Call of Duty (MW3 and Warzone): Poor Performance on Intel Arc A770

[bani1o7]

Hey there,

I'm reaching out because I'm having some serious performance issues with my Intel Arc A770 while playing Call of Duty: Warzone Resurgence at 1440p.
Even with the lowest graphics settings at both 1080p and 1440p. At 1080p the frame rates are way below what I expected, making the game less enjoyable then on GPUs of the competition.

What’s really disappointing is that using Intel XeSS, especially in Ultra Quality mode at 1440p, only gives me a slight boost in performance but still performing worse than native 1080p. I was really hoping this tech would make a bigger difference.

I've already updated all the usual drivers and tried various in-game settings, but nothing seems to work. I would really appreciate your help in resolving this issue.

It would be super helpful if you could answer a few questions for me: Are there any known issues with the Intel Arc A770 and Warzone (Resurgence) that are currently being looked into?
Is there a timeline for new driver releases aimed specifically at improving Arc graphics cards for Warzone or Call of Duty (Resurgence)?

Thanks a lot for your time and support.

Best Regards,
Bani

[AdrianJ_Intel]

@bani1o7 

Thank you for posting here at Intel Communities. We are already aware of this issue, and we are working on addressing this.

I will review your files and if I need anything else from you, I will let you know.

Thank you very much!

Best regards,

Adrian J.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

We're still currently working on this issue you've raised. Please help us with the following details below:

1) Let us know where exactly you got the game - from Battle.net or through Steam.

2) Does the issue happen on all modes? Single Player and Multiplayer?

3) Do you have ReBAR (or SAM for AMD system) enabled in your system? And have you updated the latest BIOS for your B450 motherboard? Not all B450 motherboard supports it but there are BIOS updates that enable this. *I highly suggest contacting your system manufacturer support for confirmation.

4) Can we get the screenshots of your in-game graphics settings for the game? *Please use Intel Arc Control to capture screenshots or a video showing the bug/issue.

5) Based on the SSU log file, your current ARC GPU driver is version 32.0.101.5972. We have have newly-released driver, 32.0.101.5989. Kindly proceed with a clean driver installation using DDU in safe mode (recommended). Follow this link for instructions.

6) You already provided some CapFrameX but are screenshots. So we get better data, can we ask for the .json files (at least 3 runs)?

7) When you say "serious performance issues", can you provide more specific issues such as encountering stuttering or low fps in general, etc. (as it means a lot with "performance")?

I will wait for your reply.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[bani1o7]

1) I've got the game installed on both Battle.net and Steam, and honestly, the performance feels identical. I have read that there can be differences between both Launchers, but for me the performance is exactly the same.

2) This issue really stands out in Warzone and Warzone Resurgence. Regardless of the settings or CPU, my Arc A770 just doesn't stack up against the competition in this mode.

3) Rebar is definitely turned on.

4) I'll share some screenshots of my in-game settings.

5) I just updated the driver to the latest version. You can check it out in my ".ssu" file.

6) I've uploaded the CapFrameX data from three runs. The first two were at 1440p with XeSS Ultra Quality on, and the third was native 1440p. Everything else is the same as in the screenshot I shared; the only difference is the Upscaler.

7) When I say there are serious performance issues, I mean the AVG FPS and 1% and 0.1% lows are really poor in the latest Call of Duty titles even at the lowest settings. Warzone, MW3 (2023) and Black Ops 6 (latest beta) are particularly rough on Intel Arc dGPUs. MW2 (2022) didn’t have these problems, and the XeSS implementation was way better back then. I have a Ryzen 7 5700X3D, and usually, with competitor GPUs, the X3D boosts the Average FPS and low 1% and 0.1%  at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. But with Intel Arc, the issues persist regardless of resolution or settings. You can really feel the difference in Warzone Resurgence.

I hope there will be a fix for this because Call of Duty is such a major title and the performance is lacking.

Best Regards
Bani

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

Your diligence in supplying screenshots and detailed information is greatly appreciated. I will conduct an internal review and share an update once it is available.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

We are still currently investigating the issue. While we are working further on the games you mentioned - please try the following settings below:

1. Set the scaling type to Fixed width under Global settings in Post-processing.
2. Set Adaptive tessellation to 90% under 3D control.
3. Activate Intel Xess to Ultra Quality in-game settings. 

Let me know how it goes.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

I am waiting for an update regarding the details I requested to further check this issue. Kindly let me know about this information so I can identify the next steps that need to be taken to solve this issue.

I will wait for your reply.

Best regards,

Jeanette C.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[bani1o7]

Hey Jeanette,

I did another comparison and unfortunately, the settings aren’t really helping with the issue.
The average FPS, 1%, and 0.1% FPS have pretty much stayed the same. As I mentioned before, I think the problem runs deeper, especially with those big titles, when you compare the Arc GPUs to the competition.
This isn't directly related to the issue, but I just wanted to point out that Black Ops 6 and God of War really show how underwhelming the card performs when compared against even the most basic competitors.

Still, I’m hoping the driver team continues to support the Intel Arc dGPUs and that we’ll see some new and improved drivers soon, especially for the top games in the Steam charts.
I’m hoping for the best.

Thanks for getting back to me!

Best,
Bani

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

I'll take note of this update. This issue is still being investigated internally. I will post an update once it's available. 

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

Good day.

I'm currently doing further investigation on this issue that you raised and hope to get more input from you. Can you share the exact God of War version you mentioned

I will wait for your reply.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[bani1o7]

Hi Jeanette,

I was talking about the performance of God of War: Ragnarök.
I've decided to request a refund for my purchase because the game was mostly playable only with Frame Generation turned on and it still had considerable stuttering in some areas.
For further details on the game's performance, I recommend checking out benchmark accounts for the Intel Arc dGPU Series.

• Intel Arc Testing
• Daniel Owen - Arc A770 16GB vs RTX 4060
• EDWARD Benchmark

Here are some of the most trustworthy YouTube channels focused on performance testing.
Intel Arc Testing is known for quickly uploading benchmarks whenever a new AAA game is released.
Daniel Owens Comparison highlights the shortcomings of the Arc Cards in certain games.
EDWARD offers a variety of benchmarks from competing brands, allowing you to directly compare the performance of these cards.

Best Regards,
Bani.

[Muza]

God of War Ragnarok is unplayable on Intel Arc A770 unless you use lowest settings and cap your fps to 30fps or use frame gen.

Horizon Forbidden West is the same but there you can cap your fps to 40 fps. 

Starfield has the same problem.

60 fps is not an option for the A770 even is you play at 720p lowest setting and have a 7800x3d or 14900k.

These are known issues for months now and still not fixed.

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

I'm sorry to hear that you had to refund your game. Please be advised that the issue with God of War is a known problem, and we are currently investigating it. I appreciate the links you've shared showcasing the games' performance with Intel ARC Graphics.

 I will post an update once it's available.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello bani1o7,

Good day.

Please be advised that we've released optimizations on our latest Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics - Windows* to address the performance issues with the God of War: Ragnarok.

Intel is still investigating the issue with the Call of Duty titles.

 I will post another update once it's available.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[bani1o7]

Hi Jeanette,

Thank you for the update.

I am looking forward to the driver update that will improve performance in the latest Call of Duty titles.
I hope it brings a significant performance boost, as the Arc A770 seems particularly weak in this game.

Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Bani

[Rusle]

I will follow this post, as a former clan war player in Call of duty titles, I am at the point of considering invest in a new graphics card, I had real hopes for Intel finally bring competition to nvidia and others, as prices have become insane and they need serious competitors that try push them, and with whats in my sparkle A770 Titan OC edition, it should be pushing out a solid performance, but sadly its gamebreaking at this point. 55-65fps on this chipset should be tripple the amount atleast. For the time beeing, I do reckomend search up faze on Youtube: https://youtu.be/XYI1HfLgp1A?si=5YLM1dbvQh0fkJ3b

It will atleast help you guys out a little.

With that said, I do appreciate Intels effort to try push good updated

[bani1o7]

I was just messing around with some settings and I think I’ve figured out how to boost the performance for Intel Arc. I managed to get around 90-120 FPS in Area 99 at 2560x1440 using XeSS Ultra Quality Plus. I’ve attached a screenshot too. I posted this right after testing it out, so I still need to keep an eye on the performance.

You need to do the following things:

Open your File Explorer and go to Documents -> Call Of Duty -> players -> s.1.0.cod24.

Once you're in that file, hit "CTRL + F" to find each column in the text document and replace it with my settings.

FIRST 1:

// Select water caustics mode

WaterCausticsMode@0;41499;11445 = Off // one of Off, Low Quality, High Quality

SECOND 2:

// Enables persistent static geometry wetness from water waves.

WaterWaveWetness@0;57752;20945 = false

THIRD 3:

// Select weather grid volumes quality

WeatherGridVolumesQuality@0;38459;58629 = Off // one of Off, Low, Medium, High, Ultra

Almost done! Just need to tweak this setting:

// Thread count for handling the job queue

RendererWorkerCount@0;51989;59387 = 15 // -1 to 16

Important note! When you're configuring this, remember to input the number of threads in your system minus one. This will ensure your system runs smoothly with these settings! If you're using an AMD processor, you can easily find the info by Googling your CPU and its thread count, then just subtract one. For Intel users, I’m not quite sure how it goes, so you might have to play around with it.

Finally, you can configure XeSS either in the text document or directly in the game.

// XeSS quality

XeSSQuality@0;27441;8284 = Ultra Quality Plus // one of Ultra Performance, Maximum Performance, Balanced, Maximum Quality, Ultra Quality, Ultra Quality Plus, Native Resolution

I hope I was able to help you all! I've definitely noticed a boost in my performance. Here's a screenshot for you and the "s.1.0.cod24.txt" file.

[Rusle]

You have done this without tempering with the GPU Voltage offset setting in arc control? As that will damage your card over time, and decline the lifespan. Setting the GPU performance boost to around 50-60, is harmless

[bani1o7]

No, you don’t have to overclock your GPU. This is just a solution for the performance problems in Warzone 4. If you feel like overclocking, go ahead and tweak your card as long as it stays stable.

This guide is specifically for fixing Intel Arc Cards performance in Warzone (and possibly BO6). 
It worked for me and I´m playing now with 120 to 150FPS in Warzone Area99 with XeSS Ultra Quality Plus at 1080p.

[Rusle]

the text file you have provided, is that a copy and replace file? I work with pc, but coding isnt my field, so Im on deep water here

[bani1o7]

Make sure to save a copy of your original file just in case it doesn't work, then give it a try.
If it doesn't work, go ahead and tweak your file like I mentioned in the tutorial.