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CS:GO – Optimized Radar Settings

The radar is one of the most important HUD elements in CS:GO as it shows you spotted enemies, a dropped bomb or the exact position of your teammates. Professional players are constantly looking on it to get an overview about the current situation and to decide if they need to rotate. Unfortunately CS:GO’s default radar settings are pretty bad, because they only show you a limited section around your own position. In this guide we want to explain you all important radar settings and optimize them for competitive play.


We recommend you to go on a local server without any bots to test the different settings and values calmly. If you found your preferred settings, you should write them into your config/autoexec/valve.rc to save them permanently.

cl_hud_radar_scale

cl_hud_radar_scale_0.8
cl_hud_radar_scale 0.8
cl_hud_radar_scale_1
cl_hud_radar_scale 1
cl_hud_radar_scale_1.3
cl_hud_radar_scale 1.3

This command allows you to change the size of your radar.
Default: cl_hud_radar_scale "1" // min. 0.8 max. 1.3
Recommended: cl_hud_radar_scale "1.1"


cl_radar_always_centered

cl_radar_always_centered_0
cl_radar_always_centered 0
cl_radar_always_centered_1
cl_radar_always_centered 1

The default value centers the radar to your own position. This way you are wasting a lot of space – espcially when you move along the map border. We highly recommend you to change this value to “0” to gain an advantage.

Default: cl_radar_always_centered "1" // min. 0 max. 1
Recommended: cl_radar_always_centered "0"


cl_radar_icon_scale_min

cl_radar_icon_scale_min 0.4
cl_radar_icon_scale_min 0.4
cl_radar_icon_scale_min 1
cl_radar_icon_scale_min 1

cl_radar_icon_scale_min affects the size of icons on the radar (e.g. teammates).
Default: cl_radar_icon_scale_min "0.6" // min. 0.4 max. 1
Recommended: cl_radar_icon_scale_min "0.7"

cl_radar_rotate

cl_radar_rotate 0
cl_radar_rotate 0
cl_radar_rotate_1
cl_radar_rotate 1

This command activates the radar rotation when you you are turning. If you don’t want the radar to rotate with you, set this value to “0”.
Default: cl_radar_rotate "1" // min. 0 max. 1
Recommended: cl_radar_rotate "1"


cl_radar_scale

cl_radar_scale 0.25
cl_radar_scale 0.25
cl_radar_scale 0.7
cl_radar_scale 0.7
cl_radar_scale 1
cl_radar_scale 1

This command scales the map on your radar. Lower the value to zoom out and get a better overview about the whole map.
Default: cl_radar_scale "0.7" // min. 0.25 max. 1
Recommended: cl_radar_scale "0.3"


radar_default_vs_optimized

Recommended Settings

cl_hud_radar_scale "1.1"
cl_radar_always_centered "0"
cl_radar_icon_scale_min "0.7"
cl_radar_rotate "1"
cl_radar_scale "0.3"


Default Settings

cl_hud_radar_scale "1"
cl_radar_always_centered "1"
cl_radar_icon_scale_min "0.6"
cl_radar_rotate "1"
cl_radar_scale "0.7"