Laptops by Apple are not for gaming, they weren’t designed for such tasks, but you can still play on them. The manufacturer has created a built-in utility called Rosetta 2, which converts Intel apps to M1. It allows you to run programs on Mac OS, but takes about 15-20% of the already low performance.
Because of this, don’t expect the game to run smoothly: even with optimized settings your FPS won’t be enough to play comfortably. We found the information about MacBook performance in CS:GO, here it is:
- MacBook Air M1 2020 (Rosetta 2) - 40-50 FPS;
- MacBook Pro M1 2020 (Rosetta 2) - 70-100 FPS;
- MacBook Pro 2019 - 60-90 FPS;
- MacBook Air 2019 - 25-30 FPS;
Such low frame rates are not only due to the low performance of MacBook: Steam is poorly optimized and not adapted for Mac users. It is clear that there are not many players using MacBook, but we want to hope that Steam developers will take action and make their platform more optimized.
Requirements for playing CS:GO
Minimum system requirements to play CS:GO on Mac OS:
OS: MacOS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or later
Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
Memory: 2 GB RAMGraphics: ATI Radeon HD 2400 or better / NVIDIA 8600M or better
Storage: 15 GB available space
With this configuration you’ll have the game launched, but the FPS will be barely acceptable for your eyes. To make the experience better, you’ll need at least 60 FPS. That way the game won’t lag badly, however, it would still be hard to enjoy the game and show a decent performance: most of your enemies will have a good PC with 144 hz or 240 hz monitors and high FPS. In other words, you won’t be able to react to their peeks.
Optimal value is around 120 FPS — only then you can play properly, given that your computer is set up the right way.
CS:GO optimization for Mac
The first thing you need to do is to set launch options. To do that, quit the game, open Steam - Library - Press Right Mouse Button on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and choose Properties. Launch options can be found in the General area.
-high -tickrate 128 -novid -nojoy +cl_forcepreload 1 -console -lv -full
This is what these options mean:
- high – the game is launched with high priority;
- novid – skips the intro, thus making the game load way faster;
- nojoy – disables controller support;
- cl_forcepreload 1 – preloads all textures, therefore improving FPS on weak PCs and laptops;
- console – enables the console;
- lv – disables blood;
- full – launches the game in fullscreen mode.
Next step is video settings. We recommend setting everything to low to make the FPS higher. Otherwise, your eyes won’t bear with it for long.
Settings for best performance:
- Resolution - 1024х768
- Display Mode – Fullscreen
- Laptop Power Savings – Off
- Global Shadow Quality – Very low
- Model / Texture Detail – Low
- Shader Detail – Low
- Effect Detail – Low
- Multicore Rendering – On
- Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode – Off
- FXAA Anti-Aliasing – Off
- Texture Filtering Mode – Bilinear
- Vertical Synchronization – Off
- Motion Blur – Off
Now type these commands to your console:
cl_autohelp 0;
cl_cmdrate 128;
cl_updaterate 128;
cl_disablefreezecam 1;
cl_disablehtmlmotd 1;
cl_showhelp 0;
cl_freezecameffects_showholiday 0;
gameinstructor_enable 0;
mat_queue_mode -1;
r_drawtracers_firstperson 0;
These will disable unnecessary hints and game elements that may cause lags.
Additional Advices
When you launch CS:GO on Mac, make sure to turn off other apps. Because of how Apple laptops are designed, every extra program will load the system very heavily and lower your FPS in the game.
