How to Get Your PC Ready for Modern Warfare 4: Specs, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 23, and Activision has already put a full technical checklist in front of players. During the Modern Warfare 4 Beta rollout in August, the publisher confirmed minimum and recommended PC specifications, published a list of recommended GPU drivers, and made two Windows security features mandatory rather than optional: TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. None of it is complicated to set up, but skipping it means Modern Warfare 4 simply will not let you into a match.

Here is what Infinity Ward and Activision have confirmed so far, and the exact steps to get a Windows PC compliant before launch day.

The Minimum and Recommended Specs Activision Confirmed

Activision's own PC system requirements page lists the following, with a note that full-game specs may still shift slightly from what was tested during the Beta:

• Minimum: Windows 10 64-bit, AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or Intel Core i5-8400, 12GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 470 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or 1060 / Intel Arc A580 with 3GB of video memory, and an SSD with 70GB free
• Recommended: Windows 11 64-bit, AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i7-8700, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti / Intel Arc B580 with 8GB of video memory, and an SSD with 70GB free

Two details are easy to miss. First, only CPUs with the AVX instruction set are supported at all, which rules out some older Core i5 and Ryzen 1000-series parts even if they otherwise clear the minimum bar. Second, Intel Arc owners need Resizable BAR enabled in their motherboard's BIOS for their card to function correctly. Activision also lists the GPU driver versions it tested against: NVIDIA 610.47, AMD 26.7.1 and Intel 32.0.101.8861 or newer, so it is worth updating graphics drivers before launch rather than after.

TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot Are Mandatory, Not Optional

The bigger change for returning Call of Duty players is that TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are now hard requirements. Activision says both Windows security features establish "a trusted foundation" for RICOCHET Anti-Cheat and make system-level tampering harder to pull off. If either is switched off, Modern Warfare 4 will not let you play online at all, Beta or otherwise.

This is not a new policy invented for Modern Warfare 4. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was the first entry to make TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot mandatory when it launched in November 2025, after Activision spent the preceding season warning players the switch was coming without enforcing it. Modern Warfare 4 simply carries the same baseline forward, so anyone who already cleared their PC for Black Ops 7 should have nothing left to change here.

Checking your current status takes under a minute:

• Press Windows key + R, type tpm.msc and press Enter. A status line reading "The TPM is ready for use" means TPM 2.0 is active. "Compatible TPM cannot be found" means it is either disabled in the BIOS or the hardware does not support it.
• Press Windows key + R again, type msinfo32 and press Enter. In the System Summary panel, confirm that BIOS Mode reads UEFI and Secure Boot State reads On.

Activision also publishes its own Trusted Platform Module and Secure Boot support article, which includes a downloadable Call of Duty Secure Attestation Wizard that scans a PC and reports compliance directly, rather than leaving players to interpret BIOS menus on their own.

Turning Both On in the BIOS

If either check comes back negative, both settings live in the same place: the motherboard's UEFI firmware.

1. From Windows, go to Settings, then System, then Recovery, and select Restart Now under Advanced Startup.
2. Choose Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, then UEFI Firmware Settings, and restart into the BIOS.
3. For TPM: look under a Security, Advanced or Trusted Computing menu. Intel systems enable Intel PTT; AMD systems enable AMD CPU fTPM.
4. For Secure Boot: look under the Boot menu and set Secure Boot to Enabled. Some boards require Secure Boot's key database to be reset to factory defaults the first time it is turned on.
5. Save changes, usually with F10, and let the PC reboot.

Re-run tpm.msc and msinfo32 afterward to confirm both changes stuck. Menu names and locations vary between motherboard vendors, so Activision's own guidance is to check the manufacturer's documentation if a setting is not where these steps describe.

Shader Preloading Should Cut Down on Stutter

Alongside the spec sheet, Activision detailed a new feature built with Beenox called Shader Preloading, aimed at the stutter that has affected recent Call of Duty launches on PC. Rather than compiling shaders the moment they are needed mid-match, Modern Warfare 4 prepares them in advance, in the background, once the game is installed or updated.

Players will see a Windows system tray notification reading "Shader Pre-Loading Will Start" after an install or update, which Activision says is expected behavior and can be safely left running while using the PC for other things. It can also be disabled in settings for anyone who would rather skip it. The rollout differs slightly by storefront: on Battle.net, Shader Preloading is active as soon as the game installs, while Steam still needs a one-time shader compile on first boot before the background preloading takes over for later updates.

What Could Still Change Before October 23

Activision has been explicit that the specifications above describe the Beta build, and the numbers for the full release of Modern Warfare 4 could move before launch. The same applies to the list of recommended drivers, which will likely be refreshed closer to release as NVIDIA, AMD and Intel ship day-one packages of their own. Anyone planning to pre-load the full game can already do so through the official Modern Warfare 4 PC page or its Steam pre-purchase listing, both of which point back to the same requirements while Activision finalizes them.

The safest approach between now and launch day is the one Activision is already pushing: run the Secure Attestation Wizard, confirm TPM and Secure Boot are on, update graphics drivers, and free up the 70GB an SSD install needs. All the security requirements that gated the Beta carry over to October 23, and there is no indication that will change.