CS2 players with AMD graphics cards are having a tough time with huge game stutters after driver updates.
Many players reported issues since the Sept. 27 launch of CS2 on places like Reddit with standing still for several seconds, and then suddenly teleporting to where they were planning to go to. Enemies magically materialize on their screens, after seconds of silence. The stutters are causing some severe angst, and it’s all due to shader compilation.
The issue is seemingly pretty simple: CS2 doesn’t pre-load shaders, forcing the game to render them in real-time, which can cause some huge disconnects between what’s happening in the game and what the player sees on their screen. So far, there really isn’t a silver bullet solution, other than to fly around a practice server with all of the guns and grenades on every map, forcing the game to compile all the shaders before jumping into a competitive match.
No one sincerely expected CS2 to have a perfect launch. CS:GO was a work in progress years after its launch, and had several facelifts before it became the buttery smooth war machine it was in its later years. With several new elements in the game, like enhanced graphics and volumetric smoke grenades, and a new engine, there were bound to be some growing pains.
In the months and years to come, CS2 is likely to become what CS:GO was towards the end of its lifetime, but until that time comes there will be some tech issues. Until then, players with AMDs who want a smooth experience are going to have to manually load their shaders.
