While playing Overwatch 2, users encounter an issue where the game randomly crashes and shows the error ‘Your rendering device has been lost! Application closing!’ This error indicates that the game has crashed due to a problem with the rendering device, often caused by issues with the GPU.

Additionally, outdated graphic drivers or high usage of background apps can cause overheating, leading to frequent crashes.

In this article, we will discuss various solutions to solve this problem.

1. Disable Overclocking

Overclocking your GPU can enhance performance by running it at higher speeds. However, incorrect or aggressive overclock settings can lead to instability, power delivery issues, or thermal limits being exceeded, causing the GPU to crash and lose connection with the rendering device.

1. Open the app you used for overclocking (e.g., MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision X, ASUS GPU Tweak).
2. Click on the Reset button to revert the settings.
   
3. Close the application.
4. Launch the game to see if the problem is fixed.

<https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/10idndw/overwatch_2_rendering_device_lost/>

2. Update Graphics Drivers

Graphics drivers serve as the communication bridge between your operating system and the GPU. Outdated drivers may lack optimizations and bug fixes, leading to compatibility issues and crashes.

For Nvidia Graphics Card

1. Visit Nvidia’s Drivers website.
2. Enter your product details and hit Find.
   
3. Download the relevant driver.
4. Locate the downloaded file and double-click it to run the installer.
   
5. Choose the extraction path and press OK.
   
6. Select NVIDIA Graphics Driver and GeForce Experience and press Agree and Continue.
   
7. Choose Express installation and hit Next.
   
8. After the update is installed, restart your PC.
   

<https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/14joas9/comment/jpmwbxl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button>

For AMD Graphics Card

1. Visit the AMD website.
   
2. Click the Download & Support section.
   
3. Under Radeon Graphics & AMD Chipsets, click on Drivers.
   
4. Click on DOWNLOAD WINDOWS DRIVERS.
   
5. Open the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions.
   
6. Choose your destination folder and click Install.
   
7. The AMD Adrenalin software will launch and detect the system configuration.
8. Click the Install button.
   
9. Your screen may flicker during the installation.
10. After the installation is complete, restart your PC.
    

3. Close Background Apps and Monitor Overheating

When too many background applications are running, they consume significant system resources, including RAM and CPU. This can cause the GPU to overheat or the system to become resource-starved, resulting in the game crashing.

1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to open Task Manager.
2. Select any unnecessary app and click on End Task.
   

4. Repair Game Files

If the issue persists, it may be due to corrupted game files. Restoring them via the Repair option can help.

1. Search for the battle.net client and open it.
2. Go to the Library.
3. Find Overwatch 2 and click on the Settings icon.
4. Click Start And Repair.
   
5. Wait for the process to complete.
6. Once done, check if the issue is fixed.

Note: If you use Steam to play Overwatch 2, you can

1. Open the Steam client.
2. Go to your Library.
3. Right-click on Overwatch 2 and select Properties.
4. Go to the Local Files tab.
5. Click on Verify Integrity of Game Files.
   
6. Steam will verify the game files and replace any missing or corrupted files.
7. Once the verification is complete, restart your PC and launch the game.

5. Run SFC and DISM

This issue might be caused due to corrupted system files, running the SFC and DISM commands will scan and fix all the corrupted system files which can cause issues while playing games.

1. Search for Command Prompt in the Search box and run it as Administrator.
   
   
2. Type the following commands:

   sfc /scannow
   Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

   

3. Restart your PC.