Every season of Overwatch is the same ol’ song and dance. New season comes out; Overwatch has crashed in the graphics driver.
This is the only game that I have issues with, and it occurs each updated season. I go through the same ol’ rigmarole. Scan and repair the install. Update drivers. Check 3d settings. Verify no overheating. Verify nothing is overclocked. Change 3d setting for maximum power performance. Plug PC into wall, not power strip. Change the exe in retail to overwatchtest.exe. Verify no overlays are turned on. Uninstall and Reinstall. If it has been suggested for this issue, I’ve tried it. Many times I can not even make it past the login screen before this error occurs. Windows Event Viewer shows nothing of value to assist with this error. Why is this only occurring with OW?
I, by no means, have a PC that is not spec’d for this game. Its Big Boy Beefy!
I am running Windows 11 on a watercooled i9-14900K with 128GB of RAM and a 4090. There isn’t a game out there that I can’t blaze through with this Beast, so I would be surprised the issue is linked to my PC and not OW, especially since I was just on the game for a lengthy time prior to the patch being applied earlier without any crashes.
I see so many others having this same issue, so what kind of patterns are any of you experiencing? Currently, I can’t even make it to the menu before it crashes.
Here to join you pal, we are not working this path alone. Holy sh** I have never seen frame drops this bad after any season updates. Used to have stable 250-300 fps in s10 on a 240hz monitor and now its unbearable to play cuz it drops massively to 150 every 10 seconds.
Specs is not the top tier: i5-12600K, RX 6800XT, 32GB DDR4 3200mhz
But still, ain’t no way I should be struggling cuz I have no driver issues, no overheating, CPU & GPU utilization are both under 60%
I stole this from Reddit post. I’m about halfway through it, but still crashing. I’m not sure if any of this well help with your frame drop issue, but thought I’d share:
launch command prompt in admin mode then type (sfc /scannow) and let it run.
search ‘game mode settings’ and disable game bar. Also, disable game mode.
unplug PC from any surge protector and plug your PC directly into the wall.
search for ‘graphics settings’> click browse>navigate to your OverwatchTest.exe(it should be in your retail folder make sure to rename overwatch.exe to OverwatchTest.exe) and choose high performance. Do the same thing but select Overwatch launcher in the Overwatch folder (back out of retail folder to see OW folder).
go to Nvidia control panel>manage 3d settings> under global settings if there is a drop box click it and select your GPU and hit apply. If you don’t see a drop box you can also go to device manager> expand display adapters> disable any devices that are not your graphics card like integrated graphics.
right click Overwatch icon on your desktop> click on properties>click compatibility tab>check mark ‘disable full screen optimization’> and check mark ‘launch as admin’.
run command prompt as admin and type ( DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:repairSource\install.wim)
go to Nvidia control panel. Go to adjust desktop size and position. change the scaling mode to full screen. you can also try preforming scaling on GPU by clicking the Dropbox(try both). hit apply.
go into your bios PCIE settings and switch your GPU PCIE gen from auto to three or four.
go to bios and disable XMP mode
go to bios and disable HD audio
search ‘graphics settings’ and turn on hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
go into battle net app>click the gear icon next to OW2>click game settings>check additional command line arguments> type (-tank_WorkerThreadCount 2 -d3d11 -threads 2) in the box>press done.
go into your browser settings search ‘graphics’ and disable use graphics acceleration when available.
go into task manager>while battle net is running right click battle net process> go to details>right click agent.exe>set priority>change to high priority. Set all battle net processes to high priority.
search windows defender firewall> click allow an app or feature through windows defender>click change settings> navigate to overwatch application>make sure both boxes are checked and click OK .If you don’t see OW click allow another app>click browse and navigate to your overwatch retail folder(make sure you change overwatch.exe to overwatchTest.exe) click overwatchTest.exe>make sure both boxes are checked.
In Nvidia control panel navigate to manage 3D settings>scroll to power management mode> click the drop box> select prefer maximum performance>press apply button.
NOTE: to launch from battle net app change your OverwatchTest.exe back to Overwatch.exe in your Overwatch>retail folder.