Is Modern Warfare 2 lagging, stuttering, or having FPS drops?
Are you having lag spikes while playing the game?
Modern Warfare 2 is one of the most-hyped Call of Duty games.
Since its release, the game has had multiple known issues.
Some of the known issues are the campaign mode not saving, crashes, error codes, and more.
In this guide, you’ll learn why you’re lagging in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) and how to fix stuttering and FPS drops.
Why is Modern Warfare 2 lagging or stuttering?
Modern Warfare 2 is lagging or stuttering either your graphics card is outdated or your video/graphics settings are too high.
An outdated graphics card cannot support the game while high video settings will decrease the game’s performance.
You can also try connecting to an Ethernet cable instead of connecting to a Wi-Fi network.
Many users are complaining that COD MW2 is lagging on Twitter.
“Are there any other PC players experiencing major lag issues in MW2? I’m dropping an insane amount of frames and I can’t figure out why”.
“Does anyone know how to fix the lag at the beginning of MW2? It’ll lag for a couple of seconds and then it’ll be fine for the rest of the game, and it’s every map. All of my settings are normal or low and my GPU/CPU is fine”.
“I was lagging badly in Warzone before the launch, then lagging badly in MW2. During the last game I had no lag, but now it keeps kicking me out while I’m trying to join matches”.
How to fix lag in Modern Warfare 2
To fix lag in Modern Warfare 2, you need to update your graphics card, lower your display settings, and lower your quality settings.
You can also try closing all of your tabs and deleting temporary files.
Keep in mind that MW2 has a high minimum requirement for PC.
The game requires a minimum processor of Intel® Core™ i3-6100 / Core™ i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200.
In addition, your GPU needs to be at least an NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960 or AMD Radeon™ RX 470 – DirectX 12.0 compatible system.
If you don’t meet the minimum requirements, you’ll encounter a lot of issues while you’re in-game.
Fix 1: Update your graphics card
- For Nvidia: Go to https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/download/ > Download Now > open the app > sign up or log in > Drivers > Download.
- For AMD: Go to https://www.amd.com/en/support > Download > open the app > follow the on-screen instructions to update your GPU.
Fix 2: Lower the display settings
- Display mode: Fullscreen borderless
- Display monitor: Default
- Display adapter: Default:
- Dynamic resolution: Off
- Aspect ratio: Automatic
- V-sync (gameplay): Off
- V-sync (menus): Off
- Custom frame rate limit: Custom
- Gameplay custom frame rate limit: 60 (for low-end PCs) and 120+ (for high-end PCs).
- Menu custom frame rate limit: 60 (recommended).
- Out-of-focus custom frame rate limit: 5
Fix 3: Lower the quality settings
- Quality presets: Recommended
- Render resolution: Default
- Upscaling / Sharpening: Default
- Upscaling / Sharpening preset: Performance (for low-end PCs) and Quality (for high-end PCs).
- All Details & Textures (Texture resolution, Texture filter anisotropic, Nearby level of detail, etc.): Low (for low-end PCs)
- All Shadow & Lighting (Shadow map resolution, screen space shadows, spot shadow quality, etc.): Low (for low-end PCs).
- Post-processing effect (Depth of field, World motion blur, weapon motion blur): Off.
Fix 4: Close all of your tabs
- Close all of your current tabs before launching the game (e.g. Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox).
- If you have too many tabs or background processes running, your PC’s RAM might be overloaded which can cause MW2 to lag or stutter.
Fix 5: Delete temporary files
- Search for %temp% using the Windows search bar.
- Press CTRL + A on your keyboard.
- Right-click a file.
- Select “Delete”.
- Select “Yes”.
Further reading
How to Fix Modern Warfare 2 Not Launching, Crashing, or Freezing
