FPS – How, Why and What Happens

FPS is an abbreviation for Frames Per Seconds.

Playing with low framerates will significantly decrease the pleasure of gaming. There are even special FPS values which will give you an advantage in movement so let’s get deeper.

Unlock FPS:
By default CoD has only 60 FPS, even though the cvar com_maxfps is set to 85. That’s because of the vertical screen synchronisation which will adjust your framerate to your display refresh rate which is 60 Hz in most cases.

So first step is disable ‘vsynch’ to get control over your FPS.

Start Call of Duty, go to options, enter performance settings and turn off vertical screen synchronisation (‘synch’ every frame).
After that open your console and write:
/cg_drawfps 1
/com_maxfps 0

The cvar cg_drawfps will enable the FPS counter.
The cvar com_maxfps sets a maximum limit for FPS (0 = no limit).
So this will show your current maximum possible FPS value in top-right corner while playing.

Increase FPS:
If your FPS are lower than 60 you probably have a flickering screen which is a big disadvantage while playing. Your maximum possible FPS value depends on the performance of your processor (CPU) and graphic chip (GPU).

You can only get a little FPS improvement with config tweaking so if your FPS are really low and you want to archive a higher rate, there is no way around buying better hardware or new computer.
If you plan to upgrade the hardware you need to have both a good CPU and GPU, upgrading just one of them while the other is still bad won’t bring you a big improvement and isn’t very efficient.

If you just need a little FPS boost you can improve your FPS rate by decreasing graphic quality and resolution in options. The lower the resolution and level of details and the more additional graphic effects are disabled, the less complex it is for your hardware to display the game which results in a higher possible FPS rate.

In addition to the graphic options you can improve your FPS a little bit with these cvars:
/r_fastsky 1
/r_drawSun 0

Close other programs:
You can improve your FPS also by closing processes running in background or other open programs.
This will help especially on single/dual core CPU’s.

FPS change on view angle:
A real trick is looking into sky or on ground especially while jumping.
That way you save a lot resources and get much better FPS than looking straight into the field.

Configure FPS:
Next step is setting the correct com_maxfps value for your system.
The only valid values are those which are equal to (1000/x) where x is an integer.
If you set an invalid value you will get the next higher value.
Here is a list of possible FPS values so you understand it better.

Valid FPS Values:
1000/1 = 1000
1000/2 = 500
1000/3 = ~333
1000/4 = 250
1000/5 = 200
1000/6 = ~166
1000/7 = ~142
1000/8 = 125
1000/9 = ~111
1000/10 = 100
1000/11 = ~90
1000/12 = ~83
1000/13 = ~76
1000/14 = ~71
1000/15 = ~66
1000/16 = ~62
1000/17 = ~58
1000/18 = ~55
and so on…

Special FPS Values:
Every time a frame is rendered by CoD your position is calculated, so if you’re using a higher FPS value your positions gets calculated more times per second.

Some special FPS values result in rounding errors in CoD’s calculations of the players position.

These FPS values have influence on the width and height of jumps, intensity of fall damage and how long you move silent.

While 76, 111, 125, 250 and 333 will give you advantages,
500 and 1000 will give you almost only disadvantages with a few exceptions.
All the others values have no real benefit and shouldn’t be used.

FPS Effect on Jumping Height:
By default you jump 39 units high, but these FPS values have a boosting effect on the height.

76 FPS: 39.5 – 40 Units
111 FPS: 40 Units
125 FPS: 40.5 – 41 Units
250 FPS: 41.5 – 42 Units
333 FPS: 46 Units
500 FPS: Standing Up: 35 Units | In Movement: Up to 39 Units
1000 FPS: Standing Up: 35 Units | In Movement: Up to 39 Units

FPS Effect on Fall Damage:
This listings shows how much less or more percent damage you take compared to default fall damage.

76 FPS: -7% Damage
111 FPS: -7% Damage
125 FPS: -16% Damage
250 FPS: -20% Damage
333 FPS: -53% Damage
500 FPS: +89% Damage
1000 FPS: >+89% Damage

FPS Effect on Silent Walk:
This listing shows how long your footsteps are silent while walking compared to default.

76 FPS: 6% longer
111 FPS: – 21% longer
125 FPS: – 21% longer
250 FPS: – 37% longer
333 FPS: – 28% longer
500 FPS: Noiseless
1000 FPS: Noiseless

On some surfaces like the wooden bridges on harbor you are even noiseless with 333 FPS.
Also if you are holding heavy weapons like bar you can move completely silent with 333 FPS.

Setting the right amount of FPS for your System:
Now that you know everything about FPS you need to decide what value you want to go with.

Of course you can only choose between the values you reach consistently.
Setting com_maxfps 333 for example is no advantage for you if you effectively just reach 200.

Personal FPS Ranking:
1. 333 FPS
2. 125 FPS
3. 250 FPS
4. 111 FPS
5. 76 FPS

If you don’t even reach 76 FPS steady use 76 anyways, it’s still better than any other value.

FPS related Cvars:
There are a few cvars which are related to FPS and should be set fitting your FPS value.

First off, write these cvars into console:
/rate 25000
/snaps 30

These cvars are about how much data the server will send to you.

When CoD was released there were a lot of very low speed internet connections out there, that’s why the default value is so low.

The values shouldn’t be a problem for any basic internet connection nowadays.

The cvar cl_maxpackets defines the maximum of packets which will be sent to server per second.

The higher you set this, the smoother your game will feel as your actions (run, shoot, jump etc.) will be updated more frequently.

It’s directly related to the com_maxfps cvar, so the actual number of packets you can send to a server is either one every frame, or one every two frames, or one every three frames and so on. So if you are running at 125 FPS, your possible cl_maxpackets values are:

125/2 = 63
125/3 = 42
125/4 = 32

125/1 = 125 is no valid value cause the maximum you can set is 100.
So if you are using cl_maxpackets 100 at 125 FPS, you are NOT sending 100 packets per second, you will send one packet every 2 frames, which is 62.5 packets per second.

So the recommended cl_maxpackets values depending on com_maxfps are:
IF:com_maxfps 333 THEN: cl_maxpackets 100
IF:com_maxfps 250 THEN: cl_maxpackets 100
IF:com_maxfps 125 THEN: cl_maxpackets 63
IF:com_maxfps 111 THEN: cl_maxpackets 56
IF:com_maxfps 76 THEN: cl_maxpackets 76

You may notice CoD showing a higher Ping if you increase your cl_maxpackets value, this can be ignored it’s just a miscalculation.

Useful FPS binds:
Here I will show you some binds I personally use to have quick access on FPS related settings.

This will switch the value of com_maxfps between 76, 125 and 333 everytime you click F5.

/bind F5 “toggle com_maxfps 76 125 333”

This will either enable or disable the FPS counter every time you click F6.

/bind F6 “toggle cg_drawfps 1 0”

These will set FPS to one specific value
/bind J “com_maxfps 76”
/bind K “com_maxfps 125”
/bind L “com_maxfps 333”

FPS depend on map:
Another point to mention is the bigger a map is and the more elements it has in it, the more power is needed by GPU and CPU to display it, which results in different maximum possible FPS values depending on map.

For example it could be that you have steady 125 FPS on mp_harbor but on mp_brecourt you only reach 90.

In this case you would need to switch your FPS to 76 and that’s where a bind will become handy.

Get any amount of FPS you wish for, no matter what system you have:
There is the possibility to turn of rendering in CoD, that means your screen won’t refresh as long it’s disabled.

But while rendering is disabled you can set FPS to whatever value you want and get the benefit of this value.

This method is intended for use on low FPS systems for single jumps which require higher FPS values.

E.g. If you are playing with 125 FPS but you want to do a 333 FPS jump, write these commands into console:
/seta noRender “com_maxfps 333; cg_norender 1”
/seta doRender “com_maxfps 125; cg_norender 0”
/bind N “vstr noRender”
/bind M “vstr doRender”

If you stand in front of a jump and you know what movement is to do, but your FPS are too bad, get in position, press [N] to set 333 FPS and disable rendering and perform the jump.

When you are done press [M] to get your default settings back and check if you were successful.

If you want to control your FPS manually and make one key to switch between render and norender use this:
/bind X “toggle cg_norender 1 0”

It’s not easy to do Strafe Jumps with it if you’re not that trained, because it’s the same as jumping blind. But simple jumps where you just need to walk forward and jump should be possible for everyone to do.