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The best settings and grenade binds for new CSGO players

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William Davis Published 28/10/2021
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In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the tiniest disadvantage can end a gunfight before it even starts if a player isn’t using anything but the best possible CSGO settings.

CSGO has a massive settings menu with hundreds of options to tweak and tune. Some of them are obvious while others are incredibly niche. If you’re a new player looking to spruce up your settings, look no further. This is the guide to the best video, sensitivity, and hotkey settings for CSGO.

Best video settings in CSGO

Graphics settings are extremely important in CSGO, though not always for obvious reasons. For example, the Global Shadow Quality option also determines the draw distance for enemy shadows. Shader Detail can even impact how quickly you can see through smoke. The best video settings in CSGO can change depending on your computer, so open up a bot match and fiddle around until you’re happy.

Many old-school CSGO players insist that a 4:3 aspect ratio and lower resolution are necessary for optimal play, which ties into pro players’ prefence for performance over graphics. While those settings can boost performance, it’s more important to use what you’re comfortable with. As long as you have consistent frames, there’s nothing wrong with 1920×1080 at 16:9.

Best CSGO sensitivity options

Sensitivity is an extremely personal choice in CSGO, but there are some settings that are borderline required. All standard sensitivity options are listed under the Mouse / Keyboard menu in the top Keyboard & Mouse Settings section. We won’t talk about the process for figuring out your optimal sensitivity. Instead, we’ll go over the other sensitivity settings that affect your aim.

Zoom sensitivity determines how your sensitivity changes when you scope in on a Scout or AWP. Don’t adjust your zoom to match your aim sensitivity. 1.00 will make both situations feel the same. Raw input is useful, as it allows CSGO to directly connect to your mouse. In CSGO, raw input can reduce input lag and clean up certain inputs. Lastly, keep mouse acceleration off. If activated, your mouse sensitivity can vary depending on how much you move your mouse. 

How to bind grenades in CSGO

Grenades are an extremely important part of CSGO. Getting your grenades out in time can make the difference in a tight clutch situation, but the default setting is designed to slow you down. Scrolling through all of your utility is a pain, but it’s possible to bind each grenade type to a specific key. The bind grenades option is located in the Keyboard / Mouse section under Weapon Keys.

You’ll need to dedicate at least four keys to grenade binds. Don’t worry about copying the hotkeys shown in the example. Just pick four unused keys that are reasonably close to WASD. If you need some inspiration, official CSGO social media recommends C for smoke, V for molotov, and F for flash. Then again, it also recommends mouse wheel down to examine your weapon so take that with a grain of salt.

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