Your Graphics Hardware Does Not Support All Features (CSM) Needed To Run This Game

Counter-Strike: Go is a moderately light game. It doesn’t require much GPU resources to run. However, you may run into hardware issues and get the error message “Your graphics hardware does not support all features (CSM) needed to run this game.”

The engine error affects your Windows CSGO copy on Steam, as it’s the only place you can play it. And as the error suggests, you’re dealing with faulty graphic cards or graphic drivers. 

Otherwise, you won’t be able to open the game, much less play it. You must deal with the corruption before testing it again.

What Causes This Error?

How to Fix “Your Graphics Hardware Does Not Support All Features (CSM) Needed to Run This Game”?

Let’s move on to troubleshooting. The solutions revolve around updating your system and cleaning corrupted files. We recommend you follow the entire troubleshooter before testing the game again. You’d need a couple of these solutions for CSGO to work again.

Moreover, these fixes will help your entire computer. Consider it as regular maintenance. But before we begin, check the minimum requirements of the game:

Run the Game With the Dedicated GPU

This problem may arise on laptops and PCs with two graphics cards. Due to random bugs or wrong configurations, the computer may choose your weaker GPU (the integrated GPU) to play the game. We have to change that.

In my case, I have two, but if you have one card only, skip this step.

The first way to fix it is like so:

1. Go to your Desktop and find the CSGO shortcut. If there’s not, create one.
2. Right-click the game.
3. Select “Run with graphics processor.”
4. Click the  “High-performance” processor option. 
   

The option above is not available on Windows 11 and may not be available on your Windows 10 copy. So, here’s another way to solve it on Windows 10 or 11:

1. Click the Windows button on the keyboard.
2. Type “graphics” on the search bar.
3. Click Graphics settings. 
4. Click on Browse and add CSGO to the list of apps.
5. Click on CSGO’s options, and select High performance.
   

Update Windows

The first step is updating your operating system. Here’re the steps you need to follow:

1. Click the Windows key on the keyboard.
2. Type “check for updates” on the Windows search bar.
3. Open “Check for updates.” 
4. Click on “Check for updates.”
5. If you see it, click on the “Download and install updates” button as well.
6. Lastly, click on “Download and install” if Windows finds an update.

Windows downloads updates in the background. It doesn’t take long, and when it finishes, it will ask you for a restart to install the new packages.

If there’s no update to download or install, keep moving toward the next fix.

Update Your GPU

The next step is updating your GPU drivers. There’re two ways to fix it, but let’s begin with the easiest one via the Device Manager.

Here’re the steps:

1. Click the Windows button on your keyboard.
2. On the search bar, type “device manager.”
3. Click “Device Manager” to open the tool.
4. Click on “Display Adapters” to expand the category. You’d have to click on the arrow to expand it.
   
5. Right-click your graphic card. It’s either an NVIDIA card or an AMD card. You may also be playing CSGO with an integrated Intel card (like an Intel HD) or an integrated AMD card (like an AMD Radeon). You may see “Microsoft Basic Display Adapter” on the bracket if no drivers are installed.
6. Click on “Update driver.”
   
7. Click on “Search automatically for drivers.” The system will let you know if it finds anything to download and update.
8. If you see two cards in the Display Adapters category, repeat the process with your secondary card, which is probably your iGPU.
   

There’s a second way to update your GPU, which is using the proprietary GPU software. So, first, download the software you need for your PC.

• If you see an NVIDIA card on the Device Manager, download the NVIDIA driver you need. You’ll have to match the card’s name on the webpage to get, click on Search, and get the driver you need.
• If you see an AMD card on the Device Manager, download the AMD Software. You can match the card you need on the page or download the Auto-detect software.

• Lastly, if your only GPU is an Intel HD, visit this page to get the automatic update tool.

Once you install one of the programs, you’ll find the driver update option on one of its primary pages.

Reinstall Your GPU drivers

Your drivers can get corrupted, which requires you to reinstall them. However, before you do that, let’s take note of two things.

1. If you saw two GPU drivers on Display Adapters (device manager), it means one is an iGPU, and the other is a discrete GPU. In particular, you’d notice something wrong if the dedicated GPU driver has a warning sign or is missing.
   

The iGPU comes built-in on specific CPUs. It can run the screen, most apps, and light games such as Fortnite. A discrete GPU is the dedicated graphic card unit we all know. It plugs into the motherboard and comes with its thermal solution (like heatsinks, fans, or both). 

Many laptops come with iGPU plus a dedicated GPU. Some custom PCs also carry both types of card units.

2. The second thing to note is where is your display’s cable. Look on the back of your PC. If the monitor is plugged into your motherboard, it uses the iGPU. If it’s connected to the GPU, it is connected to your dedicated GPU.

The proposed fix requires you to have an iGPU because we will uninstall the GPU drivers.

1. Download the Display Driver Uninstaller tool. It will download a zip file.
2. Once it downloads, extract the .exe file. You can double-click it and then click on extract. Please put it in the downloads folder.
   
3. Turn off your PC.
4. If your monitor is plugged into the GPU, plug it into the motherboard.
5. Turn on your PC.
6. Open the Display Driver Uninstaller tool.
   
7. Select GPU on the first bracket and either the Nvidia or AMD drivers on the bracket below.
8. Click on Clean and restart. The program may ask you to boot the computer in safe mode to complete the process (it will do it by itself).

Afterward, reset your PC, download the drivers for your dedicated GPU, and reinstall them. Alternatively, follow these steps:

1. Open the Device Manager again.
2. Click on Scan for Hardware Changes at the top. That should be enough to download new GPU drivers.
   
3. If the step above didn’t work, go to Display Adapters, and download the drivers as we did before. Right-click and select “Update Drivers.” That should reinstall the drivers.
   

A fresh install of the GPU driver will deal with any corruption and compatibility issues between your video hardware and the game.

If your PC has a single GPU, you can still follow the process -it can be unreliable, though. The computer will use your GPU with default and generic drivers. In other words, it will use the Microsoft generic display adapter driver, and it would look like this on the Device Manager:

The generic driver may have any number of errors (like lower screen resolution, flickering, and similar). However, the image will be enough to install the new GPU drivers with the proprietary software.

Verify the Game on Steam

Now that your system is up to date, it’s time to open Steam and verify the game’s files:

1. Open Steam.
2. Go to the Library tab.
3. Right-click Counter-Strike and select Properties.
4. Go to Local Files on the left.
5. Click on Verify integrity of files on the right.

If Steam finds any corruption in the game, it will re-download what it needs.

By this point, you can test playing Counter-Strike: Go again.