How to Reduce CS:GO Lag & Stuttering
Mastering recoil patterns, understanding how the in-game economy works, and figuring out ways to deal with the notoriously toxic community; are just some of the feats one must accomplish when playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, there is a bigger battle at play here, one which involves the infamous CSGO lag.
The CSGO community has been complaining about several different things including hacks, stale gameplay, and most importantly network stability. Now, we can’t do much about the first two complaints, but the third is something that we can help you with. So, if you suffer from CSGO lag, and are looking for a way out, then you come to the right place. Today, we are going to be bringing you ways on how you can easily reduce CSGO lag.
Network and CSGO Lag
As discussed above, after making sure that your hardware or your graphics settings are not the ones causing lag, only one issue remains, and that is your network. The most common network-related issue that causes lag is high ping. To help you understand how ping is related to CSGO lag, we first need to explain what ping actually is.
What Is Ping?
While you can think of lag as the delay between making input and receiving the response on the screen, ping can be thought of as the measure of that delay. In other words, ping is the measurement of the amount of time that it takes data to leave your computer system, reach the game server, and then back to your computer. Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms).
Ping and CSGO Lag
As established, ping is just a measure of the time it takes data to travel from a computer to the game server and back to the computer. This means that ping will always be present as even data can't travel instantaneously. In fact, nothing travels instantaneously, not even light, so it will always take time for something to cover a distance. In our case, this distance is from your computer to the game server.
If ping is always present, what is the problem then? Well, ping does not pose any issues if it is stable and low enough that the delay is not noticeable. Ping becomes an issue either when it is too high or when it becomes unstable. High ping will definitely cause you to experience lag in CSGO and if it gets high enough or very unstable, it may even cause other frustrating issues like rubber banding.
High Ping in CSGO
High ping is one of the most common problems when it comes to network-related issues that cause CSGO lag. Imagine that your team has planted the bomb at B site of Dust 2. Now you are at the Back Plank holding the upper B tunnels with your AWP. You get shot out of nowhere and die. You check the replay and actually, there was an enemy right in front of you that shot you and you didn't even see them.
How can this happen, how did you not see an enemy that is right in front of you? This is because the packet of information that your computer needs in order to present an enemy in front of your screen has not reached your computer in time, and before it could reach your computer, the enemy had already peaked you and shot you. This has happened because of high ping and this is called network lag.
Ping Spikes in CSGO
While you can still play the game with a relatively high ping like 150 or 200 ms, it is almost impossible to play CSGO with an unstable ping. If your network connection is not stable, then you will experience frequent ping spikes. These ping spikes will cause jittery gameplay, rubberbanding, which in turn will cause you to miss a lot of your shots.
CSGO Rubberbanding
Rubberbanding is one of the worst experiences that is despised by all gamers who have had to deal with it. Rubberbanding can be caused by both ping spikes and super high ping like over 400 or 500 ms.
Trying to play a game with rubberbanding is like trying to walk while being tied to a pole with a rubber band. Imagine trying to move your character forward in CSGO, and you keep on jumping back to where you were a second ago. Effectively, you would be moving two steps forward and one step backward.
What Is CSGO Lag?
For those who have been playing CSGO for quite some time now exactly what CSGO lag. However, ever since this game went free-to-play, we have been seeing a cluster of brand-new players coming in. So, to help all those out, we are going to be explaining to you what exactly CSGO lag is and how it can affect your gameplay.
Have you ever come across a match where you feel as if your shots aren’t landing or you shot at the enemy first and you know it hit but the game didn’t register it? Well, if you have then you have been a victim of CSGO lag.
In other words, lag is basically a noticeable delay between the action a player makes and the reaction of the server supporting the video game which in this case are the CSGO servers. Furthermore, some people even mistake frame rate or fps drops as lag as the effects of this are the same as lag. So, before going ahead to fix the issue at hand, it is always a good idea to diagnose the issue first and see what exactly is causing you to experience CSGO lag.
What Causes CSGO Lag?
Lag in video games usually surfaces due to two reasons, one linked with the network connection and the second with graphical settings of the game. Now, the latter is usually quite easy to fix as all you have to do is lower down your resolution and your graphic settings. You can refer to the game’s recommended requirements down below. If your rig does not meet the requirements, you might have to lower down the settings till the lag gets better.
OS: Windows® 7/Vista/XP
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 processor or better
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Video card must be 256 MB or more and DirectX 9-compatible with Pixel Shader 3.0
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 15 GB available space
Valve has done a brilliant job with optimizing this game for low-end PCs. Hence, it is very rare that your graphics settings are the reason behind the lag. That said, if you are noticing frame rate drops while playing the game, we suggest you try lowering the graphics.
However, if the issue remains, then your network connection might be the one responsible for the CSGO lag. And fixing, this can be quite a strenuous task but hopefully, with the help of this guide, you’ll finally be able to get rid of this nuisance.
How To Fix CSGO Lag
If your network connection is responsible for the lag, then it's obvious that changes to the connection have to be made. This involves either talking to the ISP about the issue or upgrading your internet plan. However, this should be the last resort as there are several other workarounds that you can use to fix lag in CSGO. Follow the guide for more information on them:
Switch To A Wired Connection
Most users prefer wireless connections over wired ones due to their ease of installation. However, this is one of the biggest reasons why people suffer from issues like high ping and lag in online video games. This is because wireless connections aren’t very stable.
The service they provide, though is okay for your everyday browsing, when it comes to online gaming, it is not recommended. So, if you are suffering from CSGO lag, we would advise you to first, switch to a wired connection before doing anything else.
Close Background Applications
If you are on a wired connection and are still coming across lag in CSGO, then check and see if you have any background applications that are using the internet. There are some applications like Chrome that are sometimes the ones responsible for your lag. Furthermore, check your PC’s Windows Update settings.
They are pretty notorious for popping up while playing video games, sucking in most of your internet’s bandwidth as Windows prioritizes these updates for more than anything else.
CSGO Hidden Network Hacks
Most people don’t know but Valve has a few tricks of its own that help players better optimize their playing experience. For this, all you have to do is enable the Console command in the game’s settings and once that is done, click on the (`) to open up the console.
After doing that, type in the following command to make your game run better:
rate 128000
cl_interp_ratio 2
cl_interp 0
cl_cmdrate 64
cl_updaterate 64
cl_lagcommpensation 1
cl_predict 1
cl_predictweapons1
Other Generic Workarounds
If after applying the above-mentioned workarounds, you are still experiencing lag, here are some other generic workarounds that might give that little need boost in terms of your network stabling to allow you to play CSGO smoothly.
Disable any ongoing downloads and/or torrents
Disable any active VPNs or Proxies (more on this later)
Shut down any other application that might have a connection to the internet i.e. Discord or TeamSpeak
Check your PC’s firewall settings
Try running a malware software to if see your PC is infected or not
The Final Workaround - WTFast
If all else fails then there is one final workaround, one which will guarantee a better playing experience – WTFast. This is a GPN that grants users the ability to better route their traceroutes, allowing for fewer hops which lead to a better over ping in online games.
VPNs and proxies that virtually change or mask your IP address are usually looked down upon by video game developers as such applications are used majority by cheaters to hide their identity. It is because of this, most developers including Valve discourage the use of VPNs for their games. Hence, you can be banned from playing the game if found using a VPN.
WTFast, on the other hand, is completely safe. This is because it isn’t exactly a VPN. We say this because WTFast only optimizes game connection data. It never masks your IP address or any other network setting in any way. So, if you are looking for that one, final fix for your CSGO lag, we would advise you to give WTFast a try. It comes with a free trial period which you check out to see if it helps you with your lag.
