Grinding Gear Games has finally addressed two of the most persistent technical headaches plaguing Path of Exile 2. In a celebratory video update, game director Jonathan Rogers announced that a new Nvidia Game Ready driver, version 680.88, paired with the latest game patch, effectively resolves long-standing issues with device removal crashes and shader compilation performance.
The "device removed" error, which caused frequent game freezes, black screens, and severe performance dips, had been a significant hurdle for players for over a year and a half. Rogers revealed that the issue was tied to Nvidia drivers, though initial communication with the manufacturer was challenging. After Nvidia was initially skeptical regarding the frequency of the bugs, the development team eventually shipped a dedicated PC setup to Nvidia, demonstrating the crash occurring every few minutes. This concrete proof allowed the two companies to finally isolate and fix the driver-level fault.
Separately, the development team tackled the game's notoriously slow shader compilation process. Rogers explained that complex visual effects were not being cached correctly due to an Nvidia driver limitation that caused cache folders to overflow, leading to visual artifacts and sluggish load times. While Grinding Gear Games cannot bypass the driver's underlying behavior, they have successfully optimized the shaders to occupy significantly less file space, preventing the cache from filling up prematurely.
With these technical hurdles cleared, the engine optimization team can return to their standard development pipeline. To mark the milestone, Rogers toasted the accomplishment by opening a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Vintage, a fitting celebration for finally putting these frustrating performance issues to rest.