Sign on Options
Theme:
To Dark

By: Sarju Shah and James Yu - Posted on Monday, Sept 25th, 2006

Company of Heroes is the type of game hardware manufacturers absolutely adore. The game offers beautiful graphics, smart gameplay, and it attacks system performance from all three major fronts: CPU, video card, and memory. More importantly, the game is a hit with reviewers and offers online multiplayer gameplay, which means (1) a lot of people will buy the game, and (2) they'll be playing it for a very long time. All those hours spent in multiplayer will encourage players to upgrade their systems to get a performance edge.

We used the game's built-in system-performance test as our default benchmark. The level of detail in the game is amazing. You can go from an overhead real-time strategy view all the way to a ground-level, close-up view and have the textures scale accordingly. It's hard to resist taking breaks in the game to zoom in on the action and see how the game renders vehicles, buildings, and troop models up close.

Game Settings
If you don't have the best hardware, you can whip Company of Heroes into a playable state by adjusting a few settings. We tested all the options to find out how much each setting affected frame-rate performance.

Graphics
Bigger, faster, and more expensive. Those are the rules of the game when it comes to feeding Company of Heroes' insatiable need for pixel-pushing power. We tested nearly 20 video cards to help you decide if a video card upgrade is necessary.

CPU
Give this game a better CPU, and it'll reward you with better frame rates. We tested the game up and down the clock-speed ladder on our Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Athlon 64 CPU-based systems.

Memory
Moving up from 512MB to 1GB of system memory will help improve performance in most PC games, but Company of Heroes is one of the few games we've seen that will also benefit from upgrading to 2GB of memory.

What kind of setup do you use to play Company of Heroes? Does it run well for you, or do you plan on upgrading? Share your experiences in the comments below!

463 Comments

  • gign_spe

    Posted Nov 2, 2011 3:08 pm GMT

    i got a GeForce 9600 4GB ram, Intel Pentium D CPU 2.82GHz and im running CoH on EVERYTHING low at 4.92fps...
    i still get the message saying settings are too high, even tough they are at their lowest, this sucks, i changed to windows 7, when i had XP it worked properly, and thats not the only game its not running at decent speeds, my monitor is 1280x1024

  • TheReproducer

    Posted Oct 30, 2011 3:16 pm GMT

    Your graphics card is a budget model and your CPU is low clock?

  • zaebsexy

    Posted Jun 20, 2011 11:22 pm GMT

    GTS 450 1GB, PHENOM X4 @2.3, 4GB DDR2 @1066, NFORCE 520LE and game runs very bad maxed out. What is wrong with this stupid game? I monitor PC activity while i play and this is what i get: 4v4 MAP - GPU USAGE 50-70% - GPU MEM USAGE 1GB - CPU USAGE 50-70% - RAM NOT IMPORTANT - FPS 20-35. Is something wrong with PC? Mobo to weak maybe or CPU?

  • xiras

    Posted Jan 11, 2010 10:00 pm GMT

    MarkEWoods1958
    Get coh tov i had the same problem but when i installed tov it let me install coh op

  • MarkEWoods1958

    Posted Jan 9, 2009 1:14 pm GMT

    I downloaded the COH Opposing Fronts Game, because I have COH the original game and love it, but I cannot get the game to install. I keep getting a message that I need some missing files. No matter what I do I can't fix the problem. I need some help.

  • teddyrob

    Posted Dec 12, 2008 12:06 pm GMT

    Q6600 8800GT 4GB RAM, Averaging 103FPS at 1600x1200 Ultra quality + AA . Never drops below 56FPS. Awesome

  • kojinto

    Posted Nov 22, 2008 5:25 pm GMT

    I am currently using a PC that I had custom built. As of now I am using a Pentium Dual Core @ 3.2Ghz, and a NVidia 8500GT, with 4 gigs of 1066 mhz RAM.

    I have trouble running this game on Medium settings, the performance test showed that it had 28 fps average on 1280 x 720.

    I plan on upgrading to the E8400 Wolfdale 3.0 Core 2 Duo, and a 1gig Radeon 4850 HD.

    I'm 100% positive my new gaming experience will be 100% awesome!! XD

  • ViperCanel

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 3:06 pm GMT

    I couldn't play on DirectX10 because the game was uncompatible with my GPU (ZOTAC 8800GT AMP). I was using driver 175.19 then. The new one, 177.92, solved Dx10 compatibility, but ultra settings are still laggy (for example soldiers teleport few milimeters while running or camera lag while panning, these occur randomly, I mean no specific problem for the whole game, but no fps drop down). I can play other Dx10 games with maximum settings and no performance loss. Seeing what can 7900GTX can do above, I am sure now it is a compatibility issue with the game. And I must point out that my RAM (2GB) and CPU (Core 2 Duo 2.40 Ghz) are enough for ultra settings. The most important thing showing it isn't my PC is FPS never drops down below 30-40. I hope Nvidia's future drivers wipe out my problems completely.

  • DamageIncM

    Posted Aug 13, 2008 8:16 pm GMT

    By the way, if you could at least describe all the settings next time please. -_-'
    I know what most of them do, but some are like "OK, what do those exactly do?...".

    If not, I'll ask it anyway, if someone knows a website or anything that describes that, please let me know, send a message or something.

  • DamageIncM

    Posted Aug 13, 2008 8:13 pm GMT

    This game will already be happy with a nice to good GeForce 7.
    COH is running in the background right now!
    Mine is a 7900GS (with 512MB even on AGP), but it's running together with a P4 at 2GHz.
    And that's because my P4 HT at 3GHz recently broke down, so I bought another one and am waiting until it comes in.
    It will just smooth out all the slight kinks, but it's not even bad at the moment.
    That's with Medium to High settings by the way.

  • wmgk

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 4:16 am GMT

    well i look at these post and with most i see super systems unless your just complaning my pc was 1yr/14days old when the game came out and in july 08 ipurachased the gold edition and guess what it won't run. at least wic runs yes world in conflict runs on this but coh won't that is **** up! cant upgrade pc though 1 word MOM! according to someone most parents are retarted when it comes to games or pc's

  • ATFNeOpHyTe

    Posted May 22, 2008 10:17 am GMT

    core 2 quad 6700 (2,67ghz), 4 gb ocz reaper @ 800 mhz, nvidea 9600 gt xxx runs it at maxed wth 1600x1050 highest fps 55 avg 41 lowest 17 so im pretty happy with my system

  • coolghosty

    Posted May 17, 2008 2:22 pm GMT

    My "rig" has a AMD Sempron Processor 3000+ 1.8 GHz , Asus a9550 and 1,5 GB RAM and goes very good with the game 30 FPS at LOW SETTINGS (P.M. I finished the game 3 times).

  • giang271291

    Posted May 17, 2008 5:57 am GMT

    I play this game on a P4 3.0 ghz, 1GB DDR, Geforce 6600 LE system with medium texture, shadows and terrain, post processing off, the rest at max and still feel like seeing real Normandy beach over 60 years ago.

    Just concern about the 4 settings above and u'll go through this "hardware panzer" without a problem !

  • kikorburronegro

    Posted Apr 29, 2008 4:48 pm GMT

    My Rig is EVGA 8800GT Superclocked, E8400 Wolfdale, 4Gb 800Mhz Ocz's Reaper Edition, Windows Vita SP1 ultimate, and I'm trying COH Oppsing Fronts, and it just can't make it... My average on ultra, it's about 40FPS, I've slown down to High, but it's still slow, How can I get good Frame rates?

  • chaoscougar1

    Posted Apr 5, 2008 10:39 pm GMT

    im so devo, my comp would run games at a somewhat of a decent level if my gcard wasnt so awful. got 2 gigs ram, p4 3ghz and then my pride and joy, and X300SE :'(

  • gah468

    Posted Apr 5, 2008 7:01 am GMT

    i can run the demo (not beta) fast as long as i keep shader quality low and texture not on ultra cuz then it crashes can you guess my system?

  • misomiso

    Posted Mar 17, 2008 2:58 pm GMT

    I have a Nvidia 8800GT ("alpha dog") with 512MB, 2GB ram, with only a 1.86GHz dual core and I have yet to get any homogenous errors, or serious drops in frame rate (lowest is 29fps which is impossible to notice) in game play

  • G-XperT

    Posted Mar 9, 2008 3:22 am GMT

    i havent played it yet
    i got the cd.....but im doubtful if my system will run it
    my system is...
    512 mb ram
    ati radeon x300 se...128 mb ram i think
    3.0 ghz...i think athlon?
    i think i could run it with supppper low settings
    but i got far cry and hl2 installed, hl2 i run on high (with little lag) and far cry on med and high

    my pc sucks )
    thats why im gettin a xbox
    i find upgrading pcs.....money consuming

  • Owyns

    Posted Feb 18, 2008 9:36 am GMT

    The system requirements aren't too much for playing. Thank you GameSpot...

  • Angry-jf

    Posted Jan 7, 2008 7:21 pm GMT

    i can play this with fps 13 (all low or off,800x600) with
    geforce 6200 256mb
    758mb ram
    and amd sempron 3000+

    so...dont try it with something worse then that..

  • patsy-cline

    Posted Jan 3, 2008 5:42 am GMT

    crapfullycrap, i think thats there slogan because its on the boxes of cod 2, bf2, bf2142 but yeah, i see your point. lol

  • foddle

    Posted Jan 3, 2008 5:34 am GMT

    Ok for anyone wondering about graphics cards there are 3 options nvidia 8800gts (512mb version) more expensive (£200-250 )
    nvidia 8800gt (512mb) this is slower than the gts by about 10-20%, but is probably better value for your money (£170-220)
    or
    Ati 3870 , which is generally cheaper but isnt quite in the same class as the two nvidia cards.
    oh, and you could always get the 8800ultra if money is no object.

  • patsy-cline

    Posted Jan 3, 2008 5:32 am GMT

    murso they released the game at the end of 2006 and they had direct x 10 on it for later graphic cards, we were getting hyped up about the 8800 gts and gtx at that time and thats what it was built for Nvidia.

  • Sala7_adin

    Posted Dec 30, 2007 1:50 pm GMT

    the 8800gt GPU gigabyte is the best tested graphics card and in pc magazines it got the best performer in many mags because of its FPS but in some games for better performance you would need to put a second similar graphics card to boost the performance (not an available feature for all mother boards)

  • KiMcHiMaN

    Posted Dec 30, 2007 5:25 am GMT

    oops my bad, its ATI SAPHIRE RADEON but i cant remember the number....its sad, i should know it

  • KiMcHiMaN

    Posted Dec 30, 2007 5:19 am GMT

    IM THE KIMCHI MAN
    anyway, intel core pentium 4 would be the lowest proccesser for company of heroes and ull need at least 1gig of mem to run it ok. ATI or NVidia GeForce, prob NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX would be the best. the one i have is the ATI 8400 (i think) and it ran slow and there is some problem, like when im playing the game, its like im in those 70 light shows... so i replaced with NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX and it ran good. alienware or xps is the best choice for this game

  • alphazoom

    Posted Dec 29, 2007 1:18 pm GMT

    Tmarsh, look into the 8800GT if you want to run it flawlessly with all settings high. They run about $260-290 US prices. I went with Asus.

  • tmarsh12toe

    Posted Dec 29, 2007 8:58 am GMT

    what kind of video card would be best to get if i want to run this game?? i have been looking all over and dont know what to pick?? any advice?? and prices??

  • alphazoom

    Posted Dec 24, 2007 10:38 pm GMT

    People that are getting 2 fps with 7950's....re-install windows or something because I needed a serious upgrade after my P4 3.4 EE and 7800GS were not cutting games anymore. Plus....my P4S800-E took a dump.

    Replaced with

    ePower 520XP PSU
    Gigabyte P35-DS3L
    E6750 @ 2.66
    2 gigs G.Skill DDR2 800
    Asus 8800GT 512
    throw that in with my old hard drives with a repair of windows and the game runs at frame rates too high for me to even play with for some reason. The games like running on hyper speed. I'm not used to it at all. The game never even hiccups or slows down EVER. I think more of the trouble was with Windows because COH ran better than OF did with the same setup. After my re-install, same programs installed though, everything just runs better anyways. My setup was very old. The only thing that was new was the P4 3.4 EE and 7800 GS. They did not help as much as they should have. I was playing on medium too, no high and some things off.

  • rokkuman09

    Posted Dec 23, 2007 12:09 pm GMT

    Murso24, when they wrote this article I'm pretty sure the 8800GTX and the 8800 Ultra were not available yet.

  • Murso24

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 2:27 pm GMT

    everything execpt tree detail maxed.. on Windows XP Pro SP2

    i dont get why they didnt test an 8800 GTX on the "ultra" area..its WAY better than the 7900.

  • Murso24

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 2:20 pm GMT

    with my setup here i get basicly perfect frame rates..EXTREMELY playable on maxed with this setup Intel Core 2 Quad QX6800 overclocked to 3.2ghz (stock at 2.93 so its safe)
    2 gb pc6400 800mhz Corsair Dual channel XMS RAM
    NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX
    320gb 7200rpm 16mb cache HD

    22in Samsung Hi-Res monitor (2ms response)

    yeah..im enjoying it

  • deaconmon

    Posted Dec 3, 2007 12:24 pm GMT

    Intel Q6850 @ 3.00 ghz, 4mb Corsair Dominator 8500 1066Mhz Ram, 2X XFX Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX in SLI, playing on a HPw2207 display (22inch widescreen 2ms refresh), Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit

    reported framerates with CoH in-game performance tool
    Without SLI enabled - 1600x1050 - rated as "Good"
    ave 41.1
    max 62.0
    lo 9.9

    Without SLI enabled - 1280x800 - rated as "Great"
    ave 51.1
    max 61.8
    lo 11.0

    With SLI enabled - 1600x1050 - rated as "Good"
    ave 41.3
    max 61.2
    lo 10.8

    With SLI enabled - 1280x800 - rated as "Great"
    ave 51.0
    max 61.8
    lo 11.9

    All default graphic settings from game

  • makah21

    Posted Nov 25, 2007 11:23 pm GMT

    i run 1.6 sempron 2800+ ,1.5 gigs of ddr ,bfg's 7950gt runs pretty good could use more processor maybe a 2.6 athlon another gig of ddr new motherboard that runs ddr and sli express next year.

    runs at high with average of 30 to 50 frames again my processor is a horrible bottleneck.

  • makah21

    Posted Nov 25, 2007 11:17 pm GMT

    I

  • SYdoggXxX

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 8:04 pm GMT

    @edgewalker16:

    That setup will run COH with no problems at all on High settings. Don't worry about that, your laptop is good enough to play it.

    As for upgrading a graphics chip in a laptop, that's very tricky and while I'm not an expert in the subject, in most cases it can't be done, at least not by yourself. If you contact your system manufacturer you could get a better answer.

  • edgewalker16

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 10:45 pm GMT

    So I've been really looking into this game and if I can only scrounge up the money then I'd get it with no questions asked. My only hitch is not knowing whether or not my PC is good enough to run it. That said, I need some advice. Can I run the game?

    Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz
    2GB Dual Channel 667MHz
    256GB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS

    Also, is it possible to upgrade my graphics card if all of this is in a laptop? A Dell M1710 to be exact? Thanks.

  • Maftei

    Posted Nov 2, 2007 4:33 pm GMT

    Quad Core 2.4 ghz
    1 gb ddr2 ram at 800 mhz 8800 GTX 768 mb Vista

    I can play the game at 1440 res with max settings but the only issue i get is that when there are cut scenes or movie intros it happens to chop down on teh frame rate...Ex: the plane on fire falling down or when the guy starts getting shot by machine gun

  • weetbix13

    Posted Oct 28, 2007 1:22 pm GMT

    Quad Core - 2.4ghz
    4gb RAM
    8800gts xxx graphics
    Vista Home Premium

    no issues; max settings.

  • MxAa

    Posted Oct 23, 2007 12:04 pm GMT

    i cant even get the game to run on my sli 7950 setup.... something is wrong because I hear birds chirping 3/4 through loading and then it just runs at 2 fps (yes 2 fps) when its done loading. Any ideas would be helpful....

  • Bennycal

    Posted Oct 15, 2007 11:03 am GMT

    I got it runnin on all high, only thing not on max is texture detail (on high instead of ultra) at 1280x1024 with 4AA on this rig:

    Core 2 Duo E4400
    2GB DDR RAM
    X1950Pro :p Silky smooth, no slowdown at all.

  • larrythecat101

    Posted Oct 14, 2007 3:32 pm GMT

    can i play this game on every setting low!

    i have..

    pentium 4 processer 2.41 ghz

    1.00 gb ddr ram

    nvidia geforce fx 5200 128 mb agp..128 bit evga

    19 inch widescreen acer!

    so can i play it?

  • stock8907

    Posted Oct 14, 2007 3:51 am GMT

    how would a dell vostro 1500 get on? with this spec:

    T7250 2.0Ghz
    2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024
    Nvidia 8600M GT
    160GB 5400
    Vista Business (going to change to home premium or xp)

  • IMP_ACT

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 6:55 am GMT

    audioe said:
    "AMD Athlon 64 x2 5600 2.8GHz
    Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB
    4GB DDR2 800Mhz
    Vista Home Premium

    With this spec, I can't run the game on Full Quality, which was a bit gutting cos games like Bioshock, CnC3, Supreme Commander all work as Smooth as anything on Full spec.

    In Conclusion, you'll need to buy the best of the best in order to get this game running with 60FPS+"
    -------------------------------
    Well, I'm running an AMD x2 3800+, 2gb 800mz, 8800gts 320mb and I'm running the game at 1680x1050 all on ultra. No slowdown at all for me. The only difference is that I'm using XP (dx9) & youre using Vista & presumably dx10.

  • jared3164

    Posted Oct 4, 2007 10:25 pm GMT

    How would this run on a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo 1.5 ghz, 1 GB RAM, and a nvidia 8600M GT 256mb?

  • tcarruth

    Posted Sep 30, 2007 12:34 pm GMT

    For all those laptop owners. A mobile core 2 duo T7400 with 2GB RAM and a 7950GTX runs the game silky smooth 30+fps 1600x1200 under ultra settings.

  • reze-daniel

    Posted Sep 14, 2007 1:50 am GMT

    @ Rhipz
    I dont think so, unless you're 8600GT is a model with 512Mb's of video ram then you're gonna have to put textures on high instead of ultra. But give it a go anyway...

  • Rhipz

    Posted Sep 12, 2007 1:23 pm GMT

    k thanks!

Company of Heroes

Company of Heroes Boxshot
Follow

Follow for the latest news, videos, & tips from experts & insiders

GameSpot Fuse

Game Stats

  • Rank:
    413 of 149,657
    (down by 61)
    PC Rank:
    165 of 16,066
    Followers:
    14,431 Follow»
    Wishlists:
    4,364 Wish It»
  • Users Now Playing:
    4,451
  • Number of Players:

    1-8, 8 Online | Offline�Modes:�Competitive, Team Oriented | Online�Modes:�Competitive, Team Oriented

  • Top 5 User Tags:
    1. company of heroes
    2. rts
    3. thq
    4. relic
    5. coh
  • Mature Rating Description

    Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. Learn more

Full Game Details »Close

Tags

Games you may like…

Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.

See More Similar Games