Make Overwatch 2 smooth: MSI mode utility, deadlock, Interrupt affinity policy tool

smooth-overwatch.md

Make Overwatch Smoother Guide!

Thanks to Savitarax for their YouTube video guides.

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUy3tMPRffQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQkB-EQ_mi4

MSI Mode Utility

Make sure your mouse is the only thing that is plugged into a USB controller. This can be done by using Device Manager.

Enable MSI mode for only:

• The USB controller where your mouse is plugged in
• Your graphics card

Set the priority to high for both. Disable MSI mode for anything else.

Interrupt Affinity Policy Tool

Mouse and GPU should be on the same cores. Audio and Network should be on separate cores.

This is my setup for the Ryzen 5 2600x:

• CPU 1: Intel(R) I211 Gigabit Network Connection
• CPU 2: HID-compliant mouse
• CPU 2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
• CPU 4: High Definition Audio Controller

Deadlocks

You will need to do this every time you launch Overwatch.

1. Open Overwatch and minimize it.
2. Open Task Manager and go to Details.
3. Right-click on Overwatch.exe and click on Analyze wait chain.

If you see a lot of red text, It means Overwatch is in deadlock. Ending processes in task manager can kill the game. We will use Process Explorer instead to kill these "threads".

1. Open Process Explorer
2. Double click on Overwatch.exe
3. Go to the Threads tab.
4. Click on the TID column at the top to sort the list.
5. Kill all the red threads in the Analyze wait chain window using Process Explorer. the TID will be after the Thread: text.

After that, reopen the Analyze wait chain window to see if the red processes are gone. If they are still there, repeat the process without closing closing Overwatch.

Now, you can actually aim.