Why is Modern Warfare 2 not running at a solid 60fps?

Shouldn't Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 be running at a buttery-smooth 60fps on my computer?? It is running at more like 37fps (that is just my guess). Of course, when I aim right into the air or at any (very few) place with not very much 3d models to load/polygons to render.. I see the 60fps beauty.

I have a brand-new notebook PC.

It only has a SSD inside of it, no HDD.

8GB RAM, AMD A9 3.1GHz dual-core CPU, AMD Radeon 530 GPU 2GB (a mobile GPU)

I run the game at the native display resolution for my device, which is 1080p.


I mean, what the heck?

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I think that I might have bought a computer with a terrible, weak CPU :/

I was happy to buy it because of the relatively cheap(ish) price and the dedicated GPU.

I am not very familiar with AMD CPUs/APUs. I understand Intel stuff better.

I think that I might have bought a notebook with a truly rubbish CPU :/ Am I correct? Is the CPU (well, technically APU) the reason for the bad frame rates?

Yep, you've made a very big mistake in buying this laptop. It is only a dual core processor. You should aim for at least a quad core. I know it's not entirely your fault. Retail Stores and even online often sell crap laptop specifications to exploit maximum profits.

While you pass the minimum system requirements. In order to achieve 60fps you need to either reduce details and resolution to a lower one or buy a system that is more powerful.

The RAM is fine, 8GB is more than enough. But you need at least a Quad Core with a dedicated graphics card like Nvidia. AMD is fine if only it was a more powerful dedicated graphics card. Is the AMD 530 4 GB DDR5 good for gaming? - Quora
Unfortunately from the benchmarks at 1080P it achieves only 13-40fps. In that benchmark list the only game it managed above 60+ fps was FIFA 18 and that was at 1280x720 res with the lowest settings.

FIFA is meant to be generally a low spec PC console port, if the GPU struggles to run that then something is really wrong. This notebook is only good for normal word processing and browsing or running very old games like Diablo 1/2. But more modern games even Modern Warfare 2 for a 10 year old game is more demanding than most of the laptops can run.

I strongly recommend you build a custom gaming PC with a powerful GPU like Nvidia GTX 1080/70/60 or an AMD Vega 56/64 with a preferably 8 core processor. RAM 8/16GB.

Unfortunately you won't be able to return back the laptop, I don't think they will let you even exchange it for a more expensive brand. Perhaps you can just keep it for your other lighter uses. But if you want gaming you'll need a more powerful system.

The A9 is already bottlenecking the Radeon 530, it should run the game pretty well if only not for the A9.

shake my head.

Modern Warfare 2 came out in 2009. I mean, I am talking about Modern Warfare 2. Not Crysis 2.

Apparently this CPU is like a modern Intel Pentium, I have made a big mistake in buying this notebook. I knew the CPU was not going to be i5 level but I thought it would be like a decent i3 and let me run Modern Warfare 2 at a solid 60fps.

It is o-kayish though because it cost me around 240 dollars less than real entry-level gaming notebooks.

I thoroughly looked around to find the cheapest notebook PC I could find that had a dedicated GPU inside of it. Now I know why it is so cheap. It has a nice GPU but a piss-poor CPU.

A benchmarking website showed an average of 55-60fps in Modern Warfare 2 for this GPU and that is why I bought this notebook PC :/

I really wanted to play Modern Warfare 2-level graphics games on this PC at 60fps maxed out. What a joke.

What is even more stupid is that they put a disc-drive in this thing. Who puts a disc drive in notebook PCs these days?! Waste of money, space and weight.

The machine looks very nice and works very well, though. Except when you wanna' play 10-year old simple games like Modern Warfare 2 :/

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I am thinking that I will see if I can replace the CPU.

I will look for a cheap one, maybe even used, that can boost my Modern Warfare 2 experience up to a solid 1080p60fps with max or near-max settings.

I will appreciate any suggestions as to what CPU I should buy!

Sweetsweetcorn said:

I am thinking that I will see if I can replace the CPU.

I haven't heard of being able to replace a Notebook's CPU. Make sure you know it's possible before buying anything.

You should try asking if the shop will take your one back in exchange for a better one. Or see what it sells for on eBay.
That's if you can't afford to hold onto it and get a separate gaming machine.

The basic reason is that it is a Laptop/Notebook with Mobile CPU and Mobile Graphics even if it has a separate graphics system in it.
These are not as good as the Desktop versions. Basically to save on power consumption.

Never liked AMD, I always choose to have Intel CPUs and Nvidia graphics the naming systems are a lot easier to fathom out.

Unlikely to be able to change the processor they tend to solder them in to Laptops which makes it more difficult.

You can easily double frame rates by judicious adjustments to Graphics effects. Those that you cannot see you don't need and can be reduced or even switched off.
Common ones are Antialiasing, shadows detail etc. The more advanced versions of Antialiasing take a lot of processor power and you cannot actually see the difference, so it can be switched off. Do you really want detailed shadows, no, so lower the settings.

Even with older games they were designed with high end CPUs and desktop graphics cards in mind for maximum graphics settings. You just cannot do that with Laptop graphics.

Hi,
In 2009 dual core cpu's were main stream so jump to present day 2019 and you're still on a dual core cpu when amd and intel are well past dual core cpu's
Main stream is like 6- 8 cores now