How to fix stuttering and freezing in Modern Warfare 3 (MW3)

Bad game performance is something that eventually comes for us all, and it can ruin games. If you’re struggling with stuttering and freezing in Modern Warfare 3, I feel for you. However, there are a few things you can try to get the game running smoothly again.

A few things that may fix Modern Warfare 3

Stuttering and freezing usually come down to a few issues. It could be due to your hardware struggling, your network connection being weak, or game files being out of date. Thankfully, all of these problems are easily remedied.

Hardware problems

Modern games require modern hardware, and progress marches steadily on. You should make sure that whatever tech you’re packing is up to the standards Modern Warfare 3 requires not to stutter or freeze. The current minimum specs for Modern Warfare 3 are:

• Memory: 8 GB
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or Radeon RX 470
• CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 or Ryzen 5 1400
• File Size: 149 GB
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or higher

This is the bare minimum required. You will expect to run the game at low settings for this kind of setup. Pushing the Modern Warfare 3 harder will result in stuttering and freezing. If you are not sure of what you have under the hood, head to this website. Here you can download a tiny program that will check your system and let you know exactly what you can run.

Furthermore, you should not be trying to run Modern Warfare 3 on settings too high for your PC. If you are experiencing stuttering and freezing, you should turn all your graphics settings down to the low preset and see if it helps.

If you notice a marked difference, then slowly turn them up until the problem arises again. This will help you gauge how hard you can push your hardware.

Modern Warfare 3 is out of date

Games update constantly, and if you fall behind, it could result in stuttering and freezing. You need to check for updates to Modern Warfare 3 on your chosen game launcher.

Steam

Find Call of Duty in your Steam library and right-click. Select the option to Manage. Here you must navigate to Installed Files and select the option to Verify Integrity of Game Files. This will run a check on your game files and fix any issues there may be.

Battle.net

In the battle launcher, select Modern Warfare 3 from the selection of games at the top of the window. Next to the game, you need to select the cog symbol. Click repair from this menu to check files and fix any issues that may be causing stuttering or freezing in Modern Warfare 3.

Check your internet connection

You may be experiencing stuttering and freezing in Modern Warfare 3 due to your internet struggling to connect. In this case, the best thing to do is run a quick diagnostic of your internet speeds. I personally use Ookla to see what speeds I am getting on the internet.

If you are not connected to the internet or are experiencing low speeds, your best bet is to reset your router. You can do this by switching it off at the wall and waiting for one minute. Once you have switched it back on, you can connect to the internet.

If you are still experiencing internet dropouts, you should call your provider.

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