Let’s skip the intros, cut to the chase, and jump straight into the best laptops for the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops 7—and previous releases too.

First…

Regardless of which version you’re playing, Call of Duty is EXTREMELY demanding on gaming laptops.

Best  Laptop for Call of Duty: Warzone & Blacks OP 7 – RTX 5070

MSI Crosshair 18 HX

From $1,700 at Amazon

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If you grab a 2050RTX laptop or even 3050RTX, expect serious struggles, especially with  Black Ops 7.

For warzone though, the game is playable with a 3050RTX, but only if you drop graphics settings to low (~60 FPS).

Mid-Range Laptop for Call of Duty – FHD/Med Settings

Acer Nitro V

$930 at Amazon

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**Prices of 3050Ti or 3050RTX laptops are quite high in 2026. Might as well grab a 4050RTX which is 50-100 dollars more expensive**

However, the ideal laptop for Call of Duty should have at least:

✔ RTX 5070RTX(60W+)
✔ RTX 5050RTX(100W or higher)

A few benchmarks of older laptop GPUs running CoD are shown below, use them as reference if you want to buy newer GPUs: 4060RTX = high wattage 5050RTX. 4070RTX = 5060RTX. Etc

If you check the benchmarks at the end of this post (organized in tables with links to YouTube videos), you’ll come to the following conclusions:

• The bare minimum for competitive gaming at 1080p is an RTX 3060 (130W) or 4060RTX (100W) for all releases, including MW III & Blacks OP 6/7.
• Watch out for wattage!: GPUs that seem powerful—like the RTX 4060, RTX 4050, RTX 3070, RTX 3080, etc.—but run at low power (<100W) do not perform better than an RTX 3060 (130W which is much cheaper!).

Best Gaming Laptop Specs for Call of Duty

The following hardware guidelines are based on dozens of benchmarks from YouTube (which you can find in the last section) and my own benchmarks from my YouTube channel.

If you want the short summary, it’s simple:

For competitive gaming:

Either pick a RTX 3060 running at least 130W or 4050RTX 100W+ for any other higher-end GPU (RTX 5070, RTX 5060, RTX 4060, RTX 3070, etc.).

For casual gaming: 

4050RTX (<100W), 5050RTX, 3050RTX might be OKAY.

GPU

3060RTX or 4050RTX: These are mid-range GPUs, the bare minimum for playing competitively. As long as you focus on getting an RTX 3060 (130W) or an RTX 4050 (100W+), the CPU won’t make much of a difference.

3070RTX & 3080RTX, 4060RTX, 4070RTX,5060RTX, 5070RTX: These are the ideal GPUs for competitive gamingat FHD. The latter two will also let you play the game flawlessly at 1440p.

When compared to the RTX 3060 at 1080p, the performance gains with these GPUs aren’t significant for Warzone, but they are significant for Blacks OP 7.

Benchmarks for Call of Duty Warzone taken from Benchmarks for gamers youtube channel.

Note that high end GPUs are very expensive when running at high wattages.

1650GTX & 3050Ti: If you lower the settings and use DLSS, you can get 60+ FPS at 1080p. The GTX 1650 may experience lag spikes, especially without a MUX switch, whereas the 3050 Ti will provide a more stable experience.

Playablefor Warzone: 1050Ti, AMD Radeon 5550M. Not necessarily the best but playable.
Unplayable for Warzone & Blacks OP 7: MX350, MX450,1050GTX, AMD Radeon RX 550/540/555/560.

CPU

Assuming you’ve got two laptops with the same GPU running at the same wattage, you can start researching which CPUs will give you more frames per second.

The truth is, you’ll get about 5-10 more FPS—all things being equal—if you choose a better CPU.

However…

If you’re buying a laptop with a GPU like the GTX 1650 or 3050 Ti, picking the right CPU (or paying a little more) can net you an extra 20-30 FPS at 1080p on low settings.

Here’s a summary of CPU performance for Call of Duty (Warzone)—these benchmarks should also apply for Black OP 7:

Core i5 13500H< Ryzen 5 7535H ….Core i7 13620H & i7 13650HX < Ryzen 7 7840H < R7 7840HS ….Ryzen 9 7940HS<Core i9 13900H

**In other words, Ryzen CPUs outperform intel CPUs until we step into Core i9/Ryzen 9 families***

This post however…has a complete comparison table of all laptop CPUs multi-core and single core performance. For Call of Duty you want to look at Multi-core performance as the game uses several threads as shown here. 

RAM

8GB vs 16GB: The game is playable with 8GB RAM, but you’ll lose framerates and experience lag spikes. At least 16GB RAM is recommended.

Dual Channel: You can gain up to 10 FPS if you set up 16GB RAM in dual-channel mode.

Storage
512GB: CoD: Warzone can take up to 120GB. VanGuard can take up to 60GB. Add Modern Warfare III which is 90GB and you’re out of storage if you buy a 256GB SSD without even having space for Windows 12.

Display

120Hz/144Hz: High refresh rates are a must if you’re buying a laptop with at least an RTX 3060. Fortunately, they always come by default with higher-end GPUs, so there’s nothing to worry about.

Also, you don’t have to worry about 240Hz displays or even 144Hz displays (in some cases) because you won’t be hitting such high framerates, especially at high settings.

Top 5 Best Laptops for Call of Duty

Most of these laptops come with high-end GPUs and are built for competitive gaming in Blacks OP 7 and Warzone.

We’ll start with my personal favorite which I already linked above but will go in detail on the performance benchmarks as well as a footage that I personally recorded: MSI HX A18 CrossHair with a 5070RTX (60W+).

The last laptop on the list has a 3050 Ti and is the cheapest option (~$650). It’s the bare minimum for Warzone only if you just want to have fun.

1. MSI Crosshair 18 HX AI

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Best High-End Laptop for Call of Duty: Warzone & Black Ops 7 – RTX 5070

Any laptop with a 5070RTX is ideal for Call of Duty. Whether it runs at 60W or 100W, you’re going to get very high framerates: around 150fps at FHD with settings maxed out and close to 100fps at QHD/1600p. This laptop is mostly designed for 1600p gaming since it comes with a QHD+ display, but I’d still recommend it if your goal is to max out framerates at FHD.

 

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX

Graphics: RTX 5070 8GB GDDR7 – 115W (max)

RAM: 16GB / 32GB / 64GB DDR5

Storage: 512GB / 1TB / 2TB / 4TB SSD

Display: 18-inch QHD+ IPS 240Hz

Resolution: 2560 × 1600

  Ryzen 9/Core Ultra 9

You’ll find this model with several different CPUs, but mostly from the Core i9/Core Ultra 9 and Ryzen 9 families. Unlike most games, CPU choice matters quite a bit here if you want to squeeze out those extra frames, even though most of the heavy work is still being done by the GPU.

As you can see above, CPU usage goes up to around 36% and can go even higher during encounters. The game is also heavily multi-threaded. All 32 threads are being used, with significant usage across roughly half of them. So you want to pay attention to multi-thread performance here. I don’t have benchmarks for the latest Ryzen 9 and Intel Core Ultra 9 CPUs on my CPU comparison post yet, but you can still get a pretty good idea of the Ryzen 9 vs Intel differences from the previous generation.

I’ll update that post soon. So far, the newer Intel Core Ultra 9 CPUs seem to outperform Ryzen 9 in multi-thread performance, although I still need to see by how much. The MSI Crosshair gives you several CPU choices, so this matters.

  RTX 5070 8GB vRAM

Here’s the deal. The 5070RTX GPUs found on laptops can run anywhere from roughly 50W to 115W. However, 5th-generation RTX GPUs don’t necessarily scale perfectly just because you throw more wattage at them. In my benchmarks, the 5070RTX in this laptop stayed around 60W most of the time. You can easily get it running higher, around 80W in my case, by switching to discrete graphics through MSI Center.

Despite that, look at how easily the game runs at QHD+ even when the GPU is only around 60W. You can obviously push it harder, but I wouldn’t recommend overclocking an expensive gaming laptop unless you’re doing it for a specific gaming session. Using the MUX/discrete GPU mode is fine though and gives you some extra performance without doing anything crazy.

Also note that one of the reasons the MSI Crosshair 18 is around $1,700 despite having a QHD+ display, high-end CPU and 5070RTX is that you’re not paying for some ridiculous ultra-high GPU power limit. You could spend another $1,000 chasing a more expensive laptop for a relatively small performance gain, but given how well this 5070RTX already runs Call of Duty at QHD+, why would you?

  QHD+ 18-inch Display: 1600p Gaming

You get an 18-inch IPS-level panel with a 2560 × 1600 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio and 240Hz refresh rate.

Technically, 2560 × 1600 is a little taller than regular 2560 × 1440 QHD because of the 16:10 aspect ratio. For Call of Duty, that extra vertical space isn’t really useful unless you’re very picky about resolution. It’s more useful in games with a heavy user interface where the extra space gives you more room for bars, menus, etc.

If you want more framerates, you can lower the resolution through the NVIDIA Control Panel or simply adjust the render scale. The performance difference between 1600p and 1400p can be pretty big while the visual difference isn’t nearly as dramatic.

You can read my QHD vs FHD laptop display guide if you’re unsure whether the higher resolution is worth it outside of games.

  Cooling: Why the 18-inch Chassis Matters

Running Call of Duty for several hours is probably one of the most demanding things you can do on a gaming laptop. Space is already the biggest weakness of laptops compared to desktops, especially when it comes to cooling high-power CPUs and GPUs.

I STRONGLY recommend avoiding tiny 15-inch chassis if you’re buying a powerful 5060RTX or 5070RTX laptop specifically for long gaming sessions. The smaller chassis limits airflow and usually forces lower power limits. If possible, get at least a 17-inch laptop and preferably something from a company with a proven gaming cooling system like ASUS or MSI. You want a cooling system that’s better than what you’ll find on an average gaming laptop.

On Extreme Performance mode through MSI Center, you can have the CPU and GPU pulling well over 170W combined depending on the workload. That’s a lot of heat inside a laptop, which is why I wouldn’t gamble with some random new gaming-laptop brand when you’re running games this heavy for hours.

Cooling: MSI has been improving these cooling setups for years. On an 18-inch chassis there’s enough room for multiple fans, several heat pipes and other cooling mechanisms that simply don’t fit as easily inside a smaller laptop.

RTX Ray Tracing: ON vs OFF

I’m not even going to talk about ray tracing for competitive gaming. It’s dumb. For campaigns and solo play, sure. The 5070RTX has enough power that turning RTX features on isn’t going to destroy performance the way it would on a low-end GPU.

  RAM: 16GB vs 32GB DDR5

Here’s the only real shortcoming with the base configuration: it doesn’t come with 32GB out of the box. You don’t need 32GB to play Call of Duty at 1440p, 1600p or even 4K, but with 16GB you’re always closer to the limit. If you’re multitasking while playing, you’ll probably lose a few frames once total RAM usage starts getting close to 16GB.

There are versions of this laptop with 32GB already installed. The problem is that jumping to those configurations can add quite a bit to the price. For Call of Duty at 1080p, 1440p or 1600p on extreme settings, you really don’t need more than 16GB. For other games at 4K, especially heavier titles like Cyberpunk, The Last of Us or Hogwarts Legacy, having more than 16GB can make more sense. If you’re planning to play other games at 4K, check my RAM Usage in Games

2. Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 10

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Best Laptop for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – RTX 5060

IMPORTANT: Here’s the deal. This is basically as powerful as a 5060RTX laptop gets regarding GPU wattage. The RTX 5060 in this Legion runs at the maximum 115W, so you’re not getting one of those cheaper 5060RTX laptops with the GPU power limited.

The problem is the price. At around $1,600, it’s getting VERY close to the MSI Crosshair we just went over with the 5070RTX. So definitely check the price of the 5070RTX laptop before buying this one. If the difference is only $100 or so, obviously get the 5070RTX.

There are cheaper 5060RTX laptops and we’ll go over those later. The catch is usually lower GPU wattage, weaker cooling, a cheaper display or a slower CPU.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 260 – 8 Cores / 16 Threads

Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 5060 8GB GDDR7 – 115W

RAM: 16GB DDR5-5600

Storage: 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Display: 15.3-inch WUXGA IPS 165Hz

Resolution: 1920 × 1200 – 16:10

  GPU: RTX 5060 115W – 8GB GDDR7

The RTX 5060 has basically taken the place of the old RTX 4060 as the mid-range GPU of the newer generation. You also get 8GB of GDDR7 vRAM.

RTX 5060 laptop GPUs come in different wattages. If you want to get as much performance as possible out of a 5060RTX, look for 115W. That’s exactly what this Legion has.

And that’s basically one of the reasons this laptop costs more than the average 5060RTX laptop. Lenovo isn’t squeezing the GPU into some super thin chassis and cutting the wattage down. You’re getting the full-power 5060RTX and a cooling system that’s supposed to handle it.

Again though…this configuration costs around $1,600. That’s VERY close to the MSI with the 5070RTX we just went over. If the difference is only around $100, I’d just move up to the 5070RTX.

Also be careful when you see a much cheaper laptop that also says “RTX 5060”. Same GPU name doesn’t necessarily mean same performance. A cheaper laptop may have the 5060RTX running at significantly lower wattage.

For more details on this check my laptop GPU wattage/TGP guide.

Below you can see what a 5060RTX laptop can do with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at around FHD resolution.

Don’t know what DLSS is? Check out this post

With the highest settings, DLSS Balanced and Frame Generation ON, the RTX 5060 in this benchmark runs Black Ops 6 at roughly 130-140 FPS.

That’s obviously much smoother than what you’d get with older mid-range GPUs. DLSS and Frame Generation also give the 50-series another nice boost if all you care about is getting as many frames as possible.

  CPU: Ryzen 7 260 vs Core i7-14650HX

Ryzen 7 260: 8 cores / 16 threads, 3.8GHz base clock and up to 5.1GHz boost.

Most 5060RTX laptops around this price will have something like a Ryzen 7 260, Core i7-13650HX or Core i7-14650HX.

The Core i7-14650HX has better multi-core performance than the Ryzen 7 260. Single-thread performance is much closer though.

Now…for Call of Duty I’d still worry more about the GPU than spending another few hundred dollars just to get a slightly faster CPU.

Actually, before doing that I’d upgrade the RAM.

This Legion comes with 16GB DDR5 in one 1x16GB stick. Add another matching 16GB stick and you’ve got 32GB running in dual-channel mode. That can give you an extra FPS boost when you’re playing at FHD/1200p where the CPU and RAM start becoming more important.

  RAM: 16GB DDR5-5600

You get 16GB DDR5-5600. That’s enough for Black Ops 6 and pretty much every current game.

The only thing I don’t like is that it’s 1x16GB instead of 2x8GB. Again, if you’re trying to squeeze every frame out of the laptop at FHD/1200p, I’d add another 16GB stick and run 32GB in dual-channel mode before spending hundreds of dollars on a faster CPU.

  Display: 15.3-inch WUXGA 165Hz IPS

The display is 1920 × 1200 instead of the regular 1920 × 1080 FHD resolution. Basically, because it’s 16:10 you get a little more vertical space.

It’s also a 165Hz IPS panel with 100% sRGB, 300-nit brightness, Dolby Vision, anti-glare and G-SYNC/variable refresh support.

For Call of Duty I actually prefer this over forcing the 5060RTX to run a much heavier QHD display. At 1200p you’re going to get much higher framerates and that’s what matters in a competitive FPS.

  Storage: 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD

You get a 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.

Speed isn’t the problem here. The problem is capacity. 512GB isn’t much on a gaming laptop anymore, especially once you install Call of Duty and another two or three AAA games.

  Alternatives

Below are some of the other 5060RTX laptops you’ll run into. Notice how prices change depending on GPU wattage, CPU, display and cooling.

At the end of the day, GPU wattage still matters A LOT. Cheaper 5060RTX laptops can run the GPU at a lower wattage and therefore don’t need the same cooling system or chassis. That’s one of the main reasons they’re cheaper.

[ScrollableTable]

Laptop Name	GPU	CPU	Display	Price
MSI Cyborg 15	RTX 5060 – Lower Wattage	Core i7-13620H	144Hz FHD	Cheaper
ASUS ROG Strix G16	RTX 5060 – 115W	Core i7-14650HX	165Hz WUXGA	Higher
Lenovo LOQ 15	RTX 5060 – 100W	Core i7-13650HX	144Hz FHD	Cheaper
MSI Katana 15 HX	RTX 5060	Core i7-14650HX	165Hz QHD	Varies
Acer Nitro V 16S AI	RTX 5060 – 85W	Ryzen 7 260	180Hz WUXGA	Cheaper

[/ScrollableTable]

The most interesting cheaper alternative here is probably the Lenovo LOQ. Its 5060RTX runs at 100W instead of 115W and it uses a cheaper 144Hz FHD display. So yes, you lose some GPU performance and some of the premium stuff, but you also save money.

We’ll go over those cheaper 5060RTX laptops later. For now just remember: this Legion is the full-power option. Don’t compare two 5060RTX laptops by price without checking the wattage.

  What You’re Getting

RTX 50-Series: RTX 5060 with 8GB GDDR7.

Maximum GPU Wattage: Full-power 115W 5060RTX.

165Hz Display: Fast IPS panel with G-SYNC/VRR.

Black Ops 6: Easily handles high-framerate FHD/1200p gaming at high settings.

DDR5 RAM: 16GB DDR5-5600.

Ryzen 7 CPU: Ryzen 7 260 with 8 cores and 16 threads.

  Trade-Offs

Display: WUXGA instead of QHD or UHD. For Call of Duty I don’t really consider that a huge con though since you’re getting more FPS.

Battery: It’s a gaming laptop. Don’t buy it for battery life. Play Call of Duty plugged in.

Weight: Around 4.63 lbs. Not insanely heavy, but obviously not an ultrabook either.

Price: This is the big one. Around $1,600 is A LOT for a 5060RTX when 5070RTX laptops start showing up not too far above it.

3. HP Victus 15

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RTX 5060 Laptop for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 & Warzone

IMPORTANT: Unlike the Lenovo Legion above, this HP Victus does NOT run the 5060RTX at the maximum 115W. It runs at around 80W and that’s basically one of the reasons this laptop is cheaper at around $1,300.

If you’ve got $1,700 to spend, I’d just move up to the MSI with the 5070RTX. If you’re trying to stay around $1,300 though, this HP Victus makes a lot more sense.

I also wouldn’t go TOO cheap just because another laptop says “RTX 5060”. Once you start going much lower in price you’re going to run into Ryzen 5, Ryzen AI 5, Core 5 and Core i5 models. They’re fine CPUs, but Call of Duty can get pretty CPU heavy when you’re trying to push very high framerates. At FHD/competitive settings especially, I’d much rather have a Ryzen 7/Core 7-class CPU.

CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 – 8 Cores / 16 Threads

Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 5060 8GB GDDR7 – 80W

RAM: 16GB DDR5-5600 – 2x8GB

Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD

Display: 15.6-inch FHD IPS 144Hz

Weight: 5.06 lbs

  GPU: RTX 5060 80W

Black Ops 6: If you’re shopping for a current Call of Duty laptop, think of the 4060RTX as the older baseline and the 5060RTX as its modern replacement.

The RTX 5060 has 8GB GDDR7 vRAM and is faster than the RTX 4060, but remember that this particular Victus is only running it at around 80W.

That doesn’t mean it’s slow. It just means you can’t compare it directly with the 115W Lenovo Legion above and assume both laptops will give you the exact same framerates just because both say RTX 5060.

Warzone: A 4060RTX was already very decent for competitive Warzone. The 5060RTX gives you more performance on top of that, especially once DLSS gets involved. How much more depends quite a bit on wattage though.

  RTX 5060 80W vs RTX 4060 100W+

At first you might think a 100W+ RTX 4060 should automatically beat an 80W RTX 5060. That’s not necessarily how it works.

Just like the 4060RTX didn’t need nearly as much power as the old 3060RTX to perform well, the 5060RTX is also pretty efficient and can still run very well below its maximum wattage.

That said, wattage STILL matters. An 80W RTX 5060 isn’t going to perform exactly like the 115W RTX 5060 in the Lenovo Legion.

If you’re comparing 5060RTX laptops, check these three things:

• GPU wattage/TGP: This HP runs around 80W. The Legion above goes up to 115W.
• MUX switch/discrete GPU mode: Don’t assume every RTX 5060 laptop has the exact same GPU switching setup.
• CPU: Ryzen 7/Core 7/Core i7-class CPUs make more sense if you’re trying to squeeze as many frames as possible out of CPU-heavy games. Cheaper Ryzen 5/Core 5 models can start holding the GPU back sooner.

For more details check my laptop GPU wattage/TGP guide.

  Benchmarks

Notice how the newer 5060RTX does against the previous 4060RTX generation even though some 5060RTX laptops run at much lower wattages:

[ScrollableTable]

GPU	Watts	CPU	QHD (FHD)	DLSS	Graphics	CoD	Benchmark
RTX 4060 Laptop	Varies	Varies	59 (79)	OFF	Ultra	Black Ops 6	Reference Test
RTX 5060 Laptop	Varies	Varies	64 (84)	OFF	Ultra	Black Ops 6	Reference Test
RTX 5060 Laptop	Higher-Power Model	13th Gen Core i7	1200p: 70-80	OFF	Highest	Black Ops 6	YouTube
RTX 5060 Laptop	Higher-Power Model	13th Gen Core i7	1200p: 130-140	Balanced + FG	Highest	Black Ops 6	YouTube

[/ScrollableTable]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z_54YeU9nY

A higher-power 5060RTX laptop runs Black Ops 6 at roughly 70-80 FPS on the highest settings without DLSS/Frame Generation and around 130-140 FPS with DLSS Balanced + Frame Generation. This HP runs at 80W, so expect somewhat lower numbers.

The point here is that the 5060RTX is still faster than the previous 4060RTX generation even though this Victus doesn’t run it at the full 115W.

The difference between 80W and 115W may not sound huge on paper, but in a competitive FPS even another 10-20 frames can matter, especially when you’re trying to make use of a high-refresh display.

  CPU: Ryzen AI 7 350 vs Ryzen 7 260 vs Core 7/Core i7

Most 5060RTX laptops are going to come with CPUs like the Ryzen AI 7 350, Ryzen 7 260, Core 7 240H or one of the Core i7 HX CPUs.

There usually isn’t enough of a gaming difference between these Ryzen 7/Core 7-class CPUs to justify spending a ton more money just for the processor.

HOWEVER…I would pay attention once you start looking at the really cheap 5060RTX laptops with Ryzen 5, Ryzen AI 5, Core 5 or weaker Core i5 CPUs.

Call of Duty uses several threads and can become CPU limited when you’re chasing very high framerates, especially at 1080p. A Ryzen 7/Core 7-class CPU just gives the 5060RTX more room to do its thing.

If you want to compare equivalent CPUs check my laptop CPU performance comparison.

Also look at multi-core performance, not just single-core charts. Call of Duty actually uses several CPU threads.

  RAM: Dual-Channel & 16-32GB DDR5

This HP Victus already comes with 16GB DDR5-5600 in a 2x8GB configuration, so you’ve got dual-channel mode working right out of the box.

That’s exactly what you want for Call of Duty. You don’t have to buy another RAM stick right away like you do with some laptops that ship with one lonely 16GB stick.

16GB is enough for Call of Duty. You can upgrade to 32GB later if you’re multitasking, streaming or playing other memory-heavy games, but don’t expect some massive FPS jump at high settings.

  Display: 144Hz + FHD + 15.6-inch

Unlike the more expensive Lenovo Legion, this HP Victus uses a regular 15.6-inch 1920 × 1080 IPS display.

That’s obviously one of the compromises that brings the price down. No QHD display here.

For Call of Duty though…who cares? 1080p actually makes a lot of sense because the GPU has fewer pixels to push and you get higher framerates.

You can always plug in an external QHD monitor if you want to play at 1440p. Reference 5060RTX benchmarks show Black Ops 6 sitting around the 60 FPS range at QHD on very high settings. Just remember this 80W Victus will be somewhat slower than the full-power 115W models.

Lastly, 144Hz is pretty much perfect for this hardware. You don’t need a 240Hz or 360Hz screen unless you’re dropping settings aggressively and trying to push ridiculous competitive framerates.

  Alternatives

Below are some of the other 5060RTX laptops you’ll find in 2026. Notice how much the CPU, display and overall laptop changes even though all of them technically have the exact same “RTX 5060” name.

Again, GPU wattage is one of the big reasons prices change so much. Cheaper 5060RTX laptops can run lower wattages and therefore don’t need the same cooling system. More expensive ones may give you a higher-wattage GPU, faster CPU and better display.

[ScrollableTable]

Laptop Name	GPU	CPU	Display	Price
Acer Nitro V 16S AI	RTX 5060	Ryzen 7 260	16″ WUXGA IPS 180Hz	$1,500
ASUS ROG Strix G16	RTX 5060	Core i7-14650HX	16″ FHD+ 165Hz	—
Lenovo LOQ 15	RTX 5060	Ryzen 7 250	15.6″ FHD IPS 144Hz	$1,300
Alienware Aurora 16X	RTX 5060	Core i7-14650HX	16″ 2.5K 180Hz	$1,200
MSI Cyborg 15 AI	RTX 5060	Core 5 210H	15.6″ FHD IPS 144Hz	$1,179
Acer Nitro 16S AI	RTX 5060	Ryzen AI 7 350	16″ WUXGA IPS 180Hz	$1,456
HP Victus 15	RTX 5060 80W	Ryzen AI 7 350	15.6″ FHD IPS 144Hz	$1,300

[/ScrollableTable]

The main reason I like this HP Victus among the cheaper 5060RTX options is the CPU. You’re still getting a Ryzen AI 7 350 instead of dropping all the way down to a Ryzen 5/Core 5 just to save another $100-$200.

Now…the Alienware Aurora 16X listed above is actually even cheaper at around $1,200 and comes with a 14th-gen Core i7. That’s an even better deal on paper. I didn’t feature it as one of the main picks simply because most people reading this tend to stick with the same few gaming laptop lines they already know. Personally I wouldn’t worry that much about it at these GPU wattages. An RTX 5060 running around this power level doesn’t require some ridiculous engineering masterpiece just to stay alive.

At the same time, I wouldn’t pay much MORE than $1,300-$1,400 for a 5060RTX either. Once you start getting close to $1,600-$1,700, just start looking at 5070RTX laptops.

  What You’re Getting

RTX 5060 8GB GDDR7: Newer and faster than the previous 4060RTX generation.

Ryzen AI 7 350: 8 cores / 16 threads, so you’re not making the CPU compromises found on some of the really cheap 5060RTX laptops.

Black Ops 6: Plenty of performance for high-framerate FHD gaming.

1440p: The 5060RTX can handle QHD gaming around and above 60 FPS in a lot of situations, but obviously you’ll need an external QHD display with this laptop.

144Hz Display: Makes sense for the type of framerates you’re actually going to get in Call of Duty.

16GB Dual-Channel DDR5: 2x8GB DDR5-5600 out of the box.

  Trade-Offs

Lower GPU Wattage: The 5060RTX runs around 80W instead of the 115W found on the fastest 5060RTX laptops.

Display: FHD instead of QHD.

Battery: It’s a gaming laptop. Don’t expect miracles. Game plugged in.

Fans: They’re going to get loud during long Call of Duty sessions. That’s normal.

Cooling: You don’t HAVE to use a cooling pad, but it can help if you’re gaming for hours.

Price: $1,300 makes sense for the Ryzen AI 7 + 5060RTX combination. I just wouldn’t pay much more because 5070RTX laptops start showing up around $1,700.

4. Alienware 18 Area-51

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Most Powerful Laptop for Call of Duty at 1600p – RTX 5080

This is going to be one of the most expensive laptops on the list because it has the most powerful GPU we’ve covered so far. The RTX 5080 Laptop GPU isn’t THE most powerful laptop GPU out there, that would be the RTX 5090, but once you throw a 5080RTX inside a huge 18-inch laptop with very high power limits and a serious cooling system…you’re already pretty close to the best Call of Duty performance you can get out of a laptop.

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX – 24 Cores

Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 5080 16GB GDDR7

RAM: 32GB DDR5-6400 – 2x16GB

Storage: 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD

Display: 18-inch WQXGA IPS 300Hz

Resolution: 2560 × 1600 – 16:10

  GPU: RTX 5080 16GB GDDR7

The 5080RTX and 5090RTX are basically the two laptop GPUs you should be looking at if you want ridiculous gaming performance in 2026.

Obviously the desktop versions are faster. They can use way more power and there’s much more room for cooling. But as far as laptops go, the 5080RTX is already insanely powerful.

Now…GPUs like this make A LOT more sense inside a big and bulky gaming laptop. The GPU itself isn’t the whole story. You need airflow, space and a cooling system that can actually keep the thing running at high power for hours.

That’s basically what Alienware is doing here. The Area-51 can reach up to 280W of combined CPU + GPU power on the RTX 5080 configuration.

A high-power 5080RTX like this is also going to be significantly faster than the previous 4080RTX generation, especially once you start using the newer DLSS and Frame Generation features.

  Size & Performance: 18-inch Cryo-Chamber Cooling

I want to emphasize the size here because with hardware this powerful it actually matters A LOT.

This isn’t some thin 16-inch gaming laptop. It’s a massive 18-inch desktop replacement with Alienware’s Cryo-Chamber underneath the chassis.

The Cryo-Chamber basically props the laptop up and gives it a much larger air intake underneath. On top of that you’ve got four fans on the RTX 5080 configuration pushing air through the chassis.

This is exactly why I keep saying bigger gaming laptops make more sense once you start getting into GPUs like the 5080RTX. More space means better airflow and more room for advanced cooling systems.

And when temperatures stay low and stable you reduce thermal throttling, which means more stable framerates after you’ve been playing Call of Duty for hours.

  CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX

The Core Ultra 9 275HX is one of Intel’s fastest laptop CPUs: 24 cores, 36MB cache and boost clocks up to 5.4GHz.

However…don’t make the mistake of thinking the CPU is the main reason this laptop is so fast in Call of Duty. It’s not. The 5080RTX is doing most of the heavy lifting once you crank up the resolution and graphics.

Once you’re already using something from the modern Core Ultra 7/Core Ultra 9, Core i7/Core i9 or Ryzen 7/Ryzen 9 families, the difference between CPUs gets a lot smaller than the difference between GPUs.

Sure, the faster CPU can still give you some extra frames, especially if you’re playing at lower resolutions and competitive settings. But moving from a 5070RTX to a 5080RTX is going to matter WAY more than moving from one high-end CPU to another.

If you find a 5080RTX laptop with a recent Ryzen 9 or Core Ultra 7 that’s significantly cheaper but has similar GPU wattage and cooling, don’t skip it just because it doesn’t say Core Ultra 9.

  CPU Bottleneck?

You’re probably going to see people talking about CPU bottlenecks whenever a GPU this powerful gets paired with different processors.

Here’s the deal…once you’re already using a recent Core Ultra 7/Core Ultra 9, Core i7/Core i9 or Ryzen 7/Ryzen 9, there’s not going to be some massive bottleneck suddenly killing your framerates.

CPUs definitely make a difference. I’m not saying they don’t. But a Ryzen 9 isn’t suddenly going to perform terribly next to a Core Ultra 9 if both laptops have the exact same 5080RTX running at similar wattages.

The CPU matters more when you’re playing at low settings and trying to push ridiculous competitive framerates. At 1600p + high settings, a lot more of the workload gets dumped on the GPU.

  Display: 18-inch WQXGA 300Hz

1600p gameplay: Unlike some of the older Alienware configurations, this one actually gives you the display that makes sense for hardware this powerful: 2560 × 1600.

Honestly, that’s exactly where I’d want to use a 5080RTX. At plain 1080p you’re not really taking advantage of all that GPU power unless you’re specifically trying to max out competitive FPS.

Now…higher resolution obviously doesn’t make you better at Call of Duty. It actually lowers framerates because the GPU has to push more pixels. The difference here is that the 5080RTX is powerful enough that 1600p competitive gaming is actually realistic.

The display itself is pretty ridiculous too: 300Hz, 3ms, 100% DCI-P3, 500 nits, NVIDIA G-SYNC and Advanced Optimus.

300Hz sounds like overkill on most laptops. On THIS laptop though? It actually makes some sense. Drop the graphics settings and resolution and you’ve got hardware that can push some very high competitive framerates.

  RAM & Storage: 32GB DDR5 + 2TB SSD

You get 32GB DDR5-6400 in a 2x16GB configuration, so forget about RAM upgrades. You’re already set.

The 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD also makes a lot more sense on a laptop this expensive than the 512GB SSDs you’ll see on cheaper gaming laptops.

Call of Duty installations are HUGE. Throw Warzone, Black Ops and another few AAA games on your system and storage disappears FAST. With 2TB you don’t have to worry about that right away.

  What You’re Getting

RTX 5080 16GB GDDR7: One of the most powerful laptop GPUs you can buy.

Core Ultra 9 275HX: One of Intel’s fastest laptop CPUs.

Massive 18-inch Chassis: Lots of room for airflow and cooling.

Cryo-Chamber + Quad Fans: This isn’t just marketing fluff. Hardware this powerful NEEDS a serious cooling setup.

Call of Duty at 1600p: This is one of the few laptops where I’d actually tell you to use the native 2560 × 1600 resolution instead of immediately dropping to FHD.

300Hz Display: Ridiculously high refresh rate, but at least this laptop has the hardware to actually make use of it.

32GB RAM + 2TB SSD: Nothing to upgrade here.

AlienFX Lighting: If you like the crazy Alienware look, this obviously has plenty of it.

  Trade-Offs

Battery: Terrible. Obviously. This is basically a desktop that happens to fold shut. Game plugged in.

Price: VERY expensive. You’re paying for the 5080RTX, huge display, massive power limits and the cooling system needed to handle all of it.

Weight: Extremely heavy compared with a normal laptop. I wouldn’t buy this if you’re carrying your laptop to class every day.

Size: The huge chassis is GOOD for cooling and BAD for portability. You can’t really have both with this kind of hardware.

5. Acer Nitro V 15

See Current Price

Best Budget Laptop for Call of Duty – RTX 4050

Here’s the deal: right now I think the Core i5 + RTX 4050 combo is pretty much the sweet spot regarding performance per dollar in this price range.

3050RTX laptops are STILL selling for almost $800. This Acer Nitro V is around $900, so saving $100 just to drop down to a 3050RTX doesn’t make much sense.

Going the other way doesn’t make much sense either. 4050RTX laptops with a Ryzen 7 or Core i7 are often close to $1,200. At that point you’re only around $100 away from some $1,300 4060RTX laptops. I’d rather put that extra money into the GPU.

That’s why the Core i5-13420H + RTX 4050 combo works so well here. You’re not wasting money on an expensive CPU but you’re still getting enough CPU power to get pretty much everything you can out of the 4050RTX.

CPU: Intel Core i5-13420H

Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 4050 6GB – Up to 75W

RAM: 8GB DDR5

Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD

Display: 15.6-inch FHD IPS 165Hz

Weight: About 4.66 lbs

  GPU: RTX 4050 vs RTX 3050 Ti vs GTX 1650

This is basically the minimum GPU I’d recommend if you’re buying a laptop specifically for Warzone and Black Ops 6 and you actually want the game to look good while keeping decent framerates.

I know you may be looking at GTX 1650 or 3050RTX laptops because they’re cheaper but trust me…they struggle A LOT more once you start playing the newer Call of Duty games.

At bare minimum I’d want a 3050 Ti or at least a 3050RTX with 6GB vRAM if you somehow find one VERY cheap.

The problem is 3050RTX laptops are still selling for close to $800. If a 4050RTX laptop like this one is around $900 then forget about the 3050RTX.

If you’re at the point where a GTX 1650 is your only option…honestly, you’d probably have more fun playing Counter-Strike 2 instead!

You won’t have much fun with modern Warzone on a GTX 1650. Framerates drop too much once things get busy and then you’re getting destroyed by some 13-year-old running the game on a desktop at 200fps.

Below you can see what the 4050RTX can do in Warzone. It holds up pretty well even at higher settings and obviously gets much faster once you optimize the settings.

  DLSS & DirectX Ray Tracing

One of the biggest reasons I’d avoid much older GPUs and get a newer RTX GPU is DLSS.

Turn it on and you can get a pretty big framerate boost. That’s especially useful on a budget gaming laptop where you’re trying to squeeze every frame you can out of the GPU.

The 4050RTX also supports newer DLSS features that simply aren’t available on a GTX 1650 or the older 3050RTX generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUPe7-oeJ1c

  RTX 4050 Performance

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GPU	CPU	FPS (1080p)	FPS (1440p)	DLSS	RTX	Graphics	CoD	Map
RTX 4050	Core i5-13500HX	90	—	ON	OFF	Max	Warzone	Operation: Piccadilly

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  RTX 3050 Ti Performance

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GPU	CPU	FPS (1080p)	FPS (1440p)	DLSS	RTX	Graphics	YouTube	CoD	Map
RTX 3050 Ti	Ryzen 5 5600H	80	—	ON	OFF	Low	LaptopStudy	MW 2	Operation: Piccadilly
RTX 3050 Ti	Ryzen 5 5600H	61	—	ON	OFF	High-ish	LaptopStudy	MW 2	Operation: Piccadilly

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  GTX 1650 Performance

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GPU	CPU	Low	High	Call of Duty	Channel
GTX 1650	Ryzen 5 4600H	115 (100)	80 (60)	Warzone	LaptopStudy
GTX 1650	Core i5-9300H	95 (80)	58 (60)	Warzone	LaptopStudy

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Notice how the 4050RTX, even with a Core i5, beats the older GTX 1650 and 3050RTX-class laptops despite running the game at much higher settings.

That’s basically what you’re getting from DLSS 3, extra vRAM and a much newer and more efficient GPU architecture.

  RAM: 8GB vs 16GB RAM

Warzone itself isn’t quite as hardware demanding as some of the newer Call of Duty modes and technically you can still play it on much weaker GPUs if you drop the settings.

The problem with THIS Acer is that it only comes with 8GB DDR5. That’s the first thing I’d change.

Upgrade it to 16GB in dual-channel mode. This matters even more when you’re playing competitively at low settings because once the GPU isn’t being pushed as hard, CPU and RAM performance start having more of an effect on your framerates.

You can check my RAM upgrade tutorial if you’ve never done it before.

  MUX Switch & Wattage (TGP)

Another thing you’ve got to watch on budget gaming laptops is the MUX switch and GPU wattage.

This Acer Nitro V 15 ANV15-52 uses NVIDIA Optimus instead of a hardware MUX switch for the internal display. That’s one of the places where Acer keeps the price down.

More importantly, unlike the old GTX 1650 and a lot of 3050RTX laptops, the 4050RTX can be configured at very different wattages.

The 4050RTX in this Nitro V goes up to around 75W. That’s lower than those 100W+ 4050RTX laptops you’ll find on larger/more expensive gaming machines.

Obviously that means you lose some GPU performance. But that’s also part of the reason you’re paying around $900 instead of $1,100-$1,200.

For more on this check my laptop GPU wattage/TGP guide.

  CPU: Ryzen 5 vs Core i5 vs Core i7

Back when I ran the old GTX 1650 benchmarks I noticed something interesting: the Ryzen 5 laptop actually beat the Core i5 laptop in Call of Duty.

That really shouldn’t have been surprising. Ryzen 5 CPUs from those generations had better multi-core performance and Call of Duty uses more CPU threads than the average game.

The Ryzen 5 model even beat the Core i5 model despite the Core i5 laptop having the better GTX 1650 GPU setup. This lines up with the multi-core results in my Ryzen vs Intel Core laptop CPU comparison.

So if you’re comparing a Ryzen 5 and Core i5 at the SAME price with the same GPU wattage and everything else is equal, I’d still lean toward the Ryzen 5 for Call of Duty.

HOWEVER…that’s not how prices look right now.

This Core i5-13420H + RTX 4050 Acer is around $900. 4050RTX laptops with Ryzen 7 or Core i7 CPUs can easily get close to $1,200.

Why would you spend another $300 just to keep the exact same GPU when 4060RTX laptops start showing up at roughly $1,300?

That’s why the Core i5 makes more sense here regarding performance per dollar. It’s fast enough for the 4050RTX and if you’ve got another $300-$400 to spend, put that money into a better GPU instead.

Some gaming laptops can get VERY hot when Call of Duty is running at high settings. If CPU temperatures become a real problem, disabling or limiting Turbo Boost can drop temperatures quite a bit. Just remember you’re also giving up some CPU performance, so don’t do it unless temperatures are actually an issue.

  What You’re Getting

165Hz Display: Faster than the older 144Hz configurations and a good match for competitive Call of Duty.

Easy RAM & Storage Upgrades: I’d upgrade the 8GB RAM to 16GB first.

Backlit Gaming Keyboard: You still get the gaming-laptop look of the Nitro series.

Recent Core i5: The i5-13420H is fast enough to make the 4050RTX worthwhile without pushing the laptop toward $1,200.

RTX 4050: WAY better value than spending almost $800 on a 3050RTX laptop.

  Trade-Offs

8GB RAM: Not enough for a gaming laptop in 2026. Upgrade it to 16GB.

Lower-Wattage RTX 4050: At around 75W it won’t perform like one of those high-power 4050RTX laptops.

No Hardware MUX: The internal display relies on Optimus rather than a dedicated hardware MUX.

Cooling: A cooling pad can help if you’re playing for hours at high settings and trying to keep boost clocks stable.

Price: It’s not necessarily THE cheapest 4050RTX laptop. The point is that around $900 this configuration makes more sense than paying almost $800 for a 3050RTX or around $1,200 just to get the same 4050RTX with a Ryzen 7.

Find The Best Laptop For Call of Duty (Buying Guide)

This section will not only list the official minimum and recommended requirements but also talk about the benchmark taken from different GPU + CPU configurations on laptopstudy.com youtube channel and other gaming channels/

Since most people came here to see the official requirements, we’ll do that briefly. Benchmarks and discussion of framerates results will follow after.

Laptop Requirements for Call of Duty Warzone , MW 3 (Complete Guide) and All releases

Official Minimum & Recommended Requirements

The translation to laptops is pretty simple, it’s only the graphics card section which can be tricky. Basically you have to take into account that desktop GPUs are usually “one step” above laptop GPUs. For ex: 1650GTX (Desktop) ~ 1060GTX (Laptop) .   3050Ti (Desktop) – 3060RTX (85W Laptop). 

If higher end GPUs like the 3060RTX and 3070RTX are mentioned they’re supposed to run at full maximum watage (this is not the case on every laptop).

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Laptop Benchmarks : Call of Duty 

It should be pretty clear by now that GPU is the single most important factor for Call of Duty and this is even more true on laptops where you don’t have many choices for CPUs. Thus when you shop for a laptop for call of duty you ONLY have to look at the GPU.

Integrated and 2GB vRAM dedicated GPUs

Note: the game is completely unplayable on integrated GPUs and even entry level dedicated GPUs with 2GB of vRAM (shown  below) thus you must spend at least 650 bucks for a decent laptop for call of duty. 

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i. Dedicated GPUs: 600-700 dollars

Bare bone minimum to play the game at low settings with everything disabled assuming you want to play competitively w/ 80-100fps.

AMD GPU variants are listed here for the sake of completeness, you are not likely to find them on laptops and even if you do they are extremely expensive (hence only found on MacBooks). So we’ll mostly focus on NVIDIA GPUs.

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Now virtually every laptop that has a Core i5 9th and Core i5 10th gen seems to struggle A LOT on high graphics quality settings. The game is somewhat playable on Ryzen 5 + 1650GTX laptops which allows you to set Texture resolution to high (this makes a big difference on how the game looks).

Recommended Graphics Settings 

Virtually all configurations are fast if you set graphics quality mostly to  low (and normal) settings and:

• NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency – Enabled + Boost
• NVIDIA Highlights – OFF
• Dynamic Resolution – Enabled
• Field of View – Default

Optional: you can set texture resolution to low and start dipping into 100 fps. 

AMD Ryzen 5  > Core i5 

Interestingly, the Core i5 9300H I have tested has some sort of a MUX Switch (15% increased GPU performance) and yet the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H outperforms it. I know I said CPU matters very little for this game but when you lack GPU power such as in the case of cheap dedicated GPUs , it can make a big difference. As you’ll see soon, it won’t make any difference on the higher and more powerful upcoming dedicated GPUs.

ii. Dedicated GPUs: 700-800 dollars

The 1060GTX and the AMD Variants are rare (the former is obsolete) but they’re listed here if you find them on a deal, they should perform just as good as the equivalents shown below:

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The AMD RX 5500M is insanely powerful for most games I’ve tested , I have a laptop on my posession with it but since it is a MacBook I could not run the game on it. 

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Call of Duty: Warzone

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Low Graphics above mean everything on Low and texture resolution set to very low with Tesellation and bullet Impact enabled.
High Graphics have all settings including Particle Lightining at Ultra & Shadow Map resolution at Extra. RTX should be OFF unless you’re playing in Campaign mode, it’s too taxing and useless for Multiplayer mode.

**Particle lightining here is set to Ultra and Screen Space reflection is set to high but World motion blur and weapon blur are disabled. Map is operation caldera: Clash.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

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**Particle lightining here is set to normal. World motion blur and weapon blur are disabled. 

Call of Duty: Vanguard

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**Particle lightining here is set to normal. World motion blur and weapon blur are disabled. 

High Graphics: High here means HIGH HIGH, just like the previous graphics configuration.

• RTX Mode is not available on Call of Duty: Vanguard at the time of the benchmarks
• DLSS ( Deep Learning Super Sampling Technology ) will increase framerates by 10 to 15 fps. Notice what a big difference it makes on the 3050Ti which returns same fps either on Low or High. This is only available on GPUs with RTX support like the 3050Ti & 2060RTX.

Conclusions: 3050Ti , 2060RTX & 1660Ti

• 3050Ti laptops have the same performance as 1660Ti laptops (despite being cheaper). The 2060RTX , however, outperforms the 3050Ti but they’re usually more expensive.
• Because 1440p resolution means more “image details” thus it requires more “video memory”, only 6GB vRAM GPUs like the 2060RTX and 1660Ti make the game playable at 1440p resolution.
• Note how the 2060RTX (115W) in the previous Warzone Table outperforms the 2060RTX(95W) on Vanguard despite Warzone being more hardware demanding and despite the 2060RTX (115W) having a weaker CPU. This is how important GPU Wattage is. I have a whole article on the GPU Wattage topic it which you MUST read if you want to buy a laptop for call of duty.
  • Note GPU Wattage is not an issue for 3050Ti , 1650GTX and weaker GPUs because they all run at maximum wattage on every laptop.

iii. Dedicated GPUs: 800-1300 dollars

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Please note that GPU Wattage becomes extremely important from now so make sure you read my post on it if you’re planning to spend at least 900 dollars. Basically GPUs come with different wattages (power) which are most of the time NOT configurable , they are set on stone when you buy a laptop.

Low Power 3060RTX: 90W / 105W

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*Both laptops above have CPUs with similar performance (in fact the Core i7 is slightly powerful but that doesn’t seem to matter much, what’s making the big difference here is the slightly higher wattage 3060RTX on 1440p gaming). 

• 1080p: Power doesn’t seem to matter much here. 85W or 95W or even 105W doesn’t make much difference for framerates.
• 1440p: However, there’s a substantial performance gain with little increments of power for 1440p gaming. 

High Wattage 3060RTX: 115W-130W

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Benchmarks above are not taken on the same setting (different maps may reduce or increase performance) however both of the high power 3060RTX variants (115W & 130W) massively outperform the low power variants both at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. Also note that Both benchmarks were taken on Warzone which is a bit more hardware demanding than Vanguard.

Older 2070RTX

 It’s still a good option in 2022 provided and if you find them running at high wattage (115W and above) and cheaper than 3060RTX, it’s a pretty good damn deal.
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iv. Dedicated GPUs: 1500-2000 dollars 

This is a lot of a money and although all of these laptops will definitely get you high framerates on high settings, you will lose substantial extra gains if you are not careful.

Make sure you read my post on GPU Wattage (linked in the preceeding section). it’s mandatory at this point !

Call of Duty: Warzone 

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Call of Duty:  VanGuard

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

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Lots of benchmarks and points to make out of these but the main takeaways are:

Call of Duty at 1080p: 

• Only the high power 3070RTX and 3080RTX (130W+ , ex: 140W or 155W) will outperform the 130W 3060RTX. 
  • DO NOT BUY low powered 3070RTX & 3080RTX (80W-115W) if you’re playing the game at 1080p resolution, they do NOT  seem to outperform the 3060RTX (130W) substantially thus you’ll be wasting hundreds of bucks if you do. 

Call of Duty at 1440p: 

• Likewise low wattage 3070RTX & 3080RTX GPUs do not seem to “VASTLY” outperform the 3060(130W) however temperatures are lower on the higher-end GPUs. 
  • This means you still must get a high power 3070RTX and 3080RTX for 1440p gaming

Call of Duty: 3070RTX vs 3080RTX

• You are never guaranteed to get better performance out of a 3080RTX even if it’s a high power (wattage) GPU. Make sure to watch benchmarks of the models you’re buying. 

v. Latest dGPUs: 2000 dollars and above

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These GPUs should only be used for Call of Duty at 1440p resolution, they’re insanely powerful for 1080p alone. Notice how CPU matters very little here and it’s all about GPU.

No.

In fact, it’s more about Wattage, look at the high wattage 3070Ti outperforming the low wattage 105W 3080RTX.

Also notice how both the high wattage 3070Ti and 3080Ti get you up there around the “competitive framerates” magic number: 144Hz.

Obviously, CPU matters too but only when all things are equal: wattage, MUX Switch, same GPU, same RAM, etc. We’ll go over what really matters about the CPU next.

CPU

While the GPU is in charge of generating and outputting high graphics, the CPU is mostly in charge of doing all the calculations behind the scenes: buildings rendering, shots being fired, things moving, the interaction between objects and targets, etc.

Obviously, things are not going to work out well if you’ve got let’s say a 3080Ti RTX running at 175W and just a Core i5 11400H as a CPU, there’s going to be a CPU “bottleneck”, aka, the CPU will not be able to keep up with ALL the images and details the GPU is outputting.

That’s only a problem for desktops though. On laptops you will ALWAYS have a CPU that can keep up with the GPU.

As you’ve seen before the 3080Ti is usually paired with a Core i7 12900H or a Core i9 12900K.

Obviously, one of those two is going to be faster than the other, so all things being equal, which one do you pick?

Cores vs Frequency

You pick the one with the highest clock frequency or the best clock speed performance. 

Call of Duty is a multi-threadd game TRUE! But like every game that multi-core efficiency stops beyond 4 cores and most high end CPUs even those budget CPUs have at least 4 cores. Thus you must pick the one with more “clock speed” performance.

CPU Performance 

RAM

8GB vs 16GB

It is no secret the game takes a huge amount of vRAM (the memory on graphics cards) and most of the time it will take up ALL of it, thus any extra RAM even if it’s not GPU ‘vRAM’ becomes useful.

The game can be played with just 8GB but you’ll do a LOT better with 16GB RAM. 32GB RAM becomes pretty useless.

Once I upped the RAM in the Lenovo Ideapad gaming for example, I’ve got a boost of 10fps. That’s A LOT considering how hardware demanding Call of Duty is.

DDR5 vs DDR4 vs DDR3

You obviously want the latest RAM too. The latest right now is the DDR5 but it’s only available on those 3070Ti, 3060Ti and 3080Ti laptops which cost an eyeball.

Dual Channeled

You want to make sure your RAM set up (16GB) is done on dual-channel mode. I’ve got a full post on the topic here.

This will give you an additional albeit small increase in framerates.

Storage

Size

HDDs are obsolete now and that’s good. The question is no longer about which type of storage but how much storage do you need:

256GB: This is only useful to install one of the franchises of Call of Duty+ Warzone.

512GB: You need at least 512GB to have several game relases including Black OPs 4, Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare II. 

1TB: You’re going to need 1TB if you want ALL previous titles including Cold War.