Best Settings And Key Binds For CS:GO

The first section of this article will go over the best options for all relevant Counter-Strike settings. There’s a lot to go through, so hang on tight!

Crosshair Settings

The crosshair is the most essential tool for aiming, and since Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter game, a good crosshair choice is crucial to perform well in games.

Overall, a player’s crosshair should be determined by their personal preference. However, here are some key characteristics and similarities among the crosshairs professional players use.

• Bright crosshair color (green, white, cyan)
• Small crosshair length
• Medium crosshair thickness
• Small crosshair gap
• No crosshair outline
• No crosshair dot

These characteristics are widely considered effective when crafting the perfect crosshair, but at the end of the day, it comes down to how you like your crosshair to look. It will take some time to finally find your ideal crosshair, so don’t be scared to try new ones here and there.

What Crosshair Settings Are Professional Players Using?

If you need a few examples of crosshairs to get you started, here are the settings ten of the best players in the world are using.

• s1mple: CSGO-24JmN-TMFyF-dqavU-3JAkA-CW9vO
• donk: CSGO-imsvB-aqkV2-tbZp5-n6NPd-Oqw5G
• ZywOo: CSGO-BxYA4-u8xrB-voGTj-t6Jyr-ruWPA
• NiKo: CSGO-jZEM9-7LFM5-VEqXb-Gh73i-3oAQL
• m0NESY: CSGO-s5Qbj-nvF89-cJjDd-mRdSG-5Yt4N
• dev1ce: CSGO-LG5aR-u3qCV-rarKd-tSPBf-ZbJaA
• ropz: CSGO-MMQuh-Hs3Sj-Qv9zd-VaCmc-3QqNO
• jL: CSGO-9nZqk-V38NE-bcR4d-B52Vo-Mv5qB
• XANTARES: CSGO-xbpe2-E24RJ-YXNuO-pQvt8-ppNAK
• Twistzz: CSGO-zWRiZ-W5HP2-N4e2z-AVQTL-kj74E

Sensitivity Settings

Similar to crosshair settings, your sensitivity also comes down to personal preference. Players have various grip types and wrist movements, so it’s impossible to have a widely accepted “best” sensitivity. You must understand that there are two components to your sensitivity in Counter-Strike.

1. Mouse DPI: Your Mouse DPI (dots per inch) is determined by your mouse. It can be adjusted using the DPI button or through downloadable software.
2. In-game sensitivity: The in-game sensitivity can directly be adjusted through the Counter-Strike client in your settings menu.

These two components are multiplied to get the “effective DPI,” or eDPI for short. For example, a person with 400 mouse DPI and 2.5 in-game sensitivity will have the same eDPI as someone with 800 mouse DPI and 1.25 in-game sensitivity, as both of them are equal to 1000 eDPI.

However, one general rule is that riflers would play on low eDPI as they need extreme levels of precision, while AWPers would play on high eDPI to enable them to hit fast flick shots.

What Sensitivity Settings Are Professional Players Using?

To back our point about riflers and AWPers, here are the sensitivity settings for ten professional players, divided into their roles.

AWP Players:

• s1mple: 1236 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 3.09 in-game sensitivity)
• ZywOo: 800 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 2.00 in-game sensitivity)
• m0NESY: 800 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 2.00 in-game sensitivity)
• sh1ro: 824 eDPI (800 mouse DPI, 1.03 in-game sensitivity)
• device: 800 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 2.00 in-game sensitivity)

Rifle Players:

• NiKo: 552 eDPI (800 mouse DPI, 0.69 in-game sensitivity) 
• Ropz: 708 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 1.77 in-game sensitivity) 
• Twistzz: 680 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 1.70 in-game sensitivity)
• dupreeh: 680 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 1.70 in-game sensitivity)
• b1t: 568 eDPI (400 mouse DPI, 1.42 in-game sensitivity)

Video Settings

Video settings except for resolution and aspect ratio do not have as much importance as the crosshair and sensitivity, and mostly influence players with low-end setups. We’ll go through the best video settings you should use to improve your FPS performance and make your game smoother.

General Video Settings

First, we’ll go over the basic video settings you can change.

• Main Menu Background Scenery – Select Anything
• Item Inspect Background Scenery – Select Anything
• Brightness – 105%
• Display Mode – Fullscreen
• Laptop Power Savings – Disabled

These general video settings aren’t too important, so let’s just get them out of the way.

Advanced Video Settings

Advanced video settings are generally only used for aesthetic purposes to enhance the game’s graphics. You do not get any advantages for playing on high graphics, so it’s best to turn these video settings down if you need more FPS.

Here is a list of the recommended advanced video settings:

• Boost Player Contrast: Enabled
• Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled
• Current Video Values Preset: Custom
• Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode: None
• Global Shadow Quality: Low
• Model / Texture Detail: Low
• Shader Detail: Low
• Particle Detail: Low
• Ambient Occlusion: Disabled
• High Dynamic Range: Performance
• FidelityFX Super Resolution: Disabled
• NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: Enabled

If your device runs Counter-Strike perfectly fine, and you want to enjoy the visuals of the game, feel free to turn some of these video settings up. However, even professional players who are hooked up with the best setups prefer to play on lower settings to get the maximum frames per second possible.

Resolution and Aspect Ratio

Now we’ll get to the most important video settings, which are the resolution and aspect ratio. Your resolution and aspect ratio essentially determines how many pixels you will see on your screen. There are three primary aspect ratios to select from.

• 16:9
• 4:3
• 16:10

16:9 is the default Counter-Strike aspect ratio that will be applied the first time you launch Counter-Strike. It shows the highest number of pixels, meaning the game will look detailed and aesthetically pleasing. There is only one “best resolution” for 16:9, which is 1920×1080.

However, more than 80% of professional players prefer using Normal 4:3 instead. Playing on 4:3 will display fewer pixels and will often force you to play on a stretched scaling mode. This means you will see less of the screen. However, the biggest advantage of playing on 4:3 stretched is that the player models will appear fatter, which makes them much easier to shoot. This is a known lifehack in the Counter-Strike scene, and is completely legal to use.

The most popular resolution for 4:3 is 1280×960. However, you can also use 1024×768 if you really need a boost in FPS. The 16:10 resolution is the least popular one, as only a small percentage of professional players use it. It is a very niche choice that is not preferred by most. The professional players who are rocking 16:10 prefer to use 1680×1050 or 1280×800. 

Game Settings

Now that the most relevant settings are out of the way, we will quickly breeze through more game-related settings that are entirely optional. These settings will change the way your game will look and sound.

General Game Settings

There isn’t too much in the general game settings. Activating the developer console is extremely useful, but the two other commands are simply for matchmaking purposes. We recommend setting the maximum acceptable ping to 30 for an ideal gaming experience.

• Enable Developer Console: Yes
• Max Acceptable Matchmaking Ping: 30
• Max Acceptable Game Traffic Bandwidth: Extremely Restricted

HUD Settings

The HUD, or heads up display, essentially displays relevant information such as your health bar, current weapons, and ammo count. You want your HUD to be big enough to be noticeable in the middle of hectic situations, but not too big that it covers up your screen.

• HUD Scale: 1.15
• HUD Color: Bright White (Personal Preference)
• Large Player Count: Yes

Radar Settings

The radar is another vital tool in a game of Counter-Strike, as it provides you with information on the positions of your teammates and enemy players that show on the map. You can adjust the size of your radar and how zoomed in it is, as well as how your radar moves around.

• Radar Centers The Player: Yes
• Radar Is Rotating: Yes
• Radar HUD Size: 1.2
• Radar Map Zoom: 0.60

Team-related Settings

You also have some settings to change about how your teammates are displayed on your radar minimap and your HUD. Since Counter-Strike is a team game, you should have a good idea of what your teammates are up to in the round.

• Show Team Positions in HUD: Show Location And Equipment
• Show Player Colors in Competitive: Show Colors

Avatar Settings

The avatar settings are related to the Steam profile pictures of the players in your game. Recently, many players have been using animated avatars from the Steam Points Shop which can cause FPS drops.

• Allow Animated Avatars: No
• Hide Avatar Images: Yes

Audio Settings

The last set of settings we’ll go through is related to audio and hearing. Here are some recommended audio settings that have been deemed useful by professional Counter-Strike players.

• EQ Profile: Natural
• L/R Isolation: 100%
• Perspective Correction: No
• Voice/Microphone Mode: Push To Talk

Now that all the settings are out of the way, let’s dedicate this next section of the article to the most useful key bind commands in CSGO. You can set any of these binds to any key on your keyboard depending on your Counter-Strike Global Offensive keyboard layout.

For all of these commands, we will put “<key>”, which is where you should put your desired button as the key bind for the command. Feel free to change it to whatever feels good on your keyboard.

Jump Throw Bind

One of the most popular and functional key binds in Counter-Strike is the jump throw bind, which allows you to perfectly jump and throw a smoke.

The jump throw action is required in several smoke lineups and requires precise timing to land properly. Fortunately, you won’t have to worry about messing up a lineup with this jump throw bind.

Mouse Wheel Jump Bind

Another good Counter-Strike key bind is the mouse wheel jump bind, which is used for players to execute bunny hops easily.

Landing bunny hops requires players to have impeccable timing, and it is almost impossible to do when jumping with the space bar. Scrolling your mouse will prompt your character to jump, which gives a lot of room to hit jumps on time.

Individual Grenade Binds

The grenade bind isn’t anything too crazy. You are pretty much setting a dedicated key bind for each grenade in the game, most importantly the smoke grenade and flashbang. You might take a while to scroll around your grenades and get the correct one, so using a bind makes it easier.

Voice Enable/Mute Bind

The voice enable bind is mainly used by players who solo queue or rarely play in a 5-man party. As the name suggests, it is a bind that can toggle the voice_enable command which will mute or unmute the voice comms from teammates. The last thing you want is someone yelling at you while you are in the middle of a clutch situation.

Clear Decals Bind

Decals in Counter-Strike refer to stuff on the walls such as blood splatters, bullet holes, or player-applied graffiti. These things can be quite distracting while you’re playing, and don’t provide too much value except making the game more realistic. The clear decals bind will allow you to clear them constantly, which can also improve FPS performance.

Radar Zoom Bind

Finally, we have the radar zoom bind command. This bind will allow players to zoom in and out of their radars at will. In retake situations, you might want to zoom into the bomb site to have a clear look at everything that’s going on in the area. Meanwhile, if you are in the middle of a round, you might want to zoom out so you can see the entire map.