When choosing a CS:GO resolution, there’s no definitive rule about what you should and shouldn’t do. However, there are some principles that you can follow to discover the best resolution for CS:GO. But not for everyone. Just you.
Your unique experience and preferences can significantly impact what your eyes prefer and what your mind can work with best.
Choosing a CS:GO Resolution
When choosing a CS:GO resolution, you can tweak several settings. For example, you can choose the aspect ratio from a set of aspect ratios. This is both a matter of personal preference and monitors size.
When searching for the best resolution, the first goal is simple: get a visual result that’s pleasing to the eye and doesn’t tire you. The second goal is a bit more sophisticated and becomes essential if you’ve been playing the game for a while.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a competitive game and an esport, so you should use a resolution that gives you the best results when aiming at winning matches. Professional players utilize a variety of resolutions, ranging from the best ones for the eye to the most effective ones for their particular style.
Sometimes, the native resolution (1920×1080 or 16:9) is the best. And it happens to be the resolution that most players will use, professional and amateur. But no rule says you can’t play CS using a different one.
When Choose a CS:GO Resolution
When choosing your resolution and aspect ratio, ensure that the player models are visible to your eyes.
Other aspects, such as the decision to play the game in Fullscreen or Windowed, rarely come into consideration because the optimal choice is obvious: you should always choose to see the game on the entire screen.
But the ones that have to do with video settings are pretty important, and you should experiment with them until you find what works best for you.
Try different aspect ratios, resolution settings, and even display settings (although you’ll probably agree that the Windowed mode was created for people who don’t want to be caught playing CS:GO.
Considerations
While experimenting and trying to find the perfect resolution, search for anything that would give you a significant advantage. For instance, you might realize that when you use a 1280:720 resolution, your ability to hit headshots increases dramatically.
This may have to do with how your eyes perceive player models, or it may have to do with your mouse sensitivity and the travel distance of your cursor at different resolutions. It’s hard to tell what will have the most significant impact on your game. But one thing is certain: the popular resolution isn’t necessarily the best CS:GO resolution for you.
Another thing you’ll want to experiment with is crosshair settings. Try your usual crosshair settings at specific resolutions and see the results. Then, change your crosshair settings and see if the combination between new settings and different resolutions has an impact.
Keep In Mind:
On most monitors, the higher resolution is better. Or at least, it’s more pleasing to the eye. But when searching for the best resolution and aspect ratio, the answer will be relative to your results to some degree. You’re not searching for the best settings. You’re searching for your best settings.
Some pro players may not agree with your aspect ratio for CS:GO, but as long as your results with it are good, you should keep it.
When choosing your video settings, make sure you’re not going beyond the limits of what your PC can do. Options like Global Shadow Quality, Model / Texture Detail, Effect Detail, and Shader detail can boost your visual experience but can also result in lower fps.
The better you become at the game, the more you need to consider not just your visual experience but overall gameplay too. If you’re losing your competitive edge to see some pixels a bit better, that’s probably a bad idea.
Some pro players use a stretched resolution. If you want to experiment with it, you’ll need to tell your GPU to use the Full-screen option. You can do it by opening your Nvidia Control Panel. Then go to Display and select the Adjust Desktop Size and Position. The setting you’re looking for is right there.
