Activision Details PC Version Features for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

The running joke about “Update Requires Restart” is finally coming to an end for fans of the series.

Activision has shared detailed information about the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, focusing on performance, scalable settings, and visual clarity improvements. The developers state that the game is built for more than just high-end rigs, offering over 800 parameters for graphics, controls, interface, and other aspects.

Modern Warfare 4 will automatically adjust settings based on your computer hardware. The game supports 4K, 1440p, and 1080p resolutions, alongside ultrawide monitors. To boost performance, it includes NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR Redstone, Intel XeSS 3, and Filmic SMAA T2X.

The minimum configuration requires an AMD Ryzen 5 1400 or Intel Core i5-6600 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a Radeon RX 470, GeForce GTX 970/1060, or Intel Arc A580 graphics card. The game also requires 115 GB of available storage space on an SSD.

To hit 90 FPS on high settings in multiplayer, the developers recommend a Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i7-8700K, 16 GB of RAM, and a Radeon RX 6600 XT, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, or Intel Arc B580 with 8 GB of VRAM.

A separate configuration is designated for ray tracing at high quality and 4K resolution with upscaling. This setup requires a Ryzen 7 3700X or Core i7-10700K, 32 GB of RAM, and a Radeon RX 9070 XT or GeForce RTX 5070 Ti with 16 GB of VRAM.

All configurations require a 64-bit Windows operating system, a broadband internet connection, and an SSD with at least 115 GB of free space.

Ray tracing will be available across all primary modes in Modern Warfare 4, including the campaign, multiplayer, and DMZ. The developers promise improved reflections, shadows, and lighting.

An Enhanced FOV feature is coming to PC. It uses physically correct lens effects to widen the field of view near the edges of the screen without altering the central FOV area. This lets players keep a relatively narrow field of view in the center while gaining extra visual information at the borders.

To improve combat visibility, the game also integrates HDR10+, allowing the engine to interact in real time with display brightness settings while automatically adjusting contrast and lighting.

Additionally, the developers added a new global sharpness slider for upscalers, extra settings for shadow quality and Filmic SMAA T2X, and improvements to Screen Space Reflections, shadow filtering quality, occlusion, and screen-space lighting.

Weapon effects have been redesigned as well. Muzzle flash visual effects are now dynamically masked around the aiming area to prevent obscuring enemies while maintaining image saturation.

Depth of field adjustment has been split into two parameters: World Depth of Field and Weapon Depth of Field. This keeps the surrounding world sharper while maintaining the depth-of-field effect when aiming down sights.

Weapon behavior has also changed. In previous titles, bullets could land at random points within a specific spread area. In Modern Warfare 4, shots are calculated based on the physical position of the gun barrel, making shooting more predictable both when aiming down sights and firing from the hip. Players can also opt to equip a laser module to better track bullet trajectories.

Modern Warfare 4 introduces a built-in benchmark tool. It runs a simulated multiplayer sequence while displaying real-time average frame rates, CPU and GPU load, ping, and input latency.

Once the test finishes, players receive detailed statistics broken down by different scene zones alongside configuration recommendations to improve performance in specific gameplay situations.

Perhaps the most significant change is that the game will no longer require constant restarts after downloading updates, finally leaving the “Update Requires Restart” jokes in the past.