Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) – Is Nvidia RTX the “Way It’s Meant To Be Played”?

Final Thoughts

I will admit I was a bit of a skeptic as I have watched RTX develop and how it has been used over the games that are supported. I am glad to say that while the performance hit is there my skepticism was quickly squashed.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare has a special place in my heart as it was one of the games I spent countless hours playing so many years ago it is hard to say specifically what year it was at this point. The 2019 version of Modern Warfare does a damn good job of recreating an iconic title and I hope improvements will keep coming as the time moves on. I also hope that we will see more variety of game types with RTX soon.

The performance delta between RTX enabled and disabled averages around 28-31% and that can be acceptable as long as you know what performance to expect and you temper your gameplay and settings expectations accordingly.

The differences we observed in Modern Warfare with RTX enabled vs. Disabled is quite interesting as it is subtle enough not entirely to reskin the game. However, the feel you get from the game is hard to describe as it feels more natural (aside from the fire which is atrocious with RTX on or off), and the overall more true to life soft shadows and reflections do change the way the game feels.

Nvidia has had the tagline “the way its meant to be played” for such a long time that it almost feels reminiscent of what we experienced with this new COD entry.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019) may undoubtedly be one of the most beautiful of the COD franchise to date. But with RTX enabled, it does feel like the way it’s meant to be played, and, more importantly, the only way you should choose to play it.

I’m sure we will get some blowback from this, and that’s ok, a game’s visual fidelity and overall beauty are as the adage goes “in the eye of the beholder.” But, once you see COD with RTX enabled, I believe most will agree that it’s worth the performance difference and does make the game an even better overall experience.