Make CS:GO Run Smoother On Your Computer

[Sasuke]

Counter Strike: Global Offensive Megathread

This thread will consist of many different types of tutorials/guides from the internet, and some of my own, just remade. This can help improve gaming performance, framrate, ping, etc. Everything will be in as much detail as possible, and with as less errors as possible. Let's get started. (P.S Some of them will be links rather then typed here, since they can be very long and time consuming here.)

Preparations/Basic Utilities
Keeping your system healthy in the future

• Clean components:

Dust removal
Make sure you arent overheating. HWMonitor

• Freshly installed OS:

Updated Windows.
No Unecessary Programs (Avoid toolbars and untrusted applications that you're not gonna use).

• Anti-Virus and MalwareBytes:

Using only Windows Defender and MalwareBytes is absolutely fine.
I'd still recommend getting an anti-virus that has a Gaming-Mode (disables active background scanning when you're running an application in fullscreen to get more performance) and disable Windows Defender.

• Use CCleaner to keep your system fresh.

Disable Monitoring under Advanced → Monitoring → Turn Off.
Use intelligent cookie scanner, or manually save cookies before running a clean. Use standard settings, dont check anything extra unless you know what you're doing. Ignore registry cleaning. Never use Wipe-Free-Space!
Run a clean at most once a week. It depends on how active you are on your PC.

• TRIM: You should TRIM your SSD atleast once a month/at most once a week. It depends on how active you are with filling/deleting stuff on your SSD:

TRIM deletes invalid data from the SSD's memory so that writing operations can maintain optimal speeds, also increasing the longevity of your SSD:

Run cmd.exe (as Administrator) → fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

This command doesnt trigger TRIM, it only makes the TRIM command Ready to send, you need to download a utility that actually triggers TRIM, which you will be able to find on your SSD manufacturers website.

Win8+ has a TRIM schedule in its Optimizer (Disk Defrag). Win7 Disk Defrag can't TRIM SSDs (Disable!)

If you want to confirm that the TRIM command is actually reaching your SSD, read this.

• Make a System Restore Point before performing any further steps of this guide

.

FPS Optimizations Performance increasing tweaks/settings/updates

Update Drivers:

Nvidia GPU	Nvidia Chipset
AMD GPU	AMD Chipset

NVIDIA:

• NVIDIA Control Panel:

3D-Settings & Profile (Apply Profile to: Steam.exe, Steamservice.exe and CSGO.exe):

Setting	Value	Information
Ambient Occlusion	Off	Extra lighting/shadow shader effects
Maximum Pre-rendered Frames	1/3	Amount of frames the CPU buffers before sending it to the GPU
Multi-Display Mixed GPU Acceleration	Single Display Peformance Mode	Sets Rendering priority, if it should be split between several displays or not.
Power Management Mode	Max performance	Disables GPU Power Saving (Important)
Shader Cache	On/Off	Stores shaders on disk cache, to reduce CPU load.
Vertical Sync	Off	Removes tearing by adding another framebuffer
Virtual Reality Pre-rendered Frames	1/3	Amount of frames the CPU buffers before sending it to the GPU

• Multi-Display Mixed GPU Acceleration:

Is merely experimental, it shouldnt affect DirectX apps, but some users are reporting a performance increase.

• Maximum Pre-rendered Frames / Virtual Reality Pre-rendered Frames:

Higher value = more frames get buffered. Its a trade-off to get more fps and more consistent frametimes at the cost of input-latency. The rule of thumb would be that you should always use 1 for optimal responsiveness but if you experience stutter or low/inconsistent fps you should try increasing the values.

• Shader Cache:

Its a setting you should experiment with, results varies depending on hardware.

• Run a clean WinSAT evaluation:

This will evaluate your system and do various optimizations for your OS, specific to what kind of hardware you've got. You should also perform a WinSAT everytime you get a new piece of hardware for it to work optimally. It shouldnt take more than a few minutes.

Run cmd.exe (as Administrator) → WinSAT forgethistory → Enter → WinSAT formal -restart clean

• CPU Unparking:

Core parking is a part of C6 power-management, cores that arent needed are brought into a sleep-state. Unparking cores removes this function from your OS, keeping the cores active at all times. (This is mainly a Windows 7 problem)

Download CPU Unpark App

1. Run UnparkCPU.exe
2. Check Status
3. Unpark All

• Power Options:

Disable Windows power saving functions:

Controlpanel → Power Options → Select: High Performance

Power Options → Advanced → Turn Hard Drive Off After: 0

• CSGO Settings:

Reinstalling CSGO and Steam:

Completely Uninstall both CSGO and Steam then Reinstall them. As each update comes; files will be rewritten; old files might remain and do absolutely nothing but slow down CSGO.

• Performance benchmark for CSGO:

This is a great way to find out if an optimization actually increased performance, there are primarely 2 tests that are widely used.

HLTV's Benchmark: Monitors average fps during the provided demo (A guy playing dust2 DM against bots for 60 seconds at x2 speed). The results of this test should be accurate to your actual MM/DM game performance, which is what matters.

uLLeticaL's Benchmark: Loads a custom map and forces your POV at different light/intense-physics and lots of other mechanics, it goes from 1 physic/mechanic to the next. However it isnt an accurate representation of a real game; having tried this test on different setups ive found that low end-results are not indicative of bad performance in real games (MM/DM), nonetheless it can still give useful information for diagnostic purposes.

The tests i run in this thread will be run at 1920x1080 with every graphics setting on the lowest setting.

• Launch Options:

Option	Function	Extra
-novid	Removes intro video	Faster startup
-high	Sets process priority to High	Try with and without, it should increase performance
-lv	Low violence mode	No blood and Player models "surrender" rather than dying

• Experimental Launch Options:

Option	Function	Extra
-nod3d9ex	Disables the d3d9.dll Extention. D3d9Ex is a feature that allows for Windowed-d3d9ex-applications to share its process with the DWM (Desktop Window Manager); lowering memory consumption and increasing alt+tab speed between the two.	Rumoured to be inactive/removed as of mid-late 2014. I have asked lots of users/friends with a wide variety of hardware to benchmark it ending up at the same result: it has zero effect on alt+tab speed and performance.
-processheap	Forces csgo to use Windows System Heap for memory allocation instead of csgo's own memory allocator. It was previously used to stop a memoryleak in the past that has since been fixed.	Still a possible fix if you are having memleaks. It can lower your fps as it adds additional overhead.
-threads x	Forces csgo to use x amount of threads. The game can only effectively utilize 3 threads and you are likely to run into stability issues running more than 3/4.	Its very hardware specific to how it will affect the game, its as likely to decrease performance as it is to increase it. Mike Durand at Valve has stated that you can override it to 8 threads if you want, but if you run into problems remove it.

• Video Settings:

Setting	Value
Display Mode	Fullscreen/Windowed (Can Affect)
Laptop Power Savings	Disabled
Shadows	Very Low/Low/Medium
Texture Detail	Low
Effects	Low
Shaders	Low
Multicore Rendering	Enabled!!
MAAM	None
Textures	Bilinear/Trilinear
FXA	Disabled
VSync	Disabled
Motion	Disabled

• Disable Nvidia Streaming Service and XBOX DVR (Win10):

• Disable NSS:

Run → services.msc → Look up Nvidia Streamer Service → Stop and Disable

Nvidia Streamer Service is the Shadow-Play service that streams your game to a SHIELD device. Which can severely reduce game performance with fps-drops and stuttering. The service originates from Nvidia GeForce Experience, something i would recommend uninstalling. Update your drivers manually!

• Disable Xbox DVR:

Open Xbox App → Settings/Preferences → System & App → Record gameplay with Game DVR → Set to OFF.

XBOX DVR is a Game Recording service, it records your gameplay for future streaming purposes, which is causing fps-drops/stuttering issues despite playing non-xbox games.

• BIOS & Overclocking(!):

• Overclocking/Settings(!):

BIOS Settings can have a huge influence on performance, you should look into forums about your hardware setup to see what you can tweak. I cant tell you what your optimal bios setup is, because its very hardware specific. As CSGO is a CPU-intensive game; CPU overclocking will have a decent-to-high impact. (GPU Overclocking will have little to no effect with Low ingame settings).

Doing the CSGO benchmarks above with my setup (i5-3570K+770GTX):

10x	3.4Ghz	4.4Ghz
HLTV	~301 fps	~333 fps
uLLeticaL	~224 fps	~249 fps

Be careful!

• Updating BIOS(!):

It can be a fix for performance issues, especially for AMD Bulldozer users, its not something you should do on a whim. You should only update BIOS when you're having severe stabillity/performance or other apparent issues that can be traced back to the BIOS. Updating BIOS incorrectly causes corruption of the BIOS-chip! Which can be a hastle to restore depending on what kind of chip you have.

All manufacturers should have a forum discussing the BIOS versions, pros/cons, check them out to see if you actually need the update. Manufacturers usually have a detailed guide on how to update BIOS the safest way possible, if they dont; you can e-mail them, they always respond with a detailed "how-to" within a few days.

Be careful!!

• Timers:

• Disable dynamicticks (Win8+):

Dynamicticks = tickless OS: Times when your system should wake up to perform a task instead of running at an interval, ultimately saving lots of power when idling. Disabling dynamicticks makes timers run periodically so that your system is active at all times.

Run cmd (As administrator) → Type bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes → Restart PC → Done!

• High resolution timers: TSC vs HPET:

If you want to know more about which to use, you should read this. It includes indepth-analysis/recommendations from a high-level software-engineer at the end of the article.

There is no 100% clearcut way to go with this, if your hardware is specifically built to use HPET (auto-enabled) you should probably use HPET, the article states (Im paraphrasing here):

"Issues with TSC should already be well-documented by your hardware manufacturer on their website."

"It is recommended to use TSC in almost every Desktop/Gaming setup (mainly because of its low access times and low overhead) unless adviced otherwise by your hardware manufacturer."

It is a valid option running a timer-combination; Hpet on in BIOS and Off in Windows, my hardware for instance performs best with Hpet Off in Windows despite Hpet being auto-enabled in BIOS.

• How to enable TSC:

Run cmd (as Administrator) → Type bcdedit /deletevalue useplatformclock → Restart PC → Enter BIOS → Turn Off High Precision Event Timer.

• How to enable HPET:

Run cmd (as Administrator) → Type bcdedit /set useplatformclock true → Restart PC → Enter BIOS → Turn On High Precision Event Timer.

• Registry:

Be sure to make a System Restore Point before tweaking with the Registry!! You can also do a simple backup before you start changing values, go into regedit → Press on the Key 'Folder' you want to Backup → Right-click → Export → Save as .reg where ever you want

• Multimedia Class Scheduler Service

We can manipulate how Windows MCSS prioritizes CPU resources to games and other multimedia-applications via the Registry. You can read more about MCSS here

• Limit CPU resources % reserved for low-priority tasks

Run regedit → HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile

SystemResponsiveness = 10 → Percentage of CPU resources reserved for low-priority tasks

NetworkThrottlingIndex= ffffffff → Removes Network Throttling (NOT an fps tweak)

• Set a higher resource priority for High Priority Games

Run regedit → HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile\Games

Scheduling Category = High → Sets a High priority scheduling category

SFIO Priority = High → Sets a High I/O Priority

Background Only = False → Indicates whether this is a background task or not

Priority = 1 → Sets task priority

GPU Priority = 1 → Sets GPU priority

Clock Rate = 2710 → Which is the 'Default' clock-rate

• Performance results

I got a fairly massive boost on uLL's test (about a 50% increase in fps), minimum fps (except smokes) never dropped below 250, the game ran more smoothly, its possible that i might've had some background tasks that drew too many resources, i cant say that this tweak will boost your fps like it did to mine, but its certainly worth a try.

10x	Before	After
HLTV	~333 fps	~353 fps
uLLeticaL	~249 fps	~373 fps

• Windows Services:

If you're interessted in overall service management, check out BlackVipers Guides

• Optimizing Windows 10 Links:

Guru3D Thread

---

Here is another guide on the Steam Community for FPS/Performance overall, including some system suff, here.

Those two guides should cover a lot of your problems you may have with performance, FPS Issues, lag spikes, and gameplay.

Here is a section I wrote and it should cover some Protectors and other programs.

The Enigma Protector comes with many different features, one of which is being able to protect a file, like an .exe for example. Programs like this one is highly recommended when attempting to use a .exe or whatever on a game, to lessen the risk of being detected or found.

The Enigma Protector can be found here. It's free and simple to use, as all you need to do is in the pictures below.


Click on Input


Click on the top BROWSE Button, and select the .exe you're wanting to protect, then click Protect at the right bottom corner of the program. Easy and Simple. Nothing else needs to be filled in.

The VMProtect program does almost the same exact thing as The Enigma Protector, but with other funtions. VMProtect can be found here.

It's free and simple to use, as all you need to do is in the GIF Below.

Thank you for reading! I know it wasn't much of a SUPER Long guide, but I may make changes to it overtime, but for now thank you for reading, and I hope this can help some of you increase anything covered in here! If you have any questions or problems, please ask down in the comments, and hit that thank's button to show me that I helped you!

[420skid420]

Good work.. ( I guess ) Perhaps you should have put "How to make your csgo run smoother" in the title. Not much of a mega thread.

[Sasuke]

Good work.. ( I guess ) Perhaps you should have put "How to make your csgo run smoother" in the title. Not much of a mega thread.

It's called a megathread for containing different varieties of options for CS:GO and overall system performance.

[skinsforless]

Thanks for this find!

[Guliver75]

Thanks

[FadeCS]

Oh crap this works! Thanks

[HappyHook]

RIP free VMprotect time to become a pirate

[Ban3x]

Best tutorial I've seen so far on this forum, good job!

[Eden]

great tutorial too bad im retarded and can't do shit lol, i need new pc probs

[t0rress]

That's a pretty good in-depth tutorial

[Austen_Dayton]

Really good tutorial Super detailed man!

[flame_dragon]

Thank you very much!

[faisal94]

Thank you!

[aefsgwserggegg]

This certainly helps with the basics! great job.
Just a reminder that many programs use overlays these days which can also slow down and be annoying as fk.

[TheBigBoyBank]

Very detailed and informative.