Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.


⤏ Go to series page
Call of Duty	2003
Call of Duty 2	2005
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (series)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (series)
Call of Duty: Ghosts	2013
Call of Duty: Online	2013
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare	2014
Call of Duty: Heroes	2014
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare	2016
Call of Duty: WWII	2017
Call of Duty: Warzone	2020
Call of Duty: Vanguard	2021
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0	2022

This page is for the original 2007 release. For the updated 2016 version, see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. For the 2019 soft reboot, see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Key points

Official mod support.

PunkBuster must be manually updated to play on protected servers. See "Unable to initialize PunkBuster. PunkBuster is disabled." error

General information

Official Call of Duty series site

Call of Duty Wiki - A detailed wiki for every Call of Duty game made.

Planet Call of Duty - Very old hub for all Call of Duty games. Has mods, guides, and news on the Call of Duty communities. Hasn't been updated for a while.

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v4 DRM^{[Note 1]}.
Amazon.com
GamersGate

Humble Store
Mac App Store
Steam

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Demo

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Variety Map Pack	Available for free. Included with Patch v1.6 (v1.7 for OS X) and any digital release of the game. See Patches for a download link.

Essential improvements

Patches

There are 7 patches in total, but only the last two are required.

The Steam version and the retail GOTY edition are already patched.

Patch v1.6

Includes the Variety Map Pack

Download (Retail and Direct2Drive)

Patch v1.7

Windows

Requires Patch v1.6 to be already installed

Download (Retail and Direct2Drive)

macOS

Not required for Steam and Mac App Store versions of the game

Contains all the fixes and content from previous patches

Download (Retail and Digital Download)

CoD4X Mod

A client and server mod for multiplayer that adds enhanced functionality and security to servers, bug fixes, and its own serverlist.

It can be downloaded from the official website.

Skip intro videos

Use the `seta com_introplayed "1"` command line argument^{[citation needed]}

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\players\profiles\<user-id>\config.cfg^{[Note 2]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/7940/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\players\profiles\^{[Note 2]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/7940/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game graphics settings.

In-game textures settings.

Template:Video settings

Windowed

Enable windowed mode using console^{[citation needed]}
Press `~` and the in-game console will appear. If it doesn't appear go to Game Options and make sure the console is enabled. In console, type in `/r_fullscreen 0` to enable windowed mode (or `/r_fullscreen 1` to enable fullscreen mode) and press `↵ Enter`. Type in `/vid_restart` and press `↵ Enter` to restart the game's renderer and apply new settings.

Field of view (FOV)

Modify FOV using a console^{[citation needed]}
Press `~` and the in-game console will appear. If it doesn't appear, go to Game Options and make sure the console is enabled. In order permanently change the FOV, you have to write the command `seta cg_fov XX`, where XX is your desired horizontal field of view (e.g. `seta cg_fov 90`). The command "seta" permanently writes commands following it to the config.

High frame rate

Unlock frame rate^{[citation needed]}

Enable console in options
Press ~.
Type /com_maxFPS # where # is what you want the frame rate cap to be.

Notes

Some servers do not allow you to have a frame rate above 250 due to possible cheating.

High frame rates can influence aspects of the game's mechanics (such as jump height), and this weakness of the engine is exploited by some players to gain an advantage.

Input settings

In-game control settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

In-game audio settings.

In-game voice settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Polish				Only available in Polish retail release.
Russian				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Slovak				Fan translation.
Spanish

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see required FOV and shadow tweaks here: vorpx forum profile introduction.

Network

In-game multiplayer settings.

Servers can optionally use PunkBuster anti-cheat protection (must be manually updated).

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		64
Online play		64

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Go to Favorites and add a new favorite with the IP as the source.^[5]

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	28960
UDP	28960

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Useful networking console commands

Use `cl_maxpackets 100` Maximum number of packets sent per frame (Domain is any integer from 15 to 100)

Use `snaps 30` Snapshot rate (Domain is any integer from 1 to 30)

!!!Consensus still needs to be made about these commands and how they relate to com_maxfps.

Refer to the following for more reading:

http://www.funender.com/quake/console/q3connection.html

http://wiki.modsrepository.com/index.php?title=Call_of_Duty_:_A_Study_on_FPS

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/246033-truth-about-91-fps-in-the-new-call-of-duty/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/7940/discussions/0/528398719800788355/?ctp=2#c527273452881706687

VR support

3D modes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare fix.

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues fixed

Missing d3dx9_43.dll or similar .dll file

This issue is caused by a broken DirectX installation, to fix simply reinstall DirectX 9.

Game won't start on Windows 7

Enable stereo mix^{[citation needed]}

On some PCs the sound driver crashes the game before it starts

Plug in a microphone

Alternatively:

Go to Control Panel
Open Sound settings
Click the recording tab
Enable stereo mix (you may need to right click and select "Show disabled devices" for it to be visible).

Game sound is replaced with microphone input

Disable recording device (Windows)
From Control Panel, open the Sound menu. Under the Recording tab, disable any input devices.

Stuttering issues with high end graphics cards

Enable multiple GPUs^{[citation needed]}
Random non frame rate related stuttering with higher end graphics cards (eg. GTX 680 and above) can be fixed by enabling Multiple GPUs in the settings menu.

Ambient Occlusion issues on Nvidia GPUs

Ambient Occlusion set to Performance.

Ambient Occlusion set to off.

Disable Ambient Occlusion inside NVIDIA Control Panel

iw3sp.exe is for Singleplayer, iw3mp.exe is for Multiplayer.

Open the Nvidia Control Panel.
Go to 3D Settings, Manage 3D settings, Program Settings.
Click Add, Browse and select iw3sp.exe or iw3mp.exe inside <path-to-game>.
Set Ambient Occlusion to Off.

"Unable to initialize PunkBuster. PunkBuster is disabled." error

Update PunkBuster^[6]
Update PunkBuster manually.

Black/flickering textures on older Nvidia GPUs

Black/flickering textures on older Nvidia GPUs^{[citation needed]}
On Windows XP, older Nvidia GPUs like the GeForce 7900 GTX would display black or flickering textures when running on the latest available drivers (307.83). Downgrading drivers to 195.62 appears to solve this.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9
OpenGL	2.0	macOS only.
Shader Model support	2, 3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			32-bit only.^[7]

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	FMOD, Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Demonware
Anti-cheat	PunkBuster	The PunkBuster version provided is no longer supported and needs to be manually updated to connect to protected servers. See "Unable to initialize PunkBuster. PunkBuster is disabled." error

Show FPS Counter

Show FPS counter^{[citation needed]}
Enable console in options Press `~`. Type `/cg_drawFPS 1`

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Any 1.8 GHz Dual Core	2.4 GHz dual core or better
System memory (RAM)	512 MB (XP) 768 MB (Vista)	1 GB (XP) 2 GB (Vista)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6600 ATI Radeon 9800	Nvidia GeForce 7800 ATI Radeon X1800

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.7.5	10.9
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz	Intel Core i7
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	9 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 7300 ATI Radeon X1600 128 MB of VRAM

The Intel Integrated GMA 950 and Intel Integrated X3100 chipsets are not supported

Notes

↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[3] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[4]
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/7940/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (7940) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Call Of Duty 4 Shipping September 15th - IMG News Discussion - Inside Mac Games Forum - last accessed on 2016-7-23
↑ Call Of Duty 4 Mac Version - last accessed on 2016-7-23
↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
↑ COD4 - can you join direct IP ? | 509th Tactical Forum
↑ Cod4 unable to initialize punkbuster.??? : pcgaming
↑ MacOS Catalina, 64-bit, 32-bit, and related Questions – Aspyr Support

[5] SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10^[3] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.^[4]

[gamedir-6] 2.0 ^2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-7] 3.0 ^3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/7940/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (7940) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Call Of Duty 4 Shipping September 15th - IMG News Discussion - Inside Mac Games Forum - last accessed on 2016-7-23

[2] Call Of Duty 4 Mac Version - last accessed on 2016-7-23

[3] Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16

[4] Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[8] COD4 - can you join direct IP ? | 509th Tactical Forum

[9] Cod4 unable to initialize punkbuster.??? : pcgaming

[10] MacOS Catalina, 64-bit, 32-bit, and related Questions – Aspyr Support

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[3]

[4]

Developers

	Infinity Ward
macOS (OS X)	i5works^[1]^[2]
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Publishers
	Activision
OS X	Aspyr Media
Engines
	IW 3.0
Release dates
Windows	November 5, 2007
macOS (OS X)	September 26, 2008