What are the very best CS2 settings? Whether or not you’re a Counter-Strike veteran or simply selecting up the enduring shooter for the primary time, we will help you get probably the most out of your time with the sport. Whether or not it’s graphics, gameplay, controls, or comms, we’ve bought recommendation that may guarantee you might be racking up the headshots very quickly.
The CS2 system necessities don’t go into nice element on what you’ll want for a excessive body charge, however relaxation assured, you gained’t want the very best graphics card in the marketplace. We put Counter-Strike 2 by means of its paces on our RTX 4070 testing rig and Steam Deck to point out you what the very best settings are.
Greatest CS2 settings for PC
- Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode: 8X MSAA
- International Shadow High quality: Very Excessive
- Dynamic Shadows: All
- Mannequin/Texture Element: Excessive
- Texture Filtering Mode: Anisotropic 16X
- Shader Element: Excessive
- Particle Element: Very Excessive
- Ambient Occlusion: Excessive
- Excessive Dynamic Vary: Efficiency
- AMD FSR: Disabled
With the above settings, we will obtain a mean body charge of 168.7 throughout a complete match, with 1% lows of 92.5fps. Granted, these settings supply the very best steadiness of efficiency and graphical constancy, however for those who’re trying to totally maximize your body charge, you possibly can decrease the graphical settings step-by-step till you’re blissful.
Many professional gamers will nonetheless use decrease resolutions and barebones graphics, however let’s face it, you’re not on that stage, so forcing your self to play with the identical settings is just a little redundant.
In-game settings
We’ve picked out these settings as they need to make your expertise enjoying the sport barely simpler. The ping setting ensures you gained’t be matched to any servers which can be geographically too far-off. The developer console provides you the chance to allow config information, regulate server settings, and allow hidden settings. One of many new choices in CS2 is to disable the power to detach the silencer on the USP-S and M4A1-S – preserve this off because it solely serves to land you in hassle for those who misclick in the midst of a battle.
‘Present staff positions in your HUD’ lets you already know precisely the place your teammates are with out having to rely totally on the radar. Be sure to choose the ‘present location and tools’ choice, as this additionally tells you what your teammates are holding, serving to you’re employed out what utility your squad has at a look. Likewise, it’s best to have the ‘colours and letters’ choice enabled, as this makes it simpler to speak along with your teammates. As a substitute of calling your teammates by their names, CS2 gamers are blissful to go by their chosen shade.
It’s also possible to set the utmost ping your matchmaking will permit for, and this additionally lists your closest servers to present you an concept of the common ping on every of them. In case you don’t need to find yourself in a staff with somebody utilizing extraordinarily unreliable web, that is the place you possibly can shield your self.
Greatest CS2 audio settings
There are some tweaks you may make within the audio menu that may very well be the distinction between life and demise. If you’re in the midst of a troublesome battle, the very last thing you want is music blaring to distract you from touchdown a possible win.
Flip the entire sliders within the music part right down to zero, then increase the ‘ten-second warning quantity’ slider as much as 15%. This performs a observe each time you’ve gotten simply ten seconds to defuse the bomb, letting you already know whether or not it’s value sticking round, because it takes a minimal of 5 seconds to defuse a bomb with a package.
Each different music choice is solely subjective, so you possibly can set these values to something you need, however we advise you retain these settings under 50% to cease them from turning into too distracting.
Greatest CS2 keyboard and mouse settings
The default keybindings in CS2 aren’t notably helpful, however you possibly can regulate them to cease you from having to carry out large stretches throughout your keyboard. Whilst you have the choice to cycle by means of your grenades, we suggest assigning them to accessible keys so you possibly can select what you want. For instance, setting flashbang to Q as a substitute of seven makes it simpler to make use of within the warmth of battle.
You’re going to have to talk to your teammates usually in CS2, so we’d set the ‘use mic’ bind to one thing simply accessible. This could even embrace your mouse buttons, like web page ahead – ensure you decide a button that doesn’t cease you from having the ability to play the sport.
Below communications choices, we suggest clearing the inputs for ‘command radio message’, ‘customary radio message’, and ‘report radio message’. In case you by accident press these instructions throughout fight, you may ship your teammate a radio command as a substitute of switching your weapon such as you wished. Don’t take the danger, simply take away the choice to press these keys so it could actually by no means occur to you.
Greatest CS2 Steam Deck settings
- Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode: 2X MSAA
- International Shadow High quality: Low
- Dynamic Shadows: All
- Mannequin/Texture Element: Low
- Texture Filtering Mode: Trilinear
- Shader Element: Low
- Particle Element: Medium
- Ambient Occlusion: Disabled
- Excessive Dynamic Vary: Efficiency
- AMD FSR: Disabled
Whereas it’s not suggested that you simply play CS2 on the Steam Deck in any aggressive sport modes, you possibly can nonetheless have loads of enjoyable with the sport in informal deathmatches.
With the above settings, you possibly can count on a reasonably strong 60fps, with slight dips throughout demise animations. In any other case, the sport runs nice on the Deck, and you possibly can at all times hook up a mouse, keyboard, and exterior show if you’re decided to sort out a aggressive match below the very best circumstances attainable.
How we examined CS2
At epicgamejourney, we use devoted gaming rigs to check the very best efficiency and gameplay settings within the newest releases. The check rig used to play Counter-Strike 2 consists of the next parts: Intel Core i7-11700F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 12GB, 32GB of DDR4 3,200MHz RAM in a dual-channel configuration, and MSI B560 motherboard. We additionally check utilizing Home windows 11 64-bit.
We at all times run our testing first at 1,920 x 1,080 to determine the very best settings for this entry-level decision, then once more at 2,560 x 1,440 utilizing the identical setup to gauge the distinction in efficiency. We use CapFrameX to seize body information and examine testing periods.
Does CS2 want an SSD?
Counter-Strike 2 doesn’t require an SSD, no matter whether or not you’re aiming for the minimal or beneficial system necessities. Nonetheless, upgrading to among the best gaming SSD choices would actually assist preserve sport loading instances in test whereas additionally boosting your obtain speeds.
Easy methods to monitor efficiency in CS2
If you wish to regulate efficiency in Counter-Strike 2, we have now a straightforward technique that works whether or not you’re utilizing an Nvidia or AMD graphics card.
For Nvidia playing cards, guarantee you’ve gotten the Nvidia App put in and the in-game overlay enabled, after which hit ALT + R in-game to carry up your efficiency monitor. With AMD playing cards, you possibly can allow efficiency monitoring by way of the Radeon overlay utilizing the shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + O.
Alternatively, you possibly can obtain free software program resembling CapFrameX or Nvidia FrameView, to get a cleaner, extra simplified benchmarking device that works with any graphics card.
With handheld gaming PCs, most may have a devoted button to entry a fast menu from which efficiency monitoring, generally known as real-time monitoring, could be accessed.
Utilizing our customized settings, it’s best to have a smoother expertise the subsequent time you boot up Counter-Strike 2. Don’t overlook to take a look at our greatest CS2 crosshairs information to see what forms of reticles to finest gamers on the planet use. We even have a CS2 ranks and ranking information for any aggressive gamers on the market trying to climb the worldwide leaderboards.
You may observe us on Google Information for day by day PC video games information, evaluations, and guides. We’ve additionally bought a vibrant neighborhood Discord server, the place you possibly can chat about this story with members of the staff and fellow readers.
