CSGO Launch Options Guide 2021
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Jul 13, 2020
- Daniel Russo
- 3
- 0
What are CSGO Launch Options?
CS:GO is the best tactical first-person shooter game and has one of the most active communities and biggest player base in the entire gaming world. Counter-Strike is a game that has defined the FPS genre of games with many games following its success like Valorant, Call of Duty, Team Fortress 2, and many more. Right from the days of CS 1.6, to increase the performance in the game csgo launch options are used.
The following for Counter-Strike has been massive and Valve decided to release the sequel to the famous Counter-Strike Source. CS:GO was born on 21st August 2012, ever since then, the game has been one of the best selling games on steam until it eventually went free to play in 2018 bringing in loads of new players. There are only two things that matter in CSGO launch options,, pure skill, and mechanics.
CSGO Launch options can be thought of as a configuration file to change the settings of the game before launching. The Launch Options and console commands are a very powerful way to improve your gameplay experience and the refresh rate and an easy way to start the game in your desired settings without opening the game.
Steps to set CSGO Launch Options
Launch options for Counter-Strike are very easy to set up.
Launch Steam.
Open your library and right-click Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and click “Properties”.
In the “General” tab, click “Set Launch Options” and a new window should now show up. You should insert all the launch options into the text box.
Although there is a certain set of rules that must be followed when setting csgo launch options.
– All options must be separated by spaces.
– All options must not have quotes around them (“) or any other odd characters, acceptable characters are A-Z, 0-9, +, -, and _.
– Replace anything surrounded by square brackets (e.g. [height]) with a value.
– Most (if not all) launch options start with a – or +, if one of your launch options doesn’t have a + or – as the prefix, that’s likely the one causing problems.
- Once you’ve entered all the options, click on “Ok” to apply the changes and you should be ready to fire up the game with the best launch options. If an instance of CS:GO is running you should restart the game for the changes to take effect.
Recommended Csgo Launch Options
There is no “Universal Solution” for csgo Launch Options, a Valve employee on Reddit said “The best csgo launch options are no launch options. They are the most used and the most tested”. Here are a few Launch Options we recommend that will be useful and beneficial for everyone. These settings can be copy-pasted into the csgo launch options. Even console commands have a great difference in improving the refresh rates.
-tickrate 128 +fps_max 0 -novid -nojoy -fullscreen -limitvsconst -forcenovsync+r_dynamic 0
What does this all mean? Here’s an explanation
-tickrate 128 | This option will set the tick rate of the offline servers that you host from your computer. *THIS WILL NOT AFFECT ONLINE GAMEPLAY*
+fps_max 0 | This option removes the FPS Limit of the game.
-novid | This option will remove the “Valve” and “CS:GO” intro video when you launch the game.
-nojoy | This option will remove all joystick support.
Optional Launch Options
Below are a few csgp Launch options you can add to the recommended options, these options might cause system instability or might not be compatible with your computer, try them at your own risk.
- -high
This Launch Option is optional as it can cause major issues for some PCs and lead to crashes.
- -refresh 144 (or) -refresh 240
This Launch Option can be used if you have a 144Hz or 240Hz monitor and it should force the game to run at 144Hz/240Hz.
- +exec autoexec.cfg
This Launch option will execute commands from a specific file, in this case, autoexec.cfg.
All Csgo Launch Options
We’ve compiled a list of all the Launch options available for CS:GO along with their explanations. You can have a look at them and use any of these options but beware that they might not work as intended.
Note: The square bracket is just a placeholder, kindly replace them with any value.
Options that start with a + are actually console commands and are meant to run in the in-game console but regardless they will still work in the launch options. You can also read how to fix csgo vac was unable to verify error.
| Csgo Launch Option | Description |
| -tickrate [tick rate] | Sets the tick rate of the “Offline with bots” server or any server hosted on the computer to run on the specified tick rate. *Higher is better* |
| -fullscreen | Launches the game in fullscreen mode. |
| -refresh [refresh rate] | This Launch Option can be used if you have a 144Hz or 240Hz monitor and it should force the game to run at 144Hz/240Hz. *Higher is better* |
| -windowed | Launches the game in windowed mode. *Not recommended, fullscreen has the lowest input lag* |
| -noborder | Removes the border in windowed mode. (the program bezel that has Close/Minimize will disappear) |
| -d3d9ex | Reduces CPU usage and boosts performance. *It is enabled by default* |
| -disable_d3d9ex | Disables DirectX 9Ex. *Not recommended* |
| +r_dynamic [0 / 1] | This csgp launch option will remove lighting features and boost FPS if disabled. Use “+r_dynamic 0” to disable dynamic lighting and “+r_dynamic 1” to enable it. |
| +exec [file name] | Commands will be executed from the file present in the “..\Steam\userdata\<YOURID>\730\local\cfg” folder. |
| +mat_disable_fancy_blending 1 | Disables fancy blending of textures making textures look less detailed and smoother. |
| +cl_forcepreload 1 | Forces the game to pre-load models which will improve performance. |
| -high | CS:GO Process will take up a higher priority, which will give it more resources (CPU Cores, RAM). *Not recommended as it is known to cause instability* |
| -width [width] | Set the width in pixels. |
| -height [height] | Set the height in pixels. |
| -language [language name] | Set the language. |
| -nohltv | Disables all Source TV features. |
| -softparticlesdefaultoff | The game will now render particles without feathering. |
| -r_emulate_g | This will emulate OpenGL which can boost FPS. *Works only on Windows only* |
| +fps_max [amount] | Limits the FPS to the value specified, setting this to 0 means unlimited. |
| -x [value] | This is padding in the x-axis where -x 100 will create a 100-pixel gap between the screen and the game from the left. |
| -y [value] | This is padding in the y-axis where -y 100 will create a 100-pixel gap between the screen and the game from the top. |
| -threads [value] | Sets the number of processor threads that can be used by the game. *Not recommended as it can cause crashes* |
| -forcenovsync | This csgo Launch option disables VSync. VSync increases input lag and locks your FPS but will eliminate screen tearing. |
| -limitvsconst | Limits hardware vertex shader constants to 256. |
| -novid | This Csgo Launch option will remove the “Valve” and “CS:GO” intro video when you launch the game. |
| +violence_hblood 0 | Low violence version of CS:GO, removes all the blood from the game. |
| -autoconfig | This will reset to the default config every time the game is launched. |
| -nojoy | This will remove joystick support from the game. *Rumored to increase FPS* |
| -console | Opens the console once the game is started. |
What are the best CSGO launch options?
-novid -tickrate 128 -high -threads 6 +fps_max 0 +cl_interp 0 +cl_interp_ratio 1 +rate 128000 +cl_updaterate 128 +cl_cmdrate 128 +mat_queue_mode 2 -freq 144 -refresh 144 -d3d9ex -nojoy
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