CS:GO freezes every other round when joining a game

[nickbg321]

I've been trying to debug a very frustrating problem with CS:GO on my wife's new PC (Win 11, 5600X, RX 6600 XT, 16GB RAM) where every other round the game would freeze on "Retrieving server info" when loading the new map and you have to kill it and start it again.

 

I have tried all the popular suggested fixes short of doing a complete Win reinstall:

• Updating drivers

• Updating Windows

• Verifying game files

• Reinstalling the game

• Adding various startup flags like -disable_d3d9ex, -cl_disablehtmlmotd 1

• Running in compatibility mode

There are no issues with other games like Warzone for e.g. and when CS:GO actually manages to load it runs without a hitch at 300+ fps.

 

[DoctorNick]

14 minutes ago, nickbg321 said:

I've been trying to debug a very frustrating problem with CS:GO on my wife's new PC (Win 11, 5600X, RX 6600 XT, 16GB RAM) where every other round the game would freeze on "Retrieving server info" when loading the new map and you have to kill it and start it again.

 

I have tried all the popular suggested fixes short of doing a complete Win reinstall:

• Updating drivers

• Updating Windows

• Verifying game files

• Reinstalling the game

• Adding various startup flags like -disable_d3d9ex, -cl_disablehtmlmotd 1

• Running in compatibility mode

There are no issues with other games like Warzone for e.g. and when CS:GO actually manages to load it runs without a hitch at 300+ fps.

 

What mobo, what speed is ram running, etc?

Try disabling DOCP. If PBO is enabled, try disaling that. Make sure bios is updated.

[nickbg321]

1 minute ago, DoctorNick said:

What mobo, what speed is ram running, etc?

Try disabling DOCP. If PBO is enabled, try disaling that. Make sure bios is updated.

Mobo is an ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (WI-FI), BIOS is up to date and PBO is disabled. RAM is a G.Skill RipJaws V 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 with the standard DOCP profile enabled, no additional overclock.

[DoctorNick]

1 minute ago, nickbg321 said:

Mobo is an ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (WI-FI), BIOS is up to date and PBO is disabled. RAM is a G.Skill RipJaws V 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 with the standard DOCP profile enabled, no additional overclock.

Alright. Try running no DOCP with auto profile, just for testing. Later you can figure out timings etc. Also consider disabling Asus Armoury crate in bios.

[nickbg321]

I managed to fix the problem by using a combination of "-disable_d3d9ex" startup flag and setting model textures to Low in game. After some additional reading this appears to be a relatively common issue with CS:GO on RDNA 2 cards, AMD seems to be aware of the problem but there's still no driver fix available.