Call of Duty Warzone is a GPU-intensive game rather than a CPU-intensive one. To avoid bottlenecks, though, you’ll need to couple your GPU with a powerful CPU. If you want to play COD Warzone at 4K resolution, you’ll need a powerful graphics card and CPU.
For the past 12 years, I’ve been a fan of the Call of Duty franchise. I remember playing Call of Duty 2 on my Pentium III desktop computer, which had a 64MB Nvidia graphics card.
Since then, the Call of Duty franchise has produced popular titles such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Call of Duty Black Ops, Ghosts, and others.
At the time of writing, the most popular game that tests the limits of your PC hardware is Call of Duty: Warzone.
This “battle royale” genre requires more gaming power from your gaming PC than any prior game in the series. So, do you think Call of Duty: Warzone is more CPU or GPU intensive?
Call of Duty Warzone System Requirements
The following are the minimum system requirements for Call of Duty Warzone:
CPU: Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX670 or GeForce GTX 1650 or Radeon HD 7950
Video Memory: 2GB or more
RAM: 8GB
As you can see, these are the bare minimum requirements for playing the game. This game would run on a 4th generation Core i3 4340 processor. But be warned: playing the game does not guarantee smoother frame rates.
Keep in mind that these are the very minimum requirements for your PC to launch and play the game at its lowest settings.
A high-end graphics card and CPU are required for smoother performance (above 60fps). With minimal hardware, you can avoid 720p resolution, but with an entry-level CPU or GPU, it will be difficult to reach 1080p settings in COD Warzone.
So don’t be fooled by the minimum requirements mentioned by the COD brand to run Warzone. Modern FPS games are built to take advantage of additional “Cores” and clock speed from your CPU. As a result, if you want to play COD Warzone, you should have at least a six-core CPU.
Furthermore, the 2GB of VRAM would limit you to a 720p resolution, and in most circumstances, you would end up bottlenecked. To be honest, gone are the days when 2GB of VRAM was sufficient to run the most demanding PC games.
6GB of RAM is required to play games at 1080p resolution. And playing COD Warzone in 720p makes no sense at all.
Seeing if Call of Duty: Warzone requires a lot of CPU or GPU power.
I knew it was placing a greater strain on my graphics card the instant I started playing COD Warzone. The GPU fans were whistling a lot as they tried to push hot air away from it. Also, when I was playing Call of Duty Warzone at 1440p settings, the GPU used in the Windows Taskbar reached 95%.
I use a mid-range gaming PC to see if COD Warzone needs more GPU or CPU. I combined a Core i5-10400F CPU with an Nvidia GTX 1660 Super graphics card and 32GB of DDR4 RAM in this gaming PC.
There was no problem playing Call of Duty Warzone at 1080p settings. Even throughout the most intense battle situations, the average frame rate was consistently above 75fps. I accessed the Task Manager in the side panel to locate the stress on the CPU or GPU.
As shown in the image above, the GPU usage in Call of Duty Warzone is approximately 97%, while the CPU usage is approximately 57%. As a result, Call of Duty Warzone is more reliant on your graphics card than your CPU.
To play COD Warzone, you’ll need a good gaming PC with at least a strong graphics card. Most people also complain that the game is poorly optimized, which is somewhat accurate. Unlike the Battlefield franchise, the COD franchise is constantly chastised by gamers for poor optimization.
Even if you have a mid-range gaming PC on your desk, COD games will have lower frame rates than Battlefield titles. According to game debate, Call of Duty Warzone is the worst-optimized game of 2020.
Why Are You Getting More GPU Usage in COD Warzone?
The only reason you receive greater GPU utilization data in Call of Duty Warzone is that the game is poorly tuned.
Do you remember playing Grand Theft Auto IV on your PC in 2010? Even the most powerful graphics cards available at the time couldn’t deliver smoother performance in GTA IV.
The same is true with Call of Duty: Warzone, which is meant to consume more VRAM from your graphics hardware.
Is It Possible to Play COD Warzone without a GPU?
No, you cannot play this game without a graphics card. If your motherboard has a good integrated graphics card, you can play the game at the lowest settings available.
Even at 720p, there’s no assurance that you’ll receive more than 30 frames per second. The only way around this is to purchase a good dedicated graphics card for Call of Duty Warzone.
Call of Duty Warzone Graphics Card Recommendations
The COD Warzone was easily playable at 1080p 60fps settings on an Nvidia GTX 1660 Super 6GB. Other graphics cards that outperform COD Warzone include the GTX 1660 Ti, AMD RX 5700 XT, AMD RX 5500 XT, Nvidia RTX 2060, RTX 2080, RTX 3060 Ti, and more.
The only thing to bear in mind is to choose a graphics card with higher VRAM. As previously stated, Call of Duty Warzone is a VRAM hog.
If you want to game at 1080p resolution, I recommend getting a graphics card with at least 6GB of VRAM.
Final thought
Is Call of Duty Warzone a CPU or GPU-intensive game? It is a graphically demanding game that needs more power from your graphics card when played at higher settings.
However, playing the game at lower settings will relieve the burden on your GPU and shift it to your CPU.
To achieve greater frame rates in the game and balance game performance, you’ll need a stronger CPU. As a result, you’ll need to invest more money in a dependable graphics card and a CPU to run this game smoothly.
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