The smoothest DMZ setup is built around consistent frame times, not the highest average FPS. Finish shader preloading, choose either Dynamic Resolution or DLSS (never both), reduce shadow and volumetric effects before sacrificing texture clarity, and match texture streaming to your internet connection. Then test one change at a time in the same area while watching frame-time behavior.
Start with the fixes that affect every graphics setting
Graphics sliders cannot compensate for an interrupted shader build, an outdated driver, or a system that is constantly streaming assets from a slow, crowded drive. Complete the basic preparation before judging image quality or changing a dozen options at once.
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Let shader preloading finish
Activision calls shader preloading an important part of the first-boot process. Leave the game on the main menu until the progress completes. Navigating away from the main menu stops preloading and can lead to performance problems, so do not launch into a match merely because the menu appears responsive. Repeat the process after major game updates if the client starts a new preload.
Shader compilation can otherwise appear as hitching, brief freezes, or uneven frame delivery when new areas and effects are encountered. A match that feels poor during an unfinished preload is not a reliable test of your final settings.
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Update the software stack
- Install current Windows updates and the latest graphics driver appropriate for your GPU.
- Close recording tools, overlays, hardware monitors, browser tabs, and other background programs while diagnosing stutter.
- If a security or utility application interferes with the game, temporarily exclude the game folders or executable according to that application’s documented procedure.
- Restart the game after driver installation or a major update, then allow shader preloading to complete again.
These steps do not guarantee a higher frame rate, but they remove variables that can make every later comparison misleading.
Define “smooth” before you tune
A high average FPS can still feel bad when frame times spike. Decide what matters most for your play before changing quality: a stable refresh-rate target, lower input latency, sharper distant targets, or fewer hitches while moving through a busy area. A setting that raises the average but worsens the 1% lows is usually a poor trade for DMZ, where uneven delivery is more noticeable than a small peak-FPS increase.
Use a repeatable baseline
- Choose one familiar location and, when possible, repeat the same route and activity.
- Keep weather, time of day, and field-of-view choices unchanged between tests.
- Record the current resolution, upscaler, texture-streaming mode, and the major effect settings.
- Watch a frame-time graph or 1% low readout if your overlay provides one. If not, judge the same traversal by eye and note pauses, traversal hitches, and input delay.
- Change only one setting or one closely related group, then repeat the route.
This method separates a real improvement from a placebo caused by entering a quieter part of the map. There is no universal Activision benchmark that predicts a fixed percentage gain for every DMZ system, so your sustained result is more useful than an advertised number.
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Choose one resolution strategy: Dynamic Resolution or DLSS
Dynamic Resolution and DLSS solve different problems and cannot be enabled together. Dynamic Resolution changes the internal render resolution during play to hold a frame-rate target. DLSS renders at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs the image using NVIDIA’s temporal upscaling technology. Select one path, test it, and leave the other disabled.
Dynamic Resolution for a steadier target
If your build exposes Dynamic Resolution, enter a target frame rate that your system can sustain in the busiest situations you actually play. The feature automatically upscales or downscales at runtime to pursue that target. A realistic target with fewer resolution swings usually feels better than an ambitious target that repeatedly drops during combat or traversal.
Dynamic Resolution is useful when workload changes sharply across the map. It can preserve responsiveness during heavy scenes without forcing you to run the lowest internal resolution all the time. The trade-off is that the image can become softer when the engine lowers resolution, especially during effects-heavy moments.
DLSS modes for GeForce RTX hardware
DLSS is intended for GeForce RTX GPUs. The official Call of Duty and NVIDIA guidance documents four modes:
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| DLSS mode | General behavior | When to try it |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | Highest internal resolution among the listed DLSS modes and the strongest image-quality starting point. | Start here at 1080p or 1440p when the GPU is the limiting component. |
| Balanced | More performance headroom than Quality with a larger reconstruction trade-off. | Use when Quality does not hold your chosen target in demanding scenes. |
| Performance | Lower internal resolution for a larger performance bias. | Use when the GPU remains the bottleneck after reducing expensive effects. |
| Ultra Performance | The most aggressive listed internal-resolution reduction and the greatest potential softness. | Reserve it for situations where the other modes cannot meet a practical target. |
These labels describe a quality/performance trade-off, not a guaranteed FPS result. Inspect foliage, distant operators, weapon details, and thin geometry after selecting a mode; a nominally faster mode is not an improvement if it makes identification harder.
Options for non-NVIDIA systems
Use the upscaling or resolution option exposed by your current game build and graphics hardware. Compare the same route at native resolution and at the available upscaled modes. Keep the option that delivers steadier frame times without unacceptable loss of target clarity. Do not assume that a setting name from another vendor or another Call of Duty release exists in your installation.
Lower expensive effects before lowering textures
When the GPU is overloaded, reduce the effects that add substantial per-frame work before making surfaces blurry. This is editorial tuning guidance rather than a published Activision benchmark, so verify each change with your own frame-time test.
Shadows
Shadow quality can be expensive because the scene must be rendered from additional viewpoints. Lower it first when your GPU is struggling in outdoor areas or around dense structures. Check dark interiors and player silhouettes after the change; excessively low shadows can remove useful depth cues.
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Screen-space reflections add cost in wet, glossy, or reflective scenes and can produce workload spikes when the view changes rapidly. Reduce them when frame times worsen near water, polished floors, or vehicles. The visual loss is usually less damaging to target recognition than reducing texture detail, but inspect reflective surfaces that you rely on for situational awareness.
Volumetric lighting and fog
Volumetric lighting and fog affect shafts of light, haze, smoke, and other depth effects. They can become particularly expensive when several layers overlap. Lower these settings if hitches coincide with smoke, dust, or bright volumetric effects. If visibility becomes confusing, raise the setting one step and recover performance elsewhere.
Particle detail
Particle detail controls the complexity of sparks, debris, dust, and similar effects. Reduce it when firefights or explosions cause frame-time spikes. Test a busy engagement rather than an empty hallway, because the difference may not appear during ordinary traversal.
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Protect texture clarity
Keep texture quality at a level your video memory can hold comfortably. Dropping textures can increase headroom when VRAM is exhausted, but blurry surfaces make targets, equipment, and environmental cues harder to read even if the average FPS rises. If you see texture pop-in, delayed surface detail, or sudden hitching after turning quickly, investigate VRAM and streaming behavior before making textures needlessly low.
Set texture streaming for your connection
On-Demand High Quality Streaming has two documented choices: Optimized and Minimal. This control is both a visual-quality decision and a bandwidth decision.
| Mode | Bandwidth and fidelity behavior | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Optimized | Higher-fidelity streamed textures with greater bandwidth use. | Stable, plentiful bandwidth where texture quality is a priority. |
| Minimal | Lower bandwidth use with reduced texture quality. | Constrained or unstable connections, shared networks, or data caps. |
Allow the texture cache to populate before deciding that a mode is stuttering. Initial downloads and cache creation can temporarily resemble a rendering problem. If the connection drops, fluctuates, or competes with other users, Minimal is the safer starting point. If bandwidth is reliable and the cache has finished, Optimized can restore more surface detail.
Streaming quality cannot repair a GPU bottleneck. Conversely, lowering every graphics setting will not fix stalls caused by a saturated connection. Change the mode according to the symptom: network-related pauses and download activity point toward Minimal; consistently soft surfaces on a stable connection point toward Optimized.
Practical starting profiles by bottleneck
Use these profiles as a sequence, not as immutable presets. Keep your native output resolution and monitor refresh rate in mind, and validate the result with the same route used for your baseline.
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GPU-limited at 1080p or 1440p
- On a GeForce RTX card, select DLSS Quality first.
- If demanding scenes still miss your target, try Balanced, then Performance.
- Reduce shadows, screen-space reflections, volumetric lighting/fog, and particle detail before lowering textures.
- Use Dynamic Resolution instead of DLSS if you prefer a defined target that can adapt continuously; do not run both.
At 1080p, aggressive reconstruction can make fine details visibly soft, so inspect distant operators and weapon outlines after every mode change. At 1440p, the additional output pixels may give Quality more room to preserve clarity, but the correct choice still depends on your GPU and target.
CPU-limited or already below the GPU’s workload
Upscaling cannot remove a CPU limit because it reduces GPU rendering work. If the GPU is underused while frame times remain high, lower visual effects only after confirming the bottleneck and look for background processes, thermal throttling, or an unrealistic frame-rate target. A lower internal resolution may produce little improvement in this case.
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VRAM-constrained
Keep textures within the available VRAM budget and watch for texture pop-in or hitching after rapid camera movement. Lower texture quality only as far as needed to stop memory pressure, then preserve other clarity-oriented settings. Texture streaming mode also matters because high-quality streamed assets increase cache and bandwidth activity.
Unstable internet connection
Select Minimal texture streaming, pause other large downloads, and let the cache settle. Do not interpret a network stall as proof that shadows or volumetrics are too high. Once the connection is stable, retest visual settings separately.
Check the official hardware and storage floor
The official DMZ/MWII PC listing specifies Windows 10 64-bit, DirectX 12, a GTX 960-class or RX 470-class minimum GPU, a GTX 1060-class or RX 580-class recommended GPU, and 125 GB of available storage. These are compatibility and requirement figures, not a promise of a particular frame rate, resolution, or quality preset.
| Requirement area | Published specification | What it means for tuning |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 64-bit | Use a supported 64-bit Windows installation and current updates. |
| Graphics API | DirectX 12 | Keep the DirectX runtime and graphics driver current. |
| Minimum GPU class | GTX 960 or RX 470 class | Expect to tune for consistency rather than maximum fidelity. |
| Recommended GPU class | GTX 1060 or RX 580 class | A more practical starting point for the listed game requirements, still dependent on the rest of the system. |
| Available storage | 125 GB | Reserve this space before installation and leave room for updates and cache activity. |
The Battle.net specification page also lists optional space for a high-resolution asset cache. Treat that cache as additional capacity rather than assuming the base installation number covers every optional asset.
Why an NVMe SSD can help without promising more FPS
If the game is installed on a slow mechanical drive, or the drive is nearly full, a 1TB NVMe SSD is a sensible storage and cache upgrade. It provides installation headroom and may improve loading and asset-cache behavior, which can reduce delays associated with reading data. The available sources do not establish a universal FPS increase from moving DMZ to an SSD, so judge the upgrade by loading behavior and hitch reduction rather than expecting a fixed frame-rate uplift.
Keep adequate free space after installation. A drive that technically holds the game but has little room for updates, shader data, or streamed assets can become a troubleshooting variable.
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Stutter immediately after an update
Return to the main menu and allow shader preloading to complete. Restart only after the process finishes. If the issue persists, verify Windows and driver updates, close overlays and background utilities, and repeat the controlled route.
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Hitches when entering new areas
Check whether texture streaming is still populating its cache and whether the installation drive is slow or nearly full. On an unstable connection, switch to Minimal. On a stable connection, allow Optimized to finish caching before comparing quality.
FPS is high but motion feels uneven
Watch frame-time or 1% low behavior rather than the headline FPS number. Set a sustainable target with Dynamic Resolution, or use a less aggressive DLSS mode that avoids large swings. Lower shadows, reflections, volumetrics, and particles one at a time to find the setting that causes the spikes.
Targets look soft or surfaces are blurry
Move from DLSS Performance or Ultra Performance toward Balanced or Quality, or compare against native resolution. Check that texture quality still fits VRAM and that you have not selected Minimal streaming solely to solve a GPU problem. Reassess in the same lighting and distance conditions.
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Changing settings appears to do nothing
Confirm that you are not CPU-limited, that the selected option actually applied after restarting if the game requests it, and that Dynamic Resolution and DLSS are not being treated as simultaneous controls. Test in a demanding scene rather than an empty menu or quiet interior.
A disciplined tuning order
Use the following order to avoid chasing conflicting symptoms:
- Update Windows and the graphics driver, close interfering software, and finish shader preloading.
- Record a baseline route with frame-time or 1% low observations.
- Decide whether the bottleneck is primarily GPU, CPU, VRAM, storage, or connection related.
- Choose Dynamic Resolution or DLSS, never both. For RTX hardware, begin with DLSS Quality at 1080p or 1440p when the GPU is the limit.
- Lower shadow quality, screen-space reflections, volumetric lighting/fog, and particle detail before reducing textures.
- Set texture quality within your VRAM headroom and select Optimized or Minimal streaming according to bandwidth stability.
- Retest the identical route after every meaningful change and keep the first configuration that improves consistency without unacceptable loss of clarity.
When a setting helps one map area but hurts another, choose the configuration that protects the worst-case scene. DMZ performance is experienced during movement, combat, and streaming transitions, not in a static benchmark.
The resulting recommendation
For most systems, the dependable path is to complete shader preloading, run current software, establish a sustainable target, and use one upscaling strategy. RTX owners should test DLSS Quality first at 1080p or 1440p, stepping down only when the GPU remains limiting. Players who value a fixed target across changing scenes should test Dynamic Resolution instead. Reduce shadows, screen-space reflections, volumetric lighting/fog, and particles before sacrificing texture clarity; select Minimal streaming on constrained connections and Optimized on stable, high-bandwidth ones. Finally, judge every decision by frame-time consistency, visibility, and the worst scene you actually play—not by an unsupported universal FPS promise.
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