After a year and a half of rigorous testing, Path of Exile 2 devs finally convinced Nvidia to fix a driver bug by sending it an entire PC
Path of Exile 2 has been plagued by a persistent freezing bug since its early access launch, causing the game to stall for up to 30 seconds approximately every 20 minutes. The issue affected numerous players, with dozens of Reddit threads documenting the problem and seeking solutions.
The root cause was identified as an Nvidia driver bug, and resolving it required an unconventional approach. After 18 months of rigorous testing and troubleshooting, developer Grinding Gear Games resorted to an extraordinary measure: sending an entire PC to Nvidia to demonstrate the problem firsthand. This physical proof of concept proved effective enough to convince Nvidia to finally prioritize and fix the driver issue.
While players initially had to work around the problem by adjusting graphics settings—a workaround that significantly degraded visual quality—the eventual driver fix eliminated the freezing without requiring such compromises. The incident highlights the challenging relationship between game developers and hardware manufacturers, and underscores the sometimes extraordinary lengths developers must go to in order to ensure optimal performance across all platforms.