I used to be able to play this game in ultra settings with no problem for a very long time. The last few times I have tried to play it has been very choppy. I tried the GUIDE: Maximizing System Performance for Overwatch (PC) with no luck. Everything is on the lowest settings and still is very choppy. Does anyone have any ideas? I’m very confused.
5 Likes
Fresh Overwatch or system installation will do the trick most of the time.
This game has thrown me a few curves on it for performance issues. I’ve ran this game on the following hardware in the SAME day with an equally CLONED hard drive.
Graphics and BIOS settings:
Shader Cache : OFF (Fixed some issues)
V-sync OFF
Power setting: Maximum performance
XMP Profile: ENABLED in BIOS.
intel Speedstep enabled
Hardware:
- ASRock Z170 K4
- 8GB Corsair Vegence ram @ 2400mhz
- 1 TB WD Black Edition
- 750w EVGA G3 power supply
- GTX 1060 FTW
- i5-7600k
- 144HZ LG gaming monitor
THEN I swapped the components around with the following parts and combinations.
Variables changed
- ASRock Z370 SLI
- Intel i5-9600k
- the NEW, Nvidia RTX 2060
Want to know something. This game’s performance IS just outright AWFUL. It didn’t matter what a person did. This game is just OUTRIGHT BAD for optimization. “Triple A” titles such as Tom Clancy Ghost Reacon Wildlands, play significantly BETTER than this game. Even on the LATEST hardware combinations.
The problem is, this game is “clunky”, and I mean REALLY clunky. TF2 was kinda close to that because it had SLI issues, but this game. I mean we are talking some serious issues.
I have a relative whom works for the N.I.S.T. LAB and I thought about asking them if they had some free time to help me settup a few experiments with this game to see just how INACCURATE it really IS. I mean if this game is supposed to be “E sports” grade, they NEED to set some standards here on consistency. Not to rip on the programmers, but man it NEEDS an overhual. If not they need to inform players WHAT hardware they are testing this game on, so we can all run out and buy that hardware. 
Again, ZERO offense to anyone that programs here on the team. It’s difficult to pull ideas OUT of literal thin-air and build something from scratch, but people have been using pre-made game engines that have had significantly MORE time in a de-bugging trial
2 Likes
Check CPU and GPU temps, try reinstalling Windows
I used to have 10 apps open and the game would still run easily with around 200 FPS. Nowadays, about a month or so, I have to close all the big tabs otherwise the ping will drop down to less than 100. And no, My computer’s fine. Something happened with the game itself.
3 Likes
I’ve been down this road with this game in the past. The performance problems started occuring again during the October patch from the first week. Something with memory corrupution is happening again in this game. how it handles the Memory (RAM) registers is forcing players to mess around with XMP profile and HPET timers to see what issues they can resolve. January’s patch literally broke the game.
I dont know what they honestly do to the game’s engine each patch, or why it breaks either. BUT LOL. Trust me, GPU temps are not the issue here. I’ve got a FLUID cooling system by Koolance that handles my CPU and GPU. With a D5 pump and yes, its got coolant flowing through it 
Are you playing in fullscreen or windowed fullscreen? Windowed fullscreen can sometimes cause fps drops and stutters.
Yeah Windows updates have broken my system couple times too- reinstalling does the trick for me
I played this game perfectly fine on my old PC. Upgraded my PC and now the game is acting as if my GPU or CPU is overloaded or overheated. It’s not my PC come to find out. I thought maybe it had something to do with the display drivers. Upsetting I can’t play this game without a “Possible” (no proof it will work) windows reinstallation, as I have tried everything else! Sad this isn’t being addressed more. Game is literally unplayable!
1 Like
Let me see what I can do to help!! 
What I have found that has really helped me over the years is this:
- adjust the render scale (advanced graphics) according to what “keeps the Frames.” from jumping around.
Next… I would look at the FPS meter and set it to what your Display is at.
- If it is at “60 hz” Don’t set your FPS meter higher than 60-65 FPS.
- If it is at 144 hz, set your FPS meter at 144-147 FPS.
- Your display WILL only run at a specific “HZ”. this is set by the factory’s ability to make hardware.
For the FPS limiting…
The reasoning behind this is, Your monitor (display), CPU and GPU have to do alot of “Trade off”. So the computer won’t work well if you have a 60hz monitor and you are trying to request for 300 FPS out of it. It won’t work very well, at all. You will see Frames jumping all around and “stuttering”.
This has to do with the Frame and the “cycle” of how fast your monitor works at. If it is trying to force frames to a monitor that cannot cycle as fast. It won’t work smooth!
Performance.
1 ) I am running a FOUNDERS RTX 2060 and STILL have the Same CPU. When I went between several generations of Cards. I have found the “bottleneck” is most-often the CPU and the RAM. Not the GPU. I borrowed some high-end cards for a weekened to see what they can or cannot do, and found they really don’t CHANGE much at all!!
2 ) After I went to 16GB of RAM. This game plays VERY NICE. It is a game that is “hungry for RAM”.
3 ) I did a CPU swap and found that the CPU is the primary bottle neck to “STUTTERING” in this game. Followed by the type of Hard DRIVE. If you are dedicated to OVERWATCH gameplay. spend $$$$ on a GOOD CPU and one with a very HIGH factory Clock rate. For some reason the game here isn’t so much “multi threadded” as it is hungry for Clock Cycles.
- I’ve tried a number of experiments with performance vs CPU Cores vs Speed of the CPU. CPU speed seams to be the #1 factor in this game’s performance.
Overwatch likes to RESIDE on an SSD drive and plays better if the game files sit on it! Blizzard has a thing where they seam to make “hard drive” hungry games.
(FORGOT TO MENTION)
in your graphics settings you will have to work with something called “ASPECT RATIO” setting this is located IN YOUR graphics drivers’s software OUTSIDE of the game. Aspect ratio greatly effects what your card can or cannot do. Followed by running this game in FULL SCREEN. I often times find that Overwatch CAN randomly go from “windowed mode” to “full screen” vice versa.
Story time…
Back in the day I use to run World of Warcraft on a RAID 5 SCSI ultra 320 set of drives on a Dell PERC 3 Raid controller. They were FUJTISU 15,000 RPM drives and nested in at 36.7 GB per drive, with all 3 in RAID 5. That was Blazing Fast (before consumer SSDs). I use to work with SERVERS and had some spares that I took home with me, and loaded up Windows XP 64 bit.
In WoW…
I would go OUT with my friends, RAID goldshire and get chased ALL over the map for over an HOUR. Angry players chasing ME and my friends. The person or Person(s) would chase me to each LOADING ZONE. And then they couldn’t figure out after the loading zone. Why I was significantly FURTHER ahead than they were. Infact I had one guy FLAME me, after he made a level 1 Horde account (as he was an alliance) and accused me of cheating. I had better hardware than HIM, and told him what I was running.
he was furious, but understood that the person with the FASTEST drives, wins the Loading screen’s time. 
(yes, this was BEFORE I installed 8GB of ram that year).
Good luck!! Hope this might help.