"Render Device Lost" Fix for RTX

Tried this method and still does not work for me. Instantly crashes when I join a game. Specs:

GPU:
Gigabyte RTX 2070

The OverwatchTest method did not work for me. Instead of getting the “Render Device Lost” message, I just crash to desktop.

Specs: i9-9900K, Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390, 32gb G.Skill 3200 C14 Memory, EVGA RTX 2080 Ti FTW3
NVIDIA Driver: 417.71

I have an RTX 2070 from Gigabyte (Gaming OC 8 G).

At the moment I am not yet using 417.71 but 417.35, if I am correct. I am a little hesitant on getting the latest drivers installed because my crashes already seem to happen less often than for some in this thread. My crashes, if they happen are once a day (It has never happened to me twice per day) which could be in the first match but it usually happens after a few hours of play, if it happens at all. The crashes seem to happen at any time during QP matches. At least for me it doesn’t seem to happen solely when there is a lot going on. It can even happen when it is just me and one other person on screen.

Update: I haven’t crashed yet with the OverwatchTest method.

No results here… Still crashes after a few games.

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I have a rog strix 1080 and I still experience this crash… It usually happens while streaming, but happens when off-stream too… temps are normal, all drivers are updated, not sure what to do at this point… I’d like to note Black Out 4 has started disappearing every few games since their latest patch as well. It doesn’t leave any errors, the game just disappears…

specs: Ryzen 2700x, 32gb 3200mhz cl14 RAM, 500gb m.2 NVME, 1080 rog strix, X470F rog strix mobo

For those of you who the “OverwatchTest.exe” method works for, or who haven’t tried it yet, this is intentionally breaking driver profiles for the game. When your drivers search for a game, it searches for a known application file. By renaming the application we break the association it has for the game.

It seems like this is hit and miss, but it’s working for some. If you haven’t tried this yet, it’s worth a shot for anybody with an RTX card having this issue. Keep in mind, the work around above is intended for RTX (20x0) series cards. If you have a different card, you have a different issue most likely.

For those who are having other problems after the rename, or who are crashing straight to desktop without the Rendering Device Lost Error, you may have a separate issue on top of what we suspect is the issue currently. We’re still testing but we forwarded your reports to the devs. Please keep reporting if renaming your application file as mentioned above and launching changes the behavior for now. We’ll let you know if we make any progress.

I played for several days without issues after disabling TDR, but just today I received the “Render Device Lost” error and shortly after my machine seized up. I agree with the suggestion to simply adjust the timeout if you’re exploring this route.

I have a 2070 and this has been working for me for the past two days. I have also been making sure to not have anything else running while playing to try and reduce load. I also have the game on low settings. The combination of these seems to do the trick.

I had to redirect the client to the folder after fixing the name to download the latest update. It is also a pain to manually sign in and manually type in the two-step code, but at least I haven’t lost any more SR

I haven’t crashed since disabling the kill-cam.

Why is my authenticator not working with the OverwatchTest?

It works, just have to use it manually.

Renaming the application has worked for me. No more crashes. Anecdotally I only crashed when youtube was open in the background but now it doesn’t matter anymore at least with this temporary workaround.

Annoying having to rename it everytime there is an update though.

Nope, entering the authenticator code manually does not work.

Thanks.

So far, with the above OverwatchTest workaround the game has been stable for 3 full nights of play. I haven’t had any errors or crashes. Sure it’s a little annoying to open the game in this manner, but what’s more annoying is losing 50 SR and incurring a 10 minute timeout from comp because my hardware is too new.

This fix will work for now though for sure.

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Installed the latest patch and Nvidia drivers and Overwatch still crashes every 10-20~ minutes on my RTX 2080.
I love Overwatch but I can’t bloody play like this.

What is the error message being shown? Depending on the error message it is also possible you are using the wrong password.

@Ekimu

Have you tried out the OverwatchTest method yet?

EVGA RTX 2070 Black - OverwatchTest does not work, just crashed at the beginning of a comp game and lost 60 rating + 30min penalty. Great. No crashes in any other games.

2 Likes

I’m running an RTX 2080 Duke OC from MSI and had been experiencing nightly crashes playing Overwatch since putting my build together. I’ve now been crash-free for the last 5 nights of play after making a few adjustments.

  1. Removed all but the factory overclocks on both my CPU (8600k) and GPU. (CPU is factory clocked to 4.1GHz and I set the GPU to it’s default in Afterburner). I had been running the CPU at 4.8GHz.

  2. Flashed an updated vBIOS on my GPU. (MSI released an updated vBIOS for the card a couple weeks after it was released, but apparently requires you to apply it manually.)

I wish my methodology had been more scientific so I could better determine which of these changes got rid of the crashing, I’m just glad that things seem to be stable now.

Check ( techpowerup . com / vgabios / ) if you’d like to see if a more recent vBIOS has been released for your video card than the one it shipped with. I used nvflash to apply the new one.

Hello guys,

I have the same issue “Render Device Lost”. My computer is :

  • I7 9700k OC @ 4.9GHZ
  • RTX 2080 GAMING X TRIO
  • MSI Z390 PRO CARBON
  • DDR4 G.Skill Trident Z, 16 Go, 3200 MHz, CAS 14 (with XMP profile activated)

I thought it was an issue due to my GPU OC, so I’ve deleted MSI AfterBurner and remove all my graphic card drivers using DDU. It seems to be more stable than before the OC but I still have this issue randomly… I would say that I have the same issue with BF5 who is crashing sometimes for no reason…

When OW is working, my fps is 140-180 using epic setting and 1920*1080 @ 144hz. I don’t know what do you get guys but I think it’s clearly nothing for this kind of GPU… So I really think it’s NVIDIA drivers problems…

Please find a fix asap… :confused: . I can do all tests for you Blizzard if you want. Just tell me what to do !

Thanks

Look at my post immediately above yours. Check if there was an update released for your GPUs BIOS and see if applying that helps.