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Will Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Run on Your Laptop?

There's more to a great PC gaming experience than hitting the minimum specs.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
2 min read
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on a laptop
Dan Ackerman/CNET

With so many highly anticipated holiday 2022 games delayed until next year, there are really only a handful of big releases this season. That short list includes God of War: Ragnarok, Gotham Knights and the latest installment in one of gaming's longest-running franchises, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Of these, Modern Warfare 2 is the most likely to wow graphics fans, especially running on a high-powered gaming PC. If you've got a budget gaming laptop, you should still be able to run the game, but it won't look nearly as nice. If you have a laptop or desktop without a discrete graphics card from Nvidia or AMD, there's no chance. You should stick to the console version, as the game is also available on the PlayStation and Xbox platforms. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 $69 at Best Buy

Activision actually lists four different sets of specs to consider for PC players. They include the usual minimum and recommended specs, but also a separate set for competitive gamers (online multiplayer) and another set specifically for 4K gaming. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 specs

MinimumRecommendedCompetitiveUltra 4K
Operating system Windows 10 64-bitWindows 10 64-bit/Windows 11 64-bitWindows 10 64-bit/Windows 11 64-bitWindows 10 64-bit/Windows 11 64-bit
CPU Intel Core i3-6100/i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 3 1200Intel Core i5-6600K/Core i7-4770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800XIntel Core i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
RAM 8GB12GB16GB16GB
Storage space 72GB at launch72GB at launch72GB at launch72GB at launch
Hi-Res assets cache Up to 32GBUp to 32GBUp to 32GBUp to 64GB
Video card Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XTNvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
Video memory 2GB4GB8GB10GB
Recommended GPU driver version Nvidia: 516.59; AMD: 22.9.1Nvidia: 516.59; AMD: 22.9.1Nvidia: 516.59; AMD: 22.9.1Nvidia: 516.59; AMD: 22.9.1

There's a handy benchmark app built into the PC version of the game, so you can try different combinations of graphics settings and see how they affect performance. You can find the app under Multiplayer in the game's main menu. Below are the results from running the game at the Ultra settings preset on the Alienware x15 R2 gaming laptop. 

This Alienware system has an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU and Nvidia RTX 3070Ti GPU. The game ran great, no complaints, with an average frame rate of 82fps. I'll follow up when I have a chance to download the game on other gaming laptops. 

Call of Duty MW 2 benchmark screenshot
Screenshot by Dan Ackerman/CNET