Thanks to OuChTrOnX’s from the steam forums!

Improve your framerate in Counter-Strike

This tutorial is intended for people with low end machines, which can be qualified as machines with some type of 1.7 gigahertz processor or below, an agp slot - mostly towards 4x, or an nVidia 5900 series or below card or an ATI 9600 series or below (although you may also want to copy and paste the following link for the VALVe hardware assesment service)

steam://support/?Issues=*

Section Breakdown

1. Graphic Card Drivers
2. Command Line Settings
3. Setting Priorities
4. In game settings
5. Other Helpful links

For the Cheapo’s (No offense! :D)

It is intended to get the maximum playability for those who can not afford to upgrade; it is not going to make a pretty game with all the bells and whistles, rather, it will turn them ALL OFF. Your game, when done, will now graphically resemble CS 1.6, but hopefully will be more playable in Source. This tutorial is not intended for users who already have a decent machine and just want to “squeeze out a few more fps”, rather, it’s for players who have fps problems. I hope it helps. This tutorial can easily be modified to work on all Source games, not just CS: S. This tutorial is not the end all be all of tutorials, it is only here for help. If you find it helpful, great, if you find something in it that does not work for you, feel free to let me know what doesn’t seem to work and why in this thread. Computers are very different from one another, there is no generic single solution for everyone. Nothing is 100% and neither is this tutorial. Feel free to add your own tweaks or recommendations to this thread.

**Note** THIS TUTORIAL PROBABLY WON’T HELP IF YOU DON’T HAVE AT LEAST THE MINIMUM SPECS

1.) Graphic Card Drivers

BE SURE TO HAVE DirectX 9.0c INSTALLED. NOT SURE WHAT VERSION YOU HAVE? CLICK START-> RUN-> TYPE IN DXDIAG. THIS WILL TELL YOU RIGHT AWAY

Older cards require older drivers. Just because a new driver was released doesn’t mean you should install it. They won’t help geForce F/X or ati 9600 or below series owners, and may in fact hinder you. I think nVidia put it best, on this one. Guru3d has a great database of graphics drivers for everything, and an awesome forum to help you identify which drivers you need(although for older nVidia users I recommend the 79.11 drivers). Check them out at: http://www.guru3d.com

But, be sure to use the software removal tools for any drivers. There are some on Guru of 3D although I’ve also heard good things about Driver Cleaner, too. When you’ve downloaded and installed the driver removal tool of your choice, and after you’ve downloaded but before you’ve installed the new driver, be sure to:

* open Control Panel-> Add/remove Software-> find your card’s drivers -> remove
* Reboot in Safe Mode ->tap the f8 key while rebooting to get this option
* Run the driver removal tool of your choice
* Reboot normally
* Install your new driver

2.) Command Line Settings

THESE ARE EASY TO UNDO

First, start Steam. (Figure 2 shows DoD:S, substitute CS:S instead)

* Then, right click on the Steam icon in the lower right hand corner Figure 1.
* Select Games Figure 1.
* Right click on Counter Strike : Source Figure 2.
* Click Properties
* Click Set Launch Options Figure 2.
* enter in the following commands, the only spaces being between the commands as well as the command values Figure 2.:

Set the amount of ram used by Steam*. it is recommended to use 1/2 your available ram - so for the following:
Code:

-heapsize <number>

* Ram - Heapsize
* 2 gigs - 1048576
* 1 gig - 524288
* 512 megs - 262144
* 256 megs - 131072
* 128 megs - 65536 (you should consider buying more ram)

*VALVe has said that this doesn’t control
the same resources it did in Half-Life. For more
information read this.

Specify the DirectX level used by the game.**
Code:

-dxlevel <number>

* DxLevel - Number
* 9.0c - 90 (really unnecessary if you are already fine)
* 8.1 - 81
* 8.0 - 80
* 7.0 - 70 (recommended for very low-end, although leagues consider this a cheat, for which I can understand.)

**Also, once set, you should remove this command from the launch options before
the next time you play. That way, if you’ve made any video setting changes
from the game engine after this, it will save and not reset itself each time.

3.) Setting Priorities

THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR EVERYONE, AS ON SOME SYSTEMS IT CAN DESTABILIZE THINGS.

* Launch CS:S. Wait for it to fully load.
* hit ctrl+alt+del.
* In the taskmanager window, hit the processes tab.
* Find Steam.
* Select it, right click it-> set priority-> below normal.
* Close the Taskmanager, alt+tab back into game.

4.) In Game Settings

THESE ARE THE EASIST TO EDIT, BUT BE SURE AFTER YOU SET THESE AND SUCCESSFULLY TEST THEM TO REMOVE THE DXLEVEL SWITCH FROM YOUR LAUNCH OPTIONS IF YOU HAVE ENABLED IT, OTHERWISE THEY WILL RESET.

Video Qualities

* Start CS:S.
* Click Options Figure 3.
* Make sure your screen resolution is set to a smaller size, like 640 x 480 or 800x 600 Figure 3.
* Click advanced. make everything low or off, except leave the texture filtering to trilinear unless you have a graphics card older than 3 years, in which case you most likely need bilinear, and should really consider an inexpensive upgrade. Figure 3.
* Apply.

Sound Quality

* Also, on some machines, certain soundcards, especially board integrated sound cards, rely too much on the cpu. Try setting your sound quality to medium or low.
* ->Options->audio Fig.4

———————————————-

Last Recommendation: Kaizen’s CS:S Config

(Super fast config but still retains a lot of non lagging visuals)

Download my config here

OR check out

Wtf’s Config

Why your provider is important?

Many different aspects of thought go into choosing a ‘home’ server- how many players you enjoy, what maps, what style of play, so on and so forth. I’ll be going into an overview about a few key notes to keep in mind when choosing a home server, and many things that are important to keep your level of competitive play high on your home server. Ensure you filter servers that are not password protected.

Latency

I’ll start off with the- arguably- most important part of a server; the latency. Having a home server where your latency is through the roof, making play essentially unbearable, is no good home server, meaning that you will probably not keep it as a home server for very long. A handy feature of the Counter Strike: Source server explorer is that it has an option to list servers in order of latency. Simply click on the ‘latency’ tab on the server explorer screen, and it will automatically order the servers from lowest to highest latency. A close note in regards to latency would be server location- a German playing on an Italian server would probably have a good bit of trouble joining the community- primarily due to lack of the ability to communicate. Servers sometimes mention the language in the server name, or the server name itself is in the language, sometimes though, you can only find out the server language if you join the server, so feel free to explore. You can set your filter to search for only regional servers by clicking on ‘change filters’ and then the drop arrow next to ‘location’- you can do the same for latency by clicking on the associated drop arrow. Latency and server location/language provide a great deal of consideration in choosing a home server.

Maps and Map Types

Two other vital notes in choosing a home server- frequently played maps and the map type. Some servers consistently play one or two maps- depending on your play style, these servers might get boring, or they may become even more interesting as you learn all the particular nuances of the individual map, CS_Office is a common map that is uniquely played on many servers. There are a large number of different map types as well- a link to the different map types will provided at the end of the article, but a few frequently played custom map types are AIM, which generally involves relatively simple maps designed for combat practice, AWP, which involves two teams with AWPs fighting each other, and GG, which is a Gun Game, where players have to progress through, commonly, all the guns in the game by killing an enemy with each. The map is defined by a prefix, an underscore, then the map name. The prefix denotes the map type, then the map name indicates a specific map. The original Counter Strike: Source game types are CS, and DE, CS involves rescuing hostages, DE includes defusing a bomb that the terrorists plant. The original game types are typically slower paced than the custom maps.

I want to note at this point that which map you like is based entirely on personal preference, some people like the tactical and strategic parts of the original map types, whereas others prefer the twitch and quick-paced atmosphere of the AIM and Gun Game maps. Coming from personal preference, I will continue to it- Player count.

Player Count

The maximum number of players is a very, very, important part of the server. It could mean that you can’t get in, or it could mean that there are way too many people on the map and it has simply become a zerg fest. Servers with less players usually rely more on the personal skill of the player, servers with more players rely more on the overall strategy and tactics used by each team, and the coordination they were executed with. I find the servers with less players tend to be faster paced, because rounds end more quickly, and more competitive, because you don’t get rushed by twenty guys with guns blazing. Also check the number of Bots on the server- right click in the category area, and select the check box next to bots. Many people hate playing with bots, so it’s good to note how many are on a particular server.

Build a community

Perhaps the most important part of keeping you playing on a server is the server community. Having a tight base of players that consistently play on the server- clan servers frequently have a consistent group, and it opens up options for a future in the clan if you have already been playing on the server for a few months, making friends.

Don’t be afraid to go hunting for servers, switching around if you get tired of a certain server. If you aren’t enjoying yourself, what are you playing a game for?

Our idea banks are starting to thin out, so we’re looking to the community to tell us what they want to learn about! We write this for you, we may as well address what you want to see!

Add comments to this post with proposed titles / descriptions of articles you’d like to see written. Or if you are interesting in writing the article yourself, we’d be more than happy to post it under your name and even help you edit/proofread for quality control. If you contribute enough content and ask nicely enough, we may even throw in an @fpsgod email so you can be the envy of all your friends with your godliness

Let the ideas flow! (ps. if we don’t get comments with ideas, we’ll assume that no one wants new content on the blog :p)

We’re currently working on a redesign to pump out the next phase of FPSGOD, the merger of many more games. One of our major focuses as always been to provide in depth performance tweak guides for many games so you can expect that there will be a general hardware/tweak section as well. Summer is here so most people are actually out exploring planet Earth rather than rotting in their parents basement playing video games (no offense intended if you are the latter type). We’ll post a new poll soon on which game you’d like us to cover next, but to prevent dilution we are currently working on creating a more robust community submission program. Keep us locked.

The Scout

Schmidt Scout
Price: $2750
Country Of Origin: Austria
Caliber: 7.62 Nato
Clip Capacity: 10 Rounds
Rate Of Fire: N/A
Weight (Loaded): 3.3KG
Projectile Weight: 8g
Muzzle Velocity: 2800 ft/sec
Muzzle Energy: 2200 J

Binds

“use weapon_scout”
“buy weapon_scout”

Handling Tips

The Scout is the AWP’s little brother. Although it is much weaker than the AWP, it makes up for it by it’s increased speed. It is well known fact that players who wield the scout will run much faster than with any other weapon. The Scout is most effective at long ranges while moving quickly and aiming for the head. A direct headshot is enough to kill opponents, however if armored it may take 2 shots. The Scout is very difficult to master however, by using it well you will garner a lot of reputation throughout the community.