System specs:
Windows 10 pro
Version: 10.0.19045 build 19045
B660m Phantom Gaming motherboard
x64 PC based
i5-12700kf 3700mhz processor
32 gb ram
RTX3060 gfx
Hey, I have had an issue trying to play through the acts on a new character. I have the occassional crash or seven through the game normally but sometimes it'll get stuck on an instance and be unable to proceeed crashing immediately. Switching zones or swapping characters then swapping back does not fix it. I have to clean install to progress another 10-15 minutes. Happened at Renly with the reforging spikes in act 1, is currently happening at Halani Gates in act 2.
There will be a moderately acceptable amount of crashes during gameplay normally considering early access like 1 or 2 an hour, but often times it'll get locked in an instance and crash immediately or after any steps taken in an area with no way around or fix like in halani or with renly.
That sounds very frustrating to deal with considering you know your brother can play the game with a seemingly worse setup. Right off the bat your specs seem fine, which is good.
1 - I would suggest you make a post on POE2's 'Early Access Bug Reports' section(
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-forum/2214). Hopefully it's an issue on their end and the devs can fix it eventually.
2 - Did a quick search on le google to see if anyone has any quick fix/workarounds:
1) Turn off Multithreading - In game options>graphics>engine multithreading>uncheck (Whenever you change maps or load into a new instance, turn off engine multithreading, then after you get into the new map or instance, turn it back on)
2) Turn off Nvidia flex - In game options>graphics>Nvidia reflex>off
3) Find installation folder of POE2 and rightclick either "PathOfExileSteam.exe" or stand alone client "PathOfExile.exe" and go to 'Properties>Compatibility>Check Disable Fullscreen optimizations and Run this program as a administrator
4) You have to do this each time you boot up the game but go to 'Task Mananger>Details>Rightclick PathofExile.exe>Set Affinity>Uncheck CPU 1 and CPU2 (What this does is it will make it so when the game freezes or crashes, you won't have to hard reset powerdown/powerup the PC again and you can still load back to desktop. It won't fix the problem but should be a tiny bit less headache.
If any of the above worked, it means POE2 is fucked and the devs need to fix it. If still fucked, try below
Some follow up questions:
-When you get a crash getting stuck in an instance, you say that you have to fresh install windows or the game? If it's fresh install windows, do you reinstall all the drivers again? When I say drivers I don't just mean the GPU, I also mean like the chipset drivers for the mobo, audio, LAN/wireless, etc.
-What GPU driver are you running? You can check this through Nvidia control panel by navigating to 'help dropdown>system info' or if you have Nvidia app, this info is in the driver section.
3 - I would advise to monitor your CPU and GPU temperatures while playing. There are several ways to do this, but you can download something like 'HWMonitor' and run it while playing, you'll want to look at the temperatures section for your CPU and GPU, if they happen to get too high while playing, it could shutdown the game as well.