Call of Duty: Black Ops Multiplayer on a netbook… not really possible.

By X. Y. Zeng On August 22, 2011 · 1 Comment

This is what you'll see quite often when playing on a netbook

NB: Tested on an ION 2 netbook.

The adventurous me decided to test another recent game that was way beyond the capabilities of my new Asus Eee PC 1015PN, with its ION 2 processor. The results were a bit surprising, although in the end it was hardly playable, but hey, this is Netbookist, where everything that can be tested is tested, even just for the sake of testing.

Black Ops can be downloaded off Steam and therefore you don’t need a CD drive to get it on your computer. And 15GB worth of downloading later, I have both the single-player and multiplayer ready.

Multiplayer ran pretty… nonsensically. Averaging 10fps, and having significant mouse lag, you basically are just meat for even the noobiest of gamers. I played a few rounds of Combat Training and it was somewhat playable, just that you’ll have to always be disadvantaged because of the poor frame rates, mouse lag and a ping of 100+.

The truth is that for novelty’s sake, you might be able to squeeze one or two games out of Black Ops, but otherwise, it really makes no sense to bother. Play it on a contemporary computer instead and enjoy.

However, if you happen to have a AMD E-series or 16-core ION netbook, you might have better luck with Black Ops at its lowest-res of 800×600, no AA and no other niceities.

In fact, there are a few websites out there which outline how you might be able to play Black Ops on a near-minimum requirements computer. Cleartechinfo did a great job of compiling a few tweaks which you can do to get Black Ops running better on your computer. This requires you to go under the hood and might have adverse effects on your graphics. The suggestion to switch force 640×480 resolution via Compatibiity Mode works to some extent, but in my experience, it affords only around 2fps and sometimes does not allow certain multiplayer games to load.