Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most competitive games in the world. That’s why it is no surprise that it is also one of the largest esports. Having said that, you need to be pretty good at the game in order to climb up the ranked medals.
In case you are new to CS: GO, we would suggest you read a couple of our other articles where we’ve explained some of the most popular console commands which you can use that will drastically improve your gameplay. Of course, there is no better “training” method than just spamming as many games as possible before you get good enough. However, there are also a couple of more settings that you can get. Despite the fact that they can’t fill in the role of the training, they can still help you become a better player.
The Launch options are special types of settings that can be used upon starting Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. There are various options that you can choose from, some of which are very cool, whereas others not so much. Let’s take a look at which of them are worth having and how to actually set them up.
Be sure to check out our tournament platform, because WePlay! is one of the best ways to start your professional path. After all, we have dota 2 tournaments every day, as well as various CS: GO events.
How to set the launch options & Issues with it
If you are new to the game, you might find it difficult to actually use the launch options because you don’t know where to do it. Luckily, it’s not all that hard to do.
The first thing to focus on is finding where the “Set Launch Options…” thing is. The easiest way of doing this is when you open the Steam Client and then click on Library and choose CS: GO. From there, just navigate to Properties and select “Set Launch Options…”. This will open a fancy “border” where you will be able to add all commands that you want to use.
Once you put all the options you need, just select ok and restart your steam client so that the changes can be “implemented”.
At first glance, it might seem like this is a pretty straightforward thing to do. I mean, you can’t really mess it up if you follow the steps above. However, it is possible that you may add some things that can screw the entire thing. For example, you need to be careful not to add any special symbols or quotes because this will result in a fail.
Another very important this is to remember to have either a plus or a minus in front of each command. It is possible to add the options without them but this could result in a problem so it’s better to have them.
The Most Popular Launch Options
Before we start, it is important to note that, regardless of the settings, CS: GO will always have better results in terms of FPS if you play the game on a powerful PC. Sure, you might be able to optimize the game a lot by at the end of the day, the better hardware will win. That’s why it is hard to call certain launch options “the best”. They could be the best for the guy who has an ATI graphics card from 2011 but they will most likely be useless to the person that spent $2000 on the latest RTX GPU.
Having said that, there are a couple of launch options that are generally accepted to be used in all configurations. Needless to say, the results will vary a lot but the good thing is that they always help. Let’s take a quick look …
The most important commands to have
The following launch options have proven themselves throughout the years. That’s why even today, in 2019, they are still worth using.
- tickrate 128 – this sets the tick rate to the specific amount, which will make your game look somewhat smoother.
- fps_max 0 – this is one of the most popular console commands which can also be applied as a launch option. The number 0 basically “frees” your maximum FPS, so if you have an amazing PC, this is definitely a big plus.
- novid – if you ever wondered how to remove the annoying video when the game starts, this is it! It doesn’t really help you get better at the game but hey, it still saves some time.
- nojoy – this is a command which is frequently used whenever you have RAM issues. On theory, it should force CS: GO to use less ram but whether or not this is the case is still up in the air.
- high – this is an option that will force your computer to prioritize the game a lot, resulting in more CPU and RAM usage. However, keep it in mind that this option can cause a lot of issues, especially if your computer is not that good. That’s why it is only advisable to use this if you have a good computer. Of course, you can always try and see how it works but be careful because it can push your PC to its limits.
Other Options
- refresh – this option is very good because you can set the refresh rate of your game. However, in case you did not know, this is strongly related to your Monitor’s HZ. So, if you have a 60 Hz monitor (which is probably the case), you won’t be able to see anything beyond this, regardless of what number you put here. This is one of the most common mistakes that people do here.
- fullscreen – makes the game in fullscreen mode, which is preferable in most scenarios.
- windowed – makes the game in window mode, which is not really the best choice in some cases.
- noborder – a pretty cool option which allows you to have a borderless window. Of course, this is personal preference so just try it out and see if it works for you
- d3d9ex and disable_d3d9ex – these two options are probably among the most important on this list because they can really have an impact on your performance. the first one enables your directX, which translates in less CPU usage. As you guessed, the second option basically disables this function. It is advisable to have it on all the time but try to experiment and see which works better for you,
- cl_forcepreload 1 – this command will preload certain types of models which results in a faster loading time overall. Definitely a must-have.
- r_emulate_g – if you are having issues with your FPS, this is one option that might fix it. By using this, you allow your computer to emulate OpenGL. Unfortunately, this only works on Windows, sorry Mac users.
- no-browser – this one disables the in-game browser which appears and is pretty annoying.
- nopreload – this is one of the trickiest commands right now. What it does is basically forces the models not to be preloaded. Whether or not this has an actual impact on your FPS still remains a question but there are many people who report that this allowed them to have better loading times. Just test it out and see if it works for you. After all, you can always remove it later.
- nojoy – removes all the joystick support which CS: GO has (who even uses these things in an fps game?!). As a result of this, the game will require less RAM.
- threads 1,2,3,4 – this launch option allows you to choose how many threads of your CPU should be used to power up CS: GO. In general, it is not really advisable to use this that much because it can cause issues sometimes. However, if you are confident in your machine and have a beast processor, go ahead and give it a try.
- width, height – these launch options allow you to adjust the width and the height of CS: GO in pixels. So, if you always wanted to experiment with a specific resolution, now is the time.
- autoconfig – this launch option will allow you to start the game with its default settings. Needless to say, this is not really something that you want to use on your personal computer. However, it can be absolutely priceless if you tend to go to different LAN parties or other types of events like this. It can save you a lot of time just resetting everything to default once you go into the game. That’s why you can simply put this before the game starts and you will be good to go.
- softparticlesdefaultoff – this launch option definitely looks very intimidating at first simply due to its complexity. However, when you read it carefully, it makes a lot of sense. By using it, you will be able to render the different particles without feathering, which means that there will not be as much blood and other types of effects. Sure, this will ruin some of the fun but you will get a massive FPS boost because your GPU will have fewer things to render.
- mat_disable_ fancy_bleeding 1 – similar to the one above, this basically disables the so-called “fancy bleeding”, allowing you to accumulate more FPS. Unfortunately, this will definitely have an effect on the graphics which you are used to, so be ready. At the end of the day, you might have to choose between having a better-looking game or more frames per second.
We hope that our guide will help you in the future.
