Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Specs & PC Requirements

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (or MW2 for short) is the 2022 remaster of the previously successful sixth instalment in the Call of Duty franchise of the same name. It is a direct sequel to the equally popular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and recently held its open beta weekend for early access players ahead of its full release on October 28th.

In preparation, Infinity Ward revealed the minimum and recommended PC requirements so players could ensure their systems were up to scratch. Fortunately, these specs aren’t overly strenuous. But, as with most PC games, if you’re looking to crank up the settings to their maximum and play at 4K with high frame rates, you won’t be able to get away with a machine with a decade-old GPU. 

However, being that these specs were tied to the beta, changes may be made upon the game’s full release to better reflect the kind of PC builds that are optimised to provide smooth gameplay.

If you find that your current PC doesn’t hit the specifications in the tables below, you may need to think about either upgrading individual components, or simply upgrading to a new PC entirely. Both of these options can be fulfilled by us here at Chillblast, and we even have a dedicated list of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 PCs that we think will provide a top-notch experience, no matter your budget.

However, until we know more, these are the minimum and recommended PC specs you should aim for to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

But first, what is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2?

This 2022 release of Modern Warfare 2 is a remaster of the fan favourite of the same name initially released back in 2009. It follows in the footsteps of its 2019 remastered prequel, Modern Warfare, and its story picks up directly from where MW left it.

Activision Blizzard has stated that its campaign drops players into an “unprecedented global conflict that features the return of the iconic operators of Task Force 141”. So that means players will get to fight alongside legendary squad members: Captain John Price, Sgt. Kyle “Gaz” Garrick, Lt. Simon “Ghost” Riley, Sgt. John “Soap” MacTavish, and an all-new squadmate in Colonel Alejandro Vargas.

Additionally, alongside an engaging single-player campaign, MW2 will also offer players other modes of play including the typical online multiplayer mode, plus Warzone 2.0 – the evolution of their Battle Royale experience with a brand-new play space and sandbox mode.

With this new remaster, Infinity Ward promises to bring fans “state-of-the-art gameplay, with all-new gun handling, an advanced AI system, a new Gunsmith and a suite of other gameplay and graphical innovations that elevate the franchise to new heights”.

As suggested by the minimum and recommended specs below, it shouldn’t be too strenuous to get these “graphical innovations” up and running. But, as always, if you want the smoothest gameplay experience at higher resolutions and higher fidelity settings, a decent system is a must.

Modern Warfare 2 Minimum System Requirements

This table outlines the Modern Warfare 2 minimum PC requirements that Infinity Ward states will get the game up and running and should provide a 1080p experience, albeit at the lowest settings.

However, both the CPU and GPU options are multiple years (and generations) old now. Although that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of playing modern games, as these specs clearly show, it does suggest that just about any gaming PC from the past five(ish) years will have no trouble getting this game up and running.

If your PC just meets these specifications, however, you will need to be content with the lowest settings. You’ll only be able to play at around 1080p at 30 FPS with pretty much all the settings on low. Plus, the lower-than-desired frame rate will have an impact on your gameplay experience as you’ll start to feel your sluggish reaction times in comparison to your enemies playing on more powerful PCs.

Modern Warfare 2 Recommended System Requirements

Systems that fall within these recommended specifications will likely provide a better gameplay experience at 1080p, raising framerates from those achieved using the minimum specs, whilst maintaining visual integrity. However, you’ll still have to play with settings around the medium to low mark in order to avoid stuttering and to give yourself the highest amount of frames per second.

Saying this, however, if you really want to achieve the best FPS whilst not sacrificing on graphical settings, you will need to look at PCs with more powerful parts, ideally from the most recent generations. Opting for a 12th gen CPU and 3000 series GPU (or even waiting for the upcoming 13th gen and 4000 series) will stand you in better stead when it comes to playing fast, competitive shooters like MW2.

Do remember though that these are the specifications for the beta, so things could change upon the game’s full release. Most likely, it’ll be the disk space required. Call of Duty games are notorious for requiring 100GB+ of storage space, so keep that in mind when looking at your current storage setup, or that of the PC you may be thinking of upgrading to.

Stick to the recommended side of things

Keeping this in mind, we’d recommend aiming to achieve the recommended specifications or higher, bypassing the list of minimum specifications entirely.

Even with games that list rather undemanding requirements, you’ll almost always be better off aiming for the most up-to-date components. Both to ensure you get the best gameplay experience possible, and to give your system the most amount of future-proofing – especially when it comes to games that benefit from both intense graphical and frame rate needs.

If you are stuck when it comes to choosing a graphics card, this article comparing AMD and Nvidia GPUs could help narrow down your choices. As can this article about the decision between Intel or AMD CPUs.

Invest in fast storage options

Lastly, as the full game will likely be a very large file that requires smooth loading in order for an efficient play experience, we recommend getting an SSD to store it on.

Preferably an M.2 NVMe SSD as these are the fastest, but unfortunately, large-capacity drives do get rather expensive. If your budget can’t stretch that far or you’d rather spend that extra bit of money on a different component, a SATA SSD will do the job too as it still has a much faster drive speed than HDDs.

This article on PC storage types can provide you with a more in-depth understanding of how they perform and how they differ from their HDD counterparts.

What does Chillblast recommend?

Overall, the recommended specifications listed by Activision Blizzard will no doubt provide you with a good experience. But, if you really want to amp it up and get the best experience you can, we’d suggest heading to our dedicated Modern Warfare 2 PCs page to browse our range of PCs that offer a stellar gameplay experience for a wide array of budgets.

If you need any further help building the PC to play this, and other games you’re excited about, get in touch with Chillblast and our system-building experts will walk you through everything you need.