The second Modern Warfare 4 beta weekend opened to everyone at 10:00 AM PT last Thursday and runs until 10:00 AM PT on Tuesday, September 1. No preorder, no beta code, and this round includes Nintendo Switch 2 alongside PC via Steam and Battle.net, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. Preloading has been available since 9:00 AM PT on August 26.
The content list covers core 6v6 maps and modes, Ground War: Combat Outpost, Kill Block, the campaign mission “Entrenched,” and the new Zodiac Resurgence map in Warzone. Rewards earned during the beta carry into the full game, which launches October 23.
Activision’s published minimum tier asks for a Ryzen 5 1600 or Core i5-8400 paired with a GTX 970, GTX 1060, RX 470, or Arc A580, with 12GB of system RAM, 3GB of video memory, and an SSD. That is a low bar for a 2026 release, and given what a stick of DDR5 costs right now, a 12GB minimum is a small mercy.
TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required on PC, enforced for RICOCHET anti-cheat, and Activision has been explicit that other security measures may be enforced as well. Miss either one and you do not get a performance problem, you get blocked from online play entirely. If you built your machine before Windows 11 made TPM a talking point, or you disabled Secure Boot at some point to install something, check those settings now rather than at 10:00 PM tonight with your squad waiting.
TPM appears as PTT on Intel platforms and fTPM on AMD. Secure Boot may require switching the boot mode away from CSM or Legacy, which on an older install can mean converting the drive from MBR to GPT. That is the part that turns a five-minute fix into an evening, so leave yourself time.
Editorially, the hardware-attestation trend deserves more scrutiny than it gets. Kernel-level and firmware-gated anti-cheat has become table stakes for competitive shooters, and the tradeoff is real: you are handing over a measure of control over your own machine for a cheating problem that these measures reduce but never solve. Reasonable people land in different places on that. What is not reasonable is finding out about the requirement when the client refuses to connect.
The beta is a free look at Infinity Ward’s movement changes before the October release. Sort your firmware out first.
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