How To Check and Show FPS in CS:GO or CS2?

Long gone are the days when Counter-Strike 1.6 could be launched and played on a potato, because pretty much every modern competitive game requires serious hardware and stable Internet connection for stress-free gaming. With the recent launch of Counter-Strike 2, some players encountered sudden FPS drops, since the hardware barrier was substantially raised, making it hard for players with older PCs to have decent frame rate. When one is trying to repeat olofmeister’s smoke defuse but CS2 starts lagging chaotically and resembling a slideshow, that’s what they call an FPS drop. 

In order to make some adjustments to improve performance, one should know how well the game runs on their system in the first place. We’ve listed a couple of methods you can choose from to precisely determine the number of frames per second on your device. 

How to Show CS:GO FPS with Steam?

One of the simplest and straight-to-the-point methods of displaying FPS is to use an in-built Steam counter. The way it works is pretty neat – any game launched via Steam client will display the FPS count. You can also tweak some settings, including the counter’s location on the screen or the high contrast mode toggle. Here’s how to activate Steam’s FPS counter on your computer:

• Launch Steam 

• Click on the Steam logo in the top-left corner 

• Proceed to Settings > In-Game

• Scroll down to In-Game FPS Counter and select the location

• Activate high contrast color below if necessary

• Now you know how to show FPS in CSGO

Even though the in-built counter severely lacks in terms of customization, this way you don’t have to rely on third-party apps with annoying overlays covering half of the screen while you’re trying to 1v9 an unwinnable game. Plus, if you ever get tired of inting teammates, you can just hop on any other game and still have a visual on how well the system performs.

CS2 Launch Settings for FPS 

Unfortunately, the only built-in FPS counter option in Counter-Strike 2 is summoned via console command. Hopefully, Valve could implement something more convenient and way more informative, as they did with the crosshair settings back in CS:GO. 

Alternatively, you can use multiple third-party FPS counters from various vendors, such as Nvidia and Microsoft. Speaking of Microsoft, Windows has this built-in handy tool called Game Bar that allows players to capture intense moments from their games, chat with teammates and show real-time performance graphs. Here’s how you activate this feature:

• Press Win+G to summon Game Bar

• Click on the Performance tab

• You can keep this window open while you’re playing by clicking on the Pin icon

• Here you have all the information including frame rate

Game Bar alongside the beautiful Night Terror M4A1-S

CS:GO and CS2 Show FPS Commands

Experienced players remember when console was the only option to check the frame rate. Years flew by, but the good old console is still available to those who prefer the time-tested “cl_showfps 1” FPS command in CSGO. Here’s how you enable the FPS counter in CS2 console:

• Launch Counter-Strike 2 and click on the cogwheel icon (Settings Menu)

• Proceed to Game

• Toggle the Enable Developer Console on

• You can now open console by pressing ~ (`) on the keyboard. 

• Enter or just paste the cl_showfps 1 and press Enter

• If you wish to turn it off, then simply enter cl_showfps 0

This method is extremely simple, but the current console FPS counter looks pretty horrendous. Moreover, there are speculations claiming that cl_showfps reduces the actual frame rate by 15-20%. The CSGO FPS command can be used alternatively to all above-mentioned methods if you need this information exclusively for CS2.

Command, How to Show CS:GO and CS2 Ping

Aside from FPS, some players wonder how to see their Ping in real time. Ping determines the speed of data transfer between your computer and a game’s server, where the lower the number is, the better. Some players may mistakenly try to fix the issue with their computer while experiencing some lag spikes in the game, while in reality often times they can happen due to issues with the Internet connection. In order to show ping in CS2, you have to:

• Toggle the Enable Developer Console on 

• Open console and enter net_graph 1

• If you don’t need this information anymore, simply enter net_graph 0 in console and press Enter 

So You CS2 Show Ping Command is: "net_graph 1"

How To Check FPS in CS:GO/CS2?

If you happen to be a seasoned CS veteran, we can assume that you have a general idea about how many frames per second is enough, depending on your needs and the setup you’re running. However, the more casual audience may not know exactly what these numbers mean. Most casual players can enjoy some non-competitive action on 60 FPS, the refresh rate of a majority of productivity laptops. However, if you’re willing to switch from casual gameplay to the more sweaty area of Faceit and high-elo matchmaking, and If your ADR is consistent, then you should be looking at >120 FPS and up, that is if you have a high refresh monitor or a laptop with a high refresh display.

CS:GO/CS2 FPS Counter FAQ

We’ve compiled and answered all the frequently asked questions regarding the FPS counters in CS2: 

• How to turn on FPS counter CS:GO/CS2?
  You can either activate Steam’s in-built FPS counter by going to settings inside the Steam client, clicking “In-Game”, scrolling down to “In-Game FPS counter” and activating it by choosing the location on the screen. Alternatively, you can open the console ~ (`) and enter “cl_showfps 1”

• How to increase and maximize FPS in CS:GO/CS2?
  In order to have the best experience in CS2 you have to make sure that there are no heavy applications running in the background. You could also lower the graphics quality and lower the resolution, which can substantially increase the frame rate of the game. Make sure that your system matches the minimum game requirements.     

• How to cap and limit CS:GO/CS2 FPS - main command
  Use the fps_max command in console, and choose the necessary value. If you wish to remove the FPS cap, then simply set the value to 0.