Drivers & Software

[Flow1]

This happens every single time i boot up the game. My friend just switched to AMD today and started having the same issue too. It's been happening for months for me.

I have searched r/Overwatch for people with similar issues, and pretty much all of them have AMD GPUs, with the earliest report of this issue being 7 months ago, i've seen a few say 23.5.1 is the last driver without this problem but i didn't test this. 22.11.2 fixes it. 

Anyway this is super annoying, my friend has it even worse with the game sometimes taking 10 minutes to fix itself. At first i thought it was the game constantly rebuilding shaders because this issue often came with high CPU usage but that isn't the case anymore, i get normal 20-40% CPU usage but just horrible framerates and it also has a pattern:

A few seconds after launch it runs at around 130 FPS but stutters a lot, then around a minute later it drops to the 70s with frametimes like you see in the middle picture, and it stays like that for another 2-3 minutes before finally becoming smooth. 

[evono]

For what its worth i dont experience this win 11 , 6800XT newest chipset and the last 2 stable and last 2 preview drivers.

[Flow1]

I have a theory that the issue gets worse on slower CPUs, i have a Ryzen 5 2600 and it can take upwards of 5 whole minutes for my framerates to go back to normal, if you have something more powerful the issue could still be there but it just fixes itself fast enough that by the time you're in game it's gone. 

Can you test this? Do you have MSI afterburner? Enable frametime graph on the OSD, launch the game and then go to Practice range as fast as you can and see what the frametime graph look like, if it was flat like the top and bottom pictures in my post then you're good, but if it had lots of up and down movement then wait a little bit and see if it gets flatter after 2-3 minutes. 

[Flow1]

Solution i found is to disable DXNAVI (the DX 11 improvements), i assume it will degrade the average FPS i get but it's worth it over having to wait 5 minutes every time i launch the game otherwise i get a stuttering mess.

Here's how to disable them:

Find "Registry Editor" in Windows search.

in the text box at the top that has the file path, copy this file path:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

And paste it there. 

Under the last folder you should be able to see 2 folders, one called "0000" and the other is "0001", your GPU can be anyone of them, to find which one choose one of them and see how many files are inside, if it has only 10 files or so then check the other one, it should have a lot more files and that's the one you want.

Find the file that's called "D3DVendorName" and double click it, a text box with 4 lines of text will show up, and each line ends with "amdxn64.dll" or "amdxx64.dll", you want to edit the 2 lines that have "amdxx64.dll" and change them to "atidxx64.dll", then press ok.

Now double click the file "D3DVendorNameWoW" which should be right under the first file, and you'll get the same 4 lines of text but this time they end with "32" instead of "64", you just have to do the same thing here, change the 2 lines that end with "amdxx32.dll" to "atidxx32.dll" and click ok.

[Flow1]

Since I have no idea how to edit, this is a reply to inform future visitors this solution no longer works starting from driver 24.1.1 and higher, not sure why AMD felt the need to patch that out. They claimed they were going to fix it in 24.3.1 but nothing changed for me, it's still there even after a fresh windows install.

[Damokles · Accepted solution]

Use this :

https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/anwave-2024-amd-radeon-software-customize-setup-advanced-cleanup-u...

I just used it and i was able to get the legacy dx11 drivers working on 24.5.1. Fixing DX11 shader cache stuttering with Sekiro and other dx11 games

[Flow1]

Thank you, this did work, Overwatch is normal now, however I found AnWave a bit confusing to use since the guide doesn't explain it but only explains how to disable DXNAVI, for some reason I don't have the Radeon software in the context menu on desktop anymore, I have to press Alt+R to open it, I chose (W11 full install DCH), I have no clue what DCH and UWP are but either way it worked.

This just feels way too jank, I want AMD to fix it. Or at least give us the ability to disable DXNAVI in Radeon software

[Damokles]

Good to hear .
Regarding the installation ,the reason your Adrenalin control panel got messed up is because the software deleted it and tried to install it again, you have to uncheck the "perform clean install" , Factory Reset"and Radeon Panel install  options in Home, App , and Main section. You could also disable some of that in the firs quick-launcher window

Based on my tests , the best way to get legacy DX11 without messing up anything or re-installing the driver can be simply done this way:

1-Install AMD drivers the normal way.

2-Launch AnWave, and get it ready ( you already know how)

3-Uncheck factory-reset and clean install options in Home and App sections

4-Uncheck everything in Main section EXCEPT , for "Enable compatible hybrid installation mode" under AMD Radeon Graphics driver (make sure you uncheck everything else)

5-Check the Install Legacy DirectX 11 UMD Support" and "Pop-up Interface Allows Users to Configure DirectX 11 API Mode options " in the Advanced section.

6- Click on install, Now the driver installation window will pop-up, but you already have have the driver installed, so just cancel it.

7- Configure DX11 options when the window pops-up by just selecting legacy dx11 option and keeping other options unchecked.

8 -DONE

That's basically the way to get it done without reinstalling anything, and yes i totally agree with you, AMD should at least just give us the option to disable/enable dxnavi on the fly from the Adrenalin software if they couldn't just fix their dx11 driver problem.

Luckily for you,  since you already have legacy dx11 driver installed, you can easily switch back and forth between the drivers without all of the previous steps by:

menu > Drivers > DirectX Control (For AMD).

Although i find no reason at all to do such thing in my use-case, many games will just run badly with dxnavi enabled.

[daggerfall]

I tried that tool, it's totally useless. I have problems in bfv with dx11, no stutters but fps drops from 144 to 70. When I installed modified driver 24.5.1 fps sits 90 and dropping to 55. rx6600/r7 2700x. Better just enable shader cache, change it from 'amd optimized' to always on

[Damokles]

Personally ,It solved the stutter issues I had with the single-player games I tested (Sekiro, and other older DX11 games) , and these are games that didn't have issues with AMD GPUs in the past.

I am not sure about BFV, but it may be one of the few games that benefit more from the optimized drivers than the legacy drivers.

That's why AMD should give us the option to enable/disable such optimizations from the adrenaline software , instead of resorting to modifying drivers on installation.

Edit: Just for the reference, my experience before and after the fix was pretty much similar to this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG8h2qAsSsU