Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23 on PC alongside PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.

Infinity Ward is partnering with Beenox on the PC version and has already published hardware requirements alongside several PC-specific rendering features.

The minimum still starts with a GTX 970

Current minimum requirements list a Ryzen 5 1600 or Core i5-8400, 12GB of RAM and either a Radeon RX 470, GeForce GTX 970 or GTX 1060, or Intel Arc A580.

Activision requires at least 3GB of VRAM and an SSD with 70GB of free space at launch.

DirectX 12 support and a broadband internet connection are mandatory.

The recommended specification explicitly targets 60fps

For 60 frames per second in most situations, Activision recommends a Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i7-8700 with 16GB of RAM.

Graphics hardware moves to a Radeon RX 6700 XT, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or Intel Arc B580 with 8GB of video memory.

The company does not attach that recommendation to one fixed resolution and preset, but it does explicitly identify 60fps as the target.

High-end PCs receive substantially more ray tracing

Infinity Ward is also promising options extending far beyond the recommended profile.

High-end systems can enable expanded real-time ray tracing across Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ, including improvements to reflections, ambient occlusion, shadows and volumetric rendering.

Higher-fidelity visual-effects and volumetric settings are also planned for powerful hardware.

DLSS 4.5 joins multiple upscaling and frame-generation options

Activision confirms multiple upscaling and frame-generation technologies and specifically names DLSS 4.5 support for compatible hardware.

Those options are intended both to recover performance from expensive visual settings and to push higher frame rates for competitive players.

Infinity Ward and Beenox are also adding competitive-focused options built around responsiveness and visual clarity rather than maximum image quality.

Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 are mandatory

The most unusual hardware barrier has little to do with graphics.

Modern Warfare 4 requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, with Activision warning that additional security measures may also be enforced.

Intel and AMD processors must support AVX instructions, while Intel Arc GPUs require Resizable BAR.

Infinity Ward is also targeting small PC frustrations

The studio promises shader preparation ahead of play, further attention to mouse responsiveness and image clarity, and significantly fewer interruptions caused by the familiar update-requires-restart process.

That last improvement may sound trivial beside ray tracing, but it directly addresses one of Call of Duty's most persistent PC annoyances.

Switch 2 is not simply receiving a low-settings PC port

Modern Warfare 4 also marks Call of Duty's return to Nintendo hardware after more than a decade.

Infinity Ward and Digital Legends are developing the Nintendo Switch 2 version natively. Activision has already run a beta on the system including Multiplayer and a campaign mission.

Tokyo Game Show attendees in Japan can also play the Multiplayer build before launch.

The campaign may become the showcase for the highest PC settings

The new TGS trailer features night operations, dense smoke, urban lighting and large battlefield scenes, precisely the conditions where advanced volumetrics, shadows and reflections should become most visible.

Independent analysis will still be needed to determine the real cost of those options and the quality of each upscaling implementation.

On paper, Modern Warfare 4 is preserving Call of Duty's familiar technical contradiction: run on relatively old hardware while still giving modern GPUs enough settings to keep them busy.