Overwatch 2 low performance & high CPU/RAM usage

[Bonzi-21630]

For a few months now, something is acting up when I start up Overwatch 2. Every time it loads up, CPU usage is high and it consumes an enormous amount of system RAM (over 7GB now on high graphics settings with the latest AMD graphics driver). Due to this, the first 5 minutes are unplayable because the FPS takes a huge hit. See my linked post at the bottom for more details about what happens.

Today I did the following to try to find out more about this issue:

• Update BIOS to latest version and reset to default settings
• Clean install Windows 11 23H2
• Run Windows Update for updates and drivers
• Installed AMD graphics driver 23.11.1
• Installed Battle.net and downloaded Overwatch 2

I left everything in the driver and OW2 at the default settings, the first start of OW2 it consumes 95-97% of CPU, and slowly consumes more RAM during the first 3-5 minutes, until it reaches around 7000MB. After that the performance is normal again.
Since this is the first start on a fresh install, I expected it would compile something. But every consecutive start of OW2 still results in high CPU usage for the first 3-5 minutes, and system RAM usage of the OW2 process creeps up and stays around 7000MB the whole time. After exiting OW2, the process stays active in the background for about 3 minutes and consumes about 10-12% CPU while the RAM usage slowly decreases down from 7000MB. During this the “Play” button in Battle.net stays grayed out, until the OW2 process finally terminates. Re-launching OW2 causes this to start all over again.

Below are my current specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3600
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700XT with driver 23.11.1
RAM: Crucial 16GB DDR4 3200 MHz
System: B450 chipset and latest BIOS with AGESA ComboAm4v2PI 1.2.0.B

At this point I’m lost to what the cause of this problem is. I can’t figure out if it’s OW2, the driver or my GPU itself. The only thing that makes a difference is to go back to driver 23.5.1, where everything is normal again in OW2, but I can’t stay on that version forever.

I would really appreciate it when someone from tech support could chime in if this is a common issue and where the root cause could be, especially since OW2 is the only game that is acting up with a driver newer than 23.5.1.

Overwatch 2 for the first few minutes makes my PC suffer

I noticed the same after I upgraded from AMD driver 23.5.1 to 23.7.1 and also still on 23.8.1, with my RX 5700XT. Overwatch loads up, and starts to fill up the RAM at the menu screen at about 25MB/s. When you enter a game or even the practice range, the RAM usage keeps increasing at about 50MB/s. While this happens CPU usage is high and the framerate takes a plunge and is inconsistent, making the game barely playable. This keeps going (in my case) for about 4-5 minutes until it has reached 6600…

[Nicole-1893]

Probably the driver, as other players have been having issues with the last few updates for months. It’s some issue with the shader on those cards I guess.