Apex Legends Config: autoexec.cfg, Launch Options, and What Apex Refuses

Apex runs on a heavily modified Source engine, and unlike CS2 it does not quietly ignore commands it dislikes — it rejects them. That single difference is why most copied Apex configs do a fraction of what their author believed.

Last updated 1 August 2026 · Apex Legends, Source

Where the Apex config folder is

The file goes in a cfg folder inside the Apex install directory. On a Steam install that is:

Steam\steamapps\common\Apex Legends\cfg

Two things differ from CS2 here. First, there is no \game\ level and no legacy folder name — the path is as short as it looks. Second, and this catches people out, the cfg folder may not exist at all on a clean install. If it is not there you create it yourself, spelled exactly that way, directly inside the Apex Legends folder.

Why your config appears to do nothing

Two reasons, and both are common.

One: Apex does not run the file on its own. CS2 executes any autoexec.cfg it finds automatically. Apex is far less reliable about it, and the fix is to tell it explicitly in the launch options:

+exec autoexec

No .cfg extension, and it is +exec with a plus, not a dash. The plus prefix means "run this console command at startup"; a dash means "set this engine switch". Getting that wrong is silent, which is the worst kind of wrong.

Two: Apex validates cvars instead of ignoring them. A large number of the commands that work in other Source games are locked behind a cheat flag in Apex, or simply absent. The client reads the line, refuses it, and carries on. So a config inherited from a CS:GO or TF2 background can be three quarters dead on arrival while looking perfectly reasonable in a text editor.

Launch options and the config file: which does what

Both matter, and they do different jobs. Launch options are read before the engine finishes starting, so they are the only place to change things that are already fixed by the time a console command could run. The config file handles everything after that.

You set these in Steam under Properties → General → Launch Options, or in the EA App under the game's settings. Separate them with spaces, all on one line.

The settings that survive, and what they do

This is the short list — short because of the validation above, not because there is nothing to say.

fps_max, and why the default hurts

Apex ships with a cap around 300, which sounds generous and is exactly the problem. On a 144 Hz monitor the extra frames are discarded, the card runs hot to produce them, and the interval between the frames you actually see wanders. What you feel is not the average, it is frame time consistency.

A cap a little below what your hardware sustains gives the pacer headroom. On the same machine, a steady 138 usually feels better than a spiky 210 — lower average, better feel, which is why benchmark averages are a poor way to judge a config.

setting_dvs_enable 1 — the one most people miss

Apex has built-in dynamic resolution scaling, and it is off by default. With it on, when a fight gets busy enough that the GPU cannot hold your target frame time, the game drops internal resolution slightly instead of dropping frames.

That trade is a good one in a battle royale. The moment your frame rate would collapse is the moment six people are on your screen, and a marginally softer image while you are tracking someone beats a stutter while you are tracking someone. It is worth knowing what it costs, though: on a GPU that is already comfortable it does nothing, and if you play at a low resolution already the softening is more visible.

The rest of a sane Apex config

• cl_ragdoll_collide 0 — stops ragdolls from colliding with each other and the world. Physics you never look at, calculated on your CPU.
• r_createmodeldecals 0 — no bullet decals on player models. Fewer textures created at the exact moment a fight starts.
• sv_forcepreload 1 — preloads assets rather than fetching them on demand, in the same spirit as -preload.
• mat_letterbox_aspect_goal 0 — disables letterboxing, so nothing is rendered into bars you cannot see.
• cl_showfps 0 — the overlay off. Useful while testing, then off: it draws text every frame and it is one more thing on screen.

What a config cannot fix in Apex

Two limits, and neither is a settings problem.

The server tick rate. Apex has historically run a low server tick compared with CS2, and that is where a good deal of the "why did I not do damage" feeling comes from. It is decided on Respawn's side. No client setting moves it, and any guide promising to fix registration with a cvar is selling you something.

Your own bottleneck. If your processor is the limit, lowering graphics settings changes very little, and Apex leans on the GPU more than CS2 does, so which side you are on genuinely changes what you should touch. Our bottleneck calculator is free, needs no account and takes about fifteen seconds: pick your CPU, GPU and resolution and it tells you which part limits you and by how much. GPU-bound is where setting_dvs_enable earns its keep; CPU-bound is where the ragdoll and decal lines matter more than resolution.

Sensitivity: Apex and CS2 use the same number

Each engine turns your mouse a different amount per count, and the figure that describes it is the yaw value:

Apex and CS2 both use 0.022, so the same sensitivity is the same physical motion in both and no conversion is needed — keep your DPI identical and copy the number across. VALORANT does not match, which is why the same figure feels roughly three times faster there:

// Apex -> VALORANT
valorant_sens = apex_sens * 0.022 / 0.07   // so Apex 2.0 -> 0.63

Is it safe? Apex, EAC, and the read-only trick

No, a config cannot get you banned, and it is worth knowing why rather than taking our word for it. A cfg file holds console commands the client itself parses, in a folder the game reads by design, and nothing is injected or modified. The same commands typed into the console one at a time would have identical effect.

Anti-cheat looks for code reading or writing game memory, and for programs sitting between you and the game. A text file the client chose to read is neither.

The reversibility test is the one that matters: delete the file, remove the launch option, restart, and everything is exactly as it was. If a tool cannot be undone that easily, that is when to be suspicious.

Writing your own, in four steps

1. Open Notepad. Not Word — it saves formatting the game cannot read.
2. Put in the settings you want, one per line. Anything after // is a comment and ignored.
3. Save it as autoexec.cfg in the cfg folder from the first section. Set Save as type to All Files, or you will get autoexec.cfg.txt, which the game will not read.
4. Add +exec autoexec to the launch options, start the game, and type one of your settings into the console with no value. It prints the current value. If it matches what you wrote, the file loaded.

Where the numbers come from

The settings above are the general case. The one that depends on your specific machine is the one that matters most: fps_max has to relate to what your hardware sustains and to your monitor's refresh rate, and how far below to cap depends on which component limits you.

That is the part a guide cannot do for you, and it is what our generator does — you enter your CPU, GPU, RAM, resolution and refresh rate, and it writes the file with those numbers filled in, plus a report explaining each line and the launch options to go with it. Same commands as above, arithmetic done against your parts.