DirectX 12 Games Crashing [FIXED]

If you’re having issues with Directx 12 games crashing, you’re not alone. Despite having a modern build, these crashes have become really common these days.

Many gamers have reported the same problem, and it can be super annoying.

In this post, I will explain why DirectX 12 games crash, how to fix it and measures you could take to avoid the issue in the future.

How I Resolved Directx 12 Games Crashing

I first noticed this while playing Battlefield 2042, where my PC would crash and reboot after about an hour. But after that crash, I could continue playing for several hours. 

The crash can sometimes result in a bluescreen reboot, but it can also result in a black screen reboot.

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I also noticed that some games did not cause the crash and could be played for hours like as if Hell had erupted, or total war: Warhammer 2. 

That’s when I began noting which games crashed and which didn’t. During my testing, I discovered that only DX12 games crashed after an hour of play. While Dx11 games could be played for hours on end.

I began troubleshooting my issue. I was leaning on my Card as it was the most recent change, and none of the crashes would occur with 2060 on the same games.

• I reinstalled my Graphics driver- I had no luck.
• Reset my Card – Issue persists. 
• Make sure to use 2 separate 8 pin cables- the issue occurs.
• I cleaned, uninstalled all my drivers, and reinstalled them. – issue still occurred (this included a newer AMD chipset driver that wasn’t listed on my Motherboard site)
• I disabled PBO in my motherboard – the issue occurred.
• Finally, I disabled XMP on my memory –no crashes occurred.

How To Stop Directx 12 Games Crashing

The troubleshooting steps above were my experience with DirectX 12 games. However, this might not work for you sometimes.

So I gathered and made a list of other solutions which should work for you if the above didn’t.

Update Your Drivers

Are all of your drivers up to date? If so, do you have the selected device set to “High-Performance Nvidia Driver” in your Nvidia settings?

To find it, go to Windows 10 Settings and select Gaming. Turn on game mode (unless it has caused problems in the past), and then click on Graphics settings.

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If you don’t see your games, click Browse and navigate to the installation folder for your games. Your game should then appear. 

Next, select the game and then select Options, then High performance. This has previously solved this problem for me, and I hope it helps you.

When it says to let Windows decide, it sometimes tries to save power, which is super annoying. Please keep me updated on what happens.

Changing Resolution

A crash generally occurs when you are playing the game at higher resolutions. This solution is especially applicable for Battlefield 2042. However, you can try this for any direct 12 game and it might just work.

• First, click the windows button and search for your documents.
• Then go to Battlefield 2042 settings and go to PROPSAVE_profile.
• You should open this file in your notepad. In notepad click on edit on the options menu and click find which opens the find window.
• Type dx12 and click Find Next.
• After that change the resolution that’s in the file to something lower and click Save. 

That’s it! Now head to the game and change the resolution as you want and try playing the game. I am sure the game will work fine.

Lower The Graphics Effects

This is a tip I got from one of my colleagues. This is what he had to say about the issue:

“I’ve been trying to play the game and discovered that when I run it in performance mode, it no longer crashes for me. I noticed that the artifacting Christmas lights had vanished as well, so I assumed that the effects or post processing were messed up, causing the drivers to crash.

I then reset the game to DX12 and set both post processing and effects to medium. and no crashes have occurred. So, I’m guessing the graphics effect is crashing the driver and it’s set to medium”.

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Give it a try, I don’t think you will lose much quality. 

Switch To DX 11

Another friend of mine got the issue fixed by downgrading his directx version. Here’s what he had to say about the issue: 

“I had the same problem a week ago. I checked all my drivers and peripherals but nothing worked and the game crashed after 2 to 10 minutes. An error message kept appearing stating that directx 12 had crashed and if it happened again switch to directx 11.

I ignored it, but the game crashed again after 2 to 10 minutes. After multiple unsuccessful attempts of installing and reinstalling the game and drivers, ultimately, I decided to switch to DX 11 and after I did this, the game never crashed!” 

To do this, simply open the epic games launcher, navigate to settings, expand the game, for example, Fortnite (the game must be installed to have the option to expand it), check the box for additional command line options, and type d3d11, and that’s it.”

Downgrade Windows

Another thing you could try is downgrading to Windows 10 and checking if the game would work properly without the annoying crash.

I found that some people have stopped the crashes completely. The issue is somehow related to Windows 11, possibly some issues between UE5 and W11.

Final Thoughts

Directx 12 games crashing could occur due to multiple reasons. One of the leading causes for the issue is that your drivers are not updated to the latest version. If your games keep crashing, try the solutions I outlined one by one.

Although I cannot guarantee that the solutions can fix your issue, there is a good chance you will be able to resolve it.

Please let me know in the comments whether any of these solutions could fix your issue.