What Are the MW4 Best PC Settings for FPS? (2026 Answer)

The MW4 best PC settings for FPS: Fullscreen Exclusive, Render Resolution 100 with DLSS, FSR or XeSS on Quality, every ray tracing option off, Shadow and Particle quality on Low, VRAM Scale Target at 70–80, NVIDIA Reflex On + Boost, V-Sync off, and a frame cap a few frames below your monitor's refresh rate. That setup gets you the most frames for the least visual loss on almost any rig.

One caveat. Every public settings guide so far was built on the August beta, not the October 23 launch build. Menu names could change a little. Whatever you set, test it in a quiet match before ranked. A private match does the job, and so do MW4 bot lobbiesfrom $4.99 if you'd like to earn weapon XP while you test.

What does Activision say MW4 needs on PC?

Verdict: the Recommended tier targets 90 FPS on High. That's the official target, not something anyone has tested yet.

Activision has published three tiers: Minimum, Recommended (90 FPS in Multiplayer on High) and a ray tracing tier for upscaled 4K. Beenox is leading the PC version alongside Infinity Ward.

Tier	CPU	GPU	RAM	VRAM
Minimum	Ryzen 5 1400 / i5-6600	RX 470 / GTX 970–1060 / Arc A580	8 GB	3 GB
Recommended	Ryzen 5 3600 / i7-8700K	RX 6600 XT / RTX 3060 Ti / Arc B580	16 GB	8 GB
Ray Tracing (4K upscaled)	Ryzen 7 3700X / i7-10700K	RX 9070 XT / RTX 5070 Ti	32 GB	16 GB

Every tier needs an SSD with 115 GB free, plus TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot.

Heads-up on conflicting numbers: the earlier Activision Support listing for the beta showed a Ryzen 5 1600 / i5-8400 minimum, 12 GB RAM, about 70 GB of storage and a 60 FPS Recommended target. Some sites still show those figures. The newer final spec reveal replaces them, so go by the table above.

MW4 best PC settings for FPS: the full table

Verdict: start competitive, then add visuals back only if you have frames to spare.

Setting	Value	Why
Display Mode	Fullscreen Exclusive	Lowest latency on most systems
Screen Refresh Rate	Your monitor's max	Obvious, often missed
NVIDIA Reflex	On + Boost (On if unstable)	Cuts input lag
V-Sync (Gameplay)	Off	Adds latency
Custom Frame Rate Limit	3–5 below refresh (e.g. 237 on 240 Hz)	Smoother frame pacing with G-Sync/FreeSync
Background Shader Preloading	On	Fewer stutters
Render Resolution	100	Lower the upscaler preset instead
Dynamic Resolution	Off	Stops the image from shimmering
Upscaling	DLSS / FSR / XeSS on Quality	Big FPS gain, small clarity cost
Frame Generation	Off	Adds latency in Multiplayer
All Ray Tracing	Off	Costs the most FPS of any setting
VRAM Scale Target	80 (70 on 8 GB cards)	Helps prevent memory stutter
Texture Resolution	High (Medium on 8 GB)	Cheap if you have the VRAM
Shadow Quality	Low	The classic COD frame killer
Particle Resolution	Low	Helps in explosion-heavy fights
Screen Space Reflections	Off	Visual noise, FPS cost
Motion Blur (World + Weapon)	Off	Hides moving targets
World / Weapon Depth of Field	Off	Clearer image
Film Grain	0	Pure clutter

Pro tip: If you're short of your target, drop the upscaler one step (Quality to Balanced) before you touch anything else. It costs less clarity than cranking every slider down to Low.

Which settings actually cost frames?

Verdict: four settings make up most of the difference.

1. Ray tracing. MW4 has ray-traced reflections, shadows and lighting in Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ. They look great and do nothing for your K/D. Turn them off for competitive play.
2. Render resolution + upscaler. These two together are your biggest FPS lever. Your options are DLSS 4.5, FSR Redstone, XeSS 3 and Filmic SMAA T2X. Which ones you see depends on your GPU.
3. Shadow Quality. You track enemy silhouettes, not soft shadow edges, so Low costs you nothing competitively.
4. VRAM Scale Target. Set it too high on an 8 GB card and you'll get hitching mid-fight. Keep it around 70.

Frame generation only makes sense when your base frame rate is already above 60. Below that the added latency is noticeable. Use it in the campaign if you like and leave it off in Multiplayer.

Where do settings guides disagree?

Verdict: these are personal-preference settings. None of them will make or break your FPS.

• Fullscreen Exclusive vs Borderless. Most guides say Exclusive. A few beta guides went Borderless. Exclusive usually wins on latency. Borderless is better if you alt-tab a lot.
• Shadows Low vs Medium. Some players say Low looks blocky and pick Medium as the sweet spot. If you have the headroom, Medium is fine.
• DLSS preset. Guides recommend Quality, Balanced and even Ultra Performance at 1080p. Use Quality at 1080p and 1440p, Balanced at 4K, and go lower only if you still can't hit your target.
• Focused Mode and V-Sync in menus. Recommendations are split and it barely matters. Leave them alone.

Which new PC features should you actually use?

Verdict: the built-in Benchmark Tool is the most useful thing in the menu.

• Benchmark Tool. It runs a simulated Multiplayer sequence and reports average FPS, CPU, GPU, ping and input latency. It then breaks results down by zone and suggests settings.
• Enhanced FOV (PC only). It widens your view at the screen edges and leaves the center untouched. You keep a comfortable FOV and still see more on the flanks. Activision hasn't said how much it costs in FPS.
• Split Depth of Field. World and Weapon DoF are now separate settings. Turn both off.
• Advanced Shader Delivery. It's meant to cut stutter in your first match. Let shader preloading finish anyway.
• Sub-frame mouse polling. Activision says it makes mouse aim more precise. Nothing to set, just a reason to keep your mouse at a high polling rate.

Pro tip: Run the Benchmark Tool again after every GPU driver update and every big patch. Launch-week patches tend to shift performance, and your settings from last week may no longer be the best ones.

If the game won't launch at all, our MW4 launch errors and server fixes guide covers the common problems. The TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot check catches out a lot of PC players.

Related questions

Can a GTX 1060 run MW4? Yes. It's on the minimum spec list. Expect Low settings at 1080p with upscaling on Balanced. The 1060 hasn't been tested on the launch build yet.

What FPS will an RTX 3060 Ti get? Activision's stated target for that tier is about 90 FPS on High in Multiplayer. With the competitive settings above you should get more. Wait for launch-build benchmarks before you trust any exact number.

Does MW4 support ultrawide? Yes. Resolutions from 1080p to 4K are supported, ultrawide included, along with HDR10+.

When can I preload on PC? Preload opens October 15 and the full launch is October 23. Our MW4 launch day checklist covers what else to have ready.

Quick answers

Is there a single best setting for FPS? Yes: ray tracing off, plus an upscaler on Quality. Those two give you most of the gain.

Should I use HDR? Only on a proper HDR10+ monitor. Most guides leave it off for competitive play.

Do settings carry over from the beta? That's not confirmed. Check every setting again on launch day.

Dialing all this in takes a few benchmark runs and a few test matches, and that's before you start the weapon level grind itself. If you'd rather tune settings while making progress, our MW4 bot lobbiesfrom $4.99 are one option: matches that never end, where you can test changes while farming XP.