Fix your CS2 Performance with this manly guide

This video quickly advises low settings, then moves on to the more exotic and useful tips to improve performance and responsiveness.
0:00 - Maybe your PC sucks
0:19 - Post your PC specs in the comments section
1:34 - Desktop PC - Plug monitor into graphics card
2:27 - Laptop - Plug it in!
2:58 - Laptop - A hidden graphics card?
3:45 - Showing FPS on-screen
4:04 - CPU VS GPU: Which is slowing you down?
5:19 - Monitor's refresh rate
6:14 - Anything capping framerates?
6:58 - Laptop power saving modes
7:32 - Making low FPS BETTER - Freesync and gsync
8:05 - Nvidia Reflex
8:22 - Deliberately lowering your FPS
8:53 - Laptops don't like maximum framerates
9:10 - Upgrading your PC

[saphricpcgaming]

You know you're a 3kliksphilip fan when you have absolutely no issue running the game but watch the whole video anyway.

[frankejk]

I wanted to fix my cs2 performance but I didn’t want to learn it from no womanly guide. Thankfully I found this manly guide and now all my problems are gone. Thank you Philip, very cool!

[hackluster]

Philips the only cs youtuber to include clips of his fails instead of sick frags like other people.

[bilalsadiq]

I was expecting a hyper-game-specific set of troubleshooting tips for CS2, but in reality this is actually just pretty good advice in general. For laptop gamers with Nvidia dGPUs, I'd also recommend going to the Nvidia control panel, then 'manage 3D settings', then in 'program settings', select the game you think may be using the iGPU, then select 'High-Performance Nvidia processor' in the preferred graphics processor drop-down menu.

[EmApex]

I like how this isn't just a CS2 performance guide, but a general PC performance guide. Good stuff

[fuwe]

Im not sure why its so common for the most common sense useful advice to be left out of nearly all tutorials, literally never encountered this before! 1:39
This is super common in game development too, like the most industry standard ways of doing things are never explained and then you end up spending a week on a workaround when there's an common solution (that nobody ever feels the need to mention when talking about your exact problem)

[MBCollector]

Hi Philip! I watched this video when it came out and specifically noticed the section about plugging your monitor into your gpu. This is something that, for me, resides in the tech support deadzone between "this is a very simple mistake someone could make" and "this is a very complicated thing someone wouldn't be able to solve" and, as such, I would never have considered it as a troubleshooting step for anyone who came to me with low framerates or other issues. I knew how to do it right and kinda assumed everyone else did, too.

Less than 8 hours later, I was in a call with a friend (who does not and never has played CS) that was having computer issues. I noticed their 3080 was at 0% utilization, and remembered that step this video. I asked them to check... and their monitor was plugged into the wrong place. It didn't entirely fix their problems, but it certainly helped.

Thank you for mentioning this in your video. I can attest to it helping at least one person.

[Geocroc]

A tip I found useful on laptops was to straight up take the battery out and run from the mains whenever you're using it. For me it helped my temps a lot as there was no longer a brick of heat at the back of my laptop, which in turn helps your performance as a laptop's main issue is throttling due to heat.

[twitertaker]

Processor: Intel 80386
Memory: 192 KByte
Display: Atari SM124 Computer CRT Monitor Monochrome Display
Render: Hercules Graphics Card
Home PC, Nicaragua
Problem: DOS 3.1 has no actual graphics output and the monitor can't display color.

Please help me what can I do. CS:Go had no problems at all

[frithnanth]

phillip looking out for us the people is hard as Fudge !!! thank you and good on your behalf of making shure cs2 gets the help it needs, a community that understands how to react to the changes andrealise what actions must be taken to make shure that we can all continue on with our questinable hobby <3

[MUSiCK]

This is actually seriously good advice for anyone in general, some even I wouldn't think to do aswell but thats just me not catching up on newer tech like G-Sync/Freesync. My brain still stuck in performance guides from 2013..

[Grimsdotir]

Take care of inside of your pc\laptop. Sometimes cleaning and changing thermal paste/pads is enough to make things better, but sometimes you have to buy a new cooler (especially if you have box one) or add/change fans, to make your case less like oven. Doesn't matter what thermal paste you buy, but how you put it makes a difference.
And changing cpu can do wonders even with weaker cards. I switched from r3 1200 to r5 3600 with gtx 1050 and I still saw a huge difference in games and overall performance. SSD is another cheap and good upgrade, doesn't matter sata or m2, both will do wonders (m2 is better, but if you don't have one sata still do it's job).

[prizrak-br]

I was actually expecting a ultra low mod like the one there's for CSGO but it's actually a serious helpful video.

[MRGTR-]

You're an absolute legend for these tips. Made my crappy GTX 960m graphics card run buttery smooth!

[awesomeguysuncle]

This is a really well made guide, i don't have any issues running cs2 but if i did this video would be very helpful

[easyboii]

Hey Philip, have you thought about inspecting the spiral staircase in Dust 2 yet? I'm interested in knowing if Source 2 and its SDK makes this easier.

[dirtydeeds]

Philip you need to test this command 1" it was added recently and its description is "When r_low_latency is enabled, this moves the low latency sleep on tick frames to happen after client simulation." it only works when reflex is enabled and apparently it increases 1% lows by alot. Would love to see you test it.

[Clifton_]

If you are AMD and experiencing shader stutters (stutters in new areas of map and when grenades go off first time) it's because the update on 9/14 broke it. It now resets once you open the game after the shader file for cs2 reaches 16MB+ at %localappdata%/AMD/DxCache. Hopefully next update will fix it.

[Banooo-]

Don't even have access yet, but this is definitely the manliest guide I've ever watched. Thanks Philip!

[liorbarnur]

1. For laptop users, try and prop up your laptop for better airflow
2. Of course, if you have single channel ram, consider if you can add another stick of ram to use dual channel.
3. Repasting your gpu and cpu could help.
4. Verify your fan curves
5. Try to undervolt your gpu (msi afterburner), to lower thermal load.
6. Should have been (2.), clean dust buildup on vents, heatsinks, and anywhere else.
7. Lower Room temp helps reduce pc's temp, dont get too cosey.

HTH