Running on PC, Royal Edition downloaded through Steam. The game takes forever to load up originally, acts unresponsive until finally going to the standard loading screens and main menu.
Once I'm in game, the game becomes non-responsive every twenty minutes or so, lasting for 3 to 5 minutes each time. If I try to keep clicking, I'll get the Windows 10 prompt telling me the game is not responding and I can close it if I like. Otherwise, I can wait it out and then the game will become responsive again and play just fine for another twenty minutes or so, and then we do this all again.
This does not correlate with autosaves (those happen nice and quick). Freezes don't seem to correspond to anything happening in-game; it happens on random dates, it happens whether I'm in a menu or just browsing the map, and it happens while I'm just sitting idle watching the dates tick by. Occurs whether playing in windowed or fullscreen. Verified all files through Steam multiple times, no change. Did full uninstall and reinstall, reinstalled on different hard drive, no change. Drivers are confirmed up-to-date.
DxDiag/logs etc all attached.
EDIT: I think I've somewhat solved the issue, and I believe it's a hardware problem. I updated my mainboard bios (TUF x570 PLUS), did a full DDU uninstall of my video card drivers (RX 5700 XT) and re-installed using a previous major update (20.4.2) instead of the absolute latest version, and I changed the PCI-E mode from Auto to Gen3 for my GPU's PCI-E slot. The game stopped doing the freezes and loaded nice and fast, but I noticed crackling audio as I was playing and then would get a full system restart after about ten or fifteen minutes. Installed new audio drivers but no change.
Then I ran a 3d stress test and after about ten minutes at full load had the same restart. My theory now is that the later drivers (or something?) were putting my GPU on a time out rather than restarting my machine when it was hitting a certain point. I don't *think* it's a thermal issue (the temps hold pretty stable once the GPU is at full load) so I'm replacing my PSU (which is pretty old) and hoping that these issues are all caused by an aging PSU.
FINAL EDIT: I am now pretty certain that, in my case at least, the issue was hardware. I've replaced my PSU and everything seems to be working fine now, able to play the game for hours on High settings without issue. Basically if anyone is having an issue similar to the exact one I described, I would recommend trying to run a GPU stress test for 15 or 20 minutes and see if you get any crashes, and if you do, look into your GPU, BIOS settings, and/or PSU. Lots of good PSU reviews out there, and some good calculators to help figure out your wattage requirements, so the good news is that if this is your problem, it's a relatively quick and reasonably priced fix.
Once I'm in game, the game becomes non-responsive every twenty minutes or so, lasting for 3 to 5 minutes each time. If I try to keep clicking, I'll get the Windows 10 prompt telling me the game is not responding and I can close it if I like. Otherwise, I can wait it out and then the game will become responsive again and play just fine for another twenty minutes or so, and then we do this all again.
This does not correlate with autosaves (those happen nice and quick). Freezes don't seem to correspond to anything happening in-game; it happens on random dates, it happens whether I'm in a menu or just browsing the map, and it happens while I'm just sitting idle watching the dates tick by. Occurs whether playing in windowed or fullscreen. Verified all files through Steam multiple times, no change. Did full uninstall and reinstall, reinstalled on different hard drive, no change. Drivers are confirmed up-to-date.
DxDiag/logs etc all attached.
EDIT: I think I've somewhat solved the issue, and I believe it's a hardware problem. I updated my mainboard bios (TUF x570 PLUS), did a full DDU uninstall of my video card drivers (RX 5700 XT) and re-installed using a previous major update (20.4.2) instead of the absolute latest version, and I changed the PCI-E mode from Auto to Gen3 for my GPU's PCI-E slot. The game stopped doing the freezes and loaded nice and fast, but I noticed crackling audio as I was playing and then would get a full system restart after about ten or fifteen minutes. Installed new audio drivers but no change.
Then I ran a 3d stress test and after about ten minutes at full load had the same restart. My theory now is that the later drivers (or something?) were putting my GPU on a time out rather than restarting my machine when it was hitting a certain point. I don't *think* it's a thermal issue (the temps hold pretty stable once the GPU is at full load) so I'm replacing my PSU (which is pretty old) and hoping that these issues are all caused by an aging PSU.
FINAL EDIT: I am now pretty certain that, in my case at least, the issue was hardware. I've replaced my PSU and everything seems to be working fine now, able to play the game for hours on High settings without issue. Basically if anyone is having an issue similar to the exact one I described, I would recommend trying to run a GPU stress test for 15 or 20 minutes and see if you get any crashes, and if you do, look into your GPU, BIOS settings, and/or PSU. Lots of good PSU reviews out there, and some good calculators to help figure out your wattage requirements, so the good news is that if this is your problem, it's a relatively quick and reasonably priced fix.
Last edited:
.png){kind=avatar}
