Best PC settings for CS2

Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive shooter. Every frame per second counts. To get peak performance, it’s not enough to simply use the best in-game settings for CS2 — you should also optimize your hardware and operating system. The CS.MONEY Blog explains how to configure your PC for the best possible CS2 experience.

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Tip #1: Power Settings

The quickest and easiest step is to change your power settings. Go to the Control Panel, find the “Power Options” section, and open it. Change your power plan from “Balanced” to “High Performance.” Once you do this, Windows will stop throttling your CPU frequency.

Tip #2: Clean Up Startup Programs List

ЕIf you use your PC often, you probably have a bunch of programs in your startup. When you turn on your computer, all these apps load, and then they keep running in the background, eating up performance. So it’s best to disable anything unnecessary in your startup list. Here’s how:

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc;
• In the window that appears, go to the Startup tab (fourth one);
• Disable everything you don’t need running on startup.

It only takes a moment, and you’ll notice the difference right away.

Tip #3: Turn on Windows Game Mode

Windows Game Mode prioritizes system resources for gaming and disables background updates. Turning it on is easy:

Go to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode, and simply toggle it on.

Tip #4: Update Your Drivers

In most cases, newer drivers are better than old ones, so it’s smart to keep everything up to date — especially your graphics card drivers.

• For NVIDIA users: use GeForce Experience;
• For AMD users: use Adrenalin Software.

These programs will automatically notify you about updates — you just need to confirm. Occasionally, it’s worth checking for updates to other components too, although it’s less critical.

Tip #5: Use optimal CS2 settings

The final step is giving CS2 maximum priority. To do that, go to Settings > System > Display, then scroll down to Graphics settings. In the window that opens, you’ll see a list of programs. Find CS2 in that list and set it to High Performance.

These PC tweaks can help boost your game’s performance — but even more important are the settings within CS2 itself. We’ve got a full guide on the best in-game CS2 settings for competitive play. Make sure to check it out and apply the optimal setup!