Game crashing solution for Intel 13/14 gen CPU

[Sammy]

First of all, I've solved my own problem. This solution may not work for everyone. Read the details to see if this is the solution for you.

Short Summary
If you are using Intel's 13 or 14 gen CPU with a K in the model name (something like 13700K, 14900KF, etc), you may be the victim. After each game patch, the game re-render the shaders at the beginning and it crashes. You have to update your BIOS to solve this issue.

The Problem
My crashing problem occurred every time the game released a new patch (like 1.05, 1.06, 1.07). When the game loads after selecting your character into the city, it says something about "Preparing Shaders". After it loads to a certain percentage, the game exits, sometimes it pop ups an error message about your graphic card is out of memory or so.

Wrong Solutions
I've searched the forums for solutions. People suggested purging your GPU's shader cache or adding some settings in an Engine.ini file or making nVidia card shader cache to unlimited. I've tried all but no solution works.
Prior to 1.07, I worked out my own solution. First I updated my nVidia GPU driver. Before choosing character in the title screen, press "O" to enter config, choose LOW graphic settings and disable DLSS. Once the game loads past "Preparing Shaders" into the city, I adjusted the settings back to MID/HIGH and turn on DLSS. This worked but not till 1.07.
As a developer myself, I had a bad feeling why the game company did not address this issue while it was publicly known. Many people in the forums talking about the crashing.
Although the game popup a message talking about the GPU memory problem but it seems it's nothing wrong about my graphic card. I can play other 3A titles without this issue. I think it might be a red herring.

Identifying The Issue
I downloaded "CPUID HWMonitor" to see what was wrong about my system. Run this program before starting the game. It records the Min/Max temperature, especially the CPU. The game crashed at the "shader" screen as expected. It loaded to around 25% in my case. Under my GPU Memory records, it did not goes to 100%. So it was not a "not enough graphic memory" problem. However, I found that my CPU "Package" temperature has a max record of 100°C. I also heard the case / cooler fans produced some noise before the game crashed. I am using a water cooling AIO for my 14900KF CPU and it should not increase to 100°C within just seconds.

Solution
If you have the same symptom like me, and you are using a relatively new Intel 13 or 14 gen CPU, you are probably a victim of Intel's well-known CPU microcode issue. The CPU sends command to the motherboard to request higher and higher voltage when it is running a long computational task. This results its temperature goes up and becomes unstable.
Intel just released patch code to motherboard manufacturers. Find the BIOS patches for your motherboard should address the issue. The patch should be released some date in August 2024 addressing microcode 0x129 issue. My CPU temperature maxed at 81°C after BIOS patch and I have no further crashing issue.

[s3etoh]

Hey i'm having the same problem as you and have tried and search for all possible solutions but non works.

However I'm on an AMD CPU and I get crashes during shader loads and also when while playing the game. It would crash more frequently if I set to >60FPS, but I can play for like 20mins on LOW settings and 60FPS before it would freeze, black screen and PC restart.

I've a high end pc, 7900xtx so performance should not be an issue. Any fix or solution would be highly appreciated.

[Sammy]

Reply to #1
I think you are not having the same issue as me.
You are likely having a PSU (power supply unit) problem. As the PSU aging (likely after it serves 2 years+), the system goes off when your system components (mainly CPU & GPU) request high voltage from it.

[BEOWULF]

Originally posted by s3etoh:

Hey i'm having the same problem as you and have tried and search for all possible solutions but non works.

However I'm on an AMD CPU and I get crashes during shader loads and also when while playing the game. It would crash more frequently if I set to >60FPS, but I can play for like 20mins on LOW settings and 60FPS before it would freeze, black screen and PC restart.

I've a high end pc, 7900xtx so performance should not be an issue. Any fix or solution would be highly appreciated.

Bad cooling or a problem with the PSU.

[s3etoh]

However I can run games like Cyberpunk on max settings, CPU benchmark tests and firmmark without any crashes. I've also limited my CPU util to 99% to ensure nothing is overheating (average temps during load is like 60deg) so I doubt its a PSU issue. Only crashes during TFD

[It is my CAT]

Originally posted by s3etoh:

Hey i'm having the same problem as you and have tried and search for all possible solutions but non works.

However I'm on an AMD CPU and I get crashes during shader loads and also when while playing the game. It would crash more frequently if I set to >60FPS, but I can play for like 20mins on LOW settings and 60FPS before it would freeze, black screen and PC restart.

I've a high end pc, 7900xtx so performance should not be an issue. Any fix or solution would be highly appreciated.

Lock your fps in video card settings and in game to 40 fps and check the result.
Also disable shader cache in GPU settings, restart PC and enable it again. Choose max shader cache size.

[Scoso]

Tried everything so far, still crashing frequently. Most recent bios update to address the Intel issue. Usually takes quite a while, at least 30-60 min of playtime, frequently over 60 minutes. CPU temp never goes above mid 70's. Very strange, never experienced this is in any other UE5 games. Difficult to pinpoint but seems to occur most frequently at the worst times, during the end of operations. Seems to correlate with increased effects/abilities. I did notice a significant decrease in frequency when lowering DLSS to balanced from quality, playing at 4k on a 3080 usually requires DLSS unfortunately.

[feline]

Originally posted by Scoso:

Tried everything so far, still crashing frequently. Most recent bios update to address the Intel issue. Usually takes quite a while, at least 30-60 min of playtime, frequently over 60 minutes. CPU temp never goes above mid 70's. Very strange, never experienced this is in any other UE5 games. Difficult to pinpoint but seems to occur most frequently at the worst times, during the end of operations. Seems to correlate with increased effects/abilities. I did notice a significant decrease in frequency when lowering DLSS to balanced from quality, playing at 4k on a 3080 usually requires DLSS unfortunately.

I use intel 10980 XE and no issue :o how come you dig this post from abyss. I wonder