CS2 telemetry HUD: the nine cl_hud_telemetry commands, their defaults, and what poor means

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CS2 has a second connection readout that most players never open. The nine cl_hud_telemetry commands put frame time, ping, packet misdelivery and jitter on the HUD, and they sit apart from the older cl_showfps and cl_showpos counters. This is what each one does, what it ships set to, and how the poor threshold works.

Quick summary:

• Nine commands: three show toggles for frame time, ping and misdelivery, three poor thresholds, two graph toggles and one detailed network toggle.
• Every show toggle reads the same way. 0 is never, 1 is only when the reading is poor, 2 is always.
• The defaults are frametime_show 1, ping_show 1, misdelivery_show 1, and every graph and detailed toggle at 0.
• The default poor thresholds are 100 ms for ping, 100 ms for frame time and 2 percent for packet delivery anomaly rate.
• The frametime threshold is the only one with a range in the dump: minimum 1, maximum 100.
• None of these commands is flagged cheat, so none of them needs sv_cheats 1.

Where the values come from

The numbers below come from the convar dump Valve ships inside the game files, published as the DumpSource2 file and mirrored on the s2v.app convar explorer. The explorer page names its build, 11162119 from 22 October 2026, and counts 4,337 convars in it. I read the raw dump file and checked the nine entries line by line.

The three show toggles

• cl_hud_telemetry_frametime_show, default 1. Shows frame time and FPS in the HUD. 0 is never, 1 is only if poor, 2 is always.
• cl_hud_telemetry_ping_show, default 1. Shows ping in the HUD. 0 is never, 1 is only in poor conditions, 2 is always.
• cl_hud_telemetry_net_misdelivery_show, default 1. Shows the percentage of user commands and server snapshots that are missed because of network conditions. 0 is never, 1 is only in poor conditions, 2 is always.

These three are the ones worth setting to 2 while you are diagnosing. At 1 they stay silent until something crosses the threshold, which is handy in a match but useless when you are trying to find out what is wrong.

The three poor thresholds

• cl_hud_telemetry_ping_poor, default 100. Ping higher than this, in milliseconds, counts as poor.
• cl_hud_telemetry_frametime_poor, default 100, minimum 1, maximum 100. Frame time greater than this counts as poor.
• cl_hud_telemetry_net_misdelivery_poor, default 2. A packet delivery anomaly rate from 0 to 100 higher than this counts as poor.

The defaults are generous. 100 ms of ping and a 100 ms frame time are both well past the point where play starts to feel off, so at 1 you can have a problem for a while before the HUD says anything. Dropping the frame time threshold toward 15 to 20 ms is the single most useful change here, because that is where most people start feeling stutter.

The frametime threshold only goes up to 100, so you cannot set it above the default to quiet the warning. You can only make it stricter.

The three network extras

• cl_hud_telemetry_net_detailed, default 0. Shows the breakdown of network misdelivery: loss, late delivery and peak jitter. 0 is never, 1 is only in poor network conditions, 2 is always.
• cl_hud_telemetry_net_quality_graph_show, default 0. Shows packet jitter and netframe loss or reordering in the HUD. 0 is never, 1 is only in poor conditions, 2 is always.
• cl_hud_telemetry_serverrecvmargin_graph_show, default 0. Shows a graph of the server receive margin, which is how early or late your user commands arrive at the server before they get executed. 0 is never, 1 is only when there are command queue problems, 2 is always.

All three ship at 0, so the network graphs are off by default even though the two network numbers are on. Turning net_detailed and net_quality_graph_show to 2 is what actually tells you whether a bad feeling is your connection or your machine.

One number two sources disagree on

A Steam community guide on the CS2 net graph lists the misdelivery threshold default as 5 and describes it as 0 to 100. The dump says 2. The dump is the game file itself, so the dump wins here, and the guide's own table is the outlier. Worth knowing if you copied a config from a guide and wondered why the HUD went quiet at a number the guide called poor.

Reading it against cl_showfps

cl_showfps is the older counter and it still works. It defaults to 0 and takes a value from 1 to 4: 1 draws the FPS meter, 2 draws smoothed FPS, 3 shows server milliseconds and 4 shows FPS plus logs to a file. It is a number, not a graph, and it has no poor threshold of its own.

The telemetry commands are the measurement half and cl_showfps is the raw number half. cl_showpos is a third thing again, it just draws your position on screen. None of them replaces the others.

FAQ

Q: Do these commands work on any server?
A: They are client side HUD settings and not cheat flagged, so they run wherever you are playing.

Q: Will setting them get me banned?
A: No. They only change what your own client draws on screen.

Q: Why does nothing appear after I set a command to 2?
A: The value only applies to the HUD element it controls. Check the matching threshold if the element still stays quiet.

Q: Is there a settings menu equivalent?
A: Yes. The game has a Telemetry section under Game settings with the same toggles. The console gives you the three graph commands and the thresholds, which the menu does not expose.

Q: Do the graph commands need cheats enabled?
A: No. None of the nine cl_hud_telemetry entries carries a cheat flag in the dump.

Sources
GameTracking-CS2, convars.txt, the DumpSource2 convar dump published from the CS2 game files
s2v.app, CS2 console commands and convars, build 11162119 dated 22 October 2026
Steam Community guide, CS2 Net Graph, the community table that lists the misdelivery threshold as 5