Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 · PC (NVIDIA) · version Early access (DMZ), NVIDIA driver 621.01Washed-out and purple-tinted graphics after NVIDIA driver 621.01
ConfirmedUnpatchedUpdated
Since NVIDIA's 621.01 driver, some PC players see washed-out, pixelated, posterized or purple and green-tinted lighting and shadows in DMZ and Multiplayer, while Campaign can look normal. On October 26 Infinity Ward's Trello board listed the 621.01 visual issues as under investigation and said it is working with NVIDIA to correct them. Two workarounds: a clean installation of an earlier NVIDIA driver (players name 617.42, 617.14 and 616.56), which Call of Duty staff called a temporary workaround for most players; and, unconfirmed, deleting the shadercache folders inside the game's cod26 and sp26 folders and letting shaders rebuild, which several players on X said fixed it. Players report that turning HDR off, a clean reinstall of 621.01, and reloading or restarting shader preloading did not help.
Lifecycle
Acknowledged · stage 3 of 5
8days open
Since first report
- Reported (reached)
- Confirmed (reached)—
- Acknowledged (reached) · now
- Partial (not yet)next
- Patched (not yet)—
- Game
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
- Platform
- PC (NVIDIA)
- Affected version
- Early access (DMZ), NVIDIA driver 621.01
- Kind
- Bug
- Confirmation
- Confirmed
- Patch status
- Unpatched
- First reported
- Last updated
- Latest fix or workaround
- Workaround, : Oct 29: a player says deleting the shader cache in the cod26 folder fixed the same problem for them; unconfirmed, and the post does not name the driver. Source
How we label issues
Kind
- Exploit: Repeatable and clearly advantageous to the player using it; essentially cheating.
- Bug: Everything else: crashes, launch errors, broken features, visual or audio faults.
Confirmation
- Confirmed: A developer or official account acknowledged it, an official known-issues board lists it, it appears in official patch notes, or 100+ corroborating posts on X were actually counted.
- Unconfirmed: None of the above yet. Press articles are reports and never confirm an issue on their own.
Patch status
- Unpatched: Known and open; no fix has been claimed.
- Reported as unpatched: Players credibly report it persisting, including after a fix claim that never appeared in patch notes.
- Partially patched: Official patch notes list a fix, but credible later reports say it still happens, or the notes only cover part of it.
- Reported as patched: A developer, official account or player says it is fixed, but no official patch notes list it.
- Patched: Official patch notes (a Steam news post or the publisher's patch notes page) list the fix, and nothing credible says it still happens.
Active means still affecting players: Unpatched, Reported as unpatched or Partially patched. Patched and Reported as patched issues are closed.
Estimated impact runs from 0.1 to 9.9 with one decimal. xploitr sets it from the rubric below. Factors: advantage to other players, reach, play blocked or progress lost, frequency, and whether a reliable workaround exists. Patched issues keep their historical impact.
Signed-in community members can report new issues and suggest status changes, such as Fixed or Still unpatched, with their platform, version and a source. Every report and suggestion is reviewed by an editor before anything on the record changes. A new issue is published only when the report has at least three independent sources (distinct accounts, or distinct sites for web pages, after blocked sources are removed), unless the owner approved that issue by hand. Approved input appears as a dated Update from the xploitr community source on the issue's timeline, credited to the member's username (reports can opt out and stay anonymous); nothing is counted or published automatically.
Impact bands
- 0.1–2.9 Low: Cosmetic, audio, text and UI glitches with no effect on play.
- 3.0–4.9 Moderate: Narrow gameplay bugs or small exploits, rare or with a workaround.
- 5.0–6.9 Elevated: Bugs most players in a mode notice: hit registration, desync, balance-breaking damage.
- 7.0–8.4 High: Widely abused competitive or economy exploits; crashes many players hit.
- 8.5–9.9 Severe: Launch blockers, widespread progress or item loss, exploits that break the game for everyone.
Each issue has a dated timeline of updates (report, acknowledgement, announcement, fix, workaround). Update summaries are our own words; quotes and excerpts are the source's words, or our English translation when marked.
Updates · 27
- Report
Oct 21: asked whether HDR was on, the player who opened the thread says HDR was already disabled while the washed-out, pixelated colours persisted, so HDR is not the cause for them.
Mohammed · Steam · Forum reply ·
“HDR disabled”
Mohammed · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Workaround
MW4 looks washed out after the NVIDIA 621.01 driver; a known driver problem, and players should go back to 617.42 until a fix.
@WelkramTV on X ·
@WelkramTV on X · · View post
- Report
Yesterday's NVIDIA driver update sometimes breaks MW4's graphics.
@KaiserTW on X ·
@KaiserTW on X · · View post
- Report
Campaign looks fine, but in DMZ the sky and most of the scene show purple and green effects on the latest NVIDIA driver.
Loomii · Steam · Forum thread ·
“I have been playing campaign and have had no issues with lighting, shaders, graphics, etc. However, I tried DMZ today and noticed that the sky and overall graphics are very buggy with purple/green effects over almost everything. I have the latest Nvidia drivers and I am not experiencing anything …”
Loomii · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Same problem: after ten fine hours, DMZ lighting and shadows broke after installing the latest NVIDIA driver.
HeathCliff · Steam · Forum reply ·
“I have the exact same issue. Played ten hours of campaign/DMZ and then loading in just now the lighting and shadows of DMZ are totally borked. I also installed the latest NVIDIA drivers but the game looked fine my first time playing after installing the driver. This issue happened after that. No …”
HeathCliff · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Workaround
Same on the newest NVIDIA driver; rolling back to the previous driver fixed it.
roorback++ · Steam · Forum reply ·
“nvidia, newest drivers (from yesterrday?) Same here... I rolled back the driver on devicemanager, nvidia, settings, old driver - then it worked”
roorback++ · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 23: everything looks like watercolour paint; reinstalling the driver did not help.
Whoflungpoo · Steam · Forum thread ·
“everything looks like water paint, saw a lot of others had same issues, how do i fix it anyone know how? i reinstalled driver and did nothing”
Whoflungpoo · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Workaround
Reloading shaders did nothing; rolling back the driver worked.
MorsEgoSum · Steam · Forum reply ·
“I spent 30 minutes trying to fix this, I reloaded the shaders and that didn't do anything. Rolling back the driver worked.”
MorsEgoSum · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 23: the game looks posterized and won't let the player reset shaders, with the graphics driver up to date.
ashh · Steam · Forum thread ·
“Why does my game look like it has a posterization effect? I've never seen such a bug. Game not letting me reset shaders, graphics card up to date...”
ashh · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Workaround
Reverting the NVIDIA driver to 617.14 stopped the colour problems.
Sem · Steam · Forum reply ·
“Updating here. Reverted Nvidia drivers to 617.14 version, no further weird color issues. Probably will get a driver update in the next few days to address.”
Sem · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 23: after updating to driver 621.01, MW4 looks badly wrong.
@codeTML on X ·
@codeTML on X · · View post
- Report
Oct 23: Campaign looks fine but Multiplayer looks glitched, unlike in the Beta.
leviathen · Steam · Forum thread ·
“Im having a weird issue. Campaign looks great, but multiplayer looks horrible. Something is wrong. It didnt look like this on the beta at all. I cant quite explain the way it looks, like its glitched....Any ideas or is anyone else having this issue?”
leviathen · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 23: discoloured graphics appeared after a crash.
Meechal · Steam · Forum reply ·
“I have discoloration that suddenly happened after the game crashed.”
Meechal · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 23: another player's game looks the same.
Inosuke · Steam · Forum reply ·
“mines like this too”
Inosuke · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Workaround
Oct 23: the player fixed it by rolling back from the newest NVIDIA driver to the previous one.
leviathen · Steam · Forum reply ·
“I fixed it, my issue was the newest driver from Nividia. I took it back to the last version and it's fine now!”
leviathen · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Workaround
Oct 23: the colour saturation problem comes from the newest NVIDIA driver; rolling back to 617.42 fixes it.
Iremonger · Steam · Forum thread ·
“If anyone is having issues with the color saturation, it is due to the newest Nvidia driver. Roll back to previous version 617.42.”
Iremonger · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Workaround
Oct 24: turning HDR off and a clean reinstall of 621.01 did not help; a clean install of the older 616.56 driver, then Restart Shader Preloading, fixed the colours.
Taquito · Steam · Forum reply ·
“Same issue here on an RTX 4070 Ti: blotchy, posterized colors with banding in the sky, shadows and skin. Turning HDR off didn't help, and neither did a clean reinstall of the latest driver. What fixed it: rolling back the NVIDIA driver from 621.01 (released Oct 18) to 616.56, which is the version …”
Taquito · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Report
Oct 25: a PC player on an RTX 4070 sees colour distortion and pixelation in matches and menus at any settings; driver version not given.
Community report · Steam · Forum thread ·
“So my game looks weird with a lot of colour distortion and pixelation in both games and the menu. Running a fairly new PC with a 4070. Have used both recommended settings, and lowest settings…”
Community report · Steam · Forum thread · Open source - Report
Oct 25: a player on an RTX 5080 with driver 621.01 hit the colour problem right after a small game update.
Community report · Steam · Forum reply ·
“I ran into this problem today after a small game update — yesterday everything was fine.”
Community report · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Workaround
Oct 25: a player says rolling back from NVIDIA 621.01 to 617.42 fixed the colours.
Community report · Steam · Forum reply ·
“I think this is an issue with the latest nvidia drivers (621.01). When I rolled back to 617.42, it fixed the colour issues.”
Community report · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Acknowledged
Oct 26: Infinity Ward's Trello board lists NVIDIA driver 621.01 visual issues on PC under Global Known Issues as Investigating, working with NVIDIA on a fix.
Infinity Ward (Trello) on Trello ·
“PC users having updated their NVIDIA driver version to 621.01 may experience visual issues under some circumstances. We are working with NVIDIA to correct this.”
Infinity Ward (Trello) on Trello · Open source - Acknowledged
Oct 27: Call of Duty staff (Steam developer badge), replying to a thread about odd colours, pixelated textures and graphical glitches on NVIDIA RTX cards, say rolling back the NVIDIA driver should work as a temporary workaround for most players and that they are working with NVIDIA on a fix in an upcoming update.
CallofDutyCM · Steam · Forum reply ·
“Hi. This should indeed work as a temporary workaround for most players. We are working with NVIDIA to correct these issues in an upcoming update.”
CallofDutyCM · Steam · Forum reply · Open source
- Report
Oct 29: a player's graphics broke overnight; restarting the PC and reloading shaders did not help. The post does not name the driver.
@ItsVarics on X ·
@ItsVarics on X · · View post
- Report
Oct 29: a player on an RTX 4080 Super with the latest driver says restarting shader preloading did not fix it.
Pun1sher · Steam · Forum reply ·
“Yes. I got the same issue today. I have 4080 Super with the latest version. I had restarted shader preloading and it didn't work.”
Pun1sher · Steam · Forum reply · Open source - Workaround
Oct 29: a player says emptying the shadercache folders in cod26 and sp26 and rebuilding shaders fixed their blurry graphics; unconfirmed, and the post does not name the driver.
@iiTzPredatorHD on X ·
@iiTzPredatorHD on X · · View post
- Workaround
Oct 29: a player says deleting the shadercache folders in cod26 and sp26 and letting shaders regenerate fixed the same graphics glitch for them; unconfirmed, and the post does not name the driver.
@TheDPrime on X ·
@TheDPrime on X · · View post
- Workaround
Oct 29: a player says deleting the shader cache in the cod26 folder fixed the same problem for them; unconfirmed, and the post does not name the driver.
@NdEtherious on X ·
@NdEtherious on X · · View post
Sources · 271 Official1 Developer25 CommunityInfinity Ward (Trello) · TrelloOfficial+ 25 similar community reports and 1 official postShow all →
“PC users having updated their NVIDIA driver version to 621.01 may experience visual issues under some circumstances. We are working with NVIDIA to correct this.”
- CallofDutyCMSteam · Forum replyDeveloperOpen
“Hi. This should indeed work as a temporary workaround for most players. We are working with NVIDIA to correct these issues in an upcoming update.”
- @KaiserTWView post
“The NVIDIA Driver update from yesterday will sometime break MW4 graphics :)”
- @WelkramTVView post
“If your MW4 is looking washed out after installing the 621.01 NVIDIA Graphics Driver, your hardware is NOT failing, do not panic. There’s a current issue regarding the latest available driver and players should revert back to 617.42 until a patch is announced. 🫡 #MW4”
- @codeTMLView post
“i update my graphics drivers to 621.01 and now mw4 looks like im on mushrooms ?? hello”
- MohammedSteam · Forum replyOpen
“HDR disabled”
- LoomiiSteam · Forum threadOpen
“I have been playing campaign and have had no issues with lighting, shaders, graphics, etc. However, I tried DMZ today and noticed that the sky and overall graphics are very buggy with purple/green effects over almost everything. I have the latest Nvidia drivers and I am not experiencing anything …”
- HeathCliffSteam · Forum replyOpen
“I have the exact same issue. Played ten hours of campaign/DMZ and then loading in just now the lighting and shadows of DMZ are totally borked. I also installed the latest NVIDIA drivers but the game looked fine my first time playing after installing the driver. This issue happened after that. No …”
- WhoflungpooSteam · Forum threadOpen
“everything looks like water paint, saw a lot of others had same issues, how do i fix it anyone know how? i reinstalled driver and did nothing”
- ashhSteam · Forum threadOpen
“Why does my game look like it has a posterization effect? I've never seen such a bug. Game not letting me reset shaders, graphics card up to date...”
- leviathenSteam · Forum threadOpen
“Im having a weird issue. Campaign looks great, but multiplayer looks horrible. Something is wrong. It didnt look like this on the beta at all. I cant quite explain the way it looks, like its glitched....Any ideas or is anyone else having this issue?”
- MeechalSteam · Forum replyOpen
“I have discoloration that suddenly happened after the game crashed.”
- InosukeSteam · Forum replyOpen
“mines like this too”
- Community reportSteam · Forum threadOpen
“So my game looks weird with a lot of colour distortion and pixelation in both games and the menu. Running a fairly new PC with a 4070. Have used both recommended settings, and lowest settings…”
- Community reportSteam · Forum replyOpen
“I ran into this problem today after a small game update — yesterday everything was fine.”
- @ItsVaricsView post
Oct 29: a player's graphics broke overnight; restarting the PC and reloading shaders did not help. The post does not name the driver. (Our summary of this post, not the author’s words.)
- Pun1sherSteam · Forum replyOpen
“Yes. I got the same issue today. I have 4080 Super with the latest version. I had restarted shader preloading and it didn't work.”
- roorback++Steam · Forum replyOpen
“nvidia, newest drivers (from yesterrday?) Same here... I rolled back the driver on devicemanager, nvidia, settings, old driver - then it worked”
- MorsEgoSumSteam · Forum replyOpen
“I spent 30 minutes trying to fix this, I reloaded the shaders and that didn't do anything. Rolling back the driver worked.”
- SemSteam · Forum replyOpen
“Updating here. Reverted Nvidia drivers to 617.14 version, no further weird color issues. Probably will get a driver update in the next few days to address.”
- leviathenSteam · Forum replyOpen
“I fixed it, my issue was the newest driver from Nividia. I took it back to the last version and it's fine now!”
- IremongerSteam · Forum threadOpen
“If anyone is having issues with the color saturation, it is due to the newest Nvidia driver. Roll back to previous version 617.42.”
- TaquitoSteam · Forum replyOpen
“Same issue here on an RTX 4070 Ti: blotchy, posterized colors with banding in the sky, shadows and skin. Turning HDR off didn't help, and neither did a clean reinstall of the latest driver. What fixed it: rolling back the NVIDIA driver from 621.01 (released Oct 18) to 616.56, which is the version …”
- Community reportSteam · Forum replyOpen
“I think this is an issue with the latest nvidia drivers (621.01). When I rolled back to 617.42, it fixed the colour issues.”
- @iiTzPredatorHDView post
Oct 29: a player says emptying the shadercache folders in cod26 and sp26 and rebuilding shaders fixed their blurry graphics; unconfirmed, and the post does not name the driver. (Our summary of this post, not the author’s words.)
- @TheDPrimeView post
Oct 29: a player says deleting the shadercache folders in cod26 and sp26 and letting shaders regenerate fixed the same graphics glitch for them; unconfirmed, and the post does not name the driver. (Our summary of this post, not the author’s words.)
- @NdEtheriousView post
Oct 29: a player says deleting the shader cache in the cod26 folder fixed the same problem for them; unconfirmed, and the post does not name the driver. (Our summary of this post, not the author’s words.)