Performance is poor with minimal frames and frequent stutters during Call of Duty: Warzone.
Performance is poor with minimal frames and frequent stutters during Call of Duty: Warzone.
Hey there! I'm on a very tight budget, so I had to decide between upgrading the CPU or the GPU. I went with the Zotac GTX 1650 Super, which now has 4GB of RAM. It's been a big improvement—I can play games I used to struggle with, like Mafia Definitive Edition, Vampyr, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and Little Hope. My friends have also been pushing me to try Warzone since it launched, and I'm excited to give it a shot.
The recommended specs say it should work with an i5-2500K and GTX 970. When I tested it, loading games immediately puts the CPU at 100% while the GPU barely uses under 20%. I’m fine with lower settings or even the lowest if I can keep things running at around 60fps, ideally 75fps on 1080p. But the performance is terrible—average around 50fps and it drops to as low as 30fps sometimes, with random stutters of 3 to 4 seconds.
I’ve only bought the card recently (Dec 25, 2020), so the drivers might not be fully updated. The game is also up-to-date for its season, but I’m not sure why it’s not working well. I don’t want to push it to max settings (like 240fps) unless I can hit at least 75fps on low. The CPU stays at 100% all the time, whether in the menu or while playing, which is confusing since it should be lower than the minimum listed.
I checked a benchmark video on YouTube that showed similar results with an i5-3470 and GTX 970, averaging around 60-70fps even in crowded areas. It seems like my setup isn’t matching those numbers. I’m hoping for better performance without breaking the bank.
Micro stutters often stem from various factors combined. A CPU stuck at full capacity is definitely an issue. You likely have a bottleneck, and lowering graphics settings or resolution won’t fix it much. That’s probably the core problem. Have you updated the old drivers before installing new ones? I notice you have two different RAM sticks—are they using dual-channel? Also, check the timing specifications. Do you use just one HDD for storage or do you have an SSD for your operating system? Some games perform poorly on an HDD and work better on an SSD, which might explain the issue.
I tested Shadow of the Tombraider on an i5-2400 with an RX470 and it performed poorly. The frame rate was low and the game stuttered heavily, making it nearly impossible to play smoothly. The CPU struggled significantly. Try reducing all graphics settings to see if performance improves. Sometimes adjusting certain options can make a big difference in how much CPU power is used. If the game still feels too demanding at minimum settings, it may be because it needs more processing power than your system provides. If it does run better, gradually tweak each setting to identify which ones have the biggest impact. In some titles, environmental details can heavily tax the CPU; lowering those while keeping other aspects simple often leads to better performance and smoother gameplay.
To lessen the CPU strain you need to decrease the count of objects displayed on the display. Minimize the use of NPCs, grass, plants, clouds and similar elements... anything that eliminates clutter and isn't tied to lighting, shadows, textures or anti-aliasing results in GPU-intensive tasks.
It's slowing things down but it has reached and even exceeded the needed CPU, which explains the smoothness issue. The microstutters are strange since I only have Battle.net and Warzone open—it's unclear why this is happening. They're using dual channel at 1333MHz, and I don't know the timing details. I only have an HDD, so I didn't update the drivers; the GPU usage looks normal, but the CPU is hitting 100% without delivering consistent 60 FPS.
This game isn't working properly right now, according to Reddit. It seems to affect certain models like the 10400f and Ryzen 3600.