Best Graphics Settings for MWII [Optimal FPS and Visibility]

Do you have trouble running Modern Warfare II on your PC? Or perhaps you are looking for better performance and/or that competitive edge over your enemies?

In that case, start by applying the best graphics settings for MWII under your circumstances to get the best gameplay performance with little loss in quality.

Let’s get to it!

Modern Warfare II System Requirements

The graphics settings that work best for you will depend on your computer specs, as more powerful PCs will get excellent performance and still output a gorgeous image.

That said, the Modern Warfare II Beta came with rather forgiving minimal system requirements since a significant number of PC players game on older hardware:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5-3570 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470
• VRAM: 3 GB
• RAM: 8 GB
• DirectX version: 12
• SSD/HDD Storage: 25 GB

If your specs are similar to the above, you should optimize your settings for a lower-end PC.

By contrast, the recommended system requirements were as follows:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580
• VRAM: 6 GB
• RAM: 16 GB
• DirectX version: 12
• SSD/HDD Storage: 25 GB

If your computer has these specs, you could get away with higher graphics settings.

However, the recommended hardware criteria are sufficient to run the game at medium settings, which provides enough visual quality and clarity for competitive gaming. 

Therefore, if you are aiming to play with the graphics settings turned to ultra and use all modern rendering technologies, you will need the latest GPU, CPU, RAM, and SSD storage.

Best Graphics Settings for MWII

Modern Warfare II comes with plenty of novelty features, including a slightly reworked and expanded ‘Graphics’ section that allows you to make the most out of your machine.

Found under the game’s ‘Settings’ menu, the ‘Graphics’ sub-menu includes numerous toggles and options that allow you to adjust even the most minor visual details.

Thankfully, the different graphics settings are categorized into three tabs:

1. Display: general display options like resolution, aspect ratio, refresh rate, framerate limit, brightness, etc.;

source: youtube.com

2. Quality: global quality settings, details and textures, shadows and lighting, and post-processing effects;

source: youtube.com

3. View: Field of View (FOV) and camera movement settings.

source: youtube.com

Now, let’s check out the best graphics settings for MWII for both low-end and high-end PCs.

1. Best Graphics Settings for a High-End PC

If you’re lucky enough to have powerful hardware, your only concern should be to push it to the max without impacting your FPS or visibility within the game.

Here are the recommended settings to achieve just that!

1.1. Display Tab

• Display mode—Fullscreen or Fullscreen Borderless
• Constrain Mouse to Game Window—Off if playing in Borderless
• Display Monitor—Your main monitor
• Display Adapter—Your main GPU
• Screen Refresh Rate—Equal to your monitor's Hz
• Display Resolution—Your monitor’s native resolution
• Dynamic Resolution—Off
• Aspect Ratio—Automatic
• V-Sync (Gameplay)—Off (There is a noticeable input lag when V-Sync is On)
• V-Sync (Menus)—Off
• Custom Framerate Limit—Custom
• Gameplay Custom Framerate Limit—A few frames below your monitor’s max Hz
• Menu Custom Framerate Limit—60
• Minimized Game Custom Framerate Limit—15
• Display Gamma—2.2 (sRGB)
• Brightness—Bright enough to see everything in-game
• Focused Mode—Off
• HDR—Off

1.2. Quality Tab

Global Quality:

• Quality Presets—Custom
• Render Resolution—100
• NVIDIA DLSS—Quality (This setting is only available on RTX cards)
• NVIDIA Image Scaling—On if DLSS is unavailable
• NVIDIA Image Scaling Strength—75
• AMD FSR 1.0—Ultra Quality (This setting is available on all GPUs that support DirectX 11)
• FidelityFX CAS—On if FSR is unavailable
• AMD FidelityFX CAS Strength—75
• Anti-Aliasing—SMAA T2X (Check our full Anti-Aliasing guide if you want to learn more)
• Nearby Level of Detail—High

Details and Textures:

• Texture Resolution—Normal
• Texture Filter Anisotropic—High
• Particle Quality—High
• Bullet Impacts & Sprays—On
• Shader Quality—Low
• Tesselation—Near
• On-Demand Texture Streaming—Off
• Streaming Quality—Low

Shadows and Lighting:

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

Post-Processing Effects:

• NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency—On if available
• Depth of Field—Off
• World Motion Blur—Off
• Weapon Motion Blur—Off
• Film Grain—Off

1.3. View Tab

• Field of View—Max
• ADS Field of View—Affected 
• Weapon Field of View—Default
• 3rd Person Field of View—80
• Vehicle Field of View—Default
• 1st Person Camera Movement—100
• 3rd Person Camera Movement—100

Note: Some of the options across all categories outlined above may be grayed out depending on your graphics card.

2. Best Graphics Settings for a Low-End PC

If your computer specs are on the lower end, you need to focus on making the game run as smoothly as possible to avoid stuttering, freezing, or even game crashes, even if you have to cut a few corners here and there.

The silver lining is that some visual settings are so subtle that you won’t even notice they are turned off, and they’ll still make a huge difference to your frame rate even on lower-end laptops!

2.1. Display Tab

• Display mode—Fullscreen
• Constrain Mouse to Game Window—n/a
• Display Monitor—Your main monitor
• Display Adapter—Your main GPU 
• Screen Refresh Rate—Equal to your monitor's Hz
• Display Resolution—Your monitor’s native resolution
• Dynamic Resolution—On if you are targeting certain FPS
• Aspect Ratio—Automatic
• V-Sync (Gameplay)—Off
• V-Sync (Menus)—Off
• Custom Framerate Limit—Custom
• Gameplay Custom Framerate Limit—A few Hz below your monitor’s max Hz
• Menu Custom Framerate Limit—60
• Minimized Game Custom Framerate Limit—15
• Display Gamma—2.2 (sRGB)
• Brightness—Bright enough to see everything in-game
• Focused Mode—Off
• HDR—Off

2.2. Quality Tab

Global Quality:

• Quality Presets—Custom
• Render Resolution—100 or below for extra performance
• NVIDIA DLSS—Performance
• NVIDIA Image Scaling—On if DLSS is unavailable
• NVIDIA Image Scaling Strength—75
• AMD FSR 1.0—Balanced
• FidelityFX CAS—On if FSR is unavailable
• AMD FidelityFX CAS Strength—75
• Anti-Aliasing—SMAA T2X
• Nearby Level of Detail—High

Details and Textures:

• Texture Resolution—Very Low (We want this setting on Very Low since texture rendering takes a huge toll on the VRAM)
• Texture Filter Anisotropic—Normal or Low
• Particle Quality—Low
• Bullet Impacts & Sprays—Off
• Shader Quality—Low
• Tesselation—Off
• On-Demand Texture Streaming—Off
• Streaming Quality—Low

Shadows & Lighting:

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

Post-Processing Effects:

• NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency—On if available
• Depth of Field—Off
• World Motion Blur—Off
• Weapon Motion Blur—Off
• Film Grain—Off

2.3. View Tab

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

Note: Some of the options across all categories outlined above may be grayed out depending on your graphics card.

Bottom Line

If you get Modern Warfare II on PC, you can always improve your gaming experience by finding the best graphics settings for MWII to fit your machine's specs. In any case, even if you have a killer PC, you shouldn’t max out every graphics setting you find since some of them detrimentally affect the game’s visual clarity, thus hurting your gaming results.