What is FidelityFX CAS in Modern Warfare 2? How it works

Sayem Ahmed
MW2 characters

What is FidelityFX CAS? In Modern Warfare 2, you might see this option appear if you’re a keen-eyed PC player. The function allows you to sharpen the image, making finer details look much more pronounced.

Modern Warfare 2 is finally here, and while the console version of the game might have a couple of options to play around with, PC players have much more flexibility. The game supports Nvidia Reflex, which helps you cut down on system latency, but there’s more. Some users are wondering what one of its options, FidelityFX CAS actually does.

What does FidelityFX CAS do in MW2?

FidelityFX is a package created by AMD that enhances the image quality of your video game. CAS is shorthand for Constrast Adaptive Sharpening. It essentially takes the image and can increase the sharpness of pixels. Areas will less detail will become sharper. This is intended to bolster TAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing), without any of the blur. CAS can also support upsampling and downsampling of the rendered image.

In Modern Warfare 2, enabling FidelityFX CAS could enable you to see enemies with slightly more contrast, versus having the function turned off. This could potentially help you spot enemies from further away. Though, some might not be a fan of the oversharpened look. It helps being out subtle details in-game, and could potentially prove to be a competitive advantage in this relatively safe entry into the franchise.

MW2 FidelityFX CAS: How to enable it

MW2 FidelityFX CAS Menu

To use FidelityFX CAS, all you need to do is follow these simple steps:

  • Open your graphics options in Modern Warfare 2
  • Navigate to the ‘Quality’ tab
  • Under ‘Upscaling/Sharpening’, select ‘FidelityFX CAS’

For Nvidia users, make sure to disable image scaling in order to use FidelityFX CAS.

From here, you should be able to simply head into a game, and enjoy sharper detail in-game. It does tend to make the image a touch more constrast-y, too. You can also switch it off in this menu, if you don’t like its effects.

About The Author

Dexerto's Hardware Editor. Sayem is an expert in all things Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and PC components. He has 10 years of experience, having written for the likes of Eurogamer, IGN, Trusted Reviews, Kotaku, and many more. Get in touch via email at sayem.ahmed@dexerto.com.