Hardcore game “freeze” deaths

The “freeze” you may be encountering might not have anything to do with your computer or graphics setting.  The game client has to basically load both graphical textures (off your disk) and map data whenever you resume or start a game.  The same holds true for the initial mob (their graphics and animation effects) that you encounter.  If a mob ends up also appearing at your checkpoint, that is additional data the client needs to buffer.  It’s actually the worst scenario because the video could basically end up freezing for a couple of seconds.

The game also currently will re-spawn you at your last checkpoint outside of town (as mentioned, this behavior is changing in 1.0.7 as you will always re-spawn in town; a portal will exist for your last checkpoint).

This is why the suggestion to basically go into Change Quest and start a new quest.  Just a warning though, with some quests, you will lose your previous progress unless you picked up the next checkpoint.  A good example is during the Heart of Sin quest.  Say you exited at the Arreat Crater Level 2 waypoint.  If you start a new quest and then try to go back to the Heart of Sin quest, you will to need to re-clear from Arreat Crater Level 1.

What I do when progressing is to end the run when I get a checkpoint.  The next time I resume playing, I change the difficulty level to a lower one for the same quest and start game (if you want to be ultra safe just select normal difficulty).  I do this so that I can get the game client to at least buffer most of the non random texture and map data.  I’ll also play through for a few minutes (that will also get the monster data buffered), portal back to town, exit game, then change back the difficulty.

I’ve been testing the content load lag on the 1.0.7 PTR.  It has gotten a bit better but it still does happen.  Having the game client installed on an SSD only helps a bit.  I run the game at 2560×1600 with everything on the highest settings.  Using the above, I’ve avoided that initial content lag and video freeze.  As usual though, your mileage may vary since the amount of RAM and fragmentation state of the disk the game is installed on could also play factors.