We'll rush through this, since there's already a plethora of guides out there that show you what settings are the best.
In a nutshell, the following settings are mandatory to have a competitive advantage inside the game. The rest is up to you.

Dynamic Shadows = All

Ambient Occlusion = High

With these two settings, you will see all shadows everywhere at all times.
Valve released an update which allows you to put Global Shadow Quality to Low and all shadows will still be displayed.

Particle Detail = Low

(Let's you see through Molotovs more easily)

⚠️ I don't own an AMD GPU, so you'll need to Google how to do these steps in your AMD Software. The settings’ names should be very similar.

Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
(results may vary, benchmark test this as explained below)

OpenGL GDI compatibility: Prefer Performance

Texture filtering – Quality: High Performance
(I'd recommend this as a global setting — it makes no visual difference and can drastically improve performance.)


[img]https://i.imgur.com/l886EcU.png[/img]
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11543894315063574616/7443E2C12FC4A8C8D36CC482E7D0F23BDDB829F4/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
[img]https://i.imgur.com/1nw0GYz.png[/img]
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/14228078350477768173/B69232B9D743610B3487C866A57C434B6145695C/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

In order to find the best settings for your system, I recommend downloading the CS2 FPS Benchmark (Dust II Map) from the Workshop.

But we can't rely solely on its numbers — so we will use a program called CapFrameX for proper benchmarking.

Download and install CapFrameX.

First time setup:

Capture Time → 103

Capture Hotkey → your preference

[img]https://i.imgur.com/h7KtzKU.png[/img]
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11244994373719898449/40EFDDF820741CB6F74B4B6B0AFAC1A4EBEE1C6E/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Launch CS2 and start the Benchmark Map.
After the countdown — when you first see the benchmark actually running — press your Capture Hotkey.

A pretty loud voice will notify you when the benchmark starts/stops.

After it's finished, go to the Analysis Tab in CapFrameX.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/B0Sc1Du.png[/img]
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/16905571875212654702/A5D59AA921F7D7F5A5E91FA62D5592A84203F986/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Set the Y-Axis Scale to 0–30ms for better accuracy.

Key Metrics to Observe:

Frametime: (Blue spikes in diagram – lower is better)

Stuttering: (Red circle – lower is better)

1% Low Average: (Orange bar – closer to average FPS = smoother experience)

[img]https://i.imgur.com/7j4TeE6.png[/img]
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/17347408192143102758/762DA608F6A78BA7CF8D020BA5C15250332797A1/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

From my own benchmarks, this made the biggest difference.

It's a bit weird, because it depends a lot on your hardware.
But for me, using the -noreflex launch option drastically improved my Frametime and 1% Lows.

So: Do not use Reflex in CS2 — instead, activate it in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Here's how you do this:

Put -noreflex into your Steam Launch Options (if you don't know where to find this, google it)

Inside the NVCP (NVidia Control Panel), look for Low Latency Mode and set it to "on".

This helps with 1% FPS Lows, Frametime, and stutter.
Step 1: Uncap FPS in CS2

Steam Launch Option:

+fps_max 0

Why?
CS2 handles FPS capping badly when done internally. Even +fps_max 999 performs worse than 0.

Now run another benchmark to verify this behavior. This is optional, but you may see an
improvement already. But results may vary, depending on your system.

Step 2: Cap FPS via NVIDIA Control Panel

Open NVCP

Apply a Max Frame Rate

Start with 500

Lower step-by-step while benchmarking to find your optimal value

[img]https://i.imgur.com/G0TcnAH.png[/img]
https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/14756172170833146581/8A78C5086E1F591A2B35EF649EDEE11634C4DED1/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

💡 Goal:
Bring your 1% Lows as close as possible to your average FPS.

Ideal: If 1% Lows are about 2/3 of your average FPS.

After ~40 minutes of benchmarking and tweaking:
🎮 Steam Launch Options:

-noreflex +fps_max 0

🖥️ Nvidia Control Panel:

Low Latency Mode: On

Max Frame Rate: 301

Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance

Open GL GDI compatibility: Prefer Performance

Texture filtering – Quality: High Performance

⚙️ In-Game Settings:

Fullscreen Windowed

For some reason, this improved my Frametime and 1% Lows significantly.
⚠️ Downside: You can’t play stretched or change resolution from your native monitor res.

🖥️ PC SPECS:

240Hz Monitor

AMD 7600X

NVIDIA RTX 4070

32GB DDR5 RAM

Your results will vary depending on your system.
If you want the best performance, you must test and optimize yourself — Valve clearly hasn't handled this very well.

If you have questions:

Use your brain and Google first

Still stuck? Post your results and ask in the comment section 🧵


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Kind Regards,
diva

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