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I tested every graphics settings, here is the result:

By .-..---...-

Here you will find probably the best graphics settings in the game.

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.-..---...-
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Category: Characters, Co-op, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Loot, Maps or Levels, Modding or Configuration, Multiplayer, Weapons

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

Nov 26, 2022 @ 8:17am

Oct 31, 2023 @ 1:22pm

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Guide Index

Overview

Display Settings

Quality Settings

Fix CPU core usage in-game

Finally...

Comments

Display Settings

Display Mode:
Borderless Fullscreen
-No noticeable impact in frames per second or input lag compared to Fullscreen Exclusive;
-Better option for overall system usage;
-Recommend enabling "Optimization for windowed games" and "Hardware accelerated GPU scheduling" in Windows settings;
-If you're on Windows 10, recommend Fullscreen Exclusive.

Display Monitor:
Any
-Your preference.

Display Adapter:
Any
-Select your most powerful graphics card;
-Recommend checking if monitor's HDMI/DP cable is connected to the graphics card input instead of the motherboard.

Screen Refresh Rate:
Any
-Your preference;
-If Borderless Fullscreen is selected, the game will use what you configured in Windows.

Display Resolution:
Any
-Your preference;
-Recommend chosing around 1920x1080~2560x1440~3840x2160;
-If Borderless Fulscreen is selected, the game will use what you configured in Windows;
-Impacts frames per second.

Dynamic Resolution:
On
-Greatly increases frames per second;
-Worsens the edges of objects and image quality overall;
-Completely unnoticeable when combined with SMAA T2X Cinematic at LOW and FidelityFX CAS at 50, but I prefer the sharp effect with SMAA T2X at LOW;
-Recommend setting 2x your monitor Hz, as an example if your monitor is 144Hz, set this to 288.

Aspect Ratio:
Any
-Your preference;
-Recommend tweaking if you notice stretched or compressed images.

V-Sync (Gameplay):
Off
-Better input lag.

V-Sync (Menus):
Off
-Better input lag;
-It also applies to Shooting Range.

Custom Frame Rate Limit:
Custom
-Your preference;
-Menu Custom Frame Rate Limit also applies to Shooting Range;
-Recommend setting Out of Focus Custom Frame Rate Limit to 5.

Energy Saving:
Off
-This setting may cause FPS issues at Shooting Range, better off.

Restart Shader Optimization:
Select
-Good to occasionally select, specially after game/system/driver updates, and after tweaking graphic settings.

Display Gamma:
2.2(SRGB)
-Better option for monitors;
-Improves color accuracy.

Brightness:
Any
-Your preference;
-Recommend not setting too dark or too bright.

Focused Mode:
Any
-Your Preference.

High Dynamic Range (HDR):
On
-Couldn't test it;
-Improves color accuracy.

HDR Calibration:
Select
-Couldn't test it;
-Good to select, improves color accuracy.

Quality Settings

Quality Presets:
Custom
-You can choose Minimum and only change Texture Quality to high and enable On-Demand Texture Streaming, it's good enough nowadays (21 june 2023).

Render Resolution:
100
-Recommend setting 100~90;
-Increases frame per second if below 100.

Upscaling / Sharpening:
FidelityFX CAS
-Recommend setting 50~75, decreases around 1 frame per second;
-Recommend FSR 2.1 Performance, which increases frame per second a lot, worse image quality but it's not that bad honestly;
-Recommend DLSS, but couldn't test it.

Anti-Aliasing:
SMAA T2X Cinematic
-Vastly better than SMAA T2X;
-Decreases around 1 frame per second;
-Seems to improve graining issues.

Anti-Aliasing Quality:
Low
-Almost no difference between low and high;
-High decreases around 1 frame per second.

Video Memory Scale:
85
-Recommend 85 for multitasking;
-Recommend 90 if you only open the game, or if your graphics card is old.

Texture Resolution:
High
-Noticeably better than Normal, even at 1920x1080;
-Increases image quality a lot;
-No impact in frames per second, if your graphics card is 6GB.

Texture Filter Anisotropic:
High
-Eliminates blur from textures at some angles;
-No impact in frames per second.

Nearby Level Of Detail:
Any
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Distant Level Of Detail:
Any
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Clutter Draw Distance:
Any
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Particle Quality:
High
-Fixes particle pixelation;
-No impact in frames per second.

Particle Quality Level:
Low
-Very Low cuts too much particles;
-Low decreases around 5~20 frames per second, depending on the explosion.

Bullet Impacts & Sprays:
Any
-Your preference;
-No impact in frames per second.

Persistent Damage Layer:
On
-Seems to improve around 2 frames per second;
-Creates destruction effects on walls that don't go away, for example peeling paint from the wall, will remain until the end of the matches.

Shader Quality:
Low
-Noticeable decrease in graphics quality, but Low is enough;
-Gold is nice in Low quality now;
-High decreases around 7 frames per second.

Tesselation:
Any
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Terrain Memory:
Max
-Seems to improve around 3 frames per second at Max;
-No apparent change in graphics quality;
-There is a bug in this setting that after you save it appears blank, but the "Max" effect is still applied in the game.

On-Demand Texture Streaming:
On
-Fixes weapon and player textures blurriness;
-No impact in frames per second.

Streaming Quality:
Any
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Volumetric Quality:
Low
-Low is already enough;
-High decreases around 13 frames per second.

Deferred Physics Quality:
Off
-Off is already enough;
-Low is horrible, water waves stop abruptly in a circle around you;
-High decreases around 15 frames per second.

Water Caustics:
Off
-Off is already enough;
-Almost no difference with it On or Off;
-On decreases around 2 frames per second.

Shadow Map Resolution:
Very Low
-High fixes shadow pixelation, but you can only see shadow pixelation when you're super close from your own shadow;
-99% of the time you can't even see a difference between High and Very Low;
-Extremely noticeable worsening of shadow pixelation at Very Low on the new Shipment map, while other maps looks completely fine in VERY LOW;
-High decreases around 6 frames per second compared to Very Low.

Screen Space Shadows:
High
-Off creates fake, but sharp shadows and lighting in weapon and player hands;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings;
-High creates more real, but grainy shadows and lighting, but not too much grainy so I can recommend it.

Spot Shadow Quality:
High
-Fixes grainy rooms;
-No impact in frames per second.

Spot Cache:
Any
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Particle Lighting:
Any
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Ambient Occlusion:
Off
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-Both Ultra decreases 5 frames per second.

Screen Space Reflections:
Off
-Fake, but sharp reflections;
-Higher settings creates more real, but grainy reflections;
-High decreases 1 frame per second.

Static Reflection Quality:
High
-Sharper reflections;
-No impact in frames per second even at higher settings.

Weather Grid Volumes:
Off
-Can't see a difference in graphics quality even at higher settings;
-Ultra decreases 1 frame per second;
-Previously appeared to add wet effect when diving, but is no longer doing this.

Nvidia Reflex Low Latency:
On + Boost
-Improves input lag;
-Can increase frames per second.

Depth Of Field:
Any
-Your preference;
-No impact in frames per second.

World Motion Blur:
Any
-Your preference;
-No impact in frames per second;
-Can create an illusion of higher frame rate than it actually is;
-Enabling this option has been reported to fix freezes when jumping out of the plane in Warzone.

Weapon Motion Blur:
Any
-Your preference;
-No impact in frames per second;
-Can create an illusion of higher frame rate than it actually is;
-Enabling this option has been reported to fix freezes when jumping out of the plane in Warzone.

Film Grain:
0.00
-Decreases 1 frame per second if above 0.00.

Fix CPU core usage in-game

Go to your "Documents\Call of Duty\players" folder;
Open "options.3.cod22.cst" with a text editor;
Press CTRL + F to search for "Thread", and you should find something in the lines "RendererWorkerCount:0.0 = "?" // -1 to 16";
Where "?" you edit to the amount of cores your CPU actually has, if you don't know yours, just open Task Manager, go to Performance tab and click CPU, there you should see the amount of cores your CPU has;
This tweak improves around 5 up to 20 frames per second, depending on how wrong the CPU core count was before.It may not be beneficial to change this settings in the file if your CPU is from Intel.

Finally...

There you have it, the best Modern Warfare II I could setup. The goal wasn't to make it super beautiful, if that is your desire, just put everything on ultra, the goal was to get the highest amount of frames per second without looking like the game is broken/blurry/grainy, so, if you still want to get more frames per second, there's no secret, just lower everything.
I recommend taking a look at the Nvidia/AMD/Intel rendering settings, there are many settings that can improve the frames per second without changing anything in the image quality, and I also recommend you to update the graphics drivers and Windows, and I also recommend reviewing your Windows settings.

My Computer:

Nvidia GTX 1660Ti;

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X;

DDR4 2x8GB (16GB) RAM 3200Mhz;

M.2 SSD 1TB.

Results:

144fps on lighter maps like Farm 18;

113~138fps on heavier maps like Zarqwa Hydroelectric;

100~130fps in Warzone.

85 Comments

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dixiemusketeer Jun 24 @ 9:00am

screen refresh rate as any made me not continue

MannyMate Jan 30 @ 9:57pm

ive got bad packet burst someone help

Renners Jan 29 @ 2:37pm

We need an update for MW3.

.-..---...- [author] Oct 31, 2023 @ 1:32pm

Guide updated today

.-..---...- [author] Sep 25, 2023 @ 6:16pm

¡Hola! Este archivo no aparece en las carpetas de mi juego... Me imagino que es solo para algunas personas. Si este es tu caso, sí te recomiendo cambiarlo ahí también.

La Poderosisima Bocchi Sep 23, 2023 @ 7:37pm

hay que modificar 2 archivos el options.3.cod22.cst que mencionaste en la publicacion y el "options.3.codhq.cst"' en ambos se encuentra la configuracion de los nucleos del procesador, por si acaso los 2 archivos deberian ser editador con la misma informacion, saludos buen post uwu

.-..---...- [author] Aug 24, 2023 @ 8:38pm

@BeLu-_-XxXl Hello!
Could you please open those two folders in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Call Of Duty" and "C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Call Of Duty" and inspect which files are being affected? This can be a problem with Steam, and a reinstallation of Steam and the game can fix, maybe a folder permission can be the problem too, running steam as administrator can fix, it can be a problem with a virus or antivirus killing files, otherwise I don't have enough knowledge to help you out, sorry...

If you find which files are the trouble, report a bug with steam and activision.

Just one more thing, Steam has a history of every time downloading user configuration files of the game if you are "verifying files", since we tend to change them to our liking, every time Steam checks these files it accuses them as if they were corrupted because it is not as they expected and downloads the files again, this could also be the case.

BeLu-_-XxXl Aug 24, 2023 @ 7:56am

Hi,
the game installs and starts. The point is that during the game you can see fps drops. I tried everything and I have drops to 50 fps. On another platform, the game is stable and works perfectly. The problem is only on the STEAM platform. When verifying the game files there is a problem every time, the verification fails and it downloads 54 files. I immediately run re-verification and it's the same.
How to fix STEAM not to delete my game files. This reduces the smoothness and appearance of the game.

.-..---...- [author] Jun 28, 2023 @ 5:25am

Because if you put everything on low, play on 1080p but at 50% the original resolution with everything pixelated, you'll get around 60fps in some maps... but honestly NEVER trust the system requirements, I'm saying by experience for every game you play.

It can be the driver version you're using too. If where you live is too hot it can lower your fps, if your operating system is not well cleaned, debloated and organized can lower fps too. If you do not clean your computer frequently, ryzen 5 2600x is probably not enough for this game, you can search a video showing the difference between r5 2600x and r5 5600x and you'll see that you'll losing around 30fps just by the cpu, and other factors... but the main thing is that you trusted a "system requirement"

But sorry I don't have any other suggestion for you to have more fps... :(

aetherium. Jun 27, 2023 @ 9:51pm

if so, why my video card mentioned in recommended system requirements?...

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