If you are one of the many CS:GO players who just found out that you can change the appearance of your CS: GO drastically, you’re in the right place.
In case you didn’t know, the majority of professional CS:GO players prefer a 4:3 stretched configuration on their monitors. Changing the aspect ratio and resolution can be a crucial factor in a player’s performance. They have their own good reasons why they choose the 4:3 stretched aspect ratio over 16:9, and vice versa.
First of all, the 4:3 aspect ratio can be divided into two categories: stretched and black bars. Both configurations have their own advantages. A stretched aspect ratio creates wider gaps and player models, making it easier to see the enemy. For the ‘black bars’ approach, the models are ‘skinnier’ and won’t move as fast across your screen. This enables AWPers to have a more concentrated field of view (FOV). If you’re playing on a low-end computer, and have lower FPS, a 4:3 aspect ratio can also boost your FPS in comparison to 16:9. However, both have their own weaknesses, one of which is that we might miss out on crucial plays. See the video below to see what we mean.
Statistically, it is known that more than half of the top 20 players in the world use a 4:3 stretched aspect ratio. However, there are still many who choose the 4: 3 black bars, especially players coming from CS 1.6. Overall, each player will have their own preference after trying both options. Therefore, we will show you how to change your CS:GO aspect ratio to both 4: 3 black bars and stretched.
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Let’s Get Started
For NVIDIA users, you can just right-click on your desktop and select the NVIDIA Control Panel. The next step is to select Adjust desktop size and position on the left side under the Display categories.
You will find some settings that you want to adjust here. First, make sure you choose the monitor you want to use to play CS:GO – if you’re using more than one monitor. After that, it’s your turn to choose the black bars or stretched option.
Option 1: Stretched 4:3
For a Stretched resolution, you want to select Full-screen in the scaling mode and make sure to choose GPU for it. After that, hit the apply button and make sure you confirm the changes before 20 seconds. The NVIDIA Control Panel user interface would be something like this:
Option 2: Black Bars
For Black Bars, you can just click the Aspect ratio option in the scaling mode, and don’t forget to choose GPU on your performance scaling. After that, hit the apply button and make sure you confirm the changes before 20 seconds.
Note: You may want to tick up the Override the scaling mode set by games and programs option if it doesn’t work in the end.
In some cases, your monitor might have settings that can override the scaling mode. If you’re using a BenQ ZOWIE monitor for example, press the monitor’s on-screen display (OSD) menu. Navigate to Picture Advanced, and then you can choose “Full” for stretched ratio, or choose “1:1” or “Aspect” for black bars configuration.
For LG monitors users, you shouldn’t have any configuration related to your monitor that can override NVIDIA’s settings. But just in case all of the methods above don’t work, you should check any settings related to the ratio/display mode in your monitor manual.
The final step is to make sure you have configured your video settings in CS:GO to the 4:3 aspect ratio and choose your preferred resolution. If you have a low-end computer spec, you may want to use a lower resolution, and see if it can improve your FPS.
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