Today we will learn how you can boost FPS for the most popular Steam game of all time: Counter-Strike 2.
This guide will help you get the best possible FPS and a gameplay advantage in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2 for short). So here is a Noobs2Pro special guide on CS2 graphics settings to fix lag and boost FPS.

Full Guide (NVIDIA, Steam, Windows Settings) This comprehensive tutorial will walk you through optimizing everything from in-game settings to NVIDIA Control Panel tweaks, Steam launch options, and essential Windows configurations.

So without further ado, let’s begin.

The graphic settings and Steam launch options can be edited in Counter-Strike 2 to boost FPS and improve your gameplay as well as fix lag in the game.

Note: There are many CS 2 config files on the internet. I personally don’t prefer using them because you don’t know what will be changed by those files. If you are playing for competition or professionally, then might get banned because you used config files in some cases. Not worth the risk.

Most Recommended Esports Course for CS 2

CS: GO Pro Esports Course

CS: GO Danger zone Course

Windows Settings for CS 2

• Open Windows Settings
• Go to Gaming
• Left-click on Game Mode
• Turn on GameMode

• Open Graphics
• Select Default Graphics Setting
• Turn off Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (Doesn’t Increase your FPS, But reduces your Input Lag)

• In Graphics
• Select CS2 in Custom options for apps
• Select High Performance

(If not available in list you need to add it manually just select browse)

Steam Launch Settings for CS 2

How to set steam launch options for CS 2

• Open Steam
• Go to the Library tab
• Right-click on CS 2
• Select Properties and then the General tab
• Click “Set Launch Options”

Now type the following in the steam launch options dialogue box as shown in the image:

(add 1 to amount of logical processor you have, In my case I have 12 so I’ll put -threads 13)

-tickrate 128 +fps_max 0 -high -threads 13

• Open Controller Tab
• Select Disable Steam Input

• Go to Steam Settings
• Turn off Enable Animated Avatars & Animated Avatar Frames in you Friends List and Chat

• Go to Steam Settings
• Turn on low Bandwidth Mode
• Turn on low performance Mode
• Turn on Disable Community content

• Go to Steam Settings
• Go to Remote Play Tab
• Turn off Remote Play

• Go to Steam Settings
• Go to Broadcast
• In Privacy Settings Select Broadcasting Disabled

Graphics settings for CS: GO 2

Launch CS 2, click on the Settings Menu on the left, select Video Settings. I will show you how to set up each option graphics setting for maximum performance and FPS.

Video

Aspect Ratio: use your native one.

It depends on your display. Nowadays, the majority of the monitors have a 16:9 aspect ratio. Generally, your aspect ratio will be automatically detected, so don’t worry about it. Use the aspect ratio that suits your screen size.

Resolution: Max

Using your actual system resolution for CS 2. The higher the resolution, the better you will see and enjoy the game, but if you badly need a performance boost, decreasing the resolution will greatly improve your fps but will make the game blurry on larger screens so not recommended unless it is the last option and you are playing CS 2 on potato PC

Display Mode: Fullscreen.

Full Screen is the best choice performance-wise. Firstly, it allows you to play with non-standard resolutions. So in case you are playing stretched resolution fullscreen is the way to go. Secondly, r_fullscreen_gamma, a console command, works only in fullscreen mode. Use this command in the dev console by pressing “~” or “`” key on your keyboard and set it for 2.8 or 3. It makes the game look brighter and enemies easier to notice when hidden in corners.

Refresh Rate: Max

Use max refresh rate for a lag-free gaming experience. Also, higher refresh rates reduce eye strain so they are recommended.

Laptop Power Savings: Disabled

Always disable it since it caps fps and lowers performance.

Advanced Video

We will review each option individually so that we get the best possible balance between graphics and performance in CS 2 settings.

Boost Player Contrast: Enabled

Must be enabled. It helps spot players in dark tunnels such as the one in Dust 2. Better and much easier to spot people and get easy kills. I personally recommend it.

Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled.

It adds input lag, and you definitely do not want that for competitive shooter games.

Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode: CMAA2

CMAA2 is a good balance between performance and visual quality. It offers cleaner edges than no anti-aliasing while maintaining higher FPS than traditional MSAA methods. It’s lightweight and ideal for competitive players who want smoother visuals without a major drop in performance. Use this setting unless you have a very powerful GPU and prefer 4x MSAA for maximum clarity.

Global Shadow Quality: Low for potato PC. Medium for everyone else

Shadow Quality is one of the settings with the biggest impact on fps. Set it to low if you have a potato PC. For everyone else always medium. The reason is that you can spot enemy shadows before the player peeks. Letting you pre-fire on enemies beforehand.

Dynamic Shadows: ALL

Enable this setting to ALL for better depth perception and visual feedback. It helps you detect movement and provides more natural lighting, which can aid awareness. Disable only if you’re struggling with FPS on a very low-end system.

Model/Texture Detail: Low

Texture Detail has a small negligible fps drop as it mostly depends on VRAM. If your graphics card has at least 3-4GB VRAM, I suggest putting it at High so that the game looks better and you will be able to spot enemies easily using these CS 2 graphics settings. If you have a really potato PC then go with low settings.

Texture Filtering Mode: Bilinear

Set this to Bilinear for the best performance. It’s the least demanding option and helps maintain high FPS, especially on lower-end systems. While higher filtering modes like Trilinear or Anisotropic 4x/8x can improve texture sharpness at a distance, they have minimal gameplay impact. For competitive play, Bilinear is more than enough and ensures smoother performance during fast-paced action.

Shader Detail: Low

When you put this setting to low, it can help you get some extra FPS at the cost of some visuals. If you have a good GPU With 6GB VRAM or higher then go with high otherwise stick to low.

Particle Detail: Low

Particle detail impacts smoke and Molotovs a lot more than anything else. I recommend low for max fps.

Ambient occlusion: Disabled

Disable for better FPS.

High Dynamic Range: Performance

This helps with color accuracy and makes the game look a bit better. The key reason you keep it at low it Because you can increase the brightness from game settings (90+)

FidelityFX Super Resolution: Disabled(Highest Quality)

I personally am not a fan of any upscaling tools since they tend to add extra overhead and input lag on some systems. I recommend disabling it entirely so there is less processing in general. Helps reduce GPU load.

Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost for Nvidia GPUs (If you Have RTX GPU). Off for AMD GPUs

If you have one of the newer RTX Nvidia graphics cards you can enable this option. If you don’t then disable this.

On some systems, it does reduce input latency. On some systems, it increases it. I recommend testing what works for you.

Click on apply and save the graphics settings for CS 2.

In-game settings you can set max acceptable game traffic Bandwidth to unrestricted if you have a good internet connection.

Buffering to smooth over packet loss should be set to none if you have a good internet connection.

You can use 2 packets if your internet connection is really bad in CS 2.

Now restart the game and enjoy a lag-free performance and gameplay experience in CS 2.

I hope this article has been informative for you. And I thank you for reading. If this guide did not help you get the performance you need, then you probably need to upgrade your system. I hope you have fun playing, CS 2 settings. Do let us know what you think about our guide.

For more tips on optimizing windows 10 read: How to make your pc faster

Also read: How to make your wifi faster for gaming

See you in-game

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