Warzone is notoriously demanding, and default settings are almost never optimal. Before spending money on new hardware, work through these proven tweaks — most players on mid-range PCs can recover a large chunk of lost performance just by changing settings they never touched, because the game ships with options optimized for screenshots rather than competitive frame rates.

Start inside the game. Drop Texture Resolution to Low or Normal, disable Tessellation, Ambient Occlusion, Depth of Field and Motion Blur, and set Shadow Map Resolution to Low. Enable upscaling — DLSS or FSR in Quality or Performance mode — which renders the game internally at a lower resolution and upscales it, giving you free frames with minimal visual loss. Keep NVIDIA Reflex on and V-Sync off to minimize input latency.

Next, fix Windows and your GPU drivers. Update to the latest Game Ready or Adrenalin drivers, enable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling in Windows graphics settings, and in the NVIDIA Control Panel set power management to prefer maximum performance. Turn on XMP or DOCP in your BIOS so your RAM actually runs at its advertised speed — many prebuilt PCs ship with this disabled, leaving free performance on the table.

Close everything that competes with the game. Discord overlays, browser tabs, RGB software and launchers all eat CPU time and can cause stuttering that feels like low FPS. Set Warzone's priority sensibly, pause background downloads, and check Task Manager for the classic culprits: cloud sync tools and Windows Update mid-download. Even players testing shooter sequels notice how much background apps steal performance.

Check whether you are thermally limited. Laptops especially will pull back performance as temperatures climb — monitor your GPU and CPU temps while playing, make sure you are plugged in with the original charger, and use a cooling stand if needed. Also confirm the game is actually running on your dedicated GPU rather than integrated graphics, which is a surprisingly common cause of unexplained low FPS on gaming laptops.

If none of this helps, compare your numbers honestly. A mid-range PC holding a stable, capped frame rate will feel smoother than one bouncing wildly between highs and lows — use an FPS cap set just below your monitor's refresh rate for consistent frame pacing. And if your rig is several generations old, it may simply be time to upgrade; check our hardware buying coverage for what current gear actually delivers.