Modern Warfare 4 PC Checklist Before Oct 23

Six things to check this week so launch night is about playing, not troubleshooting

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23 at midnight local time, and PC preloads open October 15. That gives you about a week and a half to make sure your rig is ready. Most of the work takes ten minutes. The part that trips people up isn't the graphics card. It's two security settings in your BIOS that the game won't run without.

So here's the straight checklist, in the order we'd do it. Work through it top to bottom, and if something comes up short, you'll know with plenty of time to fix it.

1. CHECK YOUR SPECS AGAINST THE TIERS

Activision published three PC tiers. Find the row that matches what you've got. To see your parts, open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), click Performance, and look at CPU, Memory and GPU.

Tier	CPU	RAM	GPU
Minimum	Ryzen 5 1400 / Core i5-6600	8GB	GTX 1060 / RX 470 / Arc A580
Recommended about 90 fps multiplayer, High	Ryzen 5 3600 / Core i7-8700K	16GB	RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6600 XT / Arc B580
4K Ray Tracing upscaled	Ryzen 7 3700X / Core i7-10700K	32GB	RTX 5070 Ti / RX 9070 XT (16GB)

Source: Call of Duty official PC specs blog. All tiers need 115GB of SSD space plus TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot.

The good news: the minimum tier is friendly to older hardware, so a lot of rigs from the last several years will at least get in the door. If you're sitting between tiers, that's fine. The tiers are targets, not walls, and your upscaler (step 6) closes a lot of the gap. If you want to compare MW4 against the other big October releases, our October 2026 games PC requirements roundup lays them side by side.

2. FREE UP 115GB ON AN SSD

MW4 needs 115GB of install space, and it has to be on an SSD. A spinning hard drive won't cut it. Modern shooters stream textures and map data constantly, and an HDD can't keep up, which shows up as long loads and missing textures.

Open Settings > System > Storage and check free space on your SSD. Aim for comfortably more than 115GB, since patches and updates add to it over time.
Uninstall games you haven't touched in months. Your launcher can redownload them later.
Run Storage Sense or Disk Cleanup to clear temp files and old update leftovers.
If you have a second SSD, point Steam, Battle.net or the Xbox app at it for this install.

If you're juggling space every time a big game drops, it might be time for more storage. Our guide on how much RAM and storage you need in 2026 walks through what makes sense for a modern library.

3. TURN ON TPM 2.0 AND SECURE BOOT

This is the step that'll catch the most people. MW4 on PC requires both TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Plenty of PCs have the hardware but ship with one or both switched off. Check first, then change only what you need to.

How to check

TPM: Press Windows + R, type tpm.msc, and hit Enter. If TPM is on, you'll see "The TPM is ready for use" and a Specification Version of 2.0. If it says no compatible TPM was found, it's likely turned off in the BIOS.
Secure Boot: Press Windows + R, type msinfo32, and hit Enter. In System Summary, look for Secure Boot State. You want it to say On. While you're there, check BIOS Mode: it should say UEFI, not Legacy.

How to enable them (general steps)

Every motherboard maker lays out its BIOS differently, so the menu names below vary by board. Check your motherboard manual or support page if you can't find a setting.

Restart and tap the BIOS key during boot (usually Delete or F2).
TPM: On AMD boards, look for fTPM (often under Advanced or a CPU/Trusted Computing menu). On Intel boards, look for PTT (Platform Trust Technology). Set it to Enabled.
Secure Boot: This needs the board in UEFI mode, not CSM (Compatibility Support Module). Find CSM, usually in the Boot menu, and make sure it's disabled. Then find Secure Boot, often under Boot or Security, and enable it. Some boards also ask you to load or restore the default Secure Boot keys.
Save and exit, then rerun tpm.msc and msinfo32 to confirm.

BEFORE YOU TOUCH CSM

If msinfo32 says your BIOS Mode is Legacy, Windows was installed on an older-style (MBR) disk, and switching off CSM can stop it from booting. Converting the disk comes first. That gets technical fast, so if you're not comfortable, back up your files and get help before flipping the switch. Our Windows 10 end-of-gaming deep dive covers TPM, Windows 11 and what to do with an older machine in more detail.

For what it's worth, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot come standard on every Lone Star build, with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. More on that on our Windows 11 page.

4. UPDATE YOUR GPU DRIVER

Both big GPU makers already have MW4 support out, so grab the latest before you preload.

NVIDIA: GeForce 617.42 WHQL, released October 6, is the Game Ready driver for Modern Warfare 4, with DLSS 4.5 support. Get it through the NVIDIA app or NVIDIA's driver site.
AMD: Adrenalin 26.9.2, released September 29, added support for the MW4 campaign early access. Update through AMD Software, and check for anything newer as launch gets closer.
Intel Arc: Check Intel's driver page for the latest release before launch.

If you've had driver weirdness in the past, use the clean install option if your driver installer offers one.

5. KNOW YOUR DATES

Date	What Happens
Oct 15, 9 AM PT	PC preload opens for digital pre-orders
Oct 16	Campaign Early Access for digital pre-orders
Oct 23, midnight local	Full launch

On PC, MW4 is available on Steam, Battle.net and the Xbox app on PC. Start the preload on the 15th and let it finish overnight; 115GB takes a while on most connections. Check your storefront for the exact unlock time in your region. If you jumped into the open beta back in August, that's over, and the full game is a separate, much bigger download.

6. SET UP YOUR UPSCALER

MW4 supports DLSS 4.5, FSR Redstone and XeSS 3, and ray tracing is available in Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ. Use the upscaler that matches your card: DLSS on NVIDIA RTX, FSR on AMD, and XeSS on Intel Arc. Upscaling is how you hit the higher tiers on hardware that's a step below them, and it's how the 4K ray tracing tier is meant to run in the first place. Start with a Quality preset, then adjust from there based on how it feels.

BOTTOM LINE

Most gamers will get through this list with a driver update and some disk cleanup. The real gotcha is TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, so check those first, today, while there's time to sort out a BIOS setting or a Legacy-mode install without missing launch night.

If your rig falls short of the tier you want, you don't have to rebuild everything. Sometimes it's an SSD, sometimes it's a GPU. And if you are shopping, the Wrangler pairs a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or Core Ultra 7 265K with an RTX 5070 Ti 16GB, 32GB of DDR5 and a 2TB NVMe SSD, which lines up with MW4's 4K ray tracing tier. Or spec every part yourself in the Custom Builder.

READY FOR OCT 23?

Build a rig that clears the 4K ray tracing tier, with TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot set up before it leaves Texas. Not sure what you need? Ask us and we'll give you the straight answer.

OPEN THE CUSTOM BUILDER SEE THE WRANGLER

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Modern Warfare 4 PC Checklist: Specs, SSD Space, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot Before Oct 23