How to increase FPS in CoD Modern Warfare and Warzone: video settings
The video settings of Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Warzone can be optimized to increase your FPS and improve your gameplay.
On the web, you can find several configuration files to replace yours and boost the fps. Honestly, I don’t like this approach because I want to know exactly what I am changing, so I decided to review all the options in this article.
These adjustments are useful if you are struggling to reach an acceptable amount of fps as you are using a low-spec PC, but also if you have a monitor with a high refresh-rate as you bought it to gain an edge in a competitive shooter such as Call of Duty.
Video settings
Launch Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Warzone, select Options at the bottom left (or press F3 on the keyboard), and open the Graphics tab. I will show you how to set up each setting for maximum performance.
Display
Display Mode: Fullscreen.
Fullscreen is the best choice performance-wise, but you might prefer Fullscreen Borderless if you have a multi-monitor setup and you wish to move quickly on another display.
Note: you can switch from Fullscreen to Fullscreen Borderless by pressing Alt+Enter on the keyboard.
Screen Refresh Rate: your monitor refresh rate.
Render Resolution: 100.
I warmly recommend to not change this setting unless you really need more fps. Decreasing the value below 100 will grant more performance at the cost of blurred textures.
The visual effect at 90 is acceptable, and 75 is the minimum value you should consider. Generally, decrease the Display Resolution first, and use the Render Resolution as the last resort.
Display Resolution: use your native one.
Using your native resolution is desirable for a better view, but if you badly need a performance boost, decreasing the resolution will greatly improve your fps. 720p is usually a solid compromise between quality and performance.
Aspect Ratio: use your native one, or select Automatic.
In the screen below, the setting is Wide 21:9 because I play on an ultrawide monitor. Your display should have a Wide 16:9 aspect ratio.
Sync Every Frame (V-Sync): Disabled.
Custom Framerate Limit: Custom.
Gameplay Custom Framerate Limit: your monitor refresh rate.
This is the fps cap. I suggest keeping it at the same value as your monitor refresh rate (60, 120, or 144Hz).
Note that unlocking the frame rate might cause overheating problems if your system isn’t cooled properly as the game will try to render as many frames as possible.
Details and Textures
Texture Resolution: High.
This setting depends mostly on the VRAM available on your graphic card, so it barely affects your fps (about 2 FPS on average going from Low to High).
You can reduce Texture Resolution to lower values, but I suggest keeping it at High for a better viewing experience.
Texture Filter Anisotropic: Normal or High.
Texture Filter has a very small impact on the fps, so you might consider using High even on older machines.
Particle Quality: Low or High.
Note: Switching Particle Quality to Low may add aliasing to the scene, especially at lower resolutions.
Bullet Impacts & Sprays: Enabled.
It has virtually no impact on the game performance, even if you keep shooting at a wall without pause.
Tessellation: Disabled.
Tessellation has a low fps cost, but the graphic improvement is barely noticeable.
Shadow and Lighting
Shadow Map Resolution: Low.
Shadows have a big performance cost in any game.
Cache Spot Shadows: Enabled.
Cache Sun Shadows: Enabled.
If you have enough video memory (check out the VRAM usage at the top right), keep the caches enabled to improve your fps and avoid stuttering.
Particle Lighting: Low.
The overall quality doesn’t improve a lot at higher values, so I suggest using Low to gain a few more frames.
DirectX Raytracing: Disabled.
Amazing look, but massive fps reduction when enabled.
Ambient Occlusion: Disabled.
Ambient Occlusion does improve the graphic quality of the game (depending on the location), but at a high fps cost.
Screen Space Reflection (SSR): Disabled.
This is one of the most expensive settings in Call of Duty.
Post Processing Effects
Anti-Aliasing: Off or SMAA 1X.
SMAA T2X and Filmic SMAA T2X are quite expensive, but they are the recommended options to avoid visual noise and artifacts.
SMAA 1X will steal about 2-4 fps on average, and I suggesting using it only if you play at a low resolution.
Depth of Field: Disabled.
Filmic Strength: it depends on your preference.
Lower values will make details sharper, but can reintroduce aliasing. My preferred setting is 0.00.
World Motion Blur: Disabled.
Weapon Motion Blur: Disabled.
I turn off Motion Blur in all games as it generates visual effects that influence negatively both your performance and gameplay. Disable them and you will gain about 5 FPS.
Film Grain: 0.00.
General
The Field of View setting is located under the General tab.
Field of View: it depends on your preference.
ADS Field of View: Independent.
I published an article about the best FoV in Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Warzone, containing the results of a survey and detailed explanations on each setting.
A higher field of view (FOV) increases your peripheral vision, but at the same time all the targets are smaller, and it can cause a fisheye effect. In any case, lower values will improve your performance.
Audio
Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Warzone offer several options for the Audio Mix (available in the Audio tab).
Everyone has their own preferences, but I recommend selecting Boost as I believe this is one of the best choices if you are using headphones.
Config.cfg file
To find your config file, press Win+R and then imput the following line:
Documents\Call of Duty Modern Warfare\playersPress the right mouse button on config.cfg and open it with WordPad or another text editor. I use Notepad++.
There are several options, but I suggest to not edit this file manually as the developers left an alert at the very top: “generated by Infinity Ward, do not modify”.
config.cfg path
