CS2 at (budget) laptop in 2025 - a pure disaster
Posted: 19 Jan 2025, 22:29
Meanwhile in autumn 2023 was the game still somehow playable at my mainstream laptop with i7 11 gen and 3060.
Now i decided to buy again a new 13gen budget legion laptop to travel (got a good deal) and it was... a cold shower. No matter how i tune it up, its not smooth even as much as it was at my 2 gen older legion over a year ago. The game performance simply deteriorated too much trough many "excellent" patches released reducing performance every patch. Even my desktop rig runs cs2 every month worse and worse, also networking seems to be broken last patches. The game is extremelly heavy on L1/L2/L3 cache and memory speed and incresing CPU frequency does almost nothing to its performance. Most pay2hardware2win game ever see.
Meanwhile... valorant runs butter smooth at this laptop at my external 280hz screen capped to 260fps vsync and when unlimited, the fps doesnt go below 350, keeping in 350-450fps range. Day and night experience, tomorrow i will make a valorant DM recording comparison to mock cs2 even more. Because its a fully smooth game vs fully stuttery mess.
I tested the game in many scenarios:
1) valve DM dust2 at 3am not full server
recording: https://youtu.be/7x6VqTFqR_Q
- somehow playable, with huge limitations, frametime spikes are huge
aim feeling: 3,5/10
perceived frequency: 75Hz outdoors, 144Hz indoors
playable: yes, but no fun to play
2) valve DM nuke at prime time full server
recording: https://youtu.be/w-Dug_1m4hA
- absolutely unplayable, 10-20ms permanent frametime spikes, fps rollercoaster, microaim total ass, unable to hit anything
aim feeling: 1/10
frequency feeling: bruh, 0Hz?
playable: no way
3) warmupserver deathmatch as the heaviest known DM possible (it lags rly bad on any non top tier CPU). Needed to enable vsync with 260fps cap + their fps boost to get somehow playable experience (unlimited resulted into an unplayable lag).
recording: https://youtu.be/8ZQMU5ZwRTo
- playing at 3am, 22 slot, turned their fps boost on
- turned vsync on
aim feeling: 6/10 (7.5 AK, 5 USP, 0 scout)
frequency feeling: 144Hz
playable: yes, but only some guns (scout was unplayable, huge perceived delay and rubberband). Best was AK, usp was worse due to opponent body stuttering as hell.
special issue: opponents animations looking most often like having 30fps max
3) 5v5 scrims xplay.gg 5v5 scrim servers: Unlike previous year, the game is not fully smooth even in 5v5 competitive mode with less players rendered which is the biggest problem and flaw and difference. Even if the game has the similar avg fps, it runs way worse.
recordings: https://youtu.be/46aebmyLCSA and https://youtu.be/lWDAWj-Qx-A
maps mirage and dust, both with similar results, mirage a bit worse probably due to smoke and utility spam at A site
aim feeling: 7/10
frequency feeling: 144-165Hz, without smokes close to 240Hz persistence
playable: yes, relatively well, but with some limitations. Sniper rifles are not sharp enough, and still terrible framespikes.
4) xplay dm server
lighter than warmupserver, playable but running still too heavy. There was permanently a multihacker presence so i didnt make a record tonight.
aim feeling: 6/10
frequency feeling: 120hz
playable: yes, but heavy aim.
Now i decided to buy again a new 13gen budget legion laptop to travel (got a good deal) and it was... a cold shower. No matter how i tune it up, its not smooth even as much as it was at my 2 gen older legion over a year ago. The game performance simply deteriorated too much trough many "excellent" patches released reducing performance every patch. Even my desktop rig runs cs2 every month worse and worse, also networking seems to be broken last patches. The game is extremelly heavy on L1/L2/L3 cache and memory speed and incresing CPU frequency does almost nothing to its performance. Most pay2hardware2win game ever see.
Meanwhile... valorant runs butter smooth at this laptop at my external 280hz screen capped to 260fps vsync and when unlimited, the fps doesnt go below 350, keeping in 350-450fps range. Day and night experience, tomorrow i will make a valorant DM recording comparison to mock cs2 even more. Because its a fully smooth game vs fully stuttery mess.
I tested the game in many scenarios:
1) valve DM dust2 at 3am not full server
recording: https://youtu.be/7x6VqTFqR_Q
- somehow playable, with huge limitations, frametime spikes are huge
aim feeling: 3,5/10
perceived frequency: 75Hz outdoors, 144Hz indoors
playable: yes, but no fun to play
2) valve DM nuke at prime time full server
recording: https://youtu.be/w-Dug_1m4hA
- absolutely unplayable, 10-20ms permanent frametime spikes, fps rollercoaster, microaim total ass, unable to hit anything
aim feeling: 1/10
frequency feeling: bruh, 0Hz?
playable: no way
3) warmupserver deathmatch as the heaviest known DM possible (it lags rly bad on any non top tier CPU). Needed to enable vsync with 260fps cap + their fps boost to get somehow playable experience (unlimited resulted into an unplayable lag).
recording: https://youtu.be/8ZQMU5ZwRTo
- playing at 3am, 22 slot, turned their fps boost on
- turned vsync on
aim feeling: 6/10 (7.5 AK, 5 USP, 0 scout)
frequency feeling: 144Hz
playable: yes, but only some guns (scout was unplayable, huge perceived delay and rubberband). Best was AK, usp was worse due to opponent body stuttering as hell.
special issue: opponents animations looking most often like having 30fps max
3) 5v5 scrims xplay.gg 5v5 scrim servers: Unlike previous year, the game is not fully smooth even in 5v5 competitive mode with less players rendered which is the biggest problem and flaw and difference. Even if the game has the similar avg fps, it runs way worse.
recordings: https://youtu.be/46aebmyLCSA and https://youtu.be/lWDAWj-Qx-A
maps mirage and dust, both with similar results, mirage a bit worse probably due to smoke and utility spam at A site
aim feeling: 7/10
frequency feeling: 144-165Hz, without smokes close to 240Hz persistence
playable: yes, relatively well, but with some limitations. Sniper rifles are not sharp enough, and still terrible framespikes.
4) xplay dm server
lighter than warmupserver, playable but running still too heavy. There was permanently a multihacker presence so i didnt make a record tonight.
aim feeling: 6/10
frequency feeling: 120hz
playable: yes, but heavy aim.
