Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 PC Specs, Ray Tracing, and Collateral Mode Detailed

With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launching October 23, 2026, Infinity Ward has pulled back the curtain on the game’s PC performance targets, upscaling options, and a new multiplayer mode that draws clear inspiration from Counter-Strike.

PC Specs and Performance Targets

As Pure Xbox reports, Infinity Ward is setting a benchmark of 90 FPS at recommended settings with no manual tweaking required from the player. The studio published a full spec sheet covering minimum, recommended, and ray tracing configurations, and is bundling a built-in Benchmark Tool so players can quickly identify their optimal settings before launching into a match.

To support a range of hardware, the game ships with four upscaling options: NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR Redstone, Intel XeSS 3, and Filmic SMAA T2X as a default post-process fallback. Ray tracing is available across Campaign, Multiplayer, and DMZ, covering reflections, shadows, and lighting in all three modes.

Several quality-of-life improvements round out the PC feature set. Enhanced FOV uses physically accurate lens effects to widen peripheral awareness without altering the center field of view. Weapon VFX Masking dynamically clears muzzle effects around the point of aim to keep targets visible during sustained fire. Depth of Field has been split into two separate sliders, one for the world and one for weapons, giving players finer control. A revamped bullet system called Weapon Bloom now fires rounds based on the weapon barrel’s actual position rather than a random spread radius, which the studio says produces more predictable hipfire and ADS results.

On the loading side, Advanced Shader Delivery cuts down pre-match wait times, and game updates no longer force a restart on boot, though a restart between matches is still expected when an update goes live mid-session.

Collateral: A New Mode With Counter-Strike DNA

Infinity Ward is also introducing Collateral, a round-based mode that GameSpot describes as similar to Counter-Strike. Teams take turns attacking and defending two bomb sites. Every player begins with a pistol and accumulates in-game cash during the match, which carries over between rounds and can be spent on upgrades. Dying means losing your current loadout, and the mode removes respawns, killstreaks, automatic health regeneration, and custom loadouts entirely. The result is a high-stakes, single-life format where economy management and positioning carry more weight than raw gunfighting.

Map Returns and What to Expect at Launch

Collateral is not the only thing generating conversation ahead of launch. GameSpot also notes that Modern Warfare 4 is bringing back one of the franchise’s most chaotic and polarizing multiplayer maps, though player reactions to its return are expected to be split.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 arrives on Xbox and PC on October 23, 2026. The game will not be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch, so players will need to purchase it outright.

Sources: Pure Xbox, GameSpot, GameSpot