The graphic quality of COD2 vastly exceeds those in COD, but at a cost. Using the optimal system settings for all but the most powerful systems frequently results in frame rates in the 20 to 30 frames per second (FPS) range. While such frame rates may be acceptable in single player mode, players who wish to stand a chance in multiplayer online action typically demand higher frame rates.

This page provides a list of suggestions to help you optimize the configuration of your COD2 settings to enhance game performance. Since players' system characteristics vary so widely, no one set of guidelines can be considered definitive. Thus, you may need to experiment with various settings to see which tweaks work best for you and your system. Of course, no set of tweaks will help much if you are running on a 286 with a Hercules graphics card, so you may need to temper your expectations if you are running on fairly dated hardware. In that case, it may be time to visit NewEgg.

Well, that depends on your system, but here is a typical example:

System:	3GHz Hyperthreaded P4 CPU 1 GB RAM 6600 GT (nVidia) graphics card
Performance with COD2 "Optimal System Settings":	640x480 screen resolution (in-game text nearly illegible) 20-30 FPS
Performance with "tweaked" COD2 settings:	1280x1024 screen resolution (in-game text crisp and clear) 120-240 FPS FPS

As you can see, it's probably worth the effort to see if you can improve performance before you bite the bullet and upgrade your hardware. Adjusting the game settings saved this player the cost of a new graphics card.

Before listing specific configuration guidance, a couple of words about hardware are in order. As stated above, you do not need the latest, most advanced hardware to get decent performance from COD2, but you cannot expect reasonable performance if your system does not meet at least several basic minimum standards.

CPU:	You should have a relatively modern CPU. A P4 or a recent AMD CPU should be fine. You will not need a 64 bit Dual Core overclocked CPU, but you will not be able to use that old P3 box. While the CPU is important, it is not the critical factor. Feel free to upgrade if you feel the need for bleeding-edge performance, but it is not required if you have a reasonably modern mid-range processor.
RAM:	RAM is also not critical...unless you do not have enough. While 512K may be adequate, 1 GB is strongly recommended. 2 GB is better, but will most likely not convey a significant advantage over 1 GB.
Hard Disk:	A reasonably performing 7200 RPM hard drive should be fine. A pair of 10,000 RPM Raptors in RAID 0 configuration will load maps faster and make you the envy of the neighborhood, but will cost about 4 times more per gigabyte...and actually increases the potential of losing data. The 'R' in RAID 0 is a misnomer. There is absolutely nothing redundant about it. Unless you have money to burn, stick with a modern 7200 RPM disk (available for under $100 US) and you should be fine.
Graphics Card:	Wondering where you should spend your hard-earned gaming dollar? The preceding advice kept telling you to keep your wallet closed. Well, here you go. The graphics card is most likely the greatest return on investment in your gaming system...and the range of prices for such components reflects this fact. You can spend anywhere from $50 to $2500. Should you upgrade what you have? Yes. Of course. There is almost certainly something better that just came out 5 minutes ago. Must you upgrade? Well, that depends. You should certainly consider upgrading your graphics card if you are trying to use on-board video or a low-end card. If you have a mid-range card, however, you may be fine. Either way, try these tweaks first and see how much performance you can squeeze from your current card before you decide. If you do find that you need to upgrade, I suggest that you tell your wife/husband/parents that you need to do so for the graphs in Microsoft Excel. They'll never catch on.

COD2 uses the latest video rendering technologies. Thus, you should first ensure that your video drivers are up to date prior to tweaking your settings. Surf to the ATI or nVidia site (as appropriate) and install their latest stable driver set before you go any further.

After downloading and installing the drivers, you should examine (and potentially adjust) your graphics card settings using the software provided by the vendor. Your graphics card can override many of the settings recommended in this guide, so examining the card settings is critical. In general, you would like the card's driver settings to allow applications to control almost all aspects of performance and image quality. An example driver screen for an nVidia card appears below.

In this case, the driver has been configured to allow applications to control Anti-aliasing, Anisotropic Filtering, and Vertical Synch. The driver's "Image Settings" value has also been configured to favor performance over image quality. Ignore this configuration and many of the subsequent steps that you perform will not have an effect.

Multiplayer online gaming also relies heavily on the quality of your internet connection. You should be using a broadband connection (i.e., cable modem or DSL) if you wish to play COD2 online. This document contains several in-game suggestions to help monitor and improve COD2 network performance, but no adjustment of the game settings will improve a poor or unreliable internet connection. Try using one of the many sites available online to measure your network connection...and, if you note an issue, work with your ISP to attempt and refine it. The quality of home network wiring is also a larger factor than most people realize, so that may also be worth a look....especially for those using cable modems.

Other factors outside of the game that can affect your performance include anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, and all other background processes that are running on your system. While turning off anti-virus and anti-spyware software is not recommended, you should ensure that other background processes are not running unless they are critical to your system. Providing specific guidance for such processes is beyond the scope of this guide, but you can start by examining the "Windows Task Manager" and looking at the processes that are "owned" by your current login account. Try "googling" process names if you see values that you do not recognize.

The following is a list of recommendations that have worked well for other people. While the advantage conveyed by any setting or group of settings is system-dependent, these items are the most likely to enhance COD2's performance. If you have had success with other settings, please feel free to contact the Web Team and pass them on.

Many of these recommendations reference one of two COD2 configuration files - "config.cfg" and "config_mp.cfg". These files contain a wide range of game settings, only a handful of which are available through the COD2 in-game settings screens. In general, we will be editing the values in "config_mp.cfg" rather than "config.cfg", as the settings in "config_mp.cfg" are the settings used by COD2 for multiplayer online gaming. Feel free to tweak the values in "config.cfg" in a similar fashion to enhance performance in single-player mode.

The default location for both files is "C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 2\main\players\<your name>", where "<your name>" is the profile name that you provided when you installed COD2 (i.e., not your player name). Both files are text files and, thus, can be edited with any text editor (e.g., Notepad.exe). Just ensure that you are careful when you edit these entries (COD2 doesn't like typos) and that you save the file as "text only" if you edit the files with a text editor that supports other formats (e.g., Wordpad.exe).

One final word before we get to the good stuff - none of these setting recommendations are meant to enable "exploits." COD2 includes much "eye candy" and many of these recommendations reduce that quality somewhat, but are in no way meant to convey an advantage. These guidelines do not include settings that are meant to convey a disproportionate advantage to players. Such settings are illegal on most servers and can be detected by servers and admins. If you try using such exploits, you will be caught...and kicked...and banned...and, in general, labeled as a lame punk who can't stand and fight toe-to-toe with the big boys (and girls).

Nuff said...here's the good stuff.

FPS display:	Before you dig in too deeply, you should enable the in-game display of FPS. Otherwise, how can you know when things are getting better? To do so, open "config_mp.cfg" and locate the line that starts with "seta cg_drawFPS" and change the value in the quotes to "Simple" (e.g., seta cg_drawFPS "Simple"). The FPS meter will then be displayed in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. You may notice that the value will change as you play. In general, the value will increase when your player is not looking at complex moving objects and will drop when the view includes such items. For example, look up at the sky and your frame rate will shoot up...stare at smoke and watch it plummet.
Max FPS:	Also before we start tweaking things, let's get optimistic...and increase the max FPS enforced by COD2. To do so, open "config_mp.cfg" and locate the line that starts with "seta com_maxfps" and change the value in the quotes to "1000" (e.g., seta com_maxfps "1000"). We can dream.
Memory:	Assuming that you have 1 GB of memory or more, you can increase the amount of memory that COD2 uses, which will enhance performance somewhat and get maps to load more quickly. To do so, open "config_mp.cfg" and locate the line that starts with "seta com_hunkMegs" and change the value in the quotes to "512" (e.g., seta com_hunkMegs "512"). Don't expect a huge benefit with this one, but you might as well use that extra memory if you have it. By the way, don't use a value higher than 512 unless you have more than 1 GB of memory. Your system still needs to use memory to perform other functions.
Video Mode:	640 x 480 is awesome...if you have slipped through a worm hole and landed in 1985. Most of us would like something better...and should be able to get there. You should be able to run at 1024 x 768 or higher. If you can't after you have applied the balance of these tweaks, it's time to consider upgrading something...most likely your graphics card. If you are running on an LCD, however, you should definitely be running at a higher resolution. In fact, you should be running at the native resolution of your LCD. Many LCDs run natively at 1280 x 1024...and that's how you should have COD2 configured if you are using such a display. Running at a non-native resolution on an LCD will both slow game performance and result in blurred in-game text. To change your screen resolution, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Graphics" sub-option, adjust the "Video Mode" value, and click the "Apply" button. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "r_mode".
Screen Refresh Rate:	60 Hz is the default value for most systems and that's not bad for an LCD. Feel free to increase the value to the highest mode that your display adapter supports since this setting does not impact performance to a great extent. Doing so will increase the video quality of your game. This value can, however, limit your frame rate if you do not also unlock your "frame synch" (next item). To change your refresh rate, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Graphics" sub-option, adjust the "Screen Refresh Rate" value, and click the "Apply" button. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "r_displayRefresh".
Synch Every Frame:	Turn it off. Otherwise, COD2 will be limited to your refresh rate. To do so, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Graphics" sub-option, set the "Synch Every Frame" value to "No", and click the "Apply" button. This setting should help considerably, but may result in slight video "tearing" at times. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "r_swapInterval".
Rendering Mode Preference:	Switch to DirectX 7 if at all possible. The default COD2 option for most systems is DirectX 9, which provides more eye candy, but results in significantly lower frame rates. This setting in itself is responsible for most players' dramatic increase in FPS. The setting can literally increase your frame rate by a factor of 5 to 10. Unfortunately, the setting may not work for all people for a range of reasons...including that they may not have DX7 installed on their systems. Regardless, it is worth a shot. To change the value, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, selecting the "Graphics" sub-option, set the "Rendering Mode Preference" value to "DirectX 7", and click the "Apply" button. After setting this value, you might want to try out the game and see if you need to do anything else, as subsequent changes will reduce the overall video quality of in-game play...and this change alone may have solved your problem. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "r_rendererPreference".
Texture Filter:	Set it to Bilinear, which is the lowest quality and will increase game performance the most. Trilenear is a mid-range value and Anisotropic will make most systems cry. To change this value, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Graphics" sub-option, set the "Texture Filter" value to "Bilinear", and click the "Apply" button. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "r_textureMode".
Anti-aliasing:	Turn it off. The possible values are Off, 2x, and 4x...and performance decreases as the quality of the video (i.e., reduced "jagginess") increases. To change this value, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Graphics" sub-option, set the "Anti-aliasing" value to "Off", and click the "Apply" button. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "r_aaSamples".
Optimize for SLI:	Turn it on if you have two SLI-connected video cards. Strangely enough, this setting also helps some single card systems, but configuring requires manual tweaks to the "r_multigpu" and "r_gpusync" values in the "config_mp.cfg" and may result in mouse and keyboard lag. Thus, modifying these values is not recommended in a non-SLI configuration unless you are a real tweaker.
Shadows:	If you are seeing this option in the COD2 game settings, you did not switch from DirectX 9 to DirectX 7, which means that you either have a killer graphics card or a learning disability. Either way, punch out of here now and go play.
Dynamic Lights:	See previous item.
Soften Smoke Edges:	Turn it off...and see how your FPS is affected in smoke....then try setting it to "Everything" and test again...and see if it is any worse. In general, "Off" is the safest bet, but some systems do as well with the value set to "Everything". To change this value, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Graphics" sub-option, set the "Soften Smoke Edges" value to "Off", and click the "Apply" button. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "r_zFeather".
Texture Settings:	By default, the texture settings are set automatically. You should most likely switch this value to "manual" and then use the following table to determine the appropriate settings for your video card (based on the card's installed video RAM). Video RAM Texture Settings 64 MB Low 128 MB Normal (medium) 256 MB High 512 MB Extra Of course, setting all values to "Low" won't hurt (and may help) performance, but the degree of improvement will be video card-specific...and will also significantly reduce the quality of in-game textures. Choosing values from the preceding table is probably a better idea. To change these values, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Graphics" sub-option, select the "Texture Settings" option, switch the "Texture Quality" value to "Manual", adjust the settings as desired, and click the "Apply" button.
Sound Quality:	Set it to 22 KHz unless you have a high-end sound card. To change this value, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Sound" sub-option, set the "Sound Quality" value to "22 KHZ (medium)", and click the "Apply" button. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "snd_khz".
Sound Provider:	Set it to Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio unless you have a high-end sound card. To change this value, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Sound" sub-option, set the "Sound Provider" value to "Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio", and click the "Apply" button. If you have a high-end sound card, go wild experimenting with the other values. Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "mss_3d_provider".

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Network Tweaks

Lag Meter:	Just like FPS, you can't do much about your ping (or detect a problem) if you can't monitor it. COD2 will display your ping on the scoreboard, which you can access at any time, but the lag meter provides a function similar to the FPS display so that you can monitor this critical value in real-time while you are playing. To enable the lag meter, open "config_mp.cfg" and locate the line that starts with "seta cg_drawLagometer" and change the value in the quotes to "1" (e.g., seta cg_drawLagometer "1"). The meter will then appear on the lower right-hand side of your screen. While it is somewhat more intrusive than the FPS counter, it can be useful in detecting network issues.
Max Rate:	Set this value to the rate value used by the servers that you frequent the most. In general, 25000 is a good default value. To set this value, open "config_mp.cfg" and locate the line that starts with "seta sv_maxRate" and change the value in the quotes to "25000" (e.g., seta rate "25000").
Voice Chat:	If you are using a separate chat application (e.g., Ventrilo, TeamSpeak), disable in-game voice chat to reduce network bandwidth usage. Of course, if other players are using the in-game voice chat on that server, you will not hear them if you disable this function... which may not be a bad thing. To change this value, select "Options" from the main COD2 menu, select the "Voice Chat" sub-option, and set the "Voice Chat" value to "Off". Note: The "config_mp.cfg" key is "cl_voice".