Increasing the FPS (frames per second) in first-person shooter games has been a staple question for over two decades now. With PC, almost every “rig” has different components and varying performance, and we all know that FPS players tend to maximize their FPS by sacrificing some of the graphics quality just to get a smoother experience because stable 60 FPS is still the golden standard. In this guide, we’ll go over things you can do to increase your FPS in COD Modern Warfare 2.
How to Increase FPS in Call of Duty: MW2
When the obvious “just upgrade your components” advice doesn’t cut it (which is fairly reasonable, given the fact that GPU prices are still wild), you will need to work with what you got and try to get the best out of your current rig.
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Hardware & Software Checkup
This is just a short note to check your GPU drivers (check your manufacturer’s website for an official update tool if you do not have it installed already) and of course, to check if your Windows needs updating (Call of Duty probably won’t work on some older versions and you would be asked to update anyway).
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Video Settings for Best FPS
Once you dive into the settings, there are a lot of things you can tinker with.
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Display
- Display Mode: Borderless Windowed if you like to Alt+Tab a lot, Fullscreen if not.
- Display Monitor: Choose the Monitor you will be using to play (for multi-screen setups)
- Display Adapter: Choose the GPU that you will be using to play
- Screen Refresh Rate: This should be exactly the same as your Monitor’s refresh rate. Usually, these values vary, depending on the manufacturer and model of your Monitor, and some of them are 60 Hz, 75 Hz, 90 Hz, 120 Hz, 144 Hz, 240 Hz, etc.
- Display Resolution: Select the resolution that is native to your monitor. Today’s standard is 1920 x 1080, but there are some older monitors that have resolutions like 1680 x 1050, or perhaps, you have a bigger monitor (2560 x 1440, or 3840 x 2160). Of course, you can set a resolution that’s lower than your native monitor’s resolution if you are desperate, but in that case, make sure that your Display Mode is Fullscreen.
- Dynamic Resolution: Off
- Aspect Ratio: Automatic (or just set the one your Monitor is using)
- V-Sync (Gameplay): Off (unless you have screen tearing!)
- V-Sync (Menus): Off
- Custom Frame Rate Limit: Gameplay – 300, Menu – 60, Out of focus – not a relevant setting for gameplay
- Display Gamma: Set according to your preferences
- Brightness: Set according to your preferences
- Focused Mode: Off
- High Dynamic Range (HDR): Off
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Quality
- Quality Presets: Custom
- Render Resolution: 100 (unless you are getting desperate for more FPS do not touch this as it visibly ruins the graphics)
- Upscaling/Sharpening: FidelityFX CAS (Strength – between 75 and 85, you’ll need to test it on your PC)
- NVIDIA DLSS Preset: Quality
- AMD FSR 1.0 Preset: Ultra Quality
- NVIDIA DLSS Sharpness: 60
- Anti-Aliasing: SMAA T2X
- Anti-Aliasing Quality: Low
- Video Memory Scale: 90
- Texture Resolution: Very Low (experiment with Normal if your PC can take it)
- Texture Filter Anisotropic: Normal
- Nearby Level of Detail: High (we are focusing on things happening closer to us)
- Distant Level of Detail: Low (just to get the strain off our PC a bit)
- Clutter Draw Distance: Short
- Particle Quality: Low
- Particle Quality Level: Low
- Bullet Impacts & Sprays: Off
- Shader Quality: Low
- Tessellation: Off
- Terrain Memory: Max
- On-Demand Texture Streaming: Off
- Streaming Quality: Low
- Volumetric Quality: Low
- Deferred Physics Quality: Off
- Water Caustics: Off
- Shadow Map Resolution: Very Low
- Screen Space Shadows: Off
- Spot Shadow Quality: Low
- Spot Cache: Low
- Particle Lighting: Low
- Ambient Occlusion: Off
- Screen Space Reflections: Off
- Static Reflection Quality: Low
- Weather Grid Volumes: Off
- NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost
- Depth of Field: Off
- World Motion Blur: Off
- Weapon Motion Blur: Off
- Film Grain: 0.00 (unless you love it for some reason?)
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View
- Field of View (FOV): Lowest if your style involves camping and watching corners, highest if you are a fast-paced player that needs every bit of information around you. The rest of the settings under “View” are entirely up to you and your style.
That’s about it! Feel free to check out our other COD MW2 guides under the game tag below.
