In a nutshell: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s campaign mode becomes available in about a week, and the complete game ships in two weeks. However, Activision hasn’t officially released its system requirements yet. Computer Base claims it obtained a basic spec sheet suggesting a slightly more demanding title than last year’s edition.
The preliminary system specs for the latest Call of Duty entry indicate a slight uptick in each area compared to last year’s title, Modern Warfare II. Nonetheless, they remain incredibly light compared to other notable 2023 releases.
Activision will likely release the full spec sheet for Modern Warfare III, including recommendations for 1440p and 4K gameplay, in the coming days as the final release approaches. The basic requirements don’t list an exact performance profile, but based on previous entries in the series, it’s safe to assume they’re for 1080p @ 60fps gameplay.
A peculiar detail is that the minimum and recommended specs list the same CPUs: an Intel Core i5-6600 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 – the same Intel processor as Modern Warfare II but a slight step up on the AMD side. Furthermore, although the open beta required 65GB of storage space (or 25 for users who had installed Call of Duty HQ), the final SSD requirement is still unclear. However, downloading COD HQ now will likely significantly impact Modern Warfare III’s footprint.
The rest of the specs suggest the game will run fine on aging GTX 1000 and Radeon RX 400 GPUs or more recent low-end cards. Memory and video memory requirements have risen moderately. When Activision’s UHD recommendations emerge, they likely won’t be significantly higher than those for Modern Warfare II.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-6600 AMD Ryzen 5 1600 |
Intel Core i5-6600 AMD Ryzen 5 1600 |
| RAM | 12 GB | 16 GB |
| GPU |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 AMD Radeon RX Vega |
| VRAM | 3 GB | 6 GB |
While not unexpected for a competitive shooter, Modern Warfare III’s specs starkly contrast with recent releases like Forza Motorsport, Lords of the Fallen, and especially Alan Wake II. This year’s Call of Duty probably won’t rely on AI-based upscaling to achieve good performance, but the previous entry included several options for the feature. The last two titles in the series withheld ray tracing, so it’s safe to assume Modern Warfare III will also.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III launches on November 10 on Steam, Battle.net, and both generations of PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Customers who pre-order can begin the story campaign starting November 3.
