Best CS2 Rates Settings – Rate Commands Guide

CS2 rates can be quite confusing for beginners, as the game doesn’t tell you what they are; rather, they’re something you stumble upon yourself. But actually, CS2 rate settings can be important to understand, as they can determine how your game performs on different internet connections.

Our guide should help you understand CS2 rates a little better and talk you through the rate settings and commands you should know for yourself.

What are CS2 rates (Settings and Commands)?

When the Counter-Strike server sends data to your PC over the internet, the speed at which this occurs is CS2 rates. Everything that you see on screen happens in accordance with your CS2 rate settings, which is why curating and perfecting them is important. In theory, picking the right CS2 rates could make a big difference to hit detection, which is one complaint that many frequently have about CS2.

Although the default CS2 rate settings work well enough for most, you can have a better experience if you manually go in and align them with your own internet settings, ensuring you receive the correct amount of data per second.

Before we can set up some CS2 rate commands, we need to familiarize ourselves with all the possible rate settings. With CS2 rates, you choose from a fixed value, which are as follows:

How to use CS2 rate commands

First things first, you need to know your internet speed. Not what you pay for, but what you actually get. You can use Google’s internet speed test to quickly do this. Once you have your average speed, you should have a better idea of the value you should set your CS2 rates. The quicker your internet, the higher your CS2 rate settings should be.

To change your CS2 rates, open the in-game console using the tilde key (~). Then, type “rate” followed by the respective rate value from the chart above. For example, if you wanted to set your CS2 rates to the maximum value, you would enter “rate 1000000” into the console. However, you may find that you have to do this every time you launch the game. To avoid this, you can also add that command to your CS2 config file, usually found at the following file path:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<Steam ID>\730\local\cfg

It’s that easy to change CS2 rates. If you think you’ve done something wrong, you can always resort to the default CS2 rate setting of 196608 and start again.

Are CS2 rates important?

Changing CS2 rates is important if you want the very best Counter-Strike experience. For lots of players, the default CS2 rate settings will be just fine, but the ability to go in and tweak every minute detail of your CS settings has always been one of the best things about the game. Want the best experience? Work for it.

Can I get banned for changing CS2 rate settings?

No. The CS2 rate command isn’t sv_cheat-protected, so you can use it to affect your online matches. While VAC bans are a genuine concern, you won’t get banned for changing your CS2 rates.

What are the best CS2 rates for competitive matches?

CS2 rates are dependent on the player. You don’t have to worry about the best CS2 rate settings for other players – just be concerned about what works for you and your internet connection. Competitive matches, non-competitive – it doesn’t matter. Just experiment and see what makes your game feel best.