Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 reportedly has a notable input lag issue on the Switch 2, with new testing suggesting the game is significantly less responsive on Nintendo’s console compared to the PlayStation 5. The problem appears to be particularly pronounced in handheld mode and is significant enough to potentially put Modern Warfare 4 players at a disadvantage during multiplayer matches.
Released on October 23, Modern Warfare 4 marked Call of Duty‘s return to Nintendo hardware after more than a decade away from the company’s consoles. The technical performance of the Switch 2 version attracted plenty of attention ahead of launch, particularly when it came to multiplayer. More specifically, given the game’s focus on responsive, competitive play, maintaining a 60fps target was widely seen as one of the most important requirements for Modern Warfare 4 on the Switch 2.
Call of Duty: MW4 Has Significantly More Input Lag on Switch 2 Than PS5
While the Switch 2 version broadly manages to meet that frame rate target in multiplayer, Digital Foundry, an outlet known for its in-depth technical analysis, reports that responsiveness is another matter. It measured 81ms of input latency in Switch 2 docked mode, compared to 49ms on the PS5 at 60Hz, making the Switch 2 result roughly 65% higher. The gap was even larger in handheld mode, where the Switch 2 averaged 100ms, more than double the latency measured on the PS5 version of Modern Warfare 4. The testing used a Switch 2 Pro Controller and DualSense wirelessly.
The handheld result was also significantly less consistent than the 100ms average alone suggests. Digital Foundry recorded latency ranging from 83ms at best to 125ms at worst, which led the outlet to conclude that Switch 2 players are at a competitive disadvantage compared to those on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. For clarity, Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer is cross-platform, meaning Switch 2 users can encounter players on either of those consoles.
Modern Warfare 4 Switch 2 Version Input Lag Is a Performance Outlier
The Overall Port Reportedly Performs Well
Input lag aside, Digital Foundry was broadly positive about the Modern Warfare 4 Switch 2 port. Although the campaign runs at 30fps and image quality is unsurprisingly reduced compared to more powerful consoles, the handheld version retains eye-candy features such as interactive smoke, destructible glass, projected video, and dense NPC scenes. Multiplayer also generally stays near its 60fps target, though demanding moments can push performance into the 50s and (much more rarely) the high 40s.
It is currently unclear what is causing the higher input latency or whether it can be addressed through a software update. Neither Activision nor the developers behind the Switch 2 version have formally acknowledged the issue, so there is no indication that a fix is in the works or whether the latency is being treated as a bug rather than an unavoidable characteristic of the port. In the meantime, the few community-discovered tweaks concern Modern Warfare 4 image quality rather than responsiveness. Disabling HDR and lowering the field of view (FOV) to 100 or less reportedly produces a cleaner image on the Switch 2 by reducing the workload placed on DLSS.
- Released
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October 23, 2026
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
