What are the MW3 system requirements? There’s no hiding how great each entry in the Call of Duty series looks, but this push for higher and higher fidelity naturally puts a strain on the specs needed to run them, even on the lowest settings. Thankfully, Modern Warfare 3 won’t leave grizzled veteran PCs behind.
The MW3 release date is right around the corner, and it could debut as one of the best shooters on PC. If you dipped your toe into the beta earlier this year, you’ll want to check the system requirements again, as they’ve shifted ahead of the game’s full release.
To meet the MW3 minimum specs, you’ll need either an Intel Core i5 6600 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600, paired with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470. These are all aging pieces of hardware, that are easily surpassed by more modern gaming CPUs and GPUs. Rounding this off, you’ll need 8GB of RAM too.
| Minimum | Recommended | Ultra | |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 11 | Windows 11 |
| CPU | Intel Core i5 6600 AMD Ryzen 5 1400 |
Intel Core i7 6700K AMD Ryzen 5 1600X |
Intel Core i7 8700K AMD Ryzen 7 2700X |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 AMD Radeon RX 470 |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT |
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT |
| RAM | 8GB | 16GB | 16GB |
| Storage | 149GB SSD | 149GB SSD | 149GB SSD |
Moving up to the MW3 recommended specs calls for a little more gaming processing power, namely the Intel Core i7 6700K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X. When it comes to graphics cards, however, you’ll need as much pixel pushing power as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT. Meanwhile, the gaming RAM requirement has expectedly also been upped here to 16GB.
Finally, the developers have also provided MW3 ultra specs, for those that wish to push fidelity or performance hard. You’ll want a chip at the heart of your system comparable to the Intel Core i7 8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, both still relatively old processors. Naturally, the GPU jump is much starker, with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT being necessary to fit the bill.
When it comes to storage, the MW3 download size is big, at 149GB, and outright requires the best gaming SSD you have to hand. However, its footprint becomes much smaller if you have both Warzone and Call of Duty HQ already installed.
For more on Modern Warfare 3, check out our guide to all the MW3 maps. If you’re keen to know what to expect after release, our MW3 season 1 explainer has everything you’ll need to know.
Take the MW3 system requirements test over on PCGameBenchmark to answer the question… Can I run MW3?
This story originally appeared on PC Gamesn
