How do I fix lag and stuttering in the CS2 Beta?

After months of sitting on pins and needles, CS:GO players with Prime status and an active Competitive Skill Group finally received invites to the highly anticipated Counter-Strike 2.

Since the first wave of the limited beta test, the developers left no stone unturned. From fixing game breaking bugs to tweaking and acting on the community’s feedback and comments.

It’s important for you as a player to keep in mind the game is still in beta, which means it’s not fully optimized and bugs or performance issues are common. For that reason, Valve is working day and night to ensure a smoother gameplay within the next update.

If you face any issue or bug while testing the game, be sure to report it directly to the developers at: (cs2team@valvesoftware.com) with "CS2LT Bug - " followed by a description of the bug (and possibly any data that can help them recreate it).

CS2 Most common reported issues:

FPS & Optimization:

Low FPS & Microstutters
Water and Nade FPS optimization
NVIDIA Reflex causing Input Lag

Movement:

Movement is slow
Teammate collision causes rubber-banding (weird lag)
Counter-Strafing isn’t accurate

Shooting:

Recoil feels inconsistent and messy
Lag Compensation

Gameplay:

Picking up weapon using 'E' doesn't feel consistent
cl_righthand & viewmodel_recoil missing
Important Console Commands Missing
Not being able to initiate Timeout Vote

Though engine gameplay issues can only be fixed by Valve, there are a few tweaks which can be done to help with FPS, stuttering and better performance.

Recommended settings:

In-game:

Credit: Valve

Note: Every system might run differently, so it’s important to “experiment” with some of the settings. However, FidelityFX, MSAA and NVIDIA Reflex are the difference makers.

Put the game in fullscreen if it defaults to borderless fullscreen.
Avoid using default settings and make sure to have it on “Custom” instead.
If you have a Nvidia GPU, disable Reflex and enable Low Latency Mode.
Fps_max command isn’t working properly however RivaTuner is an alternative which can help lock your FPS, simply set the framerate to 300 or lower if you have an older PC and run CS2 with -allow_third_party_software as a launch option.

How to reduce shader stuttering:

CS2 doesn't have any precompiled shaders downloaded, so it’s better to set it manually by going into the practice mode with bots.

Go in practice with bots, select unranked and enable infinite ammo and warmup
Open the console and type:
sv_cheats 1
sv_infinite_ammo 1
mp_buy_anywhere 1
noclip
god

Become a target for the bots and let them shoot you so that anything related to third person effects is also compiled.

You’re more likely to have a heavy game with low FPS, but once you’re tired of being an open target, simply run the bot_kick command and enjoy the difference.

Walk around the maps and throw as many different grenades as possible, but be sure to do it on all maps so you don’t experience any stutter once you try a new map for the first time.

As mentioned before, different tweaks can work on different systems and until we have a final polished version, experimenting is essential to enjoy the smoothest gameplay. Happy fragging!

Credits goes towards reddit user u/Vincentmrl for the provided tips on his guide, feel free to check it out for any extra tips which might help.