VAC may be causing lag in CS2, and players are mad

Luke Warr Published June 8, 2024

If you’ve been experiencing tiny lag spikes in CS2 recently, it may be VAC may be to blame.

Since Counter-Strike 2’s launch in 2023, players have reported various bugs and glitches to Valve, most of which have been promptly fixed. Some have existed since the release, but they continue to get slipped under the rug. For example, micro stuttering on official Valve servers has remained an issue for many. However, since it’s not exactly game-breaking, it has failed to attract much attention. The issue was once again brought to public attention on X by a player named rattecs, who experienced a drop of 15-20 FPS on Anubis upon moving. A few community gurus recommended fixes from computer and in-game settings but to no avail. Finally, CS2 tinkerer PALMITu discovered that FPS stabilized when VAC was turned off using a launch option.

Now, a CS2 player has claimed to have found the root cause of the problem. According to PALMITu, VAC could be causing the slight FPS drop in Valve CS2 servers.

How to fix VAC lag in CS2

While a slight drop in FPS shouldn’t significantly impact CS2 gameplay, players can disable VAC by using “-insecure” in Steam launch options to fix the issue.

It’s worth noting, though, that this command turns off VAC, which puts you at a greater risk of encountering cheaters. In general, it’s not the best practice to play without VAC. Still, according to PALMITu’s testing, the FPS drops completely stabilized after turning off VAC, which suggests CS2’s anti-cheat may be the issue. Note that you cannot play on official Valve servers without VAC enabled, so most players will just have to bear with the problem.

Multiple tests by CS2 players show that VAC is indeed causing stutters since this problem is non-existent from the server’s end on FACEIT. This has only heightened feelings of frustration among players tired of cheating in the game. Players are now upset that VAC is causing extra problems that hinder gameplay besides not punishing cheaters. Valve hasn’t yet addressed the micro stuttering issue, but players are calling out the developer to fix the game’s anti-cheat. It remains to be seen if the noise is loud enough for the developer to acknowledge and hopfully patch it.

Player frustrations over VAC-induced lag in CS2 might explain why Valve decided to remove VAC from CS2 and Dota 2.