The specs are modest. The security requirements are not optional, and they are what will stop people playing on 23 October — including on machines that easily exceed the recommended tier.
Activision states it plainly: TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and adds that other security measures may be enforced. This is not a performance setting and it is not negotiable. A machine with a current graphics card and 32 GB of memory will refuse to launch the game if these two firmware settings are off.
Check both before launch day rather than at midnight. Press Win+R and run msinfo32: you want BIOS Mode to read UEFI and Secure Boot State to read On. Then run tpm.msc: you want it to report the TPM is ready for use, with specification version 2.0.
If TPM is missing, it is almost certainly switched off in firmware rather than absent. Intel boards call it Platform Trust Technology or PTT; AMD boards call it fTPM or PSP.
If msinfo32 says your BIOS Mode is Legacy, do not enable Secure Boot yet. Convert the disk to GPT first with mbr2gpt /convert /allowfullos. Enabling Secure Boot on an MBR disk leaves a machine that will not boot, and it is the step most guides skip.
And before enabling fTPM on an AMD board, suspend BitLocker or save your recovery key. Changing platform measurements makes a number of machines demand it on the next boot.
| Minimum | Recommended | Ray tracing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 11 64-bit | Windows 11 64-bit |
| CPU | Ryzen 5 1400 or Core i5-6600 | Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i7-8700 | Ryzen 7 3700X or Core i7-10700K |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB | 32 GB |
| GPU | RX 470, GTX 970 or 1060, Arc A580 | RX 6600 XT, RTX 3060 Ti, Arc B580 | RX 9070 XT or RTX 5070 Ti |
| VRAM | 3 GB | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | SSD with 115 GB available at launch, on every tier | ||
The recommended tier targets 90 frames per second in multiplayer on High settings. Note that the two official Activision pages differ slightly on one line — one lists a Core i7-8700, the other an i7-8700K. Either is the same class of part.
One thing to ignore: the beta’s requirements, which asked for 12 GB of memory. Those are superseded by the figures above.
Anti-cheat driven security requirements have become the most common reason a modern shooter refuses to start, and the error it produces says nothing useful about firmware. Valorant handles the same situation with dedicated codes, and the fixes transfer directly — our pages on VAN 9001 for TPM 2.0 and VAN 9003 for Secure Boot cover the same UEFI trip in detail, including the MBR-to-GPT conversion.
If the game starts but will not connect, that is a different layer. We read Activision’s own service feed every five minutes: live Call of Duty status.
Independent reporting. We are not affiliated with Activision, Infinity Ward or Microsoft. Specifications and prices change — verify before purchase.
Yes. Activision states that both are required to play, and that other security measures may be enforced. This applies regardless of how powerful the rest of the machine is.
Run msinfo32 and look for BIOS Mode set to UEFI and Secure Boot State set to On. Then run tpm.msc, which should report the TPM is ready for use at specification version 2.0.
Windows 10 64-bit, a Ryzen 5 1400 or Core i5-6600, 8 GB of memory, an RX 470, GTX 970 or 1060 or Arc A580 with 3 GB of video memory, and an SSD with 115 GB free.
No. Activision lists SSD required on every specification tier, including the minimum.
Yes, and timing matters. The minimum versions are AMD 26.7.1, NVIDIA 616.56 and Intel 32.0.101.8974, and Activision has said an ASD-compatible driver will be released on 21 October, two days before launch.