Especially in multiplayer mode, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 requires a lot of system power. This can cause less powerful PC’s to run the game at a slower rate, often making the game unplayable as there is so much lag.

Removing background programs whilst modern warfare 2 is running will reduce lag dramatically, for a guide on how to do this, read our article on removing programs from startup. However, the quickest and simplest way of tweaking the settings to speed up your game play experience and stop Modern Warfare 2 lag is via the ‘Advanced Video’ settings. These settings basically determine the amount of visual detail you see when playing Modern Warfare 2.

The higher the detail, the higher the amount of processes your PC has to carry out, often resulting in lag. Therefore, less detail means your PC has less jobs to do which enables it to perform at a faster rate.

• First off, open Modern Warfare 2
• Click on either Special Ops, Campaign or Multi player. Depending on which you would like to speed up.
• Click Options > Video > Advanced Video
• 

  Modern Warfare 2 Advanced Graphic Settings

  • Aspect Ratio: Leave this at Auto, it will decide what is best.
  • Anti Aliasing: AA softens the edges of your surroundings, try taking this down a notch, from 4x to 2x for example. I have found from personal experience that this is the biggest culprit for causing modern warfare 2 lag.
  • Screen Refresh Rate: Leave this at 60hz unless you have an expensive monitor and know what you are doing.
  • Sync Every Frame: No.
  • Shadows: This is self explanatory. The enhance the graphics a lot but use a lot of system energy. I would recommend turning shadows OFF.
  • Specular Map: Spec Map shows a reflection of your surroundings on your gun, as well as showing shadows on your gun and hand. For the amount of power this requires, it is unnecessary. Turn it OFF
  • Depth Of Field: Lots of people have said that when this is turned OFF, the game runs much faster. Try it.
  • Soften Smoke Edges. For the amount of time you see this effect and the drop in FPS it gives, leave it OFF.
  • Ragdoll: The Ragdoll effect is basically animations of corpses being flung around when they die/their body gets hit with a grenade. It might be cool for a bit, but not when it makes you lag like crazy. Turn it OFF
  • Bullet Impacts: I find this pretty helpful for my gameplay as it helps to determine where the enemy are firing from. It barely uses up any resources so I suggest keep it ON
  • Texture Quality: All this really means is the amount of detail that is placed on your surroundings. Keeping this set to Automatic is a good idea, or you can experiment with low/medium/high.

  Editing modern warfare 2 settings to reduce lag is just a matter of trial and error to see what you can get away with, without losing out too much on graphical effects. Alternatively, you may also want to consider turning off firewalls to speed up gameplay. However, there are obvious risks in doing so.