Your high framerate is behind a TV setting

Two days out from launch, Activision's official Call of Duty Updates account posted a setup note that is easy to scroll past and expensive to miss. Players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S have to have Variable Refresh Rate enabled for Performance Mode support in Modern Warfare 4 Campaign and DMZ, and the same requirement lands on Call of Duty: Warzone when Season 1 arrives. The post goes one step further for anyone already stuck: if you are locked at 60 Hz in those modes, check that your display actually supports 120 Hz and that VRR is switched on in your settings. Performance Mode is the high framerate option, so on console the smoother picture now sits behind a display setting plenty of players have never opened.

Why Hardcore SnD cares

In a one-life round, framerate is not a comfort setting. It is reaction time. The difference between 60 and the high framerate mode shows up in the half second where you clear a corner, swing a long angle, or trade with someone pre-aimed at your head. If your console is quietly locked to the lower mode because VRR is off in your TV or monitor menu, you are giving that half second away every round and blaming your aim for it.

• Check it before Friday, not during VRR lives in your display's own menu as well as your console settings, and on some sets it is called FreeSync or G-Sync. Turning it on mid-session is not how you want to spend your first night of lobbies.
• Squad parity matters If three of you are running the high framerate mode and one is stuck at the floor, your fourth is playing a different game on the same map. Worth a check before you start reading losses as a skill gap.
• Cables and modes count VRR needs the right HDMI input mode on many televisions. A player with a capable panel on the wrong input can still end up locked out of the option.

What the post does not say

The post names Campaign, DMZ, and Warzone from Season 1. It does not name multiplayer, which is the only mode that matters for Search and Destroy. Campaign and DMZ are live now through early access, so that is where Activision had reason to speak. Whether the multiplayer build carries the same gate when it opens on October 23 is genuinely not stated. There is plenty of confident talk in both directions on social media right now, and none of it is sourced. Treat the multiplayer side as unanswered rather than assuming it either way.

What would verify it for multiplayer

Two things would settle it. A Modern Warfare 4 launch or preseason patch note that lists the Performance Mode requirement under multiplayer, or an Activision support article that spells out the display requirements mode by mode. Short of that, the honest answer arrives on Friday when console players open the multiplayer graphics menu and see whether the toggle is there with VRR off. Players hit exactly that wall in Campaign early access, and in every account the fix was enabling VRR first.

A display setting you have never opened is now part of your competitive setup.

Sources to review

• Call of Duty Updates on X: Players on PS5 and XBOX Series X|S must have Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) enabled for Performance Mode support in MW4 Campaign and DMZ (Call of Duty Updates (official Activision account))
• CharlieIntel on X: Modern Warfare 4 requires PS5 and Xbox Series X and S players to own a monitor that supports 120Hz and Variable Refresh Rate in order to have 120FPS enabled (CharlieIntel)
• No 120 hz mode option ps5 for mw4 campaign early access and cutscenes have like a skip when the camera is moving (r/modernwarfare4)