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Call of Duty: Black Ops system requirements

* Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation Minimum System Requirements *
For anyone wondering the minimum system requirements of the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation Content Pack are the same as the normal Black Ops game. Nothing has changed as far as system requirements are concerned.

For the past 7 years the “Call of Duty” PC gaming series has been my favorite. Sure some versions lacked features or had features that I did not agree with. But overall I have happily owned every single COD PC

game that has come out. I preordered the new COD Black Ops from Amazon last week and I can’t wait until it arrives. I looked up the system requirements and wow, they sure have rose significantly over the years.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops release date was November 9th, 2010.

Call of Duty: Black Ops destroyed last year's COD: MW2 1st day sales record by almost 1 million. It sold 5.6 million copies the 1st 24 hours (http://bit.ly/aOlV7o). No wonder why the COD: Black Ops online servers were laggy the first couple of days.

Last year I upgraded two of my nephews computers so their desktop PCs would be fast enough to run Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 smoothly. They were disappointed when I told them that both of their computers which can easily run COD: MW2 smoothly were not fast enough to run Call of Duty: Black Ops. They both need faster/newer CPUs and faster/newer graphics cards if they ever want to get COD: BO running on their computers.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops minimum PC system requirements are very demanding for the average PC owner and a lot of you may not have powerful enough systems to play the game (no, this does not include all of you hardcore geeky gamers like myself ;-). So I highly recommend that every person looking to purchase this game checks their PC specifications to make sure your computer Meets or Exceeds the Call of Duty: Black Ops Minimum System Requirements listed below.

If you are unsure of any particular computer specification you may have that is not a problem. Just follow this tutorial and it will show you how to find all your PC system specs

NOTE: The COD: BO minimums do not include any built-in/integrated graphics cards at all. So if you have a computer with a built-in/integrated graphic card your desktop or laptop is not compatible.
Also note that COD: BO will most likely NOT run on most of your laptops. The only laptops I see this game running on are those New, expensive “gaming” laptops.

PC MINIMUM System Requirements
• Operating System: Windows 7 / Vista / XP
(Any version of Vista and Windows 7 will work, 32 or 64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz / AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4GHz Or Better/Faster CPU
• RAM: 2 GB Or Better
• Video/Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 256 MB / ATI Radeon X1950Pro 256 MB Or Better/Faster
• Video/Graphics Card Special Requirements: Shader 3.0 Or Better AND DirectX 9.0c compatible
• Sound card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
• Minimum Free Hard Drive Space: 12 GB

IF YOU ARE UNSURE IF YOUR PC SPECS ARE COMPATIBLE OR IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT INSTALLING Call of Duty: Black Ops... FEEL FREE TO ASK BELOW IN THE COMMENTS SECTION! :-)

Here is an excellent guide on how to make Call of Duty: Black Ops run smoother by JAMES, a site member and gamer enthusiast.
(Please note: This guide is for computers that barely meet the COD: Black Ops requirements and also the PCs that just fall short of meeting the requirements. This guide will NOT make a computer run Black Ops that doesn’t come anywhere near meeting the minimum requirements.)

From JAMES…
Okay, guys. I got my Black Ops to run smoothly, thanks to Joey, Gamebooster and a few nifty tricks up my sleeve. I have an;
ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 Containing:
Video RAM 1.0 GB
Hardware T&L
Pixel Shader version 4.0
Vertex Shader version 4.0
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz 2.27GHz,
RAM: 2Gig (Vista)

Now, even on the lowest settings with the lowest textures and resolution it lagged a tad,
which was, quite frankly, bloody annoying!

How I got a smooth FPS:

Before doing this, make sure to set your Black Ops to 'windowed' mode.
What I did was navigate to my Black Ops Steam root directory (found in the Steam/steamapps/common folder)
and set the two BlackOps.exe files to run in compatibility with XP SP2, I enabled the 'force run in 640x480 screen resolution' setting and enabled the three boxes below it.

Since the 640x480 resolution is forced onto the whole screen and not just the game, you will see your desktop looking quite weird, but do not worry, just ignore it.
When the game launches, it will take up the whole screen regardless of it's windowed mode. You won't be in legit fullscreen, but the game window fills up your screen space (at least it did for me).
It basically looks fullscreen, and emulates a 640x480 full screen resolution with no added pressure on your CPU, due to it literally being windowed!

Now open Task Manager, and navigate to the processes tab while Call of Duty is running. You should then set Steam's priority to "low" (by right-clicking Steam.exe and selecting Priority->low), then you should raise BlackOps.exe's priority to "high".

This worked on an ASUS Laptop, with a slightly larger than average screen. It should work on normal computer screens, but smaller screens (I.E: Notebooks) won't get the full render of the game.

Here is the Game Booster site: http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

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For your viewing pleasure... If you are not excited about playing or owning Call of Duty: Black Ops for your PC or console after watching the two videos below then Call of Duty: Black Ops is definitely not for you :-)