CS:GO Best Video Settings For Visibility 2021

Playing CS:GO with the best video settings for visibility can make a huge difference in your gameplay.

If you’re struggling to see your opponents, it’s easy to lose firefights due to them being blended into the wall, or being unable to see their body peeking out from a sneaky position. Luckily for you, there are some optimizations you can do on your video settings to not only increase visibility but also get a high FPS too.

In this walkthrough, we’ll go over how to adjust your video settings so that your enemies are as clear as day, and increase your FPS for smoother gameplay!

Let’s dive in!

In a Nutshell — Best Video Settings for Visibility

Launch Options:

-tickrate 128 +fps_max 0 -novid -nojoy -high

In-Game Video Settings:

Advanced Video:

• Global Shadow Quality: High
• Model / Texture Detail: Low
• Texture Streaming: Disabled
• Effect Detail: High
• Shader Detail: Very High
• Boost Player Contrast: Enabled (Turn off if you don’t like the FPS drop)
• Multicore Rendering: Enabled
• Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode: None
• FXAA Anti-Aliasing: Disabled
• Texture Filtering Mode: Trilinear (Bilinear for weaker PC’s)
• Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled
• Motion Blur: Disabled
• Triple-Monitor Mode: Disabled
• Use Uber Shaders: Enabled

Audio Settings:

Audio

• Audio Input Configuration: Stereo Headphones Or Stereo Headphones

Music

• Ten Second Warning Volume: 20% (Or Above)

Game Settings:

Game > Game

• Show Team Position In HUD: Show Location And Equipment

Minimap (Radar) Settings:

Game > Radar/Tablet

• Radar Hud Size: 1.00
• Radar Map Zoom: 0.40

Have a toggle to be able to zoom in on your mini-map. Example: to find the bomb within a smoke.

Press ` (to open up the console) and copy and paste:

• bind “v” “cl_radar_scale 1.0 0.4”

CS:GO In-Game Video Settings Explained

When it comes to making your enemies visible, the most important settings will be your in-game graphic settings (a.k.a. your advanced video settings).

Some settings will drastically change the visibility during certain parts of your gameplay, whilst others will give you a tiny FPS boost to allow for smoother gameplay.

Regardless, when it comes to optimizing your settings, you want to focus on 2 things: having a consistently high FPS count and having crystal-clear visibility on your enemies.

Generally, it is better to have a higher and more consistent FPS than it is to have higher visibility on your enemies, so if you have to choose between the two, choose the former.

Low FPS = Lag, which will affect your gameplay drastically, and won’t allow you to play to your full potential.

These select few video settings will make a ton of difference in visibility and FPS:

Global Shadow Quality

Recommended Settings: High

If your shadow settings are on low, you will notice that the shadows of players will disappear if you are looking from afar.

If you have this in a higher setting, the shadows will last for longer, despite how far you are when looking at the shadow.

For example, a player can be hiding in a smoke, but their shadow will still be visible. If your settings are on high, you will be able to see the enemy’s shadow, even from afar.

So it’s important to keep this setting on high as it will ensure that the shadow stays visible which will ultimately gives you more visibility.

Effect Detail & Shader Detail

Recommended Settings: High (Unless your computer isn’t as strong, in which case you can keep it as high as you’re comfortable)

Effect Detail and Shader Detail will affect the visibility of your enemy through a burning Molotov/Incendiary.

Keeping it in a higher setting means you can see your enemy’s body more clearly through the black smoke that emits from the top of the fire, whereas keeping it in a lower setting means it will cover the body with black smoke (making it harder to see).

The drawback to this is that it will make the visibility of your enemies harder to see after the explosion of a grenade (where there is a brief window of black smoke)

In circumspect, you will more often be needing to see enemies through a Molotov (since they last longer) as opposed to the aftermath of a grenade. The downside to having these settings on high is that they will eat up between 10 – 30 FPS (depending on your computer).

So if you need a higher FPS then it’s best to adjust these settings lower.

Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode & FXAA Anti-Aliasing

Recommending Setting: None & Disabled

These settings affect the graphic details of your game at the cost of a few FPS.

If you like your in-game graphics to be crisp, then you can have these turned on, otherwise, save your FPS and disable these options.

Boost Player Contrast

Recommended Settings: On

This is extremely useful for seeing players as it adds a ton of graphical detail and contrast around the outline of players.

Players with weaker PCs should still be able to keep this setting on, but if affects your FPS, turn it off.

Multicore Rendering

Recommended Settings: On

Turning this on gives you a free FPS boost.

Texture Filtering Mode

Recommended Settings: Trilinear or Bilinear

Anything above Trillinear tends to affect your FPS negatively, so if you want the highest FPS – use Trillinear or Bilinear.

CS:GO Audio Settings Explained

There’s not much to go through with Audio except a few tweaks that can help you during certain situations.

Audio Output Configuration

Recommended Settings: Stereo Headphones Or Stereo Speakers

These settings allow you to hear your enemies more accurately.

Even though surround sound allows more 3-dimensional hearing, it’s still easier to hear where your enemies are coming from with Stereo settings.

Ten Second Warning Volume

Recommended Settings: 20% Or Above

It makes your gameplay much easier to know when 10 seconds are remaining on the bomb timer, so during clutch situations, you can time your strategy more accurately.

CS:GO Game Settings Explained

Show Team Positions in HUD

Recommended Settings: Show Location And Equipment

This allows you to see your enemies, their weapons, and kits in-game (through walls too).

This is easier than having to constantly check your TAB screen or ask them.

It also helps you keep track of where your teammates are, so if they go down, you can use that as information to know where your enemies are.

CS:GO Radar / Tablet Settings Explained

Radar Hud Size

Recommended Settings: 1.00

You would generally want this to be bigger so you can look at your minimap often and gain information quickly without having to lean in since it’s so small.

Radar Map Zoom

Recommended Settings: 0.40 – 0.80

Ideally, you want to have the inside of your minimap zoomed out so you can see more of what’s going on around you.

This helps with keeping track of teammates near you so you can gain information about firefights, which you can use to your advantage.

The Radar Zoom Keybind

Copy and paste this code into the developers’ console (`):

bind “v” “cl_radar_scale 1.0 0.4”

If you have been playing for a long time, chances are you have struggled to pick up the bomb despite your radar showing you that you are right on top of it.

Usually, this happens if it’s on the other side of a wall, or if you’re trying to find the bomb in a smoke without getting detected.

Zooming in allows you to see where the bomb is 10x easier on your radar, so you’ll never lose sight of it again.

Conclusion

If you’ve been struggling with figuring out the best way to optimize your CSGO settings for a long time, then we hope this post has helped you out!

We listed settings that can make a drastic difference to your gameplay, allowing you to see and hear your enemies more clearly, and gain a higher FPS.

We also added a radar keybind to help you find the bomb easier (trust me, you will never lose sight of the bomb on your radar again).

If these new changes have made an improvement in your gameplay, let us know by commenting below!

Happy gaming!