Why can't I get more than 60 FPS in CS:GO?

Question

How can I overcome low fps on NVIDIA Geforce 940 MX? I get only 60 fps. This is frustating as this graphics card should be good enough for this light weight game.

Graphics

• Driver version : 391.01
• Direct 3D API Version: 12
• Direct 3D Feature Level: 11_0
• CUDA Cores: 384
• Graphics Clock: 1122 Mhz
• Memory data rate: 1800 Mhz
• Memory Interface: 64-bit
• Memory Bandwith: 14.40 GB/s
• Total available Graphics memory: 8134 MB
• Dedicated Video memory: 4096 MB DDR3
• System Video Memory: 0 MB
• Shared System Memory: 4038 MB
• Video BIOS Version: 82.08.59.00.75
• IRQ: Not used
• Bus: PCI Express x4 Gen3

PC

• OS: Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
• DirectX Run time version: 12.0
• Processor: Intel i7 7500U @2.70 Ghz
• Memory: 8192 MB RAM

This question isn't certainly a duplicate of "Can my PC run this game?" It obviously can run the game. My question is related to how can I improve the fps? No one else has asked a question with my exact configuration. I have already tried many tweaks and setting video quality to low but still failed to increase FPS. So I have included my PC's specifications to hope for a solution specific to my problem. So why has it been marked duplicate?

Steps I had tried: Setting all video settings to low and everything that radu has recommended in his answer below.

Answer 1

Since it is now clear that your computer indeed does support the game with acceptable FPS it is definitely a problem with your VSync settings.

There are now two things left to do:

Since Windows 10 may block/override your VSync settings you should disable that option:

1. Right-click the CSGO.exe
2. Go to Compatibility
3. Check the box for Disable fullscreen optimizations

Also make sure you have VSync off in your NVidia Control Panel. It is set to adaptive by default. Change it to off in your 3D Settings if you haven't done that yet. And you probably have done that already, but also make sure VSync is set to off in your in-game settings.

Now your FPS should be fine and you can change it to whatever you like using fps_max <value> in-game or in your config.

Answer 2

As others stated you should tweak the in game settings, I have a gtx 980ti and still keep everything on the lowest setting just because the extra detail is not necessary. The only thing that should not be to the lowest setting is shadow quality. At it's lowest settings you do not see them and that is a major issue. Just go one level above lowest.

Also you may have noticed a wierd resolution when you see streamers online. That's because they play on a resolution lower than 1080 and in an aspect ratio that is not 16/9.

It may sound bad at first but this is the way that most pros play and it does have its advantage. What you would want to do is set your resolution to 1024xXXX or even 800x600 and set your aspect ratio to 4:3 (think of the old CRT monitors). once you have these settings you will have black bars on the left and right hand side of your screen (due to the difference in aspect ratio). Some people like to play with black bars some don't. Try out and see what you like.

In order to get rid of the black bars you will have to play in what is considered stretch mode. All you have to do is set the launch option to -fullscreen. Here is a guide that goes more into detail: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=546255142

Here is s1mple's settings, you can see he plays on a Stretched scaling: http://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/S1mple

Here is pashaBiceps' settings, he is a player who uses black bars: http://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/Pasha

With your set up you will be able to get over 100 fps, the rest is just tweaking it to whatever you feel comfortable with. This is not a game that is meant to look good, and you really wont care about the level detail when your team beats someone 16-0 in comp.

Answer 3

In Video settings, make sure that your FPS isn't capped, which prevents it from going higher than a certain number.

Answer 4

This may have been covered in the deleted comments but I think it is worth mentioning for anyone else viewing this question now.

In addition to the answers about the output and performance of your PC, in order to see the extra frames you will need a monitor capable of displaying more than 60fps.

Most standard PC monitors will have a refresh rate of 60hz, this is the maximum number of frames per second the monitor is capable of displaying. Monitors designed for gaming, especially competitive gaming, usually have refresh rates of 120-144hz and sync the GPU output to the monitor refresh rate. Some of the newer ones even go up to 240hz.

It doesn't matter if your PC is capable and set up to run a game at 100fps, if the monitor can only display at 60hz you will still play at 60fps.

Of course you can render the game at 100fps with a 60hz monitor which has benefits like lower input latency and drawbacks like screen tearing but to get the best results you need a capable monitor.

Answer 5

Changing the settings to run the game in fullscreen windowed mode worked for me. I got from 60 to 400 FPS