How do I reduce frame time spikes in CS2 while keeping 144 FPS?

[EthanPT]

I’ve been trying to get a stable 144 FPS in Counter-Strike 2, but my frame times keep spiking during gunfights or smokes even though my average FPS looks fine. I’m not sure if this is a driver issue, a Windows power setting, or something specific in the game’s video settings causing these hitches.

[AbigailW]

I chased this too. I’d stare at an orange clock while the fight kicks off and the average FPS looked fine but the game would hiccup with big gunfights or when a smoke pops. I blamed drivers, then Windows power plans, then maybe the game engine. On my rig flipping from Balanced to High Performance helped a little, but the hitches still came. I even watched temps and thread activity during a clip and it looked like a tiny CPU spike that didn’t last long, then normal again. I ended up running exclusive fullscreen, turning off V-Sync, and capping a bit under 144 to reduce the obvious stutter, but I wouldn’t call it a cure.

[Matthew32]

Another angle was memory and texture loading stuff. It felt like a cold cache when the map loads or big effects kick in. I tried letting the game preload by restarting with a longer warmup, and I lowered texture streaming to see if it smoothed out, but results were inconsistent. Sometimes it helped, other times not.

[VictoriaQR]

Have you checked if Windows updates or background antivirus scans kick in during fights? I found my machine spiking when Windows did a quiet update or a full system scan in the middle of a round, which wrecked the timing for a second or two.

[Mila92]

One time I wandered into the powersetting rabbit hole and toggled something in the GPU control panel like Low Latency Mode. It felt like it changed the rhythm of the game a bit, but it didn't fix it reliably, so I dropped it. Maybe I just chased the wrong culprit.