Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has established itself firmly as the gold standard for the modern CS scene, and it’s a deep, complex game with a lot to learn. Launch options and settings will not make or break your experience, and nothing is more important than practice.
However, they can make things easier for you and make the most of your computer and your Internet connection so that you get the best performance. With that said, you should keep in mind that the correct settings for you might vary, and it could take some time and experimentation in order to get the right mix that feels good and performs well.
To edit launch options, right-click on CS:
- GO in your Steam library and click Properties.
- Go to General and click on Set Launch Options to open the dialogue box.
- Separate each option with a space.
Best CS:GO Launch Options
Some CS:GO launch options are just for convenience. For example, “-console” boots the game up with the console already open in case you want to enter any console commands right away. The option “-novid” will skip past the opening video sequence. “-fullscreen” will start the game in fullscreen mode. The “+violence_hblood 0” option removes blood visuals but doesn’t have any impact on performance or anything else.
Next up is one that is useful if you want to try out some more competitive CS:GO: “-tickrate 128”. The tick rate is a measure of how your computer and the CS:GO server communicate. On competitive servers like those run by ESEA, the tick rate is always set to 128. On regular Valve servers, the tick rate is 64, which is slower. If you connect to an ESEA or FaceIt server, you will automatically get swapped into a tick rate of 128. By setting your tick rate to 128 in the launch options, you will also function at this speed for practice maps, modded maps, and other environments. Next is “+fps_max [0]”.
Your installation of CS:GO and your computer sometimes put framerate caps on how fast CS:GO will run. By setting it to zero, you disable any caps that might be in place. Lastly, add “-nojoy” to tell CS:GO not to bother running joystick support. This can take up some RAM. These are the best settings for just about everyone.
If you want to modify more launch settings, then keep in mind that more settings are not necessarily better. Options beyond the ones already listed may make your performance better or worse, and it can be hard to narrow down what effect each one has. Examples include “+r_dynamic [0]” which turns off a lot of lighting options. In general, CS:GO is fairly well optimized, and it has been out for several years, so it can run well on lower-end and older systems without causing performance problems.
Instead of just trying to add on more launch settings, you can also compile them into a config file and activate that file with the option “+exec []” where the [] contains the name of your config file. Save that file in Steam\SteamApps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg. If you still feel that your performance is an issue, you should also check your internet connection’s speed to see if it might be holding you back.
Best CS:GO Settings
Altering the settings on CS:GO can change how you experience the game. But, again, it is not a substitute for lots of practice and experience. But with the right settings, you can encourage and reward good habits and give yourself the most visual and audio information to do well.
Mouse Settings
Adjusting your mouse sensitivity is a bit tricky to explain because the best setting depends both on your comfort level and on the mouse you own. It’s important to know that every pro and high-level player for CS:GO uses low-sensitivity settings. In other words, it takes a large motion of their mouse to produce a significant turn of their character. The reason for this is simple. CS:GO is a game of rapid aiming and adjustment with precision. To get headshots and fast kills, you need to get your reticule over the target as fast as possible. If your sensitivity is too high, you will zoom right past your target, and it will be impossible to maintain a steady aim. The correct level of sensitivity is much lower than what you are used to in other games. The correct sensitivity is so low that top players use special extra-large mousepads.
Using low sensitivity improves your accuracy and trains you in aiming and placement. If you have low sensitivity, then you must get accustomed to aiming where you should aim before you see anyone. For example, instead of leaving your reticule in the general direction of the door you are watching, you will learn to place it at the exact height of the center of mass or the head of a player that would come through the door, so you don’t need to move your cursor to be aimed in the right place. Instead of snapping your aim all the way across the screen, make a tiny adjustment because you are already in the right place.
Having low sensitivity also means you can adjust to recoil more easily– if your sensitivity is too high, you will not have the precision to aim against recoil correctly. With all of that said, the perfect level of sensitivity is subjective. Play around with the settings and maybe check to see what your favorite pros or streamers use. You can also adjust zoom sensitivity, or how fast you zoom in, but most people are okay with the default settings. Otherwise, turn off mouse acceleration (which alters the speed of the mouse as you move it) and turn on raw input (which disables mouse speed modifiers from other sources like drivers).
Audio/Visual Settings
Hearing footsteps and other sounds is crucial. To get the most out of audio information, play with headphones, turn on the Stereo Headphones setting, and turn off the music. Then play with the volume so that the sound is clear but not too loud for you. Better headphones will lead to better information in your ears.
For aspect ratio, you can stick with 16:9 if that is the native ratio of your display, or you can opt for 4:3, which some pros use. It’s up to you.
Make sure to pick a refresh rate of 240hz, which will get you the best possible framerate. To manage this framerate, you can turn down the resolution since getting the fastest framerate matters more than the highest level of detail. The display, graphics card, and CPU all play a role in the framerate, so any of them can be a bottleneck on how well the game run. You can also boost performance by turning all extra graphics settings to their lowest setting or off. Once you get a high framerate, you can experiment with turning them back up and see how high you can go before the frames start to dip.
Keybindings
Keybindings are incredibly helpful but are also subjective. There are two main keybinds most people use. The first is for grenades. Instead of using the mouse wheel to get to the right grenade, have each one bound to its own key or mouse button. There are many possible choices for this kind of setup, so experiment with different styles and see what feels natural. It doesn’t matter too much which one you pick as long as you have a setup you like that gets you access to every grenade type fast. The other main type of keybind is for buying. You can make keybinds for simple things like buying a particular grenade or armor or complex ones like a keybind that buys a whole loadout. This is less important than grenades but can still come in handy.
Interface Settings
You can alter parts of the CS:GO user interface to your advantage, specifically the radar and the crosshairs. For the radar, the best approach is to make it as big as possible so that you can see it more easily. Crosshairs are a matter of personal taste, but one good idea is to make them green because that helps them stand out against the different backgrounds in the CS:GO map rotation. It is easy to import settings for the radar and crosshairs into your config file, so you can check out what different pros use and then import whichever settings look good.
Launch options and settings can do a lot to make your CS:GO experience smoother and more enjoyable. The game is very well made, and you don’t need any of these to get it to run well on your computer with its default optimization settings. The more you play CS:GO, the more it might be worth investing in the best gaming laptop for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a better mouse, better headphones, and a better monitor. These would also carry over to other games that you play, so it is not just about CS:GO.
Feel free to experiment with your settings until you get something that feels right. It can take some time to get accustomed to new settings, and it will also take some time for you to get used to using them to their max potential, especially keybinds. However, it’s a lot of fun to feel it all start to click and boost your game, so play around with it, and you will get into the groove soon enough. If you want to learn more how you can become a better CS:GO player make sure to read about the best grenade spots in Dust2.