Published October 29, 2026 - Updated October 29, 2026 - By Xilly

MW4 Optimization Guide: More FPS, Better 1% Lows (Free Pack)

Get Modern Warfare 4 launching, then fix stutters and FPS drops step by step: clean driver install, NVIDIA and Radeon settings, ReBAR, our tuned config file, Windows and BIOS. Free pack with every tool included.

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If Modern Warfare 4 stutters, or your FPS tanks the second a fight starts, it is almost always the same handful of settings. This guide walks through every one of them in order: getting the game to launch, a clean driver install, NVIDIA (or Radeon) settings, Resizable BAR, our tuned config file, Windows and finally the BIOS. On our Core i9 + RTX 5060 test PC it took the MW4 benchmark from 122 to 193 average FPS.

Step 0: MW4 will not launch? Turn on TPM and Secure Boot

If MW4 shows an error about TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot, one of them is off, and the game will not let you play online without both. If your game already launches, skip to Step 1.

Restart your PC and press Delete or F2 repeatedly to enter the BIOS.

• Intel: find PTT and set it to Enabled. On ASUS boards it is under Advanced → PCH-FW Configuration → PTT.
• AMD: the same setting is called fTPM. Set it to Enabled or Auto.
• Secure Boot: go to Boot → Secure Boot and enable it. On ASUS, set OS Type to Windows UEFI Mode, which turns it on.

Press F10 to save and exit, then launch the game again. Still getting the error? Your BIOS may need updating: follow our BIOS update video. A BIOS update resets every setting, so turn XMP or EXPO back on afterwards.

Step 1: Run a baseline benchmark

Before changing anything, get a starting number. Launch the game and let the shaders finish compiling, then go to Multiplayer.

1. Click the gear icon in the top right, then Graphics.
2. Open the Benchmark tool and start a run.
3. When it finishes, take a screenshot of the results. You will compare against it at the end.

Step 2: Clean driver install

This wipes your current graphics driver along with any tweaks from other guides, so you start from a clean slate.

NVIDIA: DDU

1. Extract the pack, open the "1 - DDU" folder and run Display Driver Uninstaller.
2. It will warn that you are not in Safe Mode. That is fine: click OK.
3. Set the device type to GPU and the vendor to NVIDIA.
4. Click Clean and restart.

Radeon: use Factory Reset instead

We do not recommend DDU on Radeon cards: it tends to cause issues there. Download the latest AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition from AMD, open Additional Options in the installer and tick Factory Reset. Then follow "5 - AMD/1 - Radeon GPU settings.txt" in the pack and skip to Step 5.

Step 3: Install the driver with NVCleanInstall

1. Open the "2 - NVCleanInstall" folder and launch NVCleanInstall.
2. Pick the latest driver. At the time of writing that is 621.01, the MW4 Game Ready driver. If it crashes or causes issues, come back and install 617.42 instead.
3. Click Next. Tick Legacy Control Panel, and keep HD Audio ticked if you use audio over HDMI.
4. Tick the NVIDIA App only if you use it, for example for DLSS overrides or other app-only features. Otherwise leave it unticked.
5. On the next page, tick only the first two options, then Next and Install.

No NVIDIA Control Panel when you right-click the desktop afterwards? Open the Microsoft Store, search for NVIDIA Control Panel and install it.

Step 4: NVIDIA Control Panel settings

First, right-click the desktop → Display settings → Advanced display, set your refresh rate to the highest value and click Keep changes. Then open NVIDIA Control Panel.

Using the NVIDIA App instead? The same settings are under Graphics → Global Settings.

Step 5: Resizable BAR (ReBAR) in Profile Inspector

1. Open the "3 - Nvidia Profile Inspector" folder and launch it.
2. In the Profiles box at the top, type Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 and select it.
3. Scroll down to rBAR - Feature and set it to Disabled.
4. Click Apply changes in the top right.

Only turn ReBAR on if you are GPU bound, meaning your graphics card is maxed out: playing at 4K, for example, or an RTX 3080 trying to run 1440p. If you are not GPU bound, leave it off. Your 1% lows are better with it off in MW4, the same as the last few Call of Duty games.

On our test PC, ReBAR on added about 10 average FPS, but the 1% and 5% lows stayed the same and CPU FPS dropped slightly. That is why we leave it off, on this PC and on our 9950X3D + RTX 5080 system.

Step 6: Install the MW4 config file

The config file in the pack sets nearly all of your graphics settings for you.

1. Close MW4.
2. Press Win + R, paste %localappdata%\Activision\Call of Duty\players and press Enter.
3. Back up your own s.1.0.cod26.txt by copying it somewhere safe.
4. Drag s.1.0.cod26.txt from the "4 - Config" folder into players and click Replace.
5. Launch MW4. If it asks to reset your settings because your hardware changed, click No. Yes undoes the config.

On a 6-core CPU, open the file in Notepad, find RendererWorkerCount and set it to 6. Pick your audio devices and monitor in game afterwards.

Step 7: In-game settings

The config handles almost everything, so you only need to check a few things under the gear icon → Graphics.

Step 8: Windows settings

• Right-click the desktop → Display settings → Graphics, and turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
• Search "power plan", open Choose a power plan and pick High performance. On a dual-CCD Ryzen 9 X3D (7950X3D, 9950X3D) stay on Balanced and follow our dual-CCD setup guide.
• Win + I → Apps → Installed apps: uninstall anything you do not use, especially software that runs in the background like Armoury Crate, Corsair iCUE, MSI Center and Copilot. These cause FPS drops.

Step 9: BIOS settings

Restart and press Delete or F2 to enter the BIOS. ASUS names are shown; other boards use similar names.

Intel

AMD Ryzen

Press F10 to save and exit. Prefer not to touch the BIOS yourself? That is exactly what our optimization service does.

Dual-CCD Ryzen 9 and laptops

On a dual-CCD Ryzen 9 like the 7950X3D or 9950X3D, keep Game Bar on and the Balanced power plan so MW4 runs on the V-Cache cores, or use Process Lasso. The full setup is in our Ryzen 9 X3D dual-CCD guide.

On a laptop, keep it plugged in and make sure MW4 runs on your dedicated graphics card, either in Windows Graphics settings or your laptop's own software. On an ASUS laptop, swap Armoury Crate for G-Helper, a lightweight open-source alternative.

Results: before vs after

Run the benchmark again and compare it with your Step 1 screenshot. Relaunch the game before each benchmark for the most consistent numbers.

A GPU overclock is close to free FPS in MW4, and RTX 50 series cards have a lot of headroom, especially on the memory. Every card is different, so follow our GPU overclock and undervolt guide.

Not seeing a difference? Post your CPU, graphics card and before and after numbers in our Discord and we will help. Most often the next step is a GPU overclock, or setting up a dual-CCD Ryzen 9 properly.

Common MW4 problems

• Packet burst: not an FPS problem. It is your connection or the servers. Use Ethernet and stop downloads on this PC and other devices.
• Stuttering after a game update: verify the game files, let the shaders rebuild and check that your config file was not replaced.
• Crashing: roll back to the previous driver (617.42) and remove any GPU overclock. If neither helps, your CPU or memory settings are probably unstable.
• Lower FPS than Black Ops 7: completely normal. MW4 runs on a different engine, so compare against your own before numbers, not BO7.

Next: Black Ops 7 PC optimization · Updated NVIDIA optimization guide · Ryzen Curve Optimizer undervolt guide

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