Ok, so after trying many many fix, that were told on the Overwatch forum and YouTube, and everywhere I could find an advice (I even tried a total reboot of my computer). In the end, it still gave me “rendering device has been lost”. So I searched further more on internet, and found an advice from Nvidia, here it is :
Open NVIDIA control Panel (Right click on desktop and click on NVIDIA control panel) > Go to Manage 3D settings, under 3D Settings > select Program Settings > Select app/game from the dropdown menu > if it is not listed in the dropdown menu then click Add then select the respective .exe to the list > And now change these settings from Option 2.
Power management mode - prefer maximum performance
Tripple buffering - Off
Threaded optimization - ON
vertical Sync - off
Apply these settings, refresh the Desktop several times, start the game play and check the performance
In case you get the same “access denied” as me when trying to apply the settings, try to open it as administrator, or try downloading the latest Nvidia driver, from Nvidia Driver Downloads. If you can’t find it, just send me a message and I’ll give you the link.
For now I haven’t had the issue again, I hope it will definitly fix it for me, and for everyone else
Are you overclocking at some point ? I’ve seen somewhere that if you’re overclocking you can get the issue.
And I’ll probably gonna sound dumb, because it seems that tried everything like me, are you sure that your computer isn’t overheating ? I saw that if it gets close to 90°C it can also do that.
But I’ll try to make other research to see if I can find something to help you. I know how annoying it can be. Lost 250 points in ranked because of that x)
Nope, no overclocks. I’ve also monitored temps, neither my GPU nor my CPU goes above 70c.
As far as I know, there’s no know fix at the moment for the issue with people who have RTX cards . There’s a thread on the US forums with over 100+ replies and not a single one is able to play problem-less with RTX cards.
I feel like there’s some progress as currently I haven’t encountered the rendering device error, but the ‘Application encountered an unexpected error’ that I’ve mentioned in my reply before you posted with the Report ID. I’m waiting for a reply from the customer support as I suppose they have more info on what’s causing it.
Update, I’m might have found another way, I uninstalled the 3D driver and the PhysX game support software from nvidia, since I only need the video and audio drivers.
I’ve found that fix on GeForce forum.
I’ve experienced this issue before and here are my fixes that seemed to have worked:
Rolling back Windows 10 Update
Upon updating my latest windows version I was plagued with this error and the only fix seemed to be rolling back windows to the previous version, a version I’ve been on for almost a year now. That worked for me, but it may be too late for you.
RAM Replacement
A friend had this issue that later evolved into repeated crashes on almost every demanding game he played. Turns out after a year of investigation, it was a RAM issue.
Friend had to buy a new 8GB stick of RAM in order to play consistently and it solved the crashes on every game he had. Although the issue started with Overwatch crashing, it may not have been entirely related.
The problem in here, is that there’s only one game that crashes constantly, and it’s Overwatch. I think I kind of found another solution, it seems that the game doesn’t Overlay, so I took off Windows, Twitch and Discord Overlay. I’m right now trying to see which one was making my game crash.
Just thought that I may chip in here to help with the bugfixing.
I never had this issue with OW before
I have RTX2080 and always installed newest drivers
Two days ago I got a new monitor. Before I had 75hz connected by HDMI, changed it to 144hz connected by DisplayPort. No additional software or drivers installed. I enabled FreeSync in the Nvidia settings panel.
Since monitor changed my OW started to crash every few games with the “Rendering device has been lost” error. No other changes to system were made aside from that monitor thing.
Crash ALWAYS happens on the pre-match character selection screen OR on the post-match transitions between victory screen, PotG and cards screen. NEVER during actuall match.
So far no issues with other games but I need to play them a bit more to be sure.
Thank you for your post, Awe!
Could you please check also the steps that were already suggested in this thread? This error can have several potential causes (drivers, software conflict, overlays, temperatures and so on), it’s very important that you try and exclude as many as possible.
Please make also sure you add a link to your DxDiag and MSInfo files, as Neny requested here.
Does the issue persist if the FreeSync is disabled?
What monitor you had before and what mark/model you switched to?
Im same problem to old PC and new PC
old i7 4790k 1070GTX Win10 16gb Ram
new i9 9900k RTX2080 Win10 16gb Ram
all game run ok WoW Destiny2 etc … and Overwatch … BAM… RENDERING DEVICE HAS BEEN LOST
I have the exact same setup and spec and I have had this message constantly.
I have had a look around online and it just seems that its bad code from Blizzard’s side, I run quite a few other high FPS games with no issue, its only Overwatch that is effected.
The best fix at present is to just avoid OW until they have fixed the issue (dont expect this any time soon though)
Since I upgraded my pc to a RTX 2080 (from gtx 1060) this is happening every other game. I love Overwatch but this make the game unplayable. Competitive is all about getting back to where I was before I crash. I never had this problem with the 1060…
Guys, when posting in an active thread, please make sure you indicate all troubleshooting steps you already tried - for example, have you tried the ones listed here?
Additionally, please add links to your DxDiag and MSInfo files. Both can be uploaded to Pastebin, to add them to your reply, just highlight them and use the </> button.
The solution might be simpler than all of these. Enabled Discord Overlay causes this issue, as many have reported as such. I also personally experienced it. Disable it or turn off Discord altogether. See if it helps.
But…we mentioned overlays several times here already…
Jokes aside, thanks for sharing what worked for you, zigzag! While there are many different solutions for this error, I’m sure reading another player confirming what works can reassure those experiencing this issue!
@Everyone reading
Guys, I’ll be locking this thread now as we had no further reports here for almost 3 months (and no information provided after my last post). Should you experience this issue again, please open your own thread. Just make sure you follow troubleshooting steps suggested so far and provide the information requested here.
![:slight_smile:](https://d1kzxbyyijk9k6.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
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