Cannot Play Diablo IV

[chazus]

A friend of mine is trying to run D4 beta, and basically it is unplayable for them. It usually crashes especially in cities, but the game is virtually unplayable regardless. They're running an i5-7400, 7200rpm HDD with plenty of space, and 12gb ram. I figured this would be fine since we have other, weaker computers that can play the game just fine. I recommended an SSD but didn't think it was -mandatory-.

The main issue is that both CPU and HDD spike to 100% while the game is running.

SFC is clear, chkdsk is clear, temps are ok, updated to 22H2, crystaldisk showed no bad sectors, system runs decently with everything else. Nothing is eating up other resources.

[zarkonan]

A friend of mine is trying to run D4 beta, and basically it is unplayable for them. It usually crashes especially in cities, but the game is virtually unplayable regardless. They're running an i5-7400, 7200rpm HDD with plenty of space, and 12gb ram. I figured this would be fine since we have other, weaker computers that can play the game just fine. I recommended an SSD but didn't think it was -mandatory-.

The main issue is that both CPU and HDD spike to 100% while the game is running.

SFC is clear, chkdsk is clear, temps are ok, updated to 22H2, crystaldisk showed no bad sectors, system runs decently with everything else. Nothing is eating up other resources.

Same for me HDD spike to 100% usage, unplayable when installation on HDD, SSD its playable but disk usage is high for duration of the run

[SoulForge]

A friend of mine is trying to run D4 beta, and basically it is unplayable for them. It usually crashes especially in cities, but the game is virtually unplayable regardless. They're running an i5-7400, 7200rpm HDD with plenty of space, and 12gb ram. I figured this would be fine since we have other, weaker computers that can play the game just fine. I recommended an SSD but didn't think it was -mandatory-.

The main issue is that both CPU and HDD spike to 100% while the game is running.

SFC is clear, chkdsk is clear, temps are ok, updated to 22H2, crystaldisk showed no bad sectors, system runs decently with everything else. Nothing is eating up other resources.

The game may be in a more playable state after release with optimizations. But I noticed a little skipping here and there and my system is not weak by any standard. My 5950x was using quite a bit of CPU playing it. I would consider this unplayable on an HDD. I'd wager that is becoming more common with recent games.

[mrgreenthump]

The game may be in a more playable state after release with optimizations. But I noticed a little skipping here and there and my system is not weak by any standard. My 5950x was using quite a bit of CPU playing it. I would consider this unplayable on an HDD. I'd wager that is becoming more common with recent games.

I didn't really see any problems myself. I'm using a gen 4 NVME drive though. My CPU usage was around 10% max and memory usage varied from as low as 6GB to 10GB. Meanwhile others were struggling a lot. Some people reported above 15GB memory usage and problems with their video cards.

[chazus]

I'm just trying to determine if this is a "It's technical beta" or "Games don't run on HDD anymore"

Either way I convinced them to get an SSD regardless because it's just the proper thing to do even if they weren't having problems.

[coblade14]

Check out the official spec requirements here:

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/251518

The minimum spec askes for a SSD with 45GB available. So yes, games now-a-days expect you to have a SSD now. TBH I think that's quite fair considering how much they cost.

[Nerph-]

I didn't really see any problems myself. I'm using a gen 4 NVME drive though. My CPU usage was around 10% max and memory usage varied from as low as 6GB to 10GB. Meanwhile others were struggling a lot. Some people reported above 15GB memory usage and problems with their video cards.

I was one of the latter. On high settings the game was using 20GB memory and my gpu (rtx 2070) was not enjoying it either, with the fans spinning up sounding like an airplane taking off quite a few times, and that was even after lowering the settings to medium or low.

[rogoth]

based on the limited info provided i can say that it's likely a hardware issue rather than a software issue, the PC sounds ro be very old by modern standards, furthermore without know what GPU is being used it's difficult to really give a 100% reason, but ultimately even with an ssd, that system likely needs a very major overhaul if they plan to play this game at release or any 'new' games that are either just released or coming up for release, it's been shown by multiple review sites that even 5 year old hardware (which for most stuff is perfectly fine) is no longer cutting it for modern titles and is requiring a lot of upgrading from older systems to keep up with the improvements and advances made in current gen games.

[XDurionX]

I'm just trying to determine if this is a "It's technical beta" or "Games don't run on HDD anymore"

Either way I convinced them to get an SSD regardless because it's just the proper thing to do even if they weren't having problems.

Definitely not a HDD vs. SSD issue, i played it on an HDD just fine. Loading takes a little longer obviously, but that's only a factor when entering a dungeon.

[mrgreenthump]

I was one of the latter. On high settings the game was using 20GB memory and my gpu (rtx 2070) was not enjoying it either, with the fans spinning up sounding like an airplane taking off quite a few times, and that was even after lowering the settings to medium or low.

I guess one thing that might have had a big impact was that I used resizable BAR and FPS limiter at 144Hz. This at 3440x1440p all maxed settings.

[Kassudo]

I have the same problem, but never could solve it =(

[SoulForge]

I didn't really see any problems myself. I'm using a gen 4 NVME drive though. My CPU usage was around 10% max and memory usage varied from as low as 6GB to 10GB. Meanwhile others were struggling a lot. Some people reported above 15GB memory usage and problems with their video cards.

I saw 21GB being used at one point. So it can go wayyyy up there. I also have a Gen4 NVMe.

[Biglog]

The combination of HDD and not enough ram is likely the culprit. Windows 11 just by itself and running a handful of system background apps can add up to 12-13GB easily, before even starting your game. So even though they listed 8GB as the minimum, on most systems (at least on Windows 11) I'm not sure how that'd be enough. That's where the HDD doubles your problems since it's low throughput disk compared to SDD, and it'll try the swapping the entire game memory back and forth to disk just to be able to run. That never goes well. 12GB with a stripped-down bare bones Win 10 install AND a SDD might get you by. But 12GB+HDD, especially on Windows 11 and/or if much is running in the background at best won't work well and crashes wouldn't be surprising.

You can also check how much free ram is available before you normally run a game and see how much there. Not sure how much Diablo 4 needs exactly but I'm sure it's a good 6GB+.

[Othraerir]

i have an i5 6500 and the game ran fine. SSD drive, 970gt. I think the graphics were set to medium, had no issues whatsoever, occasional rubber banding, but that's not my end.

I would assume it's the HDD and 12gb ram, i had a look when i was playing it and d4 was using up 13gb ram, I used to have 8 but dragonflight ran like shit, so i got another 16 so i have 24 now.

[czarek]

A friend of mine is trying to run D4 beta, and basically it is unplayable for them. It usually crashes especially in cities, but the game is virtually unplayable regardless. They're running an i5-7400, 7200rpm HDD with plenty of space, and 12gb ram. I figured this would be fine since we have other, weaker computers that can play the game just fine. I recommended an SSD but didn't think it was -mandatory-.

The main issue is that both CPU and HDD spike to 100% while the game is running.

SFC is clear, chkdsk is clear, temps are ok, updated to 22H2, crystaldisk showed no bad sectors, system runs decently with everything else. Nothing is eating up other resources.

HDD shouldnt be a problem but loading is really crucial these days. Ill suggest to run it on SSD. I was playin on ryzen5 1600 + SSD with no problems at all so its not CPU. Cheap SSD will be way WAY better than best HDD on loading times.

[JustaWarlock]

Diablo 4 Beta has/had a memory leak issue. I think you will find your friends issue was related to the 7.2krpm hard drive and the beta heavily utilizing the swap file. Even systems with 32GB memory were hitting the swap, so with 12GB I think it's extremely likely you were. It's less likely to be an issue in release.

Get an SSD if you can, and make sure you set your swap (paging) file to be located only on that drive, and not the sata drive.

[8bithamster]

Played it on high without issues. Pc

I5 6600
16gb memory
Msi 1070
3440x1440

Installed on Sata ssd

[mrgreenthump]

Diablo 4 Beta has/had a memory leak issue. I think you will find your friends issue was related to the 7.2krpm hard drive and the beta heavily utilizing the swap file. Even systems with 32GB memory were hitting the swap, so with 12GB I think it's extremely likely you were. It's less likely to be an issue in release.

Get an SSD if you can, and make sure you set your swap (paging) file to be located only on that drive, and not the sata drive.

It didn't seem to hit everyone though. I saw multiple people getting crazy numbers and my comp was fine. Highest I saw the memory usage go was 11 gigs after 10+ hours of playing.

About SSD, this game is one of the few where a fast NVME drive will benefit out as it's using DirectStorage, but likely not going to be a must. It's just much longer loading times without, which aren't really a problem.

[bloodwulf]

Played on both the Preorder Weekend and Open weekend. Did not have any issues other than 1 or 2 disconnects. That said my computer is high spec, and i do not have a mechanical drive at all.

My specs:
i7-12700k
Gigabyte 3080
32gb DDR5 RAM
2 TB Samsung 980 Pro Gen 4 NVME

That said, the minimum specs say "Storage: SSD with 45 GB available space" so even in the minimum they are listing SSD. Does that mean it wont work on mechanical? No, does that mean there could be expected to be issues with running on mechanical, yup. You are not hitting even their minimum recommendations. In this day in age, for a general gaming PC, mechanicals just basically don't have much longer to be relevant.

[JustaWarlock]

It didn't seem to hit everyone though. I saw multiple people getting crazy numbers and my comp was fine. Highest I saw the memory usage go was 11 gigs after 10+ hours of playing.

I run a very high end system though (4090/nvme/32GB) - with everything on max I did hit around 40GB of memory use, but performance wasn't affected due to having swap on the nvme drive.

Not every play session though, other times memory usage was fine. Just beta things, hopefully they actually fix it for launch.