Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Best PC settings for Modern Warfare 2: High FPS, graphics, visibility, more

Joseph Pascoulis
Modern Warfare 2 Operators in Ground WarActivision

Modern Warfare 2 Season 6 is here, and those looking for a competitive edge by using the best PC settings are in the right place. Here are our top recommendations and best settings to optimize your MW2 experience on PC.

Season 6 has brought lots of new content to Modern Warfare 2, including weapons like the TR-76 Geist AR, ISO 9mm SMG, and Dual Kamas Melee weapon.

You’ll want to maximize your PC’s performance when tackling MW2’s new challenges and events.
Boosting your settings to the maximum may result in stunning visuals, but it will lead to a performance drop unless you possess a top-of-the-line computer setup.

Here are the best Modern Warfare 2 PC settings to help you boost your FPS while making sure the game looks nice.

Modern Warfare 2 PC system requirements

Before you start altering the settings, you’ll need to make sure that your system is qualified for running Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. We’ve compiled the minimum and recommended PC requirements for Modern Warfare 2 below.

MinimumRecommendedCompetitiveUltra 4K
OSWindows 10 64 Bit (latest update)Windows 10 64 Bit(latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update)Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update)Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update)
CPUIntel Core i3-6100 / Core i5-2500k or AMD Ryzen 3 1200Intel Core i5-6600K / Core i7-4770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800XIntel Core i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
RAM8GB RAM12GB RAM16GB RAM16GB RAM
Storage Space72GB at launch72GB at launch72GB at launch72GB at launch
Hi-Rez Assests CacheUp to 32GBUp to 32GBUp to 32GBUp to 64GB
Video CardNVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700XTNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800XT
Video Memory2GB4GB8GB10GB
Graphic DriverNVIDIA: 516.79 or AMD: 21.9.1NVIDIA: 516.79 or AMD: 21.9.1NVIDIA: 516.79 or AMD: 21.9.1NVIDIA: 516.79 or AMD: 21.9.1

Best Modern Warfare 2 graphics settings for high-end hardware

Display

  • Display Mode: Fullscreen
  • Constrain Mouse to Game Window: Off
  • Display Monitor: Your primary gaming monitor
  • Display Adaptor: Your graphics card
  • Screen Refresh Rate: Refresh rate of your monitor (e.g. 144)
  • Display Resolution: Your monitor’s resolution (e.g. 2560×1440)
  • Dynamic Resolution: Off
  • Aspect Ratio: Automatic
  • V-Sync (Gameplay): Off
  • V-Sync (Menus): Off
  • Custom Framerate Limit: Custom
    • Gameplay Custom Framerate Limit: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g. 144)
    • Menu Custom Framerate Limit: 60
    • Minimized Game Custom Framerate Limit: 15
  • Display Gamma: 2.2 (sRGB)
  • Brightness: 55
  • Focused Mode: Off

High Dynamic Range

  • High Dynamic Range (HDR): Off

Global Quality

  • Quality Presets: Recommended
  • Render Resolution: 100
  • Fidelity CAS: On
    • AMD Fidelity CAS Strength: 75
  • Anti-Aliasing: SMAA T2X
  • Nearby Level of Detail: High

Details & Textures

  • Texture Resolution: Medium
  • Texture Filter Anisotropic: Low
  • Particle Quality: High
  • Bullet Impacts & Sprays: On
  • Shader Quality: Low
  • Tessellation: Nearby Only
  • On-Demand Texture Streaming: On – You can turn this off if you’re experiencing packet burst
  • Streaming Quality: Low

If you’re having issues with packet burst in Modern Warfare 2, make sure you turn off the On-Demand Texture Streaming options, as this is often a setting that can alleviate the load on your internet.

Shadow & Lighting

  • Shadow Map Resolution: Low
  • Spot Shadow Quality: Low
  • Cache Spot Shadows: On
  • Cashe Sun Shadows: On
  • Particle Lighting: Normal
  • Ambient Occlusion: Off
  • SSR: Off

Post Processing Effects

  • NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost
  • Depth of Field: Off
  • World Motion Blur: Off
  • Weapon Motion Blur: Off
  • Film Grain: 0.00

View

  • Field of View: 110
  • ADS Field of View: Affected
  • Weapon Field of View: Wide
  • 3rd Person Field of View: 80
  • Vehicle Field of View: Default
  • 1st Person Camera Movement: 100
  • 3rd Person Camera Movement: 100

Best Modern Warfare 2 graphics settings for low-end hardware

Activision
You don’t need top-of-the-range hardware to have MW2 running smoothly.

Display

  • Display Mode: Fullscreen
  • Constrain Mouse to Game Window: Off
  • Display Monitor: Your primary gaming monitor
  • Display Adaptor: Your graphics card
  • Screen Refresh Rate: Refresh rate of your monitor (e.g. 144)
  • Display Resolution: Your monitor’s resolution (e.g. 1920×1080) – you can turn this down to get more FPS but your game won’t look as good)
  • Dynamic Resolution: Off (turn it on if you’re getting inconsistent frame rates but it will affect the game’s visuals)
  • Aspect Ratio: Automatic
  • V-Sync (Gameplay): Off
  • V-Sync (Menus): Off
  • Custom Framerate Limit: Custom
    • Gameplay Custom Framerate Limit: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g. 144)
    • Menu Custom Framerate Limit: 60
    • Minimized Game Custom Framerate Limit: 15
  • Display Gamma: 2.2 (sRGB)
  • Brightness: 55
  • Focused Mode: Off

High Dynamic Range

  • High Dynamic Range (HDR): Off

Global Quality

  • Quality Presets: Recommended
  • Render Resolution: 100
  • Fidelity CAS: On
    • AMD Fidelity CAS Strength: 75
  • Anti-Aliasing: SMAA T2X
  • Nearby Level of Detail: High

Details & Textures

  • Texture Resolution: Low
  • Texture Filter Anisotropic: Medium
  • Particle Quality: Medium
  • Bullet Impacts & Sprays: Off
  • Shader Quality: Low
  • Tessellation: Off
  • On-Demand Texture Streaming: Off
  • Streaming Quality: Low

Shadow & Lighting

  • Shadow Map Resolution: Low
  • Spot Shadow Quality: Low
  • Cache Spot Shadows: Off
  • Cashe Sun Shadows: Off
  • Particle Lighting: Medium
  • Ambient Occlusion: Off
  • SSR: Off

Post Processing Effects

  • NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost
  • Depth of Field: Off
  • World Motion Blur: Off
  • Weapon Motion Blur: Off
  • Film Grain: 0.00

View

  • Field of View: 95 – 110
  • ADS Field of View: Affected
  • Weapon Field of View: Wide
  • 3rd Person Field of View: 80
  • Vehicle Field of View: Default
  • 1st Person Camera Movement: 100
  • 3rd Person Camera Movement: 100

Setting your FOV slightly lower will lessen the load on your PC for those with lower-end PC builds.

How to update graphics drivers

Modern Warfare 2 players fighting beside tankActivision
Updating graphics drivers can fix any issues.

You may run into major issues if you attempt to run Modern Warfare 2 on your PC with an outdated graphics driver. If you want to have the smoothest gameplay experience then we heavily advise that you make sure your graphics drivers are up to date.

How to update NVIDIA graphics driver

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, the GeForce Experience app will handle this for you.

  1. Download GeForce experience through NVIDIA.com.
  2. Open GeForce experience.
  3. Select the ‘Drivers’ tab.
  4. Click ‘check for updates’ in the upper right corner.
  5. If an update is available, follow the steps.

How to update AMD graphics driver

If you have an AMD GPU, you can use the Radeon Settings to update your drivers.

  1. Right-click on your desktop.
  2. Select AMD Radeon Settings.
  3. Click on the Home icon.
  4. Click ‘New Updates’ on the bottom left.
  5. Select ‘check for update’.
  6. If an update is available, follow the steps.

How to use NVIDIA DLSS in Modern Warfare 2

NVIDIA DLSS setting in Modern Warfare 2's graphics menusActivision
NVIDIA DLSS can give a significant FPS boost.

Modern Warfare 2 features NVIDIA DLSS to boost your FPS while keeping the resolution high, so here’s how to activate it in Infinity Ward’s shooter.

  1. Launch Modern Warfare 2
  2. Head to Settings and navigate to the Graphics tab.
  3. Select Quality then open the Upscaling/Sharpening drop-down list.
  4. Click on NVIDIA DLSS.
  5. For more options, click Show More where you can select the quality and strength.

Most Modern Warfare 2 players playing at 1440p should only need the Quality or Balanced settings, but 4K players or those whose rigs are dropping frames can use Performance or Ultra Performance to squeeze out as many frames as possible.

There you have it, those are the best PC settings to use in Modern Warfare 2 for low and high-end PCs.

For more on Modern Warfare 2, be sure to also check out:

Best Modern Warfare 2 controller settings | Best mouse and keyboard settings for Modern Warfare 2 | How to level up fast in Modern Warfare 2 | Best guns in Modern Warfare 2 | Best Assault Rifles in Modern Warfare 2 | When is the next Modern Warfare 2 & Warzone 2 Double XP event? | 10 most popular weapons in Modern Warfare 2 | Best audio settings for Modern Warfare 2

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