Boost FPS in Warzone on Windows 11

Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the most demanding battle royale games to run well — it's a large open-world game with high player counts, and its default settings trade FPS for visual quality in ways that make no sense for competitive play. The stuttering that affects most players on first launch is also fixable with one setting change.

This guide covers the highest-impact changes first, with a quick-wins table you can implement in under 10 minutes.

Quick Wins — Do These First

| Change | Where | Expected FPS Gain | |--------|--------|-------------------| | Set Shader Quality to Low | In-game → Graphics | +15–25% FPS | | Switch to Fullscreen Exclusive | In-game → Display | +5–15% FPS | | Disable On-Demand Texture Streaming | In-game → Graphics | Eliminates streaming stutter | | Enable NVIDIA Reflex On+Boost | In-game → Graphics | Reduces input latency significantly | | Set Power Plan to Ultimate Performance | Windows Control Panel | +5–15% FPS | | Disable Xbox Game Bar | Windows Settings | +2–5% FPS | | Disable HAGS (older GPUs) or Enable (RTX 3000+) | Windows Settings | Eliminates HAGS-related stutter |

In-Game Settings Breakdown

Open Options → Graphics in Warzone. Settings are split across Display and Quality tabs.

Display Settings

| Setting | Recommended | Notes | |---------|-------------|-------| | Display Mode | Fullscreen Exclusive | Critical — see section below | | Screen Resolution | Native | Never scale down | | Refresh Rate | Max your monitor supports | — | | V-Sync (Gameplay) | Disabled | Adds input lag | | V-Sync (Menus) | Disabled | — | | NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency | On + Boost | NVIDIA GPUs only | | Brightness | Personal preference | — |

Quality Settings

| Setting | Recommended | Notes | |---------|-------------|-------| | Render Resolution | 100 | Don't scale; use FSR instead if you need extra headroom | | Upscaling/Sharpening | FidelityFX CAS | For AMD or budget NVIDIA; use DLSS Quality if RTX | | Anti-Aliasing | SMAA T2X | Balance of quality and cost | | Anti-Aliasing Quality | Normal | — | | Video Memory Scale | 0.9 | Prevents VRAM overflow stuttering | | Texture Resolution | Low | Uses VRAM, not GPU compute — doesn't impact FPS much, but Low saves VRAM | | Texture Filter Anisotropic | Normal | Diminishing returns above Normal | | Nearby Level of Detail | Low | — | | Distant Level of Detail | Low | Biggest FPS gain in the quality category | | Clutter Draw Distance | Short | Grass and debris — no competitive value | | Particle Quality | Low | — | | Particle Quality Level | Low | — | | Bullet Impacts & Sprays | Disabled | — | | Shader Quality | Low | See section below — single biggest setting | | On-Demand Texture Streaming | Disabled | See section below | | Shadow Map Resolution | Low | — | | Screen Space Shadows | Disabled | — | | Ambient Occlusion | Disabled | — | | Screen Space Reflections | Disabled | — | | Static Reflection Quality | Low | — | | Weather Grid Volumes | Disabled | — | | Water Caustics | Disabled | — | | Volumetric Quality | Low | — | | Deferred Physics Quality | Disabled | — | | Tessellation | Disabled | — | | Ground-Based Foliage | Low | — | | Depth of Field | Disabled | — | | World Motion Blur | Disabled | Motion blur reduces your ability to track enemies | | Weapon Motion Blur | Disabled | Same | | Film Grain | 0.00 | — |

Shader Quality — The Single Biggest Setting

Shader Quality is the most impactful setting in Warzone. On High, it enables physically-based rendering with expensive lighting calculations. On Low, the game falls back to simpler shading while enemies and environment remain visually identical at competitive distances.

The difference: Low vs. High Shader Quality typically delivers 15–25% more FPS, sometimes more on older hardware.

Set it to Low without hesitation. Professional Warzone players universally use Low shader quality.

Why this setting is different from most: Most settings named "Quality" control visual detail that you can see. Shader Quality changes the rendering pipeline itself — you won't notice any difference in enemy visibility or map readability.

On-Demand Texture Streaming — Disable This

On-Demand Texture Streaming streams high-resolution textures from Activision's servers while you play. This causes:

Stuttering during gameplay as textures load over the network
FPS drops when streaming bandwidth can't keep up
Inconsistent performance depending on your internet load

Disable it: Options → Graphics → Quality → On-Demand Texture Streaming → Off

After disabling, Warzone uses locally cached textures only. You may notice some lower-res surfaces initially — these resolve as the game's local cache fills. Performance becomes consistent.

Fullscreen Exclusive Mode

There are three display modes in Warzone: Windowed, Borderless Windowed, and Fullscreen. Always use Fullscreen (Exclusive).

Fullscreen Exclusive gives your GPU direct output to the monitor, bypassing Desktop Window Manager (DWM). This:

Reduces GPU overhead by 5–15%
Enables G-Sync and FreeSync to function correctly (they require exclusive fullscreen or specific driver configurations)
Eliminates the compositor's frame timing interference

The tradeoff: Alt+Tab takes slightly longer. For competitive gaming, this is always worth it.

Windows-Level Tweaks

These apply to Warzone and every other game simultaneously.

Power Plan

Control Panel → Power Options → Ultimate Performance

If Ultimate Performance is not listed, run this in PowerShell as Administrator:

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS)

RTX 3000/4000 or RX 6000/7000: Enable HAGS (Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Default graphics settings)
Older GPUs: Disable HAGS — it causes stuttering on pre-2020 hardware

Game Mode

Settings → Gaming → Game Mode → On Prioritizes your game for CPU scheduling and suppresses Windows Update during sessions.

Xbox Game Bar

Settings → Gaming → Xbox Game Bar → Off The Game Bar hooks into all processes. Disabling it frees CPU cycles.

SageTweaks — Automate the Windows Layer

The Windows-level tweaks in this guide — power plan, HAGS (with GPU-generation detection), Xbox Game Bar, GameDVR, startup cleanup, timer resolution — are all applied automatically by SageTweaks.

The in-game settings above are still yours to configure. SageTweaks handles the OS configuration layer that applies across all games. See the reduce input lag guide for additional settings that compound with these.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I get stuttering when I first land or drive into a new area? This is shader compilation — the GPU is compiling shaders for assets it hasn't seen before in the current session. It only happens on first encounter with each asset set. Subsequent visits to the same area are smooth. Nothing fixes this completely, but disabling On-Demand Texture Streaming reduces it significantly.

What's the best fix for Warzone stuttering on Windows 11? The ordered fix list: (1) Disable On-Demand Texture Streaming, (2) Disable HAGS if on an older GPU, (3) Set power plan to Ultimate Performance, (4) Verify GPU drivers are current (especially after a Windows 11 update, which sometimes rolls back driver settings). See the full fix stuttering in games guide for additional diagnosis.

What DLSS setting should I use in Warzone? For NVIDIA RTX users: DLSS Quality at your native resolution is the best starting point. It renders at roughly 66% of your native resolution and upscales — visually nearly identical to native but 20–30% faster. DLSS Performance mode is only worth considering if you're GPU-bound at below 60 FPS.

Will these settings help on a low-end PC (i5-8400, GTX 1060)? Yes. The in-game settings table is designed for competitive play on all hardware tiers. On GTX 1060-class hardware at 1080p, you can realistically target 60–90 FPS with these settings. Shader Quality Low and disabling shadows are the two most important settings on low-end hardware.

Can these tweaks get me banned in Warzone? No. Every setting in this guide is either a Windows system setting or an in-game graphics option. No game files, memory, or network data is modified.

Continue Reading

This guide covers the highest-impact changes first, with a quick-wins table you can implement in under 10 minutes.

Quick Wins — Do These First