Table of Contents
This is my updated Warzone performance guide to help you boost FPS in Warzone on PC in 2021! I show you the best COD Warzone settings for high FPS based on performance benchmarks of each graphical settings in the game. I also provide side-by-side comparisons of different graphical settings to assist you in choosing the best Warzone graphics settings to balance high performance and good visual quality.
All suggestions in this article are based on throughout benchmakring of live Warzone games (yes many a lives were spent for this) performed on the following two systems:
| Primary PC | Secondary PC | |
| CPU | i9-9900k @ 5GHz | i7-7700k @ stock |
| GPU | RTX2080 @ 1440p | GTX980 @ 1080p |
| Memory | 64GB 3600MHz C17 | 16GB 3000Mhz C15 |
My recommended settings are highlighted by bold text
2. General – Screen
Unlike other titles, in Modern Warfare Warzone a higher field of view (FOV) provides improved performance! This is likely due to the fact that the LOD (level of detail) of the world is drastically lowered when increaseing FOV, which counteracts the effect that “more” has to be drawn on screen in high FOV scenarious.
While performance literally scales linearly with increasing FOV in the regular multiplayer, in Warzone performance starts to decrease once again after about a FOV of 90-100. So if you wish to get the highest possible performance out of Warzone, play at a FOV or 90 regardless of your settings. I personally prefer playing at a FOV of 110 due to the added peripheral visual.
3. Graphics – Display
| Display mode | Windowed | Fullscreen | Fullscreen Borderless | Fullscreen Extended window * | |
| 134 (-2) | 136 | 136 | 136 | ||
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | |
| Display Adapter | Primary GPU | ||||
| Render Resolution | 50 (720p) | 75 (1080p) | 100 (1440p) | 150 (2160p) | 200 (2880p) |
| 177 (+36) | 174 (+33) | 141 | 88 (-53) | 57 (-84) | |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 127 (+33) | 111 (+17) | 94 | 59 (-35) | 39 (-55) |
| Aspect ratio | Automatic | ||||
| V-Sync | Disabled | ||||
| Custom Framerate Limit | Unlimited | ||||
| NVIDIA Highlights | Disabled | Enabled | |||
| Display Gamma | 2.2 (sRGB) |
4. Graphics – Details & Textures
| Texture Resolution | Very Low | Low | Normal | High |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 140 | 139 (-1) | 137 (-3) | 135 (-5) |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 91 | 89 (-2) | 89 (-2) | 88 (-3) |
| Texture Filter Anisotropic | Low | Normal | High | |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 139 | 138 (-1) | 138 (-1) | |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 94 | 94 | 94 | |
| Particle Quality | Low | High | ||
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 139 | 141 (+2) | ||
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 94 | 95 (+1) | ||
| Bullet Impact & Sprays | Disabled | Enabled | ||
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 137 | 136 (-1) | ||
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 94 | 94 | ||
| Tessellation | Disabled | Near | All | |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 137 | 136 (-1) | 136 (-1) | |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 94 | 94 | 94 | |
| On-demand Texture Streaming | Disabled with SQ Normal | Enabled with SQ Normal | Disabled with SQ Low | Enabled with SQ Low |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 136 | 136 | 136 (-1) | 137 |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 89 (-1) | 90 | 89 (-1) | 90 |
| Streaming Quality | Low | Normal | ||
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 138 | 137 (-1) | ||
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 91 | 89 (-2) |
5. Graphics – Shadow & Lighting
| Shadow Map Resolution | Low | Normal | High | Extra |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 135 | 133 (-2) | 129 (-6) | 124 (-11) |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 95 | 94 (-1) | 88 (-7) | 83 (-12) |
| Cache Spot Shadows | Disabled | Enabled | ||
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 137 | 137 | ||
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 95 | 96 (+1) | ||
| Cache Sun Shadows | Disabled | Enabled | ||
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 137 | 139 (+2) | ||
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 95 | 96 (+1) | ||
| Particle Lighting | Low | Normal | High | Ultra |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 138 | 138 | 138 | 138 |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 95 | 95 | 94 (-1) | 95 |
| DirectX Raytracing | Disabled | Enabled * | ||
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 138 | 98 (-40) | ||
| Ambient Occlusion | Disabled | Static Objects (GTAO) | Dynamic Objects (MDAO) | Both |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 136 | 131 (-5) | 135 (-1) | 130 (-6) |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 95 | 91 (-4) | 95 | 90 (-5) |
| Screen Space Reflection (SSR) | Disabled | Low | Normal | High |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 136 | 134 (-2) | 134 (-2) | 133 (-3) |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 95 | 94 (-1) | 94 (-1) | 94 (-1) |
* Note that enabling Raytracing forces Anti-Aliasing to Filmic SMAA T2X and AA can no longer be changed! Hence the actual performance decrease solely due to Raytracing is lower than stated above (-16FPS).
6. Graphics – Post Processing Effects
| Anti-Aliasing | Off | SMAA 1X | SMAA T2X | Filmic SMAA T2X |
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 136 | 132 (-4) | 122 (-14) | 119 (-17) |
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 95 | 91 (-4) | 86 (-9) | 84 (-11) |
| Depth of Field | Disabled | Enabled | ||
| i9-9900k & RTX2080 | 137 | 134 (-3) | ||
| i7-7700k & GTX980 | 91 | 88 (-3) | ||
| Filmic Strength | 1 | |||
| World Motion Blur | Disabled | Enabled | ||
| Weapon Motion Blur | Disabled | Enabled | ||
| Film Grain | 0 |