Call of Duty Modern Warfare II is the sequel to the Modern Warfare reboot and follows the story of Task Force 141 formed by Captain Price at the end of the previous game. The sequel brings much-requested improvements such as a new gun handling system, improved AI, new gunsmith and other graphical as well as gameplay improvements.
Modern Warfare II is a graphically intensive title that requires a lot of processing power to run smoothly and in order to get the best performance possible, you will need to tweak some settings to get the perfect experience.
This guide will tell you how to fix FPS drops, lags and stuttering in the game.
Fix FPS Drops, Lag & Stuttering – COD Modern Warfare 2
1. Update Windows & GPU Drivers
The first thing that you need to do is ensure that your Windows version and graphics drivers are up to date. More often than not, a simple update can fix issues causing stutters and lags resulting in a much smoother experience.
When updating your graphics drivers, tick the clean install option to ensure that you don’t face any issues after the update. You can update the drivers for your graphics card by visiting the respective manufacturer’s website: AMD, Intel or NVIDIA depending on the card that you have installed on your computer.
2. Verify the Integrity of Game Files (Steam)
The next thing that you should check is the integrity of the game files because often corrupted or missing files can result in poor performance or stutters during gameplay.
You can verify the integrity of the files on both Steam and Battle.net by following a few simple steps.
Just open your Steam library and find Call of Duty Modern Warfare II in the list. Right-click on it and select the Properties option. Access the Local Files tab and then click on the Verify Integrity of game files option.
Wait for the process to complete and it will ensure that your game files are up to date and complete.
If you are using the Battlenet version of the game, then you will be able to verify the game files by clicking on the Gear icon next to the play button and selecting the Scan and Repair option.
3. Enable Dedicated GPU and Hardware Acceleration
If you are a laptop user having two GPUs: integrated and dedicated then you need to select the dedicated GPU for the game.
Click on the Start button and type in Graphics in the search bar.
This will open the Graphics tab of the Display settings where you will be able to set the graphics option for each application installed on your computer. Click on the Change Default graphics settings option and enable Hardware acceleration by setting the toggle to on.
Go back to the previous menu and select the Desktop app option from the dropdown menu. Click on Browse and navigate to the folder where Call of Duty is installed to find COD.exe
This will add Call of Duty HQ to the list and you can then press the Options button to enable the dedicated GPU in the game.
Select the High-Performance option and press the Save button to apply the changes.
This will ensure that the game is using the dedicated GPU for improved performance.
4. Enable High-Performance Battery Power Plan
If you are using a gaming laptop then chances are that it is being underutilized because of your current power plan.
To take full advantage of your powerful machine, open the Control Panel→Hardware and Sound→Windows Power Options. Here you will be able to choose the High-Performance Power Plan to fully utilize the processing power of your computer.
You can also choose other power plans or create your own by clicking on the Show Additional Plans menu. This will allow you to select High Performance or even Ultimate Performance if it is available.
5. Disable Overlays
Many programs often have their overlays running in the background which consumes a lot of resources and affect the gaming performance of your computer.
You can disable these unnecessary overlays created by programs such as Steam, Discord, Xbox Game Bar that interfere with background resources and reduce your overall FPS.
6. Direct X Launch options
To use these launch options, open Steam then right-clicks on the game to select the Properties option. Enter -d3d11 or dx11 or dx12 to check whether there are any improvements in the performance.
You can also do this in the Battle.net version by selecting the game and then clicking on the Gear icon to open Settings. Click on the Additional Command line arguments and then enter these launch options there.
7. NVIDIA Control Panel Settings
If you are using an NVIDIA graphics card then you can further tweak your settings to get better performance. Right-click on your desktop and select the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Go to Manage 3D Settings and select Program settings. Choose Call of Duty from the dropdown menu or add it manually by pressing the Add button.
Use the settings mentioned below for the best performance:
Texture Filtering-Anisotropic Filtering Option: ON
Texture-Filtering Quality: Performance
Texture Filtering Tri-linear optimization: ON
Vertical Sync: OFF
That’s it, these are all the settings that you can tweak to improve the performance of your game!
