Random extreme lag that is always fixed upon restarting game

Technical Support
1

I have been playing for a few months and recently started having this issue. Everything is perfectly fine with good framerates usually. But once in a while, the game starts to freak out. Out of nowhere, both in game and in the menu there is extreme lag, stuttering (both visual and audio stuttering) and low fps (<20). There is nothing I can do other than to restart the game. Upon restarting the game, everything works perfectly fine again.

This is a major issue because I am interested in comp. And while I actually am capable of leaving a game and restarting and rejoining in under one minute, if I do so at the beginning of the match the match is auto-cancelled and I’m handed a loss and a penalty. So my only option is to play in a very laggy way until like halfway through or whatever is required to prevent the auto-cancelling and then quickly restart (obviously annoying my team and likely causing us a loss).

I have since tried setting all of my video settings to default hoping this would solve the issue. But unfortunately, it is still occuring.

I can confirm my computer is not overheating. It says 67C in-game which is below average and I’m using a cooling pad.

My computer is also very powerful, new, and mainstream. Its not a custom build or anything like that. I really have barely touched or configured this machine so I really think I shouldn’t be having issues like this.

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q Design (with latest GeForce driver)

Device name Razer-Blade
Processor Intel(R) Core™ i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)
Device ID 87C79071-5428-4B9B-BDEA-D7F1E442C64F
Product ID 00325-81945-78782-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 21H2
Installed on ‎11/‎20/‎2021
OS build 22000.493
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.493.0
2

I also have this but it only started after I switched to a slower hard drive cause my SSD failed so maybe getting a higher quality storage device might help?

3

Sorry to hear that you have it too @Cracky. Is it possible it’s just a coincidence it started at the same time you got the new drive? My computer is about 3 months old, so brand-new built-in SSD and there is 900GB free and no signs or reason to believe its damaged or corrupted in any way.

4

Hey there,

You would definitely see something like this if you had to switch to a slower drive type. (Or if there was some sort of corruption with the drive being used) but that would be pretty edge case.

There are numerous potential causes of this. Driver issues, hardware configuration, windows issues, data corruption with the game client or even interference from other software on the system.

Basic recommendations based on the system you presented would be.

Ensure you have all OS updates.

Try clean reinstalling nvidia drivers from nvidia. (not using some 3rd party updater or windows update)

Now since this is a laptop running an intel. It likely is using dual gpu’s the Intel UHD 630 that is integrated with the CPU and the dedicated RTX 2070… These systems will rely on the integrated GPU for basic functions and switch to the dedicated for heavier loads … in theory.

In practice it is very easy for the system to get confused and not make that switch or even be blocked from it by power plan or other throttle settings.

One of the first things I think of when I see laptop and low FPS is that the system is not properly switching between the intel and nvidia GPU for the game.

First check your system’s power plan to make sure it is not on balance or power saving.

Second make sure your system is not set to limit performance while on battery (or make sure you are plugged in and charging while playing)

Then let’s make sure the game is defaulting to the dedicated GPU when running:

You may need to correct your graphics setting to ensure the game is using your dedicated card instead of the integrated one:

  1. Right click desktop, select Nvidia Control panel.
  2. Go to Manage 3D Settings, in the global settings section, click the restore button to the bottom right of the settings list. Click Apply
  3. Go to the Set PhysX Configuration page and select your Nvidia processor to be the PhysX processor, click Apply.
  4. Go back to Manage 3D Settings, select the Program Settings tab, find the app/game in question, locate the cuda option in the list, select Use Global settings, click apply.

Next, this is a Razerblade which almost certainly means its got all the razer software installed and running on it. Look for an icon on the notification bar for Razer synapse, right click it and choose exit all apps. (This will not prevent your hardware from functioning, it just disables all the optimization and lighting management stuff)

From there let’s clean up the game client:

  1. Right click Windows Start
  2. Open File Explorer
  3. Open Documents
  4. Delete the Overwatch folder and empty the Recycle Bin.

(This will deleted any unsaved/saved highlights so if you wish to preserve those, save and then move them from the videos folder before deleting the OW folder.)

Then retest. If the issue is solved awesome! If not then we need to dig deeper into the issue than is really practical on this forum. I recommend submitting a direct support ticket for additional assistance: Contact Support - Blizzard Support

Be sure to include the system files requested in the submission.

5

Thank you very much for the in-depth response. I just had this lag issue again today. I will begin going through all of your steps one by one and report back when I have more information.

Edit:

Quick update. I continue to have this issue after making sure to be completely up to date on all OS updates. My most recent step is to uninstall Razer Cortex, which is apparently not essential and causes some people issues.

Because this issue is very occasional and not easily reproducible, I can’t fix it in one day. But I will update this whenever I have more information in case it can at all be helpful to others.

We’ll see of uninstalling Cortex helps.

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