Modern Warfare 2: Best Graphics Settings for Low-End PC

Modern Warfare 2 is out now, and gamers worldwide have gathered this weekend to enjoy the new installment in the Call of Duty Series. However, players with low-end PCs haven’t been able to enjoy the game yet because the game is not optimized correctly.

In today’s guide, I will cover the settings for lower-end PCs to ensure they can easily achieve 60-120 FPS on their computers. It also makes sense to write something like this because, according to Steam Hardware Survey, these are the most used cards even today:

• GTX 1060: 6.73%
• GTX 1650: 6.11%
• RTX 2060: 5.02%
• GTX 1050Ti: 4.76%

Source

For my fellow budget gamers, here’s a graphic settings guide that will get you rolling in multiplayer in no time.

MW2 Best Graphics Settings for Low-End PCs

Press F3 > Go To Quick Settings > Select Graphics and configure the settings mentioned below.

Display

• Display Mode: Fullscreen
• Display Monitor: Your primary monitor
• Display Adapter: Your GPU
• Screen Refresh Rate: Your monitor’s refresh rate. I prefer to cap it at 180 since my computer cannot maintain 240 consistently.
• Resolution: Native
• Aspect Ratio: Auto
• V-Sync (Gameplay & Menus): Off
• Custom Frame-Rate Limit: Depending on your monitor.
• Focused Mode: On
• HDR: Off

If you face screen tearing issues, then turning Vsync would be mandatory. Keep in mind that turning on V-Sync in competitive games introduces input lag.

Quality

Global Quality

• Quality Preset: Custom
• Render Resolution: 100 – Changing it to anything else will make the game look blurry.
• Upscaling / Sharpening: DLSS Quality with Sharpness 60.
• Anti-Aliasing: will be greyed out if DLSS or FSR is enabled.
• Video Memory Scale: 85

DLSS Performance or Balanced (even in FSR) might be another choice for users with low-end PCs. You will have to figure this out by playing a game or two.

Details & Textures

• Texture Resolution: Medium
• Texture Filter Anisotropic: High
• Nearby Level of Detail: Low
• Distant Level of Detail: Low
• Clutter Draw Distance: Short
• Particle Quality: Low
• Particle Quality Level: High
• Bullet Impact & Sprays: Off
• Shader Quality: High
• Tessellation: All
• Terrain Memory: Minimum
• On-demand texture streaming: Off (those with high internet speeds can turn this on)
• Streaming Quality: Normal
• Volumetric Quality: Low
• Deferred Physics Quality: Low
• Water Caustics: Off

Setting Volumetric Quality to low improves visibility in maps. You can set the Texture Resolution to high if you have enough VRAM. After this, monitor the VRAM usage on the bottom right.

Shadow & Lighting

These are all shadow-related settings; shadows are very demanding and put a lot of stress on GPUs. Turn them off.

• Shadow Map Resolution: Normal
• Screen Space Shadows: Off
• Spot Shadows: Low
• Spot Cache: Medium
• Particle Lighting: Normal
• Ambient Occlusion: Off
• Screen Space Reflection: Off
• Static Reflection Quality: Low
• Weather Grid Volumes: Low

Some of the Shadows can create visibility issues on maps with many cars and assets. So disabling them will give you an advantage.

Post Processing Effects

Read: Motion Blur Guide for MW2

• Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: On+Boost
• Depth of Field: Off
• World Motion Blur: Off
• Weapon Motion Blur: Off
• Film Grain: 0.05

Nvidia Reflex Low latency is a technology that decreases the time it takes for a signal to travel from the graphics card to the monitor. This can help to improve the overall gaming experience by reducing input lag.

View

Read: Best FOV Settings for MW2

• Field of View (FOV): Personal Preference
• ADS Field of View: Affected
• Weapon Field of View: Default
• Vehicle Field of View: Default
• 1st Person Camera Movement: Default
• 3rd Person Camera Movement: Default

These settings should give you a significant amount of boost in FPS. If you are looking for more improvements, continue reading the article.

Apart from these settings, check out the Control Panel Settings section in the performance guide I wrote earlier.

The settings I have mentioned here are good enough for almost all low-end GPUs. Even though I have a good PC, I still use these settings. In competitive games, having low graphics puts you at an advantage; if you are looking for beauty, turn the settings to high in campaign mode. There’s no point in putting yourself in a bad position, especially in a game like COD.

Comment below if this guide helped you out. I’ve written many guides on MW2 that you can find here.