CS:GO came out in 2012 with these requirements.
CS2 System Requirements Overview
CS2 has just come out in 2023 with these requirements.
Some of these are just the gradual creep of new standards, like the DirectX one, though it’s telling that CS2 requires almost six times the storage space that CS:GO did.
The 1000s of custom skins are a factor in that. CS2 requires four times more RAM and VRAM, but surprisingly, the processor requirements don’t seem to have increased much at all. It’s gone from recommending a 2-core Intel and a 3-core AMD to four threads, which virtually every processor sold in the last decade has had. These requirements suggest that CS2 should be very easy to run.
Player Experience Challenges
However, many players are struggling to get this new game running acceptably.
Some are still on systems that were probably handed down when their grandparents upgraded to Windows XP, and it’s no surprise they’re running CS2 at slideshow frame rates. However, some players are on systems that should be able to run CS2, and even CS3, perfectly well. If struggling to get the game running acceptably, a ‘Valve please fix’ sentiment is warranted.
Historical Comparison of System Requirements
Let’s take a look at what was being used when these games came out. The Steam Hardware Survey doesn’t show historical data, but the Internet Archive does, containing the data needed to compare PCs in 2012 with how they are now in 2023.
Some things haven’t changed much.
In 2012, 57% of people were using Windows 7. These days, 56% of people are using Windows 10. Virtually identical there, even if the Windows edition has changed.
But the stories behind the scenes are very different. In 2012, the market was fragmented between Windows 7, Vista, and the even older XP, much like Counter-Strike’s player base at the time. Hints of the soon-to-be-released Windows 8 were bubbling up in the background. There were some people on Mac and Linux, but those numbers were small. Today, Microsoft seems to have gathered their user base together onto the same operating system, if it wasn’t for the current transition as people go from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Almost 40% have moved already. Linux users make up a small percentage, given how many claim to be running on it, and because Steam Deck runs on it, suggesting that it’s a secondary unit for most users who are perhaps using a more powerful Windows-based PC most of the time.
Memory and VRAM Requirements
Comparing system memory is eye-opening. Most people in CS:GO times would have had at least 8 GB of RAM, but apparently a third had less than 4 GB, and only a third had more than that. Valve didn’t disclose how much, just ‘5 GB and higher’. CS:GO required 2 GB of RAM, which means the game catered to almost 95% of users at the time of release. Fast forward to today, and over half of computers have 16 GB of RAM, with 32 GB becoming the next most popular. Very few people have less than 8 GB. With CS2 requiring 8 GB RAM, Valve is accommodating a very similar 95% of the player base, making it about as demanding as CS:GO was at release.
VRAM refers to how much RAM your video card has.
In 2012, 33% of people had less than 1 GB of VRAM. When making this analysis, it was common to accidentally type GB instead of MB because measuring VRAM in such small quantities was unusual. In 2012, very few people had more than 1 GB of VRAM. Fortunately, CS:GO’s requirement of having at least 256 MB of VRAM allowed over 97% of players at the time to play it.
Fast forward to today, and CS2’s VRAM requirements have shifted up to 1 GB. There are questions about how playable that would be, but it can be confirmed that a laptop with 2 GB of VRAM can still handle it, provided the resolution and texture settings are kept low. Just like with CS:GO, CS2’s VRAM requirements allow over 98% of systems to run the game at release. If the requirement were shifted to 2 GB instead, it would significantly reduce the game’s player base. There’s been a long-standing debate over whether 4 GB of VRAM is still enough for today’s games. It seems to be sufficient for CS2, but the hardware survey clearly shows that 8 GB is now the standard. It’s strange to see so many people with unusual amounts of VRAM like 6 and 12, compared to back in 2012 where most were a power of 2. This could be seen as planned obsolescence for this console generation’s mid-generation refresh.
Storage Space Requirements
CS:GO’s 15 GB requirement doesn’t sit comfortably between any of the free hard drive space boundaries that the Steam Hardware Survey had at the time, but about 97% of users would have had enough free space to install the game. Storage space can always be freed up if needed. Uninstalling other games can help. Storage space hasn’t kept pace with the rest of the hardware improvements, and it seems that 18% of users today have less than 100 GB of space free, meaning many won’t have the 85 GB required to install CS2.
One significant change is the shift away from hard drives towards SSDs.
While people may not have much more storage space than they did a decade ago, what they do have is significantly faster.
Processor and Graphics Card Analysis
Now onto the processors. They are complicated. Neither the number of cores nor the speed of those cores truly represents their capabilities. Valve claims that CS:GO needed a fast 2-core or a slower 3-core processor to run it. CS2 just needs 4 threads, which any processor bought in the last 10 years should have. However, this is actually quite a big leap, given what else about processors has improved in the last 11 years. The Steam Hardware Survey likely doesn’t count threads; it counts proper cores. What Valve is likely saying is that CS2 needs a 4-core processor, but that an i3 processor with hyperthreading should also be able to cope, at least somewhat. Four threads should be treated as a bare minimum, but CS2 will perform better with more cores.
Looking at CPU speeds, it might seem that PCs haven’t advanced much since 2012. 2.3 to 2.7 GHz is still the most common speed. A barrier with clock speeds was hit long ago, well before 2012. However, performance has improved even at lower clock speeds, and more cores have been added. Modern processors are very good at boosting to 4, 5, and even 6 GHz in speed, and these boost speeds may not be captured by the hardware survey.
It is interesting to see AMD’s CPUs running faster than Intel ones, which is likely due to how the boost speeds work. For comparison, an Intel 3770K in 2012 is roughly the price of a 13700K now, which likely has double or triple the single-core performance and maybe six times the multicore performance. Those improvements are needed for equally playable performance in this newer game.
Now, regarding the graphics cards, this is even more complicated than the processors. From the VRAM analysis, it was concluded that most people should have been able to run CS:GO and CS2 at their releases. However, CS2 appears to benefit greatly from having a faster card. Today’s most popular card is the not-very-powerful-but-still-capable GeForce 1650 series, which only has 4 GB of VRAM. In 2012, the most common graphics card was onboard graphics, which doesn’t even have VRAM and leeches off the main PC’s RAM. No wonder CS:GO was so CPU-limited; Valve was doing everything they could to lighten the load on graphics cards.
The charts show how little presence AMD has, and switching to 2023’s charts shows an even smaller presence. However, AMD has overtaken Intel’s onboard graphics cards. Nvidia’s 60 tier of cards continues to reign supreme. Today, this means buying the GeForce 4060, which costs around $300. In 2012, this tier of cards would have cost less, but accounting for inflation, the difference isn’t that significant. Graphics cards are even harder for the hardware survey to measure than processors, so unless Valve creates their own benchmark, there will be a long list of mostly Nvidia cards to base the market on.
Resolution Trends in Gaming
Much like operating systems, resolution is something that time has united. In 2012, it was a mess of new 16:9 monitors and older 4:3 and 5:4 CRTs and LCDs. Today, it’s simpler: 1920×1080 and 2560×1440. These are the two gaming monitor resolutions of choice, and the resolutions that any CS2 player should be using. Using FSR is recommended if necessary, but the old practices from pre-CS:GO times should be avoided, as they no longer apply to modern situations. Players today are generally more skilled than they were back then.
Conclusion: Minimum Specs and Player Experience
In conclusion, CS:GO and CS2 both have minimum specs that the hardware survey suggests most systems at the time of release should have been able to manage. However, just because minimum specs are met, it doesn’t guarantee a pleasant experience. Meeting minimum specs results in a basic experience. It doesn’t become unplayable once below minimum specs; framerate is a sliding scale down to poor performance.
Since 2012, even CS:GO has become harder to run. Performance from CS:GO’s minimum specs has changed over the years, even if its ‘Minimum Requirements’ have remained the same. Upwards of 95% of players have met the minimum hardware requirements for CS2. Each of these is only one aspect of the minimum spec, but it’s clear that the minimum specs are far below what most people are currently using. When the requirements are so low, it can be harder to define what the minimum specs may actually be.
For instance, Rollercoaster Tycoon on Steam claims it requires a 2 GHz processor to run. Similarly, Heroes 3 HD claims a GeForce 8800 is necessary.
The absolute minimum requirement for a game that’s easy to run is often not pursued. Players will boot it up on the slowest PC they find and assume that should be a good baseline for minimum specs.
If a new game is demanding, developers will want to test and optimize it for the slowest baseline system possible, as requiring more power will prevent a sizable percentage of the player base from playing. Counter-Strike doesn’t have quite that same problem, although it can still affect profit margins. There are also perks to having better graphics, even in a competitive game like Counter-Strike. Expectations for what is playable have risen. During CS:GO’s release, many players were likely not hitting 60 FPS. Those on better systems could easily outperform them.
Reflecting on the past, during the release of Counter-Strike Source in 2004, performance was likely below 30 FPS due to high graphics settings. It wasn’t until seeing a clip from a friend’s new PC that the difference in high framerate Counter-Strike became apparent. Many players might now feel a similar sense of adjustment with Counter-Strike 2, as they may not realize that the ‘different feeling’ simply comes from it running slower on their systems.
Performance issues such as stuttering and choppy performance on high-end PCs may be present in Counter-Strike 2.
Technical issues may need to be addressed, particularly as Vulkan implementation improves. However, many players may need to accept that to achieve CS2’s performance similar to CS:GO, a PC upgrade may be necessary.
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