Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on PC — Bandwidth Test

Insights 👨🏼‍🔬

• A minimum internet speed of 1 Mbps is required, while download speeds greater than 15 Mbps are recommended.
• The larger game mode, Combined Arms, uses up to 30% less data than the regular Team Deathmatch.
• A typical core multiplayer match uses about 15-20 MB of data from matchmaking to the end of the session.

Abstract

In this experiment, we aim to outline a basis of comparison for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War gameplay on PC by analyzing multiple forms of bandwidth and data usage.

Method

The utilization of the PRTG Network Monitor tool, while all other non-essential devices and apps were switched off, was key in our data collection process. Data monitoring started when the game loaded and ended after testing multiple game mode sessions, which were recorded in 15-second intervals.

Analysis/Discussion

Random traffic spikes, along with those during the loading screen when you start the game, signify the most intensive data usage when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War without broadcasting or using any other non-essential apps/services. In contrast, menu idling data usage is very low, so this should not be an issue for those with minimal bandwidth. Similarly, the data usage during a match mostly remained consistent for the majority of every session. Even while broadcasting, there was little to no impact on the connection quality during a match — since there wasn’t any significant lag that negatively affected performance. Our ping remained below 100 ms, so the multiplayer matches should run smoothly as long as it is below that number.

Interestingly, when comparing the Combined Arms mode with the Team Deathmatch mode, one would expect Combined Arms to use more data — as the Combined Arms mode had double the amount of players in the regular matches (the multiplayer map was much larger in Combined Arms too). This proved not to be the case, as the data usage remained around the 17 MB mark, with the initial match lasting 3 minutes longer than the 17 MB Team Deathmatch round.

From our fifth session, with traffic in (download) speeds around 130 Kbps, and data usage about 100-200 KB per 15-second interval less than that of the Team Deathmatch rounds, it is clear that the larger Combined Arms mode uses between 20-30% less data compared to the smaller Team Deathmatch mode. The traffic out (upload) speeds, on average, for the Combined Arms were also slightly lower than those from the Team Deathmatch mode — albeit just a minor difference and does not amount to a significant impact on gameplay.

Furthermore, as you can see from the chart above, the zombie mode uses around half the amount of data compared to that of the Team Deathmatch mode. By taking the average values of a 5-minute session, we found that the zombie mode required 6.9 MB of data, while the Team Deathmatch mode required 13.8 MB over the same period.

Now, to get an idea of how much data a typical multiplayer session uses, we have calculated the total data usage of the two Team Deathmatch rounds and Combined Arms match to be 89 MB — which is for the 40-minute session that includes the loading of the game and matchmaking times. In terms of averages, we saw an average of 560 KB data usage per 15-second interval, and an average of 179 Kbps of traffic in compared to 127 Kbps of traffic out. Additionally, all three game modes showed download speeds of less than 300 Kbps per interval.

Technically, a 500 Kbps connection should suffice — as long as your latency is low (and stable). However, with the data usage involved when loading the game or uploading/downloading any additional contents, a 1 Mbps connection — with an in-game ping of less than 100 ms — would be the minimum in order to prevent exceptionally slow loading times or disconnects. Even with a 1 Mbps connection, it will take some time to download the updates. So far, we’ve seen three updates — 5 GB, 250 MB, and another 250 MB within the three weeks since the game was launched.

Data

In this section we’ll delve into the data collected in all different scenarios which was discussed in the Analysis section above.

The game itself took about 125 GB of storage — with all modes and the HD texture pack — which was a rather tedious download at 16 Mbps. Thereafter, we jumped right into the testing stages.

First, it was necessary to perform a speed test to determine the maximum bandwidth available — which was 18 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up, with a latency of 96 ms. The next step was to set up the recording software (we used Nvidia GeForce Experience to record and broadcast our videos) and start the timer for our first session. All settings for the game were turned up to ultra, including ray tracing.

Approximately three minutes were spent loading the game and navigating the menus to select the game mode. During this time, there was a sharp increase in traffic in speeds that reached up to 5 Mbps. About 35 MB of data was used during this period (in this instance, although it could be more or less depending on various factors; we had previously loaded the game in a separate instance where the data usage was only 5 MB).

The first game session was a “Vs. Bots” match against the AI. There was a brief period, about one minute, where the traffic in speeds slightly increased for about one minute. Similarly, shortly thereafter, there was an increase in traffic out speeds for another minute during the match. The traffic in speeds reached up to 63 Kbps, while the traffic out speeds reached a maximum of 191 Kbps during this game mode. The volume of data sent remained fairly consistent at around 120 to 200 KB per 15-second interval — with the exception of the one-minute traffic out spike, where between 300 and 400 KB were sent per 15-second interval. This resulted in a total of approximately 12 MB of data used during the 15-minute session. However, it is also worth noting that certain maps and features are supported for offline sessions on the Vs. Bots mode.

The second mode in this experiment was Team Deathmatch. We played a public match of 10-12 players that lasted for nearly 7 minutes. The maximum traffic out speeds reached 154 Kbps on average and largely remained between 120 Kbps and 150 Kbps throughout the match. For traffic in speeds, we saw a maximum of 237 Kbps on average and kept between the 200 Kbps and 237 Kbps range during the match. The total data usage, on average, stayed in the 600 KB to 680 KB range per 15-second interval for the duration of the Team Deathmatch session and amounted to about 17 MB from start to finish (including matchmaking and end-of-match results).

We also repeated this while broadcasting live to Twitch (480p quality), which lasted a total of 14 minutes. The traffic out speeds reached a maximum of 5.1 Mbps (on average for a 15-second interval), but remained consistent during gameplay with traffic out speeds of around 4 Mbps. Traffic in speeds, however, stayed between 300 Kbps and 400 Kbps during gameplay — disregarding matchmaking and end-of-match results, which saw slightly lower speeds. In terms of total data usage, we saw a maximum of 10.1 MB of data used per 15-second interval. However, we used around 7 to 8 MB per 15-second interval on average during gameplay. This resulted in a total of 440 MB for the 14-minute session.

For the third session, we tried out the rather popular zombie mode. The match included 3 other online players and lasted for nearly 27 minutes. On average, traffic in speeds were rather consistent, ranging from 40 Kbps to a maximum of 74 Kbps. Additionally, traffic out speeds ranged from 110 Kbps to a maximum of 130 Kbps on average per 15-second interval. The total data usage ranged from 300 KB to 364 KB per 15-second interval. We used 34 MB of data from start to finish for the 27-minute session. However, the data usage for the zombie mode will depend on how long you and your team survive and stay in the match.

It was also repeated while broadcasting to Twitch at 720p HD and lasted 16 minutes. The traffic out speeds reached a maximum average of 6.3 Mbps for nearly one minute, while the average traffic out speeds per 15-second interval stayed between 4 Mbps and 5 Mbps during gameplay. Regarding the traffic in speeds, we saw a maximum average of approximately 310 Kbps for nearly one minute of gameplay. The average traffic in speeds per 15-second interval usually stayed above 200 Kbps, but occasionally dropped to around 180 Kbps. Data usage for the zombie mode ranged from 7.7 MB to a maximum of 12 MB per 15-second interval. In total, for the 16-minute session, we used over 600 MB of data.

For our fourth session, we recorded the data for a 10-minute Combined Arms match of 22 players in total. The traffic in and traffic out speeds both hovered around 130-150 Kbps throughout the match, while the total data usage ranged from 470 KB to 494 KB per 15-second interval. In total, we used around 17 MB of data during this online session, regardless of the fact that we had double the amount of players and a larger map in this special game mode (when compared to regular Team Deathmatch).

To reduce errors and inconsistencies, and for an interesting comparison, we recorded a fifth session that consisted of two Team Deathmatch rounds and one Combined Arms match, which lasted a total of 40 minutes — including loading and matchmaking times. The two Team Deathmatch rounds, which had 10-12 players, lasted 12 minutes each. The results came in nearly identical to that which we recorded for the first Team Deathmatch, with 600 to 700 KB of total data usage per 15-second interval, traffic in speeds around 220 to 260 Kbps, and traffic out speeds of about 130 to 150 Kbps.

Similarly, the speeds and data usage for the 12-minute Combined Arms match (this time on a different map), remained within the same intervals as what we tested for the previous Combined Arms match.

Lastly, as a control, we played the single-player campaign mode and recorded a 1080p video clip (without broadcasting or uploading). Both traffic in and traffic out speeds remained below 50 Kbps, while the lowest recorded traffic out speeds on average for a 15-second interval were around 4 Kbps. In terms of data usage, we used around 100 KB, for all traffic, per 15-second interval.

Conclusion

The results indicate that the game mode, map size, and number of players all had an impact on the data usage. The larger mode, Combined Arms, used less data and bandwidth compared to the smaller Team Deathmatch. The 4-player “Die Maschine” zombie mode also used less data compared to Team Deathmatch and Combined Arms. However, data usage spikes may be evident if it is your first time playing through an online zombie mode session.

You can expect to use around 15-20 MB per online multiplayer match on average (without broadcasting or running other apps simultaneously). Most of the traffic spikes recorded occurred when the game was launched or when the first match was started, which resulted in significantly increased data usage. Nevertheless, the connection remained very stable, even while broadcasting. This means anything better than a 15 Mbps connection, with an in-game ping of less than 50 ms, is recommended.

While it seems that an internet connection with at least 1 Mbps for downloads and uploads should be enough for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s online multiplayer — it will take you about 2 weeks to download the game!