForce GTX 660 Ti or Radeon HD 7950 Boost to get those numbers where we want them, while the Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 670 give us even more headroom.

When it comes to multi-card setups, two Radeon HD 7950s in CrossFire scale a bit better than a pair of GeForce GTX 660 Tis in SLI. This is somewhat surprising when you consider that this game tends to favor Nvidia's single-GPU cards over AMD's. Also, SLI doesn't work with the Call of Duty: Black Ops II-optimized 310.54 beta driver until you grab the 11/15/2012 SLI profile update. 

7. Call Of Duty: Black Ops II Does Demand A Decent GPU

These are the backbone of the U.S. military's air power in 2025, apparently.These are the backbone of the U.S. military's air power in 2025, apparently.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II certainly isn't the most demanding game out there, but its most demanding sequences do warrant a decent GPU. We consider the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 or GeForce GT 630 GDDR5 entry-level hardware for 1280x720 or 1280x1024 at low-quality settings. But who wants that? Using medium-quality settings 1680x1050 you want at least a GeForce GTX 650 or Radeon HD 7750 to get through the tough parts. Stepping up to high-quality settings, 4x or 8x MSAA, and 1920x1080, a GeForce GTX 650 Ti or Radeon HD 7850 1 GB are bare minimums.

The loadout option screenThe loadout option screen

As far as the game itself goes, it's quite fun. At the risk of repeating myself to make a point, when it comes to entertainment, the premise isn't as important as the execution. Saying Call Of Duty: Black Ops II is just another first-person-shooter is like saying that Joss Whedon's Avengers is just another superhero movie. This isn't the second coming of Half-Life, and it's not without flaws, but Treyarch's production team clearly went out of its way to craft a compelling experience. As a hardware guy, I don't have time to finish all of the games I benchmark. But I'll finish Call Of Duty: Black Ops II.

General Noriega, I presume?General Noriega, I presume?