Imagine trying to benchmark under varied loads but being unable to do so because people keep picking Mirage. This truly is a Counter-Strike experience.

The 85gb install requirements are a holdover from when CSGO and CS2 were still installed in the same directory ;-)

CS2 getting 60-90 on the minimum specs is honestly insane, I was expecting something under 30

i love clicking phillips 3 times

You know 3kliks.. You're a legend in the game man for quite a long time. I thank you for the vast amounts of knowledge you've bestowed upon this community for countless years. Thanks for all you do and all your work!

Hey man just wanted to thank you. Your videos got this ancient 39 year old to finally start playing cs (2 that is). Only doing casual to learn it but love it.

kinda sad how the way he described the pc made it seem like it was from 1995 but it ended up running so much better than my pc

Will you ever come back to making maps for the game, I wonder? Your series on de sparity is still the single most favourite thing you've ever done, to me

that caboozing at 7:30 hits like a truck. i love it

Our humble king. He says he's bad at CS, yet he's put out years of CS content, even made maps. Thank you kliks

This video reminds me of me growing up in Brazil playing every game on minimum spec and trying to squeeze every last frame from my games to have a playable 30fps haha. Makes me thankful for being able to afford high end stuff nowdays :) I am sure this video right now is helping someone somewhere who is just trying to have some fun with counter strike on their old hardware. Thanks Philip!

why do I watch these videos when I stopped playing CS over 5 years ago? No idea. Are they as interesting as they were when I played? More so Your enthusiasm rubs off amazingly

I am now able to afford a PC a child-me would have probably fainted over, however, I want to emphasize how AMAZING these types of videos are. It is absolutely awesome that you do this kind of testing for those who have to make do with whatever they have (like I once had to). Not nearly enough youtubers and reviewers do this. Not everyone is running games on a streamer rig with all the latest gadgets. Thank you for your service, philip!

Philip , thank you for providing us with such high quality content over the years . I've been obsessed with watching all your videos since the going low in "csgo" series and all your channels keep delivering . sincerely THANK YOU ❤

Congratulations Philip on 1 million subs! I have been here for so long now. Hopefully your brothers will catch up with the growth too. 1 million is truly a lot man, and you deserve every single sub. Let’s go for the 2 million!

While both of those GPUs are definitely well selected terrible cards, I suspect the initial stuttering that goes away you mentioned is more to do with CS2 building its shader cache for previously unrendered content. This is behaviour that I have observed across a range of low/medium to high end hardware from both the green and red teams across my friend group, especially after driver updates.

I don't even play cs2 or csgo, I don't even have any clue about anything hardware related. I just love your videos they're really calming and well made, been watching your videos for years now and I love every single new video that comes out! keep it up!

Good to see you're dressing the way you said you do in the winter months. Living frugal no matter your available means is always a fun experience, I hope your distant relative kliksphilip would make more videos like that.

good job man! youre literally doing valve's job at this time, your testing will surely help the devs improve and optimize the game's experience on budget and low end pcs! cqnt imagine the time and money spent looking for those parts, keep it up!

It feels like Philip is pushing some boundaries and becomes more weird-interesting-cynical with each video.

Might have been interesting to test it on integrated graphics. I remember my first laptop ran CSGO at only 25 fps on integrated graphics. Would be interesting to see how well CS2 is ran on that.

I felt a huge, sudden shock when Phil said the GPU I'm currently still using was mid range at launch... Time flies by so quick, especially after 2020. And yet in 2020 I was still playing new games just fine? Granted though I have the 2GB overclocked-out-of-the-box edition (don't know how it's still kicking honestly). It's all such a haze. I still have only 8 gigs of RAM too, and it's starting to feel quite cramped here...

I'm excited for anything on linux and vulkan! Great video as always!

Haven't played CS in years but I still watch your videos every time they're recommended to me.

Always nice to see that troublesome 6500 XT come into play Philip. Have you seen that new RTX 4060 Ti that has the m.2 slot? Now we need playing CS2 on minimum settings on the 6500 XT played through the 4060 ti

I would LOVE to see you do some tests on Linux vs Windows. I love linux but I do think there is a latency difference between linux and windows, at least on my PC, and I'd love to see that quantified.

I can't believe how relatable this video is. Every little issue you described I was able to recognize as it was ingrained into my memory throughout my childhood.

You mentioned "infamous stuttering" at the end. For my friends and I, it happens quite often when using the AWP's scope.

4:25 super aliased, low res, and torn cs2 isn't a bad vibe honestly. the semi-photoreal clutter and texture detail with those effects and the saturated lighting make for a retro-adjacent look that i prefer to a lot of the retro 3d stuff that's been floating around the past few years

Currently playing on a 2016' laptop. A i5 7th gen, a gt 940m and 8gb of ram. I support playing at 40/50fps and sudden frame drops. I don't wanna accept my setup is bad

attention to detail is great as always!

Fluffykins always being curious and always by your side... what a sweetheart!!💞❤🧡

+1 for Linux and Vulkan. There aren't many tests on youtube using them.

Love the cat gameplay

When I watch your videos (especially when tired), the more I get through the video, the more the song wins over your voice and I shift my attention to the song ;))))

Thank you for being a legend Phil

This might legit be the first time I've ever heard Philip swear lol

hello philip, i am still here and watching

its so funny that you have the same pc case i have ! i bought it 10 years ago so i can tell u grabbed an ancient pc for sure :) my game crashes alot tho i hate that.

Philip swearing is something that caught me off guard, I've been watching since 2019, but never heard it being this easily said :D Nice one Phil keep up the good work.

My rig is almost 12.5 years old. In the past two years I have changed a gpu and bought an extra 16 gigs of ram. Here's the specs: Intel core i7 4770 3.4 GHz RTX 3060 12gb 32gb ram 1666 MHz The game runs extremely bad at times, fps might drop down to 20, no matter what settings I choose. Its especially bad in deathmatch game mode, while in competitive fps swings around from 50 to130-150. 😅

Hardware threads refers to hyperthreading - and that really does use CPU hardware to achieve parallelism within a single core Multithreading is a programming concept, where you use many threads (potentially hundreds) to achieve something. CS2 almost certainly uses many threads, but ideally your CPU has 4 hardware threads across two cores to dedicate to the more busy threads

Dude, I love your 300 Antec case.

thank you for being the only youtuber that pets their pet when it shows up in the video

Hey Philip, please dont manually spin fans on PC components. They act as generators when spun manually and can fry your components. This goes extra for cleaning with compressed air during which you should hold the fan in place. Just be careful with your tech ❤

Would be interesting to know how much difference the operating system makes. Could you maybe try a simple Linux install (something like Linux Mint, Fedora or Pop!_OS) with minimum spec and compare, since it's often said that Windows is bloated and Linux wastes way less resources if any.

thanks for this video, kliks.. i really need a video/post about bare minimum requirement to play cs2 since now i can only play 5/full 1st half until it got freeze and need a game restart

being a fan of 3kliksphilip is like playing cs2 on a 4 thread cpu with a radeon 260x

I think this would be more interesting testing a selection of older hardware. Especially the i5-750 which it recommends which is from 2009 and has 4 cores.

Your cat is such a lovely little furball

Fluffykins computer build supervisor

phillip is really doing the middle finger to all the people who dislike caboosing

I demand more 3klikscat footage.

I like your cat, also your videos! I haven't even tried installing CS2, since csgo was hard to run. My laptop specs: i3 4030U 4gb ram 2gb nvidia 820m

Caboosing, Mr. Fluffykins and hardware talk. Truly a Kliksphilip moment.

The most disapointing thing in CS 2, for me, is how bad and grainy the game looks in 1024x728 res. I've played on this config for more than 5 years in CS:GO and now it is literally unplayable, you can't even see the enemies.

Yeah... Me with my integrated graphics doesn't do so well with CS2. I struggle to get 40fps on the absolute lowest resolutions and settings. Completed killed playing CS for me.

10/10 anylasis simply for the cat clips included. Big kitty aprooves

Very nice and interesting video, as always! Now I have a bit more confidence if someone should ask me about the requirements

For some reason, I'm getting the same fps on a 8700k 1080TI. I think I would need to do a clean OS reinstallation

Yes it is 100% possible. I’m playing on an Alienware 15R2 laptop (8 years old). I7-6700hq (4cores-8threads) and an Nvidia Gtx 970m. Totally playable and never really dropping below my 144hz refresh rate. Usually about 180 FPS. But also my windows 11 is completely custom and stripped down. 54 process’ at startup, and about 70 process with steam, discord and game open. Never experience the laggy feeling that Philip is talking about. Always feeling snappy and real time responsiveness in cs2

Are you the voice for natzy series WW2 documentary? No tears were shed for ..... Sounds like you

fingerless gloves, hat and thick thermals indoors while working on your computer really shows the state the UK's in at the moment >_< thanks forever for the great content :)

DDR5 has dual channel build-in each stick. So you could have bought two but used only one and still would get dual channel.

Tell me why your pc runs cs2 better then my 2080 ti, reyzen 5 5600 build lol

An Antec 300! Had that case for many years, my first one that wasn't salvaged or given to me for free but bought with my own money. I put white LED fans in the front (fixed color, pre RGB era), it looked great!

Bro put on hobo drip for us. Liked and subscribed.❤

I''m still using most of my 2012 build (2500k, 8gb ram 1600mhz, 1060, no ssd) and I have over 100fps most of the time. I've been pretty surprised with how the game is somewhat playable with such an old build.

Better spec than m.ine and I’ll still be playing ☠️

3kliks, I have to say, I don't even play counter-strike anymore (or video games in general, unfortunately), but I still love your videos. So thanks!

3:40 I remember when they introduced smokes way back in the day. And everyone on the server was shouting. NO SMOKE NO SMOKE! :D

Do kids nowadays really think 720p is unplayable?damn im getting old

Cat

Commenting before watching the video. I have never played any Counter Strike game but I like videos such as this, thank you 2kliksphilip for this juicy content.

7:28 You somehow managed to make this song that everyone dislikes even more creepy and unpleasant, just as youre explaining the worsening performance of the dodgy 6500XT at high settings. I love it.

what is he trying it with i have drops to 40fps average on a gtx1060 with lowest settings and its hardly playable

I have a 11400H and a GTX 1650 super. I get 55 fps on average ☠

I'm surprised you didn't test 4:3 stretched or 1024x768 which, at the very least, used to be quite common, personally a resolution I still use and I'm running a laptop 3050 🤷‍♂. I think if you're playing on the bare bones specs quite a few people would choose such an "extreme"

I instantly clicked on the notification as soon as it popped up

Generated art 💀

Would be interesting to see how the older Ryzens will fair in this test. I have a R5 1400 which is also a 4c/8t part like the 12100 except way slower and on lowest preset I get around 90 fps (60 1% minimum) on lighter maps like mirage and d2, dropping closer to the 60s with 45 1% on the heavier maps like inferno. Interestingly however, in deathmatch I have quite the opposite experience of what was shown in this test. It starts off fine but as the match comes closer to its end the performance becomes progressively worse. And engagements with multiple enemies will cause heavy stuttering. My setup is paired with 16GB RAM and a 1060 and can confirm it’s definitely CPU limited as I play on 1366x768. It’s entirely possible to get a very different experience since the 12100 is a much more capable chip than mine and the system tested was rather GPU bottlenecked as opposed to mine.

I recently ran CS2 on my PS4 that modded to run Linux. The game ran at like 60% speed. It's very strange.

Hey Philip, is the caboosing track in this video a variation Steven made? Or is it just sped up?

Great video as always, but you've left me wondering... How that vertigo 5vs1 clutch ended??? I'm disappointed that the ending wasn't included.

I'm always reminded of PlanetSide 2 with videos like this and how that game that came out in 2012 would not be playable with these minimum specs for a game that came out in 2023.

This has basically been my experience with CS and CS2 for the past 6 years of playing. Getting a playable frame rate isn't the tricky part I found, actually seeing the enemy is the tricky part. On absolute minimum settings the game is so grainy I couldn't see people on Dust 2 from Catwalk to the back of Lower Tunnels, and god forbid someone was holding a tight angle where you can only see their half their torso. I would lose 70%~ of engagements I came into. I couldn't run my browser and CS at the same time and the stutters you mention would happen well into the first minute of the game. Since getting a PC that can run CS at 140fps on max settings in the past 2 months, I'm now WINNING 70%~ of my engagements. Turns out I'm not shit at the game, I literally just couldn't see who I was supposed to be shooting at and I'm slowly climbing ranks way past my 6 year peak. Upgrading from an integrated graphics card and an i5 (I think) to a 1660 and a Ryzen 5 has been literally life changing for all aspects of my university and gaming experiences. It's let me completely rediscover the enjoyment I get from playing and making games.

I remember how I was playing CSGO with 4 gb of DDR3 ram, a 1050 and a core2quad on an old HDD and a 1680x1050 glossy 60hz monitor and still was grinding the heck out of this game

Hey Phil have you played the Talos Priciple 2 yet? You got me hooked on the first one and I have thoroughly enjoyed the second

Would've loved to see you try to play it on the integrated graphics. I've been experimenting with CS2 on my laptop that has an Intel Core i5-1155G7, Iris Xe graphics and single-channel 8 GB of RAM. It sounds like it wants to fly off my desk when playing a match while only averaging like ~40-50 FPS at 720p (without FSR, because it doesn't make much difference).

Subscribed for the cat! Lovely!

the shutter for the first few sec is the shader compile bug. it should compile while you ware in loading screen, but sometimes the game forgot that you have changed hardware so they have to do it when a new effect is displayed.

I remember 15-50 years ago we had a lan network in our apartment complex, and we always played cs, and back then smoke was an absolute fps killer, now in cs go its almost the same for my 1070

@3kliksphilip have you tested performance on hyperthreading disabled vs enabled on mid tier cpus? I know a lot of players such as myself has hyper threading disabled, but am not sure how it affects cs2 performance. I am one of those players that get those weird stutters sometimes or feels like my game is running on 60hz sometimes when I have 360hz fixed and fps so around 200+. I don't want to change my settings since my performance and overclock settings are stabled with it off, and hyperthreading on would increase temps and I would need to adjust my OC settings. I also play Valorant with no issues. If it helps, I have a 10700k, 3070, 16gb 4000mhz c16 kit.

Cat appearance was very nice

lmao to the various clips of you reconfiguring the pc with a furry robe, on a carpet, with gloves, and your cat. Very cool.

I was impressed I could play this on just a 7600x and it's integrated graphics. Experience was about the same in the video if not a little better or worse depending on situations

Why does your cat look so depressed? I want to give it a hug :(( Always love your videos 3kliksphilip!

That's an old Antec case right? I gave one of those to my friend like a year ago for his first (super budget) build :D

Thank you for the priceless video 3pressklikkip

Hello my favourite janner! I receive random stuttering on cs2, basically running medium settings, it’s probably the bottle necking since I have a ryzen 9 7900x with a RX Vega-56, everything in my system runs smooth as butter, nothing flags over 30% usage but my gpu instantly hits 100%