Having clear visuals and smooth FPS is key to dominating in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 so here are the best PC settings for MW3 to enhance your FPS, graphics, visibility, and more.
Modern Warfare 3 brings players back to classic MW2 2009 maps with brand-new weapons and highly requested changes such as the Ninja Perk and classic minimap.
To fully enjoy all the content, it’s essential to optimize your PC’s performance. While cranking up the settings to their maximum can deliver breathtaking visuals, you might find your game suffers from low FPS and stuttering issues.
So, here are the best Modern Warfare 3 PC settings to help you boost your FPS while making sure the game feels and looks great.
Modern Warfare 3 PC system requirements
Before you jump into Modern Warfare 3 and start adjusting the settings, you can check out the system requirements:
Best MW3 graphics settings for low-end hardware
ActivisionHaving the best graphic settings in Modern Warfare 3 will help you dominate your enemies.
Display
- Display Mode: Fullscreen Exclusive
- Display Monitor: Your primary gaming monitor
- Display Adaptor: Your graphics card
- Screen Refresh Rate: Refresh rate of your monitor (e.g. 144)
- Display Resolution: Your monitor’s resolution (e.g. 2560×1440)
- Aspect Ratio: Automatic
- V-Sync: Off
- Display Gamma: 2.2 (sRGB)
- Brightness: 55 (adjust for your preference)
- NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost
Sustainability
- Eco Mode Preset: Custom
- V-Sync (Gameplay): Off
- V-Sync (Menus): Off
- Custom Frame Rate Limit: Custom
- Gameplay Custom Frame Rate Limit: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g. 144)
- Menu Custom Frame Rate Limit: 120
- Out of Focus Custom Frame Rate Limit: 30
- Focused Mode: Off
High Dynamic Range
- High Dynamic Range (HDR): Off
Global Quality
- Quality Presets: Custom
- Render Resolution: 100
- Dynamic Resolution: Off
- Upscaling/Sharpening: FidelityFX CAS
- FidelityFX CAS Strength: 80
- Anti-Aliasing: FILMIC SMAA T2X
- Anti-Aliasing Quality: Normal
- VRAM Scale Target: 80
- Variable Rate Shading: On
Details & Textures
- Texture Resolution: Low
- Texture Filter Anisotropic: Medium
- Detail of Field: Off
- Detail Quality Level: Low
- Particle Resolution: Normal
- Bullet Impacts: On
- Persistent Effects: Off
- Shader Quality: Medium
- On-Demand Texture Streaming: Off
- Local Texture Streaming Quality: Low
Shadow & Lighting
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Screen Space Shadows: Low
- Ambient Occlusion: Both
- Screen Space Reflections: Off
- Static Reflection Quality: Medium
Environment
- Tessellation: Near
- Terrain Memory: Medium
- Volumetric Quality: Medium
- Deferred Physics Quality: Off
- Weather Grid Volumes: Normal
- Water Quality: Default
View
- Field of View: 105
- ADS Field of View: Affected
- Weapon Field of View: Wide
- Vehicle Field of View: Wide
Camera
- World Motion Blur: Off
- Weapon Motion Blur: Off
- Film Grain: 0
- 1st Person Camera Movement: Default (100%)
- Spectator Camera: Game Perspective
- Inverted Flashbang: On
Best MW3 graphics settings for high-end hardware
ActivisionWith high-end hardware you can have MW3 looking nice without sacrificing FPS.
Display
- Display Mode: Fullscreen Exclusive
- Display Monitor: Your primary gaming monitor
- Display Adaptor: Your graphics card
- Screen Refresh Rate: Refresh rate of your monitor (e.g. 144)
- Display Resolution: Your monitor’s resolution (e.g. 2560×1440)
- Aspect Ratio: Automatic
- V-Sync: Off
- Display Gamma: 2.2 (sRGB)
- Brightness: 55 (adjust for your preference)
- NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost
Sustainability
- Eco Mode Preset: Custom
- V-Sync (Gameplay): Off
- V-Sync (Menus): Off
- Custom Frame Rate Limit: Custom
- Gameplay Custom Frame Rate Limit: Your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g. 144)
- Menu Custom Frame Rate Limit: 120
- Out of Focus Custom Frame Rate Limit: 30
- Focused Mode: Off
High Dynamic Range
- High Dynamic Range (HDR): Off
Global Quality
- Quality Presets: Custom
- Render Resolution: 100
- Dynamic Resolution: Off
- Upscaling/Sharpening: FidelityFX CAS
- FidelityFX CAS Strength: 80
- Anti-Aliasing: FILMIC SMAA T2X
- Anti-Aliasing Quality: Normal
- VRAM Scale Target: 80
- Variable Rate Shading: On
Details & Textures
- Texture Resolution: Medium
- Texture Filter Anisotropic: Medium
- Detail of Field: Off
- Detail Quality Level: Medium
- Particle Resolution: Normal
- Bullet Impacts: On
- Persistent Effects: Off
- Shader Quality: Medium
- On-Demand Texture Streaming: Off
- Local Texture Streaming Quality: Low
Shadow & Lighting
- Shadow Quality: Normal
- Screen Space Shadows: Low
- Ambient Occlusion: Both
- Screen Space Reflections: Off
- Static Reflection Quality: Medium
Environment
- Tessellation: Near
- Terrain Memory: Medium
- Volumetric Quality: Medium
- Deferred Physics Quality: Off
- Weather Grid Volumes: Normal
- Water Quality: Default
View
- Field of View: 110
- ADS Field of View: Affected
- Weapon Field of View: Wide
- Vehicle Field of View: Wide
Camera
- World Motion Blur: Off
- Weapon Motion Blur: Off
- Film Grain: 0
- 1st Person Camera Movement: Default (100%)
- Spectator Camera: Game Perspective
- Inverted Flashbang: On
How to update graphics drivers for MW3
ActivisionRunning Modern Warfare 3 on your PC with an outdated graphics driver can lead to significant problems. To achieve the best gameplay experience, we highly recommend ensuring that your graphics drivers are updated to their latest version, and here’s how:
How to update NVIDIA graphics driver
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, the GeForce Experience app will handle this for you.
- Download GeForce experience through NVIDIA.com.
- Launch GeForce experience.
- Select the ‘Drivers’ tab.
- Click ‘Check for updates’ in the upper right corner.
- If an update is available, simply follow the steps.
How to update AMD graphics driver
If you have an AMD GPU, you can use the Radeon Settings to update your drivers.
- Right-click on your desktop.
- Select AMD Radeon Settings.
- Click on the Home icon.
- Click ‘New Updates’ on the bottom left.
- Select ‘Check for update.’
- If an update is available, simply follow the steps.