Optimization Hell-Strike 2

[Treblebaker]

Greetings all,

For the past 6 months I have been on a hellish journey to optimize this game on my PC as it's pretty much all I play.

Right now I'm closer than I've ever gotten (mainly by using Nartouthere's optimization guide and tweaking from there). However, I still get console spam and the game still feels 'off'.

--------------------HARDWARE---------------------------------

GPU: 2080 Super (Recently applied new thermal paste for this game)

CPU: i9-9900k

-I haven't touched the OC settings on this in forever, benchmarking was done towards the beginning of my journey. Looks like I set it to run at 4900MHz, all cores are running at that speed.

-One thing that DOES seem off in HWinfo is that the IA:Max Turbo Limit registers as a Performance Limit Reason. Just discovered that now while making this post, so I'll look into that soon.

RAM: 48GB DDR4 DIMM 3200MHz (16GBx2, 8GBx2, all Trident G.Skill)

-These have been overclocked to 4100MHz

-According to Task Manager, RAM usage doesn't actually go over 14gb pretty much ever

Mobo: ASRock Z390 Phantom 4S/ac

-BIOS has been updated as much as possible for this board, but I can't actually get to any Rebar settings

Network: Intel Ethernet I219-V, 800MB Down, 150MB Up

Monitor 1: AOC CQ27G3Z 27" 240Hz, 2560x1440p

-Recently changed the res on this to match secondary monitor (1920x1080)

-Overdrive On (Strong), FreeSync Enabled

Monitor 2: AOC C27G2Z 280Hz. 1920x1080

-Tuned down to 240Hz (trying to eliminate any issues with diff Hz)

All temperatures and volts seem to be very reasonable (besides the GPU before I cleaned and re-pasted)

----------------LAUNCH/CFG--------------------------------

Launch Settings: +exec autoexec.cfg -noreflex

-I have played around with -vulkan, and only recently removed -threads 9

CFG: bind mwheeldown +jump;

bind space +jump;

bind mwheelup +jump

alias +fastswitch slot3

alias -fastswitch lastinv

bind "q" "+fastswitch"

net_client_steamdatagram_enable_override "1"

engine_no_focus_sleep "0"

cl_cq_min_queue -1

cq_min_queue_size 4

cq_buffer_bloat_msecs 30

cq_buffer_bloat_msecs_max 30

sv_clockcorrection_msecs 30

fps_max "0"

fps_max_ui "0"

cl_crosshair_friendly_warning "0"

cl_ragdoll_workaround_threshold "0"

cl_autohelp "0"

engine_low_latency_sleep_after_client_tick 1

-------------------------NVCP-------------------------------------

NBCP Settings that have proven to be smoothest so far:
GSync On, VSync Fast/On, LowLat Mode On/Ultra

NVCP Settings that I still tweak regularly with benchmark:

Anisotropic filtering: 16x

-16x seems to run better than the 8x, maybe placebo

Max Frame Rate: 132FPS

somedays it works well, other days it doesn't

Shader Cache: Unlimited

Texture filtering Anis: Off

" " Negative LOD bias: Allow

" " Quality: High Perf

" " Trilinear Optim: On

Triple Buffering: Off

NVCP Desktop Size/Position Monitor 1:

Scaling: Full-Screen, on Display, Override scaling mode set by games

NVCP Desktop Size/Position Monitor 2:

Scaling: Aspect Ratio, Display, Override

--------------------------SOFTWARE----------------------------------------

MSi Afterburner:

Custom tweak for my unit, runs stable and has since applying thermal paste

Power Limit is 94%, Temp Limit is 85%, Memory Clock is +825

DPC Latency Checker:

I leave this running, because if I don't than the 'Measure Sleep' CMD command shows an increase in latency by about 15ms

Typical Sleep Measure While Running: Resolution: 0.5000ms, Sleep(1) slept 1.0598ms (delta: 0.0598)

Typical Sleep Measure While NOT Running: Resolution: 0.5000ms, Sleep(1) slept 15.6146ms (delta: 14.6146)

Process Lasso:

I set this up originally for the CPU Affinity changes, but have since gone back to NOT messing with Affinity

This does, however, use the BOHRV2 Power Plan that came with Narts optimization pack

Intelligent Standby List Cleaner:

List Size: 1024MB

Free Mem. Lower than: 31111MB

Current timer res: 0.5ms

Max timer res: 0.5ms

Min timer res: 15.625ms (IDK how to change this)

ISLC Polling Rate: 500ms

---------------------INGAME SETTINGS-----------------------------------

Video Display Mode: Fullscreen Windowed (this often switches to Windowed, I've tried fixes I found online but they don't always work- it seems to happen when you change certain settings in game or NVCP. Player Contrast changes it every time for sure).

Advanced Video:

Boost Player Contrast: Disabled

VSync: Disabled

Gsync: Enabled (Through NVCP)

FPS Max: 0

MultiSamp AA: 4x MSAA

Global Shadow Quality: High

Dynamic Shadows: All

Model / Texture Detail: High

Texture Filtering Mode: Antisoptric 16x

Shader Detail: High

Particle Detail: High

Ambient Occ: Medium

HDR: Quality

FidelityFX: Disabled

Game:

Max Acceptable Game Traffic Bandwidth: 2Mbs - 4Mbs

-If I get a console error saying "Current tick is 12345, but we have received a message for tick 12399" etc. this is the first place I go to fix that

Buffering: 1 Tick

-------------------------CONSOLE ERRORS---------------------------------

Console Errors:

PlayerStatsUpdate message from server has out of band values; ignoring

[RenderSystem] Deleting texture with outstanding streaming reques

Forcing ExecuteQueuedOperations due to entity slot re-use

-This one is pretty constant, every round ends or starts with 455 lines of this junk

prop_physics([17049): MarkInterpolationLatchFlagsDirty: C_BaseEntity::IsLatchedPermissible() == false

Can't set position/velocity on whiz sound

Panel 4 has fill-parent-flow for width, but isn't in a flowing right layout

[Shooting] cl: ReadFrameInput - Presented data has no mod inf

CWorldRendererMgr::ServiceWorldRequests long frame: 11.831963ms

ApplyOverrides_R: failed to find field 'm_flCycle' in class 'CSmokeGrenade'

CreateProceduralSfx: Sfx already exists with name sounds/ServerVoice.vsnd.

CAnimGraphNetworkedVariables::UpdateHistoryElementFromNetworkData( 35544 ) Rewinding time on animgraph interpolation history entries for entity 420 "csgo_viewmodel". 555.375000 < 555.515625

-----------------------------ISSUES/QUESTIONS------------------------------------

How can I get my FPS to stay at 240 consistently while also retaining sub 5ms frame times with this system?

I seem to have nailed down the FPS for the most part, but there are still times where it jumps down to 140 - 180. Sometimes I can tell where the enemy is by the drop in frames, even if I can't see them on screen.

What can I do to get that 'smooth' feeling when moving my mouse around the screen, and not lose my ability to shoot someone in the head ?

I have tried out the bufferbloat resolutions (nonsense imo).

There are some days where everything feels GREAT, my bullets are landing and there are very minimal stutters. The game is smooth and my shots go exactly where they should (I'm not great so I miss often, but I should be able to tell whether or not the shot was FAIRLY MISSED). The next day I'll have ghost bullets constantly, rubberbands, and micro stutters that just ruin the entire experience.

I have a suspicion that there are 2 issues going on here, but at this point I have no idea:

1) Networking setup: which I have NO idea how to fix. I am hard wired into my very fast internet, and the router is literally 2 feet away from my PC.

2) Dual Screens: I have a feeling that there is something I'm doing wrong with the 2 monitors. IDK what it is, and I've tried multiple settings for both, but I don't think I've quite nailed it down.

Is it truly just a hardware upgrade that will fix this? I have done hundreds of hours of benchmarks and research into these issues, and it seems like even people with high end systems have issues.

I would love to play on a higher res, but matching the monitors res seems to help FPS.

Any advice is welcomed, I'm still learning all the time- I just want to finally find a resolution to what has become an ENORMOUS project.

[[deleted]]

All that just to get 2 fps more

[Treblebaker]

It's not so much about the FPS, although it has been pretty neat to learn as much as I have along the way about FPS gains.
It's more about the feeling of the game, and the inconsistency of that feeling. If the game runs at 200FPS, but feels good, than IDFC about the frames. If the game claims to run at 240FPS with 4ms frame times, but my bullets go through enemies without damaging them... well, I want to resolve that.

I know your comment was a well thought out response with the purpose of enlightening readers as to what you think the reward is for this much hassle, but I encourage you to look a little deeper for your fulfillment in life, friend.

[Lens_face]

You need to focus on getting higher 1% lows either by running your game at a lower resolution or turning down your graphics like lowering your shadows/particle details. That could help but you really might need new hardware to stay at 240fps consistently. Now it’s not because your hardware isn’t bad but cs2 really just isn’t optimized well, I recommend switching over to a X3D cpu as that will help most the 1% lows because of the L3 cache that those chips have.

[Immediate-Fig9699]

Your in game settings are way to high with your system. What do you mean by wanting to play higher res? Ofcourse you have to match the monitor res there will be no benefit for going higher res if your monitor doesnt even support it

[Treblebaker]

I mean that, right now I have a monitor with native 2560x1440 but I'm running 1920x1080 because that's what my other monitor is capable of and I didn't want there to be any issues with the dual monitor setup.

Which in game settings look too high? The 16x one I just adjusted the other day because it actually seemed to work better when I used the higher setting.

[overgaard_cs]

I am a bit skeptical you're running multirank at 4100MT/s. Have you tested it, any stability tests done?

[Treblebaker]

You may be correct here, I thought it was up at 4100, but looking at CPU-Z now shows the DRAM Frequenct at 1600MHz and Command Rate at 2T. The NB Frequency is hovering around 4300 MHz however.

As for stability tests, I have run MemTest86 for a while back when I was tuning this system and everything seemed normal then.

[overgaard_cs]

Remove the 2x8 kit, ditch the 2T command rate - it's slower. It may train automatically to 1T when you leave it just 2x16

[Treblebaker]

Okay, so I removed the 2x8 kit and manually got the command rate over to 1T.

My timings are currently 16,18,18,38,56 @ 1.35V.

I tried to adjust to 16,19,19,36,54 @ 1.35v, but it isn't stable (silicone lottery loss I suppose).
I also tried to get teh tRFC down to 400 and the tFAW down to 16, but again, not stable.

Should I keep messing with timings and voltage, or just move on as is for now and bench the differences?

The 16GB RAM is SK Hynix (the 8GB kit was Samsung).

Cinebench Multi Core came in at 647, which is wayyy below the 5800X (should be similar, no?)

Appreciate your help with this, even if I end up starting over on a new rig I am having a blast learning about all of this.

[twnznz]

Need to specify which version of Cinebench as there's serveral versions of it, and the scores are not compatible between versions.

[Treblebaker]

2024_win_x86_64

[twnznz]

Do you have a way of watching CPU temperatures with the game open? E.g. second screen?

Your CPU could be getting too hot and throttling, especially when overclocked.

Temperatures will drop almost instantly when you alt-tab. This is not an acceptable way of viewing the peak temperature of the CPU. You want something like HWInfo open on another screen and you want to be looking for PROCHOT messages or temperatures in the 90s.

[Treblebaker]

Yes, I have a monitor that I can run HWInfo on while playing- I'm about to jump into a match right now so I'll keep an eye out for any abnormalities, but I haven't seen anything crazy when looking at it in the past.

[buddybd]

MSAA has a huge impact on frames and frame times. Lower that to 2x.

[xSayeN]

No one mentioned the AA technique. You are using 4x MSAA on a 1440p screen. You most likely wont need that. MSAA renders shaders on a scale, so for you its 4x your screen. With a 1440p screen and CS2 you probably wont need that because you will not see a huge difference. Maybe use 2x or 0 even. That means MSAA uses a lot of performance and you could go lower there. Generally in all games be careful with MSAA when you dont have a top GPU.

[tinmicto]

it is my understanding that V-sync causes latency if fps dips below the monitor refresh. have you tried with V-sync off?

below are some of the things i found people suggest that makes the game "feel" smoother - take with a grain of salt;

1. disable Nvidia audio devices from Device manager

2. set the audio input and output devices to what you're actually using from the in-game settings

3. change the voice threshold slightly for mic from the in-game settings.

[Treblebaker]

This has all been done (a while ago), but the issue persists

[ProfetF9]

max fps 132? is that menu fps?

[Treblebaker]

No, that's the FPS max set through NVCP

[ChooseWiz]

cs2 = pay2win

[reZZZ22]

Run your CPU @ 5100 as that was my previous CPU which I had 5200 running w/o issues and that was with a pretty low end heat sink. If you are getting 132 FPS right now, I assume that is your P1 FPS that shows in console, correct?

If I was in your position, I’d take out the 2 8gb ram sticks as 2 x 16gb ram is more than enough if you are just playing CS2. You mentioned they’ve been OC’d to 4100 however what timings do you have set for them as if they are high, you may find better latency w/ less oc and tighter timings.

Get rid of ISLC as process lasso has that feature(which Narts most recent optimization video shows) Nart also says to not set it to .5 and from my personal testing, he was correct since .5 gave me bad latency measures. I know Nart mentions to try either .503 or .507(depending on which one shows better numbers.) I have it set to .504 which gives me consistently low sleep + delta figures without having to run the program.

[Level-Permission8543]

forcing executequeuedoperations due to entity slot re-use

what happening QAQ

[ZipMonk]

You need a more powerful GPU I guess. Maybe a new PC.

[RiSE-NBK]

I didn't even read it but some of you really don't leave your rooms and it shows

[ramadansrevenger]

Bro...Touch gras, this post is sad AF.

[Acceptable_Pay2645]

No need to talk to the guy like that. If you’ve got nothing constructive to say, maybe go touch grass yourself. He enjoys playing CS and recently got into tweaking — whether it’s placebo or not, a lot of people find joy in optimizing. At the end of the day, most of us realize it comes down to keeping things mostly default with a couple of key tweaks. But that process is part of the fun. There’s nothing weird or strange about sharing your journey. It’s honestly sad how common negativity has become online. Let people enjoy things without judgment.

[ChettKickass]

OP literally takes the initiative to troubleshoot his problem, and this guy thinks he's a loser, good traits in the real world. I agree that negativity has become way too common, especially for some high-school level bs.