Why is Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) So Laggy? – Answered

Regardless of playing on consoles or on a powerful high-end PC, many players have reported issues during their Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 matches where some unusual lag spikes would appear often. Is there a concrete reason for that to happen or is it just a random occurrence?

Why is MW3 Lagging So Much?

There are many reasons for lag spikes in a game, but these are usually related to the game servers. As MW3 was a highly-awaited title and many players were ready to jump on it as soon as it officially launched, servers were most likely overstressed by a massive influx of new players, causing some not-so-pleasing experiences for most of them.

The infamous Packet Burst issue has surfaced recently, where your game receives way more data than it should. This also contributed to a worse overall performance and lag for all platforms, but we got you covered with a swift solution for this one too.

Poor Optimization of MW3 Online Modes

Other reasons to be pointed out include poor optimization for the game’s online modes, which would be reasonable considering how small the release window between MW2 and MW3 was, and maybe the new updated Multiplayer modes weren’t ready for release just yet. If that’s the case, this may also be fixed eventually, so keep your eyes out for updates.

MW3 Connection Issues

But with some rare exceptions, these issues are often related to connection. Some quick solutions would be to restart your Internet modem or just relaunch the game. Drastic cases might have you reinstalling the full game altogether, but let’s hope that’s not the case with that huge file size the game boasts.

Graphics Settings for MW3

While players are reportedly experiencing lag in MW3 even on low graphical settings, higher graphical settings certainly won’t help as they put increased stress on your console / PC. You can try reducing the amount of lag you’re experiencing by lowering some of the more demanding settings. For the highest FPS (while still looking visually decent), we recommend the following Quality settings:

• Render Resolution: 100.
• Dynamic Resolution: Off.
• Upscaling / Sharpening: FidelityFX CAS.
• VRAM Scale Target: 80.
• Variable Rate Shading: Off.
• Texture Resolution: Normal.
• Texture Filter Anisotropic: High.
• Depth of Field: Off.
• Detail Quality Level: Normal.
• Particle Resolution: Very Low.
• Bullet Impacts: On.
• Persistent Effects: Off.
• Shader Quality: Medium.
• On-Demand Texture Streaming: Off.
• Local Texture Streaming Quality: Low.
• Shadow Quality: Low or Normal.
• Screen Space Shadows: Off.
• Ambient Occlusion: Off.
• Screen Space Reflections: Off.
• Static Reflection Quality: Low.
• Tessellation: Off.
• Terrain Memory: Min.
• Volumetric Quality: Low.
• Deferred Physics Quality: Off.
• Weather Grid Volumes: Off.
• Water Quality: Off.

Whatever the exact reason for the lag spikes, MW3 is far from unplayable even with those. They should also be gone soon, so you won’t have to struggle with that much longer while running for your life in Zombies mode.