Activision posted the PC requirements for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on October 1, 2026, and the line that will brick the most machines is not the graphics card. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required. The support article says other security checks may be enforced too. If those switches are off in your BIOS, the rest of this list does not matter yet.
The game launches Friday, October 23, 2026. The May 28 announcement puts it on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. It is not coming to PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Infinity Ward leads development. Beenox is the PC partner. Digital Legends is building the Switch 2 version. These specs are for desktop PCs. A laptop can carry a similar chip name and still be a different, unsupported part. Check the machine, not the sticker.
If you want a shooter that is already running on PC instead of a spec sheet, Gears of War: E-Day early access is live for Premium players. Modern Warfare 4 is the one that still wants a month and a firmware checklist.
Three tiers, one hard floor
Every tier needs a broadband connection, DirectX 12, and an SSD with 115 GB free at launch. More space can show up once patches start. Only Intel and AMD CPUs with the AVX instruction set are supported. Intel Arc cards also need Resizable BAR. Trial, beta, and Insider builds of Windows may not work. The sheet is for launch and Activision says it can change.
The minimum, meaning the PC that can start the game, is Windows 10 64-bit on the latest update, an AMD Ryzen 5 1400 or an Intel Core i5-6600, 8 GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon RX 470, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or GTX 1060, or an Intel Arc A580. Video memory listed there is 3 GB.
Recommended is the tier Activision ties to 90 frames per second in multiplayer on High settings. That is Windows 11 64-bit, a Ryzen 5 3600 or a Core i7-8700, 16 GB of RAM, and a Radeon RX 6600 XT, a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, or an Arc B580, with 8 GB of video memory.
The ray tracing tier is for High quality ray tracing at 4K upscaled. Windows 11 again, a Ryzen 7 3700X or a Core i7-10700K, 32 GB of RAM, and a Radeon RX 9070 XT or a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, with 16 GB of video memory. That is not the “pretty screenshots” PC from a few years ago. It is current high-end hardware, and the 4K number is upscaled, not native.
Drivers, and the October 21 note
Activision wants you on a current Windows 10 or Windows 11 build, and on a specific driver if the picture breaks. AMD’s listed driver is 26.7.1. NVIDIA’s is 616.56, and the note says an ASD-compatible NVIDIA driver is due October 21, before launch. Intel’s is 32.0.101.8974. If you are building a PC for this in the next two weeks, leave a day for that NVIDIA driver instead of assuming today’s package is the one they will tell you to keep.
The May announcement also says PC players get upscaling and frame generation options, expanded graphics settings, and DLSS 4.5 on high-end machines, with ray tracing across the campaign, multiplayer, and DMZ. Those are feature claims from the reveal, not extra numbers on the October 1 sheet. The sheet is the part that tells you whether the PC you have is even in the conversation.
A GTX 970 and an i5-6600 clear the floor. They are not the 90 fps High PC, and they are nowhere near the ray tracing box. Sort Secure Boot and TPM before you start deleting games to free 115 GB.