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Given that the difference between winning and losing a firefight in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is measured in fractions of a second, players will be looking for any edge they can get. And this is done by sacrificing every possible ounce of graphical fidelity in exchange for performance. Some non-minimums are understandable. For example, players will need to differentiate between a helmet and the grass. Compensations have been made in this guide to adjust for this.
Naturally, these settings are dependent upon the player’s specific PC. Some setups don’t suffer any framerate drops at all for graphical settings just off of the minimum. Each gamer needs to make that determination on their own. Start with these settings and monitor performance carefully when increasing them.
Display
Fullscreen Exclusive is the first and most meaningful change that can be made. When it is set, all resources will be poured into making the game look better at the expense of anything running in the background. That’s a no-brainer as the graphics of everything in the background are unimportant during a game.
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Setting the gameplay custom framerate is also a big deal. Creating a limit is senseless; let the framerate be as high as it can possibly be during a game. For the menus and out of focus (when the game is minimized or tabbed out) is much less important, cap those to give the GPU a break in between games.
Brightness at 80 might seem high, but this is a simple way to distinguish between opponents and the environment. Set at the recommended 50, players are often indistinguishable from the shadows or against a darker backdrop. Too high and then the opposite problem occurs; light backgrounds make it hard to differentiate. Split the difference and go for a 75. Barring a new game mode that creates extra light or darkness, this is a healthy place to do.
Quality
Full disclosure: The game will look awful with these settings. However, it will be smooth and ridiculously easy to tell the difference between a player and the environment. For gamers who simply can’t bare to look at a game this bad, consider turning the very low settings up to low.
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The big difference-maker here is in letting the upscaling/sharpening use FidelityFX CAS and setting the strength to 100. This will create an extremely precise outline of opponents and their bodies, eliminating any blur between the model and the background.
To play against weaker opponents when using a mouse and keyboard, be sure to enable crossplay. The combination of the crisp and smooth settings with a superior aiming device can’t be beaten.
View
The field of view may be the most important setting in the game. Being able to see more is a specific advantage, always set this to the maximum value. Make the field of view wide to shrink the amount of space the gun takes up on the screen, further increasing visibility. Some of the best perks rely on seeing enemies clearly, making them even better.
Some players prefer to fight in 3rd person mode. If this is the case, the same rules apply, set the field as high as it can go.
Camera movement set to least will greatly reduce the disruptive nature of explosions visually. There is no way to reduce recoil or weapons shaking due to taking fire, but stopping the screen from shaking so much is certainly advantageous as players battle through this. Coupling this with the best aim sensitivity settings gives players unparalleled control.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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