Overwatch 2 is using my CPU to render the game. Literally I shoot to 100% CPU usage with 1-5% GPU usage and no matter what I try, the game refuses to use my graphics card.
I’ve already set Nvidia 3d Settings “Power Management Mode” to Prefer Maximum Performance.
I’ve already made sure Overwatch & Overwatch Launcher are BOTH using my Nvidia processor according to the Nvidia Control Panel.
I’ve tried running the game with no external monitors attached.
I’ve disabled my intel GPU so now it’s only my Nvidia GPU that is enabled.
I’ve set the game to fullscreen to force it to use a specific external monitor.
I’ve tried all three versions, full screen, windowed, full screen borderless windowed.
I’ve switched the preferred GPU using windows own “Graphics Settings” panel.
I just had this problem and spent DAYS trying to fix it. Here’s what you should try.
BEFORE ANYTHING —>>>>>Make a system restore point just in case something goes poorly. You do not want to accidentally put yourself in an even worse predicament than before and have no way out.
First, make sure you have your BIOS up to date with the latest version.
Reset all of your settings to default. This includes NVIDIA control panel, Windows power and graphics preference, and power management mode. They should all be at the recommended setting, or “balanced”.
Go to your Device Manager and check for driver updates for your CPU and display adapter (GPU). Go to the manufacturers website to check for your motherboard and bios-specific drivers Then, under storage controllers and IDE/ATA, check the properties of those drivers and if the manufacturers aren’t labeled as Microsoft, uninstall the drivers and restart your PC.
This next part is tricky, because there could be two different solutions. This means youll have to try one and if it doesnt work, try the other, or both.
>Here is the easier/less software intensive suggestion to try first:
First, check to see if your graphics driver is up to date. It should be on version 526.29. You can type this link to NVIDIA’s website → (Don’t include the parentheses)
(h)ttps://www.nvidia.com/download/index(.)aspx
or if you have Geforce experience, check for a game-ready driver update there, and do a clean install.
If you are using Geforce Experience, remove Overwatch from the identified games tab, uninstall and reinstall the game, make the download file location of Overwatch very simple such as: ( C:\Battle.net\Overwatch ), Then, go back into Geforce experience and scan for the game again. Check if this worked.
If not, here’s the second part- (I apologize in advance, I did all of these things and did not check in between which thing worked every step of the way so this is like trial and error) Have faith though, because I did finally get it to function properly!
Ok,
- See if your graphics driver is using G-sync/Freesync with your monitor. If they are on, turn them off for now. Use your monitor’s buttons to make sure these settings are off.
In the Nvidia control panel, go to “Adjust image settings with preview”, (make sure that “my preferences” is set to balanced) and then select "Use the Advanced 3D settings. Under program settings, find your Overwatch.exe file. Make sure everything is balanced. Normal power management, make everything possible be (Application-controlled) except for virtual reality pre-rendered frames; Set that to (Use global setting(1)). Set what you can to your GPU.
Turn off/on Windows Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS). Reset your computer, then switch HAGS back on or off, whichever it was, then restart your PC again. If it is set “on” at this point, do this process one more time so that after the restart, HAGS is switched off.
Go ahead and try to Boot up Overwatch at this point and see if it helped.
If not, here are the last things to try (though a bit more intensive).
First, uninstall all of your hardware monitoring systems. This could be MSI Afterburner, Ryzen Master, Benchmark apps, RGB lighting even. These can sometimes clash and interfere with each other when the CPU/GPU are trying to communicate and work with a game. What I found was that my GPU was always running at max memory clocks no matter what tab I was in or in the game, and so it had none to spare which made the CPU do all of the work.
Use a DDU driver uninstaller. You can get it from Guru3D if you search “DDU driver uninstall”. Please read EVERYTHING very carefully. The download link is at the bottom of the page labeled by your region. Do not click the baiting ads with the big green “DOWNLOAD”, go to the bottom and find the “download locations” and pick which region youre in. You’ll need a thumb drive to boot up the ddu from, after its downloaded to the thumb drive and youre ready to start the uninstall process, disconnect your internet and press start.
After it is uninstalled, boot your computer normally (the resolution will look wonky, just change it back to normal with right click → display settings → Adjust resolution
Then reconnect to your internet and go download the latest Nvidia driver again. This time, do not install Geforce Experience! Make sure you only select to download the Nvidia control panel. Once it’s done, try the steps I listed first in the Control panel such as background FPS, allow application to decide, and set performance modes to normal or performance for Overwatch specifically.
The last thing I should note, make sure that you are using the “Overwatch.exe” file in all of the game file selections, and NOT “OverwatchLauncher.exe”.
Good luck!
My problem (I believe) was related to my GPU resources being distributed poorly with the new Control Panel driver update and Nvidia Geforce recognizing Overwatch as Overwatch 1, and not Overwatch 2. So maybe see if you can get that to work before all of the other complicated stuff.
If none of this works, check for PC cleanup and broken file cleaners online. They can give you the scripts for Command Prompts to clear up system files and anything that is being accidentally locked up in a memory leak of some sort.