4:3 VS 16:9 - What FOV do the pros use? 

When they add a FOV slider I will make sure to bind my second mouse key to change the fov so I can "scope in" with the AK lol

12:06 Lovely how the monitors are advertised as "21:9 You see more!" and all of the players use black bars.

Let's not forget that in the 1.6 days using 16:9 was detrimental, as the wider your resolution was, the *lower* your FOV became.

9:16 is a great competitive aspect ratio, any enemies coming from above or below will never catch you off guard

Chain together a bunch of curved monitors and make a full circle. 360° of peripheral vision, with no image distortion! Also, Dead by Daylight is the only game I've ever played with a fixed horizontal FoV and a variable vertical FoV. Playing on a 21:9 monitor is miserable - it cuts off the top and bottom of the screen. Turning it sideways to be 9:21 makes you a gigachad who can see over walls.

I guess that additionally the stretched effect for enemy sideways movement (appearing faster) also works for your own sight. So you can differ better between lower strafing speeds, which is helping with the "only shoot, when standing still" CS accuracy. But this probably especially works for beginners, when it's already muscle memory, there is no more need for this

There's a technical reason that you can't have both a vertical and horizontal field of view at the same time while maintaining a given resolution. It's to do with how the 3D rendering math works and the projection Matrix. Horizontal FOV is a function of aspect ratio (resolution) and Vertical FOV.

Another thing you could have mentioned here is resolution scaling, i.e. rendering the game at a lower or higher resolution internally, while keeping the HUD and menu elements at native res. I think many CS players would appreciate the option.

1440x1080 gang represent. Played at native 16:10, then 16:9 res for years, but gave 4:3 stretched a try last year and my HS accuracy stat went up by a noticeable amount after I got used to the new res. Also I don't think wide filed of view is as important in CSGO as in some other fps games like e.g. Battlefield because angles are more predictable and good crosshair placement is crucial.

I may not be a pro, but I've tried 4:3 and 16:9 and I can tell you that the loss of FOV is a huge detriment. My friend uses an ultra wide and he sees things I don't, and it genuinely gives him an advantage. I've lost a few rounds because he didn't call something out that he thought I could see, when I couldn't.

This is a good re-do of one of your earlier videos. Interesting to see how much has stayed the same and what has changed

Some info for new players if there even is such a thing: don't get stuck in researching pro player settings, such a thing as the best crosshair/viewmodel/fov/aspect ratio/resolution doesn't exist. I have >5k hours and climbed from Silver Elite Master to Global and in ~9 years of CS:GO I have tried every possible combination of settings and I still change my crosshair or go from 4:3 to 16:9 from time to time when I get too familiar with my settings and feel my gameplay is going stale. The only thing I never change are my graphical options as I landed on a good compromise betwwen performance and image quality.

Nice video! c: Also respect for redoing some parts of the video instead of just leaving a comment/putting the correction in the description! That shows how much effort you put into your videos :D

Is it to late to change my new year resolution?

Man I love your videos, thank you for making them. Always fun and insightful to watch

The reasons for which players who used to play the original CS stayed at 4:3 for so long were varied: personal preference, familiarity with the 4:3 aspect ratio, bogus widescreen implementation in the 1.6 update, longtime widespread availability of 4:3 monitors, higher performance in lower 4:3 resolutions, and placebo accounts for it as well. About the placebo part, players often feel that hitbox sizes get bigger at stretched 4:3 resolutions, but it's purely placebo, since everything else gets bigger as well, not just the hitboxes, and also aiming becomes more difficult, since it is faster in stretched resolutions, making any claims about this false. About the lower and higher FOVs, as long as the FOV isn't too low, it doesn't make any difference, since for a lower FOV, you see less in the sides, but your view is zoomed in. For higher FOVs, you see more in the sides, but your view is zoomed out, so they negate eachother as well. About the way Valve implemented widescreen in the 1.6 update, they opted to lock the FOV at 90 no matter the resolution (for no reason at all, since higher or lower FOVs give you absolutely no advantage whatsoever), and this was done to prevent players from seeing more on the sides. But at the same time, let's face it, it defeated the whole fckin purpose of playing in widescreen in the first place, as players were starting to get widescreen monitors back then with the EXACT goal of being able to see more around the character, for a better immersion in both online and offline games. Instead of the FOV automatically adjusting to the aspect ratio based on the 4:3 FOV, they chose to lock it, which meant people kept using 4:3 just because it also gave them the widest vertical FOV, since the horizontal one was the same in all resolutions. About the higher performance in 4:3 resolutions, it's pretty obvious, lower resolutions result in less computational demand, meaning your GPU can spit out way more frames each second, meaning less input lag and lower response times, and resulting in better performance for professionals, since every milisecond counts in a competitive nature. But if we talk about less pixels to render, then 720p is way better than those common 4:3 resolutions, since it's 16:9 and gives you a wider FOV with even higher framerates. About the familiarity with the 4:3 aspect ratio, well it is exactly that, they wouldn't change if their current one works so well for them anyway. They often spend many hours each day playing the game, and any change to their settings or setup can be disruptive to their gameplay. This is why many players will stick with the same settings and aspect ratio for years (even decades in many cases), even if there may be better options available. Switching to a new aspect ratio can take time to adjust to, and may negatively impact their performance in the short term.

The thing is, aim sensitivity is "degrees your camera rotates in world space", it's not like desktop cursor sensitivity where more screen = more space to travel, so having thicc visuals is completely equivalent to lean ones. It really is just a matter of what your peripheral vision is filled with. Black bars = no peripheral Thicc = peripheral is what you would see at the middle anyways Wide = peripheral is things you wouldn't have seen in the other options So, from a purely game sense standpoint, wider screens are objectively better. How much better is not quantifiable, but it certainly is better to be able to see more information about the game.

In my experiment for my CSGO setting, the vertical resolution determent the clarity of the image. So if you want more performance while maintenance the clarity you can make 4:3 custom resolution like 1440x1080 if you have 1920x1080 monitor, you can get more performance from get 25% less resolution and 25% less image to render.

I guess it's worth noting that as visible at 13:08, the fov console command in CSGO indicates the horizontal degrees of FOV when using a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is converted internally to a vertical FOV that is fixed for all other aspect ratios. This is important because different games actually measure their FOV in different ways. Some specify the horizontal FOV at 16:9 and some specify the horizontal FOV of your display (this sucks!). If you want your FOV in other games to match CSGO, then having the right numerical measurement is important, and usually you'd want to make sure your vertical FOV is the same for all your games, if you play at different aspect ratios.

Nothing to say about the topic in question, but I just want to send some positive vibes your way dude. I know last year was particularly hard for you with the amount of hate that got sent your way from the Covid series and the Lewis drama. I just want to tell you that you seem like a genuinely nice guy. I love your content, it's so interesting and varied across all your channels and you're not afraid to try new things. You really seem to treat RU-vid and an experiment and you bring us all along for the ride. I know that it's easy to say stuff like 'ignore the hatred but I know it's not that simple. Keep doing what you do. I always look forward to your next video. Even if the more technical ones go straight over my head it's so enjoyable to listen to someone talking about what interests them.

Second time uploaded is the charm! Thanks for another video Philip!

when using stretched, it's just easier to spot bigger targets not necessarily hit them

this vid got me to switch too 16-9 instead of 4-3 and im loving it alot more! thanks!!

saw this in my feed yesterday, glad to be able to finally watch it :)

Man just love your videos it's just simple things like fov but your sense of humour your music your voice just elevates the experience to another level please never stop making videos

I vary between 1280x960 and 1280x1024 usually, and I can say apart from me being used to it, I use it because the player models appear "thicker". You see them faster (mirage jungle to palace, harder to see on 16:9 = less time to react). It's easier to use one way smokes and other gaps in smokes (if someone's leg sticks out It's easier to make out). I believe It's also due to some placebo effect, the playermodels appear thicker on the screen, thus thicker to my eye, thus makes me feel like they are easier to hit.

I remember seeing this video in my feed a few days before now 👀 Was private when I tried to watch it but now it's here

I play on a 3440x1440 monitor (21:9) with 1920x1200 (16:10) stretched. I used to play at 1280x960 stretched on a 1080p monitor before I even realized that's what a lot of pros use, it just felt good. My current res was the closest I could get to it, plus it gives me that little bit more clarity

"very sus indeed" This is my soundboard now

I think another reason to feel more comfortable using a lower resolution is that the pixels do get virtually bigger. It might feel crisper to play on lower resolutions because technically you have fewer and bigger pixels on your screen, which might make aiming with mouse feel better. If anyone can confirm this, please do share your comments.

Yes. The video we all waited for ! Great research !

4:45 there were actually lots of early LED monitors that were also 4:3 and even some 5:4, it wouldn't need to be a CRT... In fact, according to the wikipedia for Dell Monitors, it looks like there were 4:3 LCDs produced as late as around 2012-2013 ish, so if they got new-old-stock you could be talking about only a 6 or 7 year old monitor. Thank you for reading this completely unnecessary comment.

When recording Quake III I'd recomand you increase the brightness of the video, game uses sone weird gama correction that's not noticeable while playing (depending on the moniter).

4:3 is used by 3/4 of the player base such a coincidence :D 4:37

thanking you for framing the question around aspect ratio, its really annoying when people act like have shitty resolution on a gaming pc on a game from 2013 thats cpu limited somehow gives you a competitive advantage and its not just the change in aspect ratio being more comfortable for them

dude the protractor and the 1080 p silky smooth while missing a chicken bith with ur mapping/map - making bit most of all were funny as hell...so true...i wont stop tho...hammer homies

I have tried both and I'm sure it's just a preference. It also might matter to the sensitivity as well when you have black bars

I think there is something there with the stretched horizontal view. Gravity-bound FPS are very horizontal dominant with not a lot of vertical action. Enemy movement will be mostly horizontal, so emphasizing it might make it easier to track. You get more feedback on horizontal mouse movements too (though there is an option to adjust this independently).

love the video man you never fail to give me a smile keep it up

Finally someone getting the question and answer thing from the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy right :D

Agree with you. People should be using their native resolution more, it's just so much more clear. Personally I use 3440x1440, so a 21:9 ratio. Gives me a clear image, and a wide field of view.

I switched to 16:9 as soon as I got my first widescreen monitor. Never went back. I cannot stand stretched 4:3, but I guess it is possible to get used to it after some time. At the end of the day it is a personal preference.

i used an 800p latpop all through college, and i LOVED it. i think 1280x800 was pretty common for thinkpads. the extra bit of height was so nice for reading documents though. i always noticed when i used a 720p screen after reading on my 800p laptop for a while

One benefit of stretched resolution to me is that it makes the gap looks much wider, therefore giving me more confidence. Think double doors or mirage mid looking though b short fro example.

I've been looking at the comments for a while and I find it pretty interesting that NOBODY has commented about owning a CRT monitor yet. 4:3 has always been a go-to for me as my monitor IS actually square! I play on 1600x1200 with 75hz and everything feels silky smooth regardless. I also can't understand 4:3 stretched, I think it's quite taxing on the eyes from time to time, but maybe it's because I'm just so used to non-stretched that it doesn't feel right at all.

5:28 is gold :D quick tip for people wondering, U can also create custom resoluations, so u could still display a 4:3 or 5:4 1080p image ;)

i just moved from 1028x1024 monitor to 1080p one. the old monitor had only VGA plug and is not compatible with newer GPU. Since i am used to "looking through things" i rely on peripheral vision for reaction. so the performance improved by better FPS as well as the 1080p monitor, which allows me to see more and react to it. but i can definitely see the benefit of the focus that narrow FOV offers. especially if you are only holding an area with AWP.

I used to have the same opinion as you regarding stretched views, that it felt better because of the fps increase rather than the larger targets. But I recently upgraded to a 1440p ultrawide monitor from my old 1080p display. I tried out csgo at 2560 x 1440 stretched, and it felt just as good as 1024 x 768 ever did, only I was rendering about 3 million more pixels than before.

I was always a fan of 16:9, yet i still made the decision to go 4:3 stretched after 6 years, cause my eyes were getting tired.I often had a hard time seeing whether my crosshair was perfectly placed, or was i shooting some pixels to left or right. On 4:3 this is much clearer and puts less strain in my eyes.

man really had to sneak in the upscaler at 14:55

thanks for still using the glock dragon tatooo. i picked one up a while ago because of you and now its worth heaps more :) stonks

That's my reddit post at 16:06!!!! Nice to know I'm not the only one asking these questions :D

3:53 - When I had an Ultra wide (21:9) monitor, playing at native resolution caused some horrific micro stutter in cs:go. FPS as shown by cs:go were high, but the stutter was real so I ended up playing 2560x1440 with black bars. And it didn't seem to be a problem with pc performance as 4k (16:9) runs just fine (5600X + RTX3090).

I've been sharing your opinion for years and debated with so many stubborn csgo players without success. The 2 main arguments are : 1) pro uses it 2) I aim better when I use stretched Thanks for making an informative video about the subject.

The whole "if you stretch the screen the enemies just move faster on your screen" thing blew my mind. Makes sense thinking back on it but...wild

10:28 lmao, got one of the hardest flashbacks in my childhood, ty

I'd like to see some sort of testing to see if the pros actually perform better at those resolutions vs just 1080p or 1440p after getting used to each

I use a 21:9 monitor and I have to say I love it compared to a standard 16:9, not only for the fov advantage, but moving the monitor farther away from my head makes seeing everything with my peripheral view much easier. IMO 21:9 is the way to go for video games.

Glad to see Philip taking sponsors, he deserves the pay!

Amazing transition :3

I'm a person who plays high-fov in FPS games, while my brother is consistently a low-fov player Neither of us are pros, though he is considerably better than me at most games (not monitor related) However, one thing that I have noticed that is a tangible benefit to his style of play is that enemies in the far distance are more visible to him, which has gotten me killed many a time :o

I played a couple of CSGO games at 48:9 (3x1080p) back in the days and I'll say it doesn't really give you an advantage except I was a able to peek a few corners a bit better. It was too much of a hassle to set up so I only did it of times. So when it comes to FOV sliders, just add them already Valve. If people want to add hotkeys to change between 160 fov and normal, let them.

11:51 I love how on the sticker on the minitor it says "21:9 you see more" in Polish yet they still crop their screens to 4:3

I like how Philip labelled the vertical slider "vertigo"

2:12 I see that subtle Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference. That was actually a really good and subtle way to do it too.

I use 4:3 stretched because as well as people it also makes gaps larger too, so areas like B-apps on mirage where usually you'd have small pixel gap, is much more pronounced so it's easier to see people that run across it, it might even give you more time to react to it, potentially, more tests needed.

very good video. You can tell there was a lot of work put into.

12:20 on the off chance you see this, your other protractor map was "CS GO's FOV - Your resolution matters"

Hey, I've seen this one! This is a classic!

Low resolutions allowing higher refresh rates was a thing in LCDs as well. I'm still using an old 1600x900 60Hz LCD which I use to play TF2 at 1440x900 75Hz

cypher said that he does't need a wide FOV in diabotical duel because he knows where the enemy is most of the time with map knowledge and sound cues. I assume it's the same for CS, most of the time you know where the enemies are coming from and a narrower FOV helps you focus and see targets at range better. There are even some diabotical players who costumized their HUD so that the edges of the screen get blacked out when zooming in with the sniper. they say it allows them to focus better.

Thanks for the FOV data!

Honestly before I adapted 4:3 I did some A/B testing with both native 16:9 and 4:3 and the latter (stretched) immediatly helped me with my aim. I feel like I have trouble spotting enemies so them being wider and also moving faster helps with picking that up

At some point in my life i tryharded csgo and changed my settings around and setteled with 1280x960 stretched. Played for a year like that and saw no change in my performance. Have played with native res since, and my current monitor is more oriented towards video production than gaming. Yes. I play CSGO in 4k60hz with an hdr10 monitor, quoted response time was a "massive" 8ms

Amazing video man!

I think that having a 18x9 is more beneficial. Seeing with your foresight is important and not only that, you may not notice a flash but the flash will still fully blind you like if you had it on screen

I’ve used 1280x1024 for past two years when I switched from native, 960 felt weird and 1024 felt more natural, settings aren usually something I mess with so it’s stuck well with me

I use 2560x1080 on a 16:9 display just for the extra FOV [21:9 with horizontal black bars]. The difference is that I only really play Danger Zone, where you have only one teammate, less intel and less predictable enemy locations. High FOV really helps with spotting enemies that most people wouldn't see. Also, high fov = increased sense of speed when travelling >1000 units a second [due to bumpmines], so that adds to the fun. In other games I find my sweet spot for fov to be between 110-120 before thing get too warped at the 140 mark, especially for games with large outdoor areas and enemies at far distances. And yes, this video was [sort of] done before, and I had hoped Valve would include an FOV slider back then. Still dreaming... Edit: I used to be a 4:3 stretched player, but the FOV is just too restricting for me. I think it's fine in a pro's situation, but isn't ideal for a lot else. Does kinda feel good tho.

Hey Phillip, when am i going to see your next "going low in CSGO" video? They were hilarious. And that flashback music is just awesome. Wish you made more of those videos.

"A FOV of 42 means nothing. It's kind of like knowing the answer to the meaning of life, but without knowing the question!" Nice reference to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy :)

I play 16:9, 2560x1440p, maxed out & STRETCHED on a 21:9 3440x1440 screen. It has 175hz refresh rate too. Works amazing. 🦖

I still play on an old samsung CRT from 2000. 960x720@123Hz. Feels far more smooth and far less blurry than my old 27” 144Hz LCD, and it only cost me £10. Just a shame that a lot of newer games don’t support anything under 1080p

That picture at 5 minutes 30 is actual gold

I was going to skip the ad but the music was a bop.

15:29 The irony, lol. The text says "21:9 you see more" but they just play in 16:9 or even 4:3 with black bars and couldn't care less about the wider aspect ratio.

I actually like the speedy feel that 4:3 gives you I absolutely can't get myself to play something like valorant, players just move around sooooo slowly and unfluidly there

The hitchikers quide to the galaxy reference at about 2.15

I've been playing counter strike since 2007 and pretty much knew everything you said in this video but still watched it all as canny just beat a good Philip video!

as a 1280x1024 player, thank you for pointing out our small community of thick models!

Had this argument with my friends so many times, couldn't agree more with you. The lower level pros in MANY games just copy the higher level pros until those lower level pros replacement and the cycle continues etc. It takes once in generation talents to break these trends by showing the community it is better imo, which is sad because I think all pros should ALWAYS be looking for the min-max best option.

thanks for another one informational video

I appreciated that Hitchiker's Guide reference

Tf was going on w that chicken @ 11:10

I play on 16:10 and it’s a perfect balance I love the art style of 4:3 but realistically 16:10 gives me better performance when it comes to flicks and such

What is the music used in this video. It is very calm and relaxing. I'd love to listen to this whilst playing :D it stops at 5:36 also.. Love your videos 3kliksphillip

That chicken that dodged all those bullets in the water at T Spawn on Ancient. he’s cracked asf. I think about him everyday

11:50 "21:9 You see more" (Traslate from polish) ... ironic

Im surprised more pros dont use 1920x1440

i always watch your videos. love you dude.

2:13 to 2:18 very sneaky hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference (or maybe its just a coincidence)