Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the latest clone out of Activision’s labs. A 4-hour campaign bundled with multiplayer modes still counts as a new game. Regardless, we’re here to talk about the game’s GPU performance on PC. ComputerBase tested Modern Warfare 3 across their expansive list of graphics cards and got predictable results. First off, Radeon GPUs perform much better than their GeForce counterparts. We’re looking at deltas of 30% and more between comparable SKUs.
At 1080p, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX grabs the top spot, beating the GeForce RTX 4080 and the 4090. It establishes a lead of 31% over the former and edges past the latter. It is worth noting that the RX 7900 XTX is currently available for $949, while the RTX 4090 costs $1,800 and above (twice as much). The GeForce RTX 4080 falls behind the RX 7900 XT with a 33 FPS delta between them.
At 1440p, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX extends its lead over the RTX 4080 to 34% with a nominal advantage over the RTX 4090. If I were to guess, I’d say that the RDNA 3 flagship performs the best at this resolution with maximum cache hit rates and utilization. The RX 7900 XT being 18% faster than the higher-tier RTX 4080 indicates this. Even the last-gen RDNA 2 cards put up an impressive showing, with the 6950 XT sneaking up on the RTX 4080.
At 4K, the GeForce RTX 4090 retakes the crown, albeit with a flimsy lead. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is 37% faster than the RTX 4080, while the RX 7900 XT holds a lead of 12%. The RX 7800 XT maintains a notable lead over the RTX 4070 Ti at 1080p and 1440p, but things normalize at 4K.
These numbers show that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 favors Radeon hardware. The game supports several NVIDIA technologies, such as DLSS 3 “Frame Generation” and Reflex, but they aren’t a match for Team Red at native.
