Installed through steam, I cannot open and run the game on my laptop’s display with the dedicated GPU. However, the game will launch on an external display via HDMI or DP (type C alt mode) just fine. Using the Intel UHD graphics works but is obviously slow and unplayable at decent settings, Overwatch is the only game I have this issue with. I have seen the posts regarding Razer Synapse and the issues that come with it however I do not believe that to be my issue as the game starts just fine on the Intel IGPU but enters a black screen with no Overwatch cursor or audio. To clarify, I am unable to get it working on the built in laptop display- where I want the game to be displayed.
I have tried both the RTX Studio driver and Game Ready driver with neither of them making a difference. With both of these I have tried changing the windows full-screen optimization setting without it fixing the problem. I have reinstalled basically everything bar my operating system that could be related to this and have made sure to be running the latest version of windows, GPU drivers, and Razer Synapse.
Below I have my DxDiag.txt file linked, any help would be appreciated as I cannot open or play the game with this issue.
Enabled the “high Performance” option in the battery settings- same result, no dice.
This laptop has 3 power options: “Power Saving”, “Balanced”, and “High Performance”. All three of these give the same black screen and other games (Forza Horizon 5, Fortnite, Cities Skylines 2) all fully launch just fine. These games also fully launch with the power mode set to both “Power Saving” and “Balanced”.
The laptop was also plugged into the factory 230W power adapter for all of these tests. (It also was when I made the original post but I forgot to include.)
Is there anything else I could try? TY for the reply.
You would not want to game on anything other than High Performance, unless you want all games to run worse.
As for the black screen, you may need to export some error reports and find out which app is blocking the game from launching. Exporting a DxDiag or MSInfo are the top ways to go about this (you must export to a text file to see errors). Blizzard used to offer documentation for collecting these reports, but they discontinued that troubleshooting method earlier this year in favor of pointing players to local PC technicians to investigate problems. I believe this is because Customer Support can only offer guidance on account-level issues, but this is my personal opinion.
Apologies for the late reply, below is both linked. These were captured with the game in the “hung” state where the game is open but there isn’t anything other than a black window being shown.
Okay, so after a bit more research, I believe the issue is the graphics card.
NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU
This is a professional-grade GPU, it is not on the list of Overwatch 2 Supported Video Cards, and nVidia’s current drivers for this model are not designed for gaming. Instead, they are catered for specific software used in professional environments, like engineering, architecture, or other modeling applications.
I recommend providing feedback to nVidia about the driver. Considering this type of GPU’s intended purpose, they may not have a solution at this time, but it’s worth alerting them about it.
Understood, that being said I am able to get this game to boot and play fine on this GPU given I use the DP connector and an external display but obviously that doesn’t exempt a driver issue from causing my problem. Per Lenovo the DP alt mode/ TB4 port is wired directly to this GPU and via task manager I can 100% confirm OW2 will run on this card- just not on the internal display.
One thing I will say is inside the “RTX Experience” app that Nvidia officially releases and supports the GPU with, a driver and customization software designed to be compatible with games is provided. The app is very similar to Geforce Experience however it does not include all of the streaming software and is as you stated geared toward workstation applications.
Given I have tried different drivers all from Nvidia meant for this GPU, would you recommend I ask Lenovo anything as well or should I be reaching out to Nvidia directly?
Not doubting that at all. I think the card just does not know what to do with displaying this game (which does not officially support it) on the laptop’s screen.
I don’t think asking them will have any effect since they just put finished hardware pieces together instead of creating them. You’re also still up against the issue of the card not being officially supported by Blizzard’s software. Any future patch could make it work or not work, since it’s not on the list right now.
Helpful and thank you. I have noticed Blizzard hasn’t updated the OW2 supported GPU list in >2y. Radeon RX 7000 is not present despite releasing in Dec of 2022, the post I am referencing is here: Blizzard Support - Overwatch 2 Supported Video Cards
I will try contacting Nvidia and reply back if they have anything useful for this issue as I may not be the only person who has it.
Alright so short and simple Nvidia was able to fix it.
The watered down solution for me was this:
Use the Nvidia developer cleanup tool to remove any and all Nvidia software/ drivers.
Install the fresh driver manually from the Nvidia driver home page. Be sure to know your exact GPU and select the correct model.
When installing the driver manually, be sure to select “Custom Installation” and “Clean Install” as prompted.
After the fresh driver is installed reboot the computer.
Open the Nvidia Control Panel and under the 3D settings tree select “Configure Surround, PhysX”.
Set the dropdown value to your GPU instead of auto or CPU.
In the same 3D settings tree select “Manage 3D Settings”.
Select the “Program Settings” tab and select the OW2 executable by clicking “add”.
Set the graphics processor to “High Performance Nvidia Graphics Processor”.
Start OW2 and if it does not open in the correct aspect ratio or resolution use the in game settings to fix this instead of ALT + ENTER or other windows shortcuts as that caused the game to crash.
Per Nvidia directly despite RTX A series/ Quadro cards being intended for professional use there is absolutely nothing that should prevent them from running any and all programs that can be run on their GeForce cousins. Nvidia also said the issue was purely driver/ GPU config related and the crashing when using Windows shortcuts such as ALT + ENTER is an issue Blizzard would need to look into.