With the release of Counter-Strike 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been upgraded to the Source 2 engine, and Valve worked with Nvidia to ensure the game leveraged newer graphics APIs for improved fidelity and responsiveness.
CS:GO became one of the most popular competitive first-person shooters upon its release in 2012, eventually becoming the most-played title on Steam with over one million concurrent players. Counter-Strike 2 takes on that mantle with a fresh but familiar experience for players.
To ensure system latency is at an absolute minimum, Valve worked with Nvidia to give players the option of using Nvidia Reflex.
Reflex enables higher FPS and lower system latency, allowing you to acquire targets faster, react quicker, and increase aim precision. If you have a Reflex-compatible GPU, turning it on in the game will reduce system latency by up to 35%.
CS2 promises enhanced graphical fidelity, with a physically-based rendering system producing more realistic textures and materials, dynamic lighting, reflections, and more. For example, smoke grenades are now dynamic volumetric objects that interact with the environment and react to lighting, gunfire, and explosions. Bullets and HE grenades can push smoke to briefly clear sightlines or expand occlusion. Smoke expands to fill spaces naturally, and smoke particles work with the lighting system, allowing for more realistic light and color.
Because of the technical enhancements, the game is more GPU-intensive than CS:GO, which demands the capabilities of modern GPUs to experience previous performance benchmarks of 144, 240, 360, and 500 FPS.
With Reflex Enabled + Boost on, you can further reduce latency at the cost of extra power usage and a slightly lower frame rate. In Counter-Strike 2, this setting is only recommended if you prioritize the lowest latency over the highest frame rate.
Reflex comes standard with all GeForce RTX 40 Series options and is now used by over 50 million players monthly. It is available in nine out of top ten competitive shooters and is activated by 90% of GeForce users in over 80 supported titles.
