Launch command doesn't work

With all the lag I get from playing wave defense, I decided to look into improving fps and one method I see a lot of videos and guides suggest for a Steam launch command is +mat_antialias 0 however, it doesn't change my game to look like their extremely low graphics. Strangely enough, I seem to go down in fps when adding this launch code. So I was wondering what I'm doing wrong, if anyone could help.