Modern Warfare 3 minimum and recommended PC requirements
Image Credit: Bethesda
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Modern Warfare 3 minimum and recommended PC requirements
Image via Activision

Modern Warfare 3 minimum and recommended PC requirements

See if your PC is up to the task

The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is just around the corner, and before that date comes, Activision has released the official list of PC requirements. The PC requirements let you know exactly what hardware you need in your computer to run the game, so it’s vital all PC users check them at least briefly.

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As always, there are two sets of specifications, minimum and recommended. The minimum specifications let you know what hardware you need to run Modern Warfare 3 at a low resolution with low settings. If you just barely meet the minimum specs, you can expect around 30-40 frames per second. However, the recommended specs let you run MW3 at 60 fps with high settings at crisp 1080p resolution.

To see the full list of PC requirements for MW3, check out the guide below.

Modern Warfare 3 PC requirements

In addition to the minimum and recommended specification lists, there’s a third list that details what hardware players need if they want to run at a high frame rate or resolution. This list is mainly meant for those who wish to game at 1440p/4K or competitive players looking to gain an edge with a high frame rate.

Below, you can see the minimum, recommended, and competitive/ultra PC specification lists for MW3.

Modern Warfare 3 PC minimum specifications

  • OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update)
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 32 GB
  • Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 / GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon RX 470
  • Video Memory: 2 GB
  • Storage: SSD with 149GB available space (78GB if COD HQ and Warzone are already installed)

As previously stated, these are the specs you need to meet to run MW3 on a low resolution with low settings and likely around 30-40 FPS. You might be able to squeeze a bit more performance out of your PC with some FPS-boosting tricks, but this set of hardware is fairly outdated in 2023, so don’t expect much.

  • OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update)
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
  • RAM: 16 GB
  • Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 32 GB
  • Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080Ti / RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600XT
  • Video Memory: 8 GB
  • Storage: SSD with 149GB available space (78GB if COD HQ and Warzone are already installed)

If you meet these specs, you can run MW3 at the standard 1080p, 60 FPS with medium-high settings. You won’t achieve too high of a framerate, but your game will run smooth and look nice as well.

Modern Warfare 3 PC competitive/ultra specifications

  • OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update)†
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
  • RAM: 16 GB
  • Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 64 GB
  • Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / RTX 4070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800XT
  • Video Memory: 10 GB
  • Storage: SSD with 149GB available space (78GB if COD HQ and Warzone are already installed)

If you’re looking to play MW3 at a competitive level or just want to play at a higher resolution, you need to meet or surpass these specs. The current competitive meta calls for players to use a high refresh rate monitor and you need to achieve a high FPS to make use of this refresh rate. With these specs, you should be able to achieve anywhere from 100-200 FPS at 1080p. Anything higher than these specs and you can start using 1440p while still maintaining a high FPS.

You also need to have the following requirements for any of the specification lists:

  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Sound Card: DirectX compatible
PC requirements for Modern Warfare 3. Image via Activision

And there you have it, the complete list of PC requirements for MW3. It’s certainly not the most demanding specifications, especially the minimum and recommended lists. However, if you want to play using a high refresh rate or at higher resolutions, you will need a fairly modern PC.

Author
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Joey Carr
Joey Carr is a full-time writer for multiple esports and gaming websites. He has 7+ years of experience covering esports and traditional sporting events, including DreamHack Atlanta, Call of Duty Championships 2017, and Super Bowl 53.