Thread: CSGO performance guide for people with older rigs that don't mind a uglier game

Disclaimer: This guide is completely based off of my experience with my system which almost invariably differs from yours. Therefore you may not get the same results I did! This guide will make your game look considerably uglier! I highly recommend that you turn cloud off until you are finished making changes, so that if you don't like them you can change everything back to default and not have to worry about cloud re-adding them!

My system:
MB 780i 775
CPU e6850 C2D 3 GHz OC'd to 3.6
RAM 4 (2x2sli)GB DDR2
GPU 2 8800 GT cards in sli, but I only use one for source games. Why? More fps

Before:
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/...4FED769832706/
After:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/55...DE2EC06B630ED/


To ensure accuracy in measuring fps gains with different configurations I used the same spot on the same map aiming at the same thing. All you need is a corner to walk into and something small to aim at in the distance. I used a wood pile on the map Lake since it is visually demanding, and aimed at a tailight on a car. I recommend you do the same thing to make sure you are getting fps gains. Then all you have to do is type net_graph 1 or cl_showfps 1 in console to monitor fps. You can then take and save screenshots by hitting F5 or F12.

The biggest performance boosts came from changing the advanced video settings. I pretty much changed every setting, one level at a time until I stopped getting noticeable fps increases and this is what I ended up with.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/...8194FD7FA15C4/

Start CSGO and select: Help & Options/Video Settings/Advanced and change to the settings in the screen shot.

At least on my card changing AF did not increase my FPS one bit so I left it maxed. You should try lowering it to see if it gives you any gains. I found lowering Shadow, Shader, Effects, Model, and antialiasing gave me the most gains.

Second thing I did was research console commands that increase fps. Unlike css, valve really put the clamps on the ability to change cvars to increase performance, but I did find a few. You can add these to the console manually, but I recommend making a autoexec.cfg that will load them everytime you start the game. Here is how you do it:

Go to Computer/Local Disk C:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/Common/Counter-Strike Global Offensive/csgo/cfg
Once inside the cfg folder, right click the config.cfg file and select copy
Paste the copy into the same (cfg) folder
Right click your copied file and rename it autoexec
Double click to open the autoexec (use notepad) and delete everything inside.
Copy and paste the following into your new autoexec.cfg, then select file and save.

r_drawtracers_firstperson 0
r_dynamic 0 //makes crosshair static, change to 1 if you like dynamic//
r_eyegloss 0
r_eyemove 0
r_eyegloss 0
r_eyemove 0
r_eyeshift_x 0
r_eyeshift_y 0
r_eyeshift_z 0
r_eyesize 0
// The next 6 commands keep you model from bobbing while you run, can actually help people that get motion sick easy. Do not use them if you want the more realistic default animation //
cl_viewmodel_shift_left_amt 0
cl_viewmodel_shift_right_amt 0
cl_bobcycle 2
cl_bob_lower_amt 0
cl_bobamt_lat 0
cl_bobamt_vert 0
cl_showhelp 0
cl_autohelp 1
cl_disablefreezecam 1
cl_disablehtmlmotd 1
cl_teamid_overhead_name_fadetime 3
cl_downloadfilter nosounds
cl_disablefreezecam 1
cl_forcepreload 1
gameinstructor_enable 0
clear
echo autoexec.cfg has loaded

There appears to be some issue with peoples autoexec.cfg not loading with the game. To load your settings manually, open your console and type "exec autoexec.cfg" without the quotes and hit enter. You should see "autoexec.cfg has loaded". If you don't, go back to your autoexec.cfg file, double click to open it, select file/save as/all files, and name it autoexec.cfg, then save and try again.
You open the console by selecting the ~ key. You will need to enable this first. From CSGO main menu go to Help & Options/Game Settings/Enable Developer Console, and select yes.
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/55...4B0133F20E9B0/

Hint: You can also set your rates in your autoexec.cfg as well, but you should base it on whatever your stable fps is after completing this guide.

If you don't get a stable minimum of 128 fps I would suggest adding the following to your autoexec.cfg (these are optimal for a 64 tick server!):

rate 80000 //lower if you get loss, higher if you get choke, can test using net_graph 3 in console//
cl_cmdrate 64
cl_updaterate 64
cl_interp_ratio 0 //this sets your lerp now to the servers lowest allowable setting, setting cl_interp does not change anything in CSGO! If your connection is bad, or player position feels choppy set to 1. If still choppy increase by .1 increments until it feels smooth. 2 is default do not set higher//

If you get a stable minimum of 128 fps I suggest adding the following to your autoexec.cfg (these settings are only utilized on a 128 tick server. If you join a 102 or 64 tick server, or one with a lower rate cap your rates will be forced to those values!):

rate 128000 //lower if you get loss, you can test using net_graph 3 in console//
cl_cmdrate 128
cl_updaterate 128
cl_interp_ratio 0 //this sets your lerp now to the servers lowest allowable setting, setting cl_interp does not change anything in CSGO! If your connection is bad, or player position feels choppy set to 1. If still choppy increase by .1 increments until it feels smooth. 2 is default do not set higher//


Next I researched launch options.
Open Steam, select library, right click Counter-Strike Global Offensive, select properties, select set launch options. Add the following:

-high -lv -novid -nojoy -noaafonts

-lv is low violence mode which makes your victims put their arms in the air and land on the ground covering their head after you frag them. It looks goofy but does give a bit of a fps boost. If you don't think you can handle that don't add it to your launch options.

Some others you may find useful

-useforcedmparms - Allows the use of -noforcemspd and -noforcemaccel.
-noforcemaccel - Use the Windows mouse acceleration settings. Only works if -useforcedmparms is set
-noforcemspd - Use the Windows mouse speed settings. Only works if -useforcedmparms is set
+mat_queue_mode 2 ; forces multicore rendering
-autoconfig ; Restores video and performance settings to default for the current hardware detected. Add this if you don't like the results of this guide and you want to put your settings back to default. Must delete autoexec.cfg first. Remove the launch command after or it will put everything to default everytime you load the game!

Last thing I did was to tweak my nvidia 3d settings. Sorry ATI users, can't help you here, but the idea is the same. Open Nvidia control panel, select manage 3d settings, select program settings, untick "show only programs found on this computer", select counter-strike global offensive from the drop down menu. I literally changed every setting and only found small fps increases by changing these settings (leave everything else default):

Antialiasing-Gamma correction off
Texture filtering-Negative LOD bias Clamp
Texture filtering- Quality High performance
Thread optimization On
Power Management Mode Prefer maximum performance (may need nvidia inspector to change this setting)
SLI rendering mode single GPU (strange it was my biggest fps gain) SLI may give you more fps if you have a better CPU than I do, but disabling it gave me 15-20 + more fps. Is too bad I don't get more with 2 cards.


Play around with these settings as your system almost invariably differs from mine and what makes my card tick may not make yours.

Hope this helps some of you out with older machines like me.

If anybody else has any tips for improving performance add them to this thread!

Links
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive full CVAR list
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/...d_Line_Options
Netcode Explained
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/...yer_Networking

Stickied, If anybody uses this post some feedback! Itd be nice to know if this works or not!

good stuff, btw putting page pool memory to low smooths the game out a lot.

Originally Posted by deNieD

good stuff, btw putting page pool memory to low smooths the game out a lot.

If you have less than 4GB of RAM would definately be worth playing with this setting. I have 2x2 sli pc2 8500, tested out all 3 settings and did not notice any change in fps or feel. However set at low made the game uglier. From what I have read you want to use the highest level possible so long as it does not affect performance.

Changed -noforcedmparms (not applicable to CS:GO) to -useforcedmparms (required to use noforcemaccel and
-noforcemspd in CS:GO)
Added -noaafonts to launch options