Crash to Desktop

[ZombeeDeath]

Hey all,

I have seen a few posts about crashing to desktop, just thought I'd add another to the pile.

I haven't been able to get past my current save since Dec across two GPUs (3070ti and 5070ti). I got further than previously today when lowering all my settings to Low, no DLSS, at 1080p, but after 5 mins it crashed to desktop again.

I have had all variations of the crash to desktop, in both regular and safe mode.

• During intro movies
  
• On the main menu
  
• Just after pressing continue
  
• After a couple seconds of gameplay
  
• After lowering all settings, 5 mins in

Current Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i9 14900K
GPU: RTX 5070Ti (v572.83)
Mobo: Asus Z790-E Gaming Wifi II (v1801 - 0x12B)
RAM: 2 x 32GB DDR5
SSD: Samsung 990 EVO
OS: Windows 11 (24h2)

I have also gone through and updated ALL of my drivers from Asus and Intel where necessary.

I have experienced a couple crashing to desktop in other games - Outlast Trials and Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days. But it doesn't occur as consistent as Indiana Jones, which is 100% of the time.

Has anyone had any luck at all?

[patrikstar154]

really

[green.nifta]

You might consider trying older Nvidia drivers? Many players seem to be running into issues with latest drivers.

https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/cpu-gpu-components/nvidia-drivers-dlss-issues-replicated

[jmsantos]

Hi there..! Same issue for me.. running a 4080, latest nvidia drivers... windows 11.. and most relevant, an Intel Core i9 14900K.

This is a CPU issue as I've found out after lots of research. They key is to ensure your CPU is at a static clock rate.

There are a few ways to do this.

1) Using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility setting the Performance Core Ratio to a value lower than your default. On my CPU it is set to 57x. If I change that to 49x, the game runs flawlessly and I never crash. This setting changes between reboots, so be aware. Indiana Jones is not very CPU intensive, but it is definitely VRAM intensive so shouldn't affect your performance.

2) More specific to my machine perhaps (Alienware Aurora R16) is to go into the BIOS and disable Intel SpeedShift and Intel SpeedStep. These Intel features allow for the CPU to change frequency on a dynamic basis for performance reasons. Indiana Jones (or maybe the Id Tech engine) hates this for some reason. Disabling these effectively effectively maintains your CPU at the same clock always.

I had hoped the latest update fixed this issue, but no dice. Yesterday I went into my BIOS and re-enabled the items in #2. I ran the game and made it about halfway through the opening section.. and bam, crash to desktop again.

I wish someone at Bethesda would take a look at this. The game is amazing and I've played the whole thing through.. but what a pain to have to switch these settings.

Hope this helps.

[ZombeeDeath]

Originally posted by green.nifta:

You might consider trying older Nvidia drivers? Many players seem to be running into issues with latest drivers.

https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/cpu-gpu-components/nvidia-drivers-dlss-issues-replicated

Only the last few drivers are all 572.XX starting in Feb are available for the 50 series.
But yeah, you're right, those who have the 30 or 40 series should consider reverting back to 566.36

Originally posted by jmsantos:

Hi there..! Same issue for me.. running a 4080, latest nvidia drivers... windows 11.. and most relevant, an Intel Core i9 14900K.

This is a CPU issue as I've found out after lots of research. They key is to ensure your CPU is at a static clock rate.

There are a few ways to do this.

1) Using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility setting the Performance Core Ratio to a value lower than your default. On my CPU it is set to 57x. If I change that to 49x, the game runs flawlessly and I never crash. This setting changes between reboots, so be aware. Indiana Jones is not very CPU intensive, but it is definitely VRAM intensive so shouldn't affect your performance.

2) More specific to my machine perhaps (Alienware Aurora R16) is to go into the BIOS and disable Intel SpeedShift and Intel SpeedStep. These Intel features allow for the CPU to change frequency on a dynamic basis for performance reasons. Indiana Jones (or maybe the Id Tech engine) hates this for some reason. Disabling these effectively effectively maintains your CPU at the same clock always.

I had hoped the latest update fixed this issue, but no dice. Yesterday I went into my BIOS and re-enabled the items in #2. I ran the game and made it about halfway through the opening section.. and bam, crash to desktop again.

I wish someone at Bethesda would take a look at this. The game is amazing and I've played the whole thing through.. but what a pain to have to switch these settings.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, I don't think this is the issue. I did previously have an issue with a now RMA'd 14900 where I had to use ETU and did 53x instead of 57x (worked like a charm).
This was my first thought, and my RAM (running MemTest and the windows memory diagnoses - both finding no issues). My CPU checks were a few types of benchmarks and stress tests that previously failed on my previously faulty CPU. With no issues.

[DarkMyth]

I've done all listed here and listed everywhere I could find. Tried rolling back patches and drives, changing BIOS setting. Turning the game to safe mode and all graphics to lowest settings still crashes. It must be problem with the game code or the NVIDIA drivers. I have no other crashes with other software and have a high end system. It's frustrating and the crash to desktop has been occurring since release of the game back in December 2024. Frustrating because I would really like to play the game but crashes every 10 to 15 minutes really discourages a person. After Patch four it's worse than it ever has been even getting crash at startup occasionally which I never had before.

[Vezner]

I blame patch 4 for the problems. The drivers aren't causing issues with any other game, if it is indeed related to the drivers. This game is the only game I have that crashes and it started with patch 4.

[jmsantos]

Originally posted by ZombeeDeath:

Originally posted by green.nifta:

You might consider trying older Nvidia drivers? Many players seem to be running into issues with latest drivers.

https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/cpu-gpu-components/nvidia-drivers-dlss-issues-replicated

Only the last few drivers are all 572.XX starting in Feb are available for the 50 series.
But yeah, you're right, those who have the 30 or 40 series should consider reverting back to 566.36

Originally posted by jmsantos:

Hi there..! Same issue for me.. running a 4080, latest nvidia drivers... windows 11.. and most relevant, an Intel Core i9 14900K.

This is a CPU issue as I've found out after lots of research. They key is to ensure your CPU is at a static clock rate.

There are a few ways to do this.

1) Using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility setting the Performance Core Ratio to a value lower than your default. On my CPU it is set to 57x. If I change that to 49x, the game runs flawlessly and I never crash. This setting changes between reboots, so be aware. Indiana Jones is not very CPU intensive, but it is definitely VRAM intensive so shouldn't affect your performance.

2) More specific to my machine perhaps (Alienware Aurora R16) is to go into the BIOS and disable Intel SpeedShift and Intel SpeedStep. These Intel features allow for the CPU to change frequency on a dynamic basis for performance reasons. Indiana Jones (or maybe the Id Tech engine) hates this for some reason. Disabling these effectively effectively maintains your CPU at the same clock always.

I had hoped the latest update fixed this issue, but no dice. Yesterday I went into my BIOS and re-enabled the items in #2. I ran the game and made it about halfway through the opening section.. and bam, crash to desktop again.

I wish someone at Bethesda would take a look at this. The game is amazing and I've played the whole thing through.. but what a pain to have to switch these settings.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, I don't think this is the issue. I did previously have an issue with a now RMA'd 14900 where I had to use ETU and did 53x instead of 57x (worked like a charm).
This was my first thought, and my RAM (running MemTest and the windows memory diagnoses - both finding no issues). My CPU checks were a few types of benchmarks and stress tests that previously failed on my previously faulty CPU. With no issues.

Just out of curiosity, did you try ETU again on your new CPU? Or try the disabling of the speedshift / step? Very possible my own CPU has the intel problem. Which cpu benchmarks did you run to determine that you had the issue? Thanks.

[Vezner]

I've also rolled back to previous drivers and I still get the VRAM error. IMO this is definitely a problem with Patch 4, at least on my system.

[ZombeeDeath]

Originally posted by jmsantos:

Just out of curiosity, did you try ETU again on your new CPU? Or try the disabling of the speedshift / step? Very possible my own CPU has the intel problem. Which cpu benchmarks did you run to determine that you had the issue? Thanks.

I haven't tried ETU yet, I might give it a go to play Indiana.
On my RMA'd CPU I would BSOD regularly - idle on desktop, sometimes copiling shaders in UE games, copiling shaders in Unreal Editor. It would also crash on new UE games. My current CPU doesn't do any of these - except for the consistent crash to desktop in Indiana Jones.

Originally posted by RGBFPS:

This is 1000% caused by Intel 13th and 14th Gen CPU degradation issues. Case closed. RMA your CPU and update your mobo BIOS to the latest version and set 'Intel Default Profile' - Not Performance. Especially, DO-NOT-RUN the 'Extreme Profile'. It WILL happen again over time otherwise.

I'm not so sure about that. The CPU I have currently was a brand new one, replacing a previous RMA'd 14900K. I installed the new CPU on an updated BIOS and have kept my BIOS up to date. The profile has always been the default profile, and never has been on extreme.

[ZombeeDeath]

Originally posted by RGBFPS:

It's your CPU let me explain:

Once your cpu has degraded (and what people don't get, totally understandable) is that your cpu becomes extremely sensitive to temperature... in other words, it's not whether your cpu is hitting a thermal throttle limit - you have plenty of cooling (people will say) the issue is that it no longer runs stably once the temperature starts to rise pass a certain point and certain workloads, like UE5 shader compiles - even if it's less than the thermal throttle limit.

With a stock CPU, no overclocking, when people use XTU to lower the multiplier to say 55x the reason this works temporarily is because you're actually lowering the temperature of the CPU under load. It's not that the CPU can not run at stock clock speeds, its just it can no longer do so at a given temperature, load and clock speed any longer. You can achieve the same thing temporarily by lowering the ambient temperature in the room the computer is in and removing your side panel.

This will work for a short time to the point where the CPU will heat up and crash again. Of course the solution is to replace the CPU but I'm trying to make a point here. This is not a problem with a newly installed CPU that has not degraded and has not been overclocked.

Of course, if you know what you're doing and you have a stable overclock it will work just like a stock CPU but with more performance. However, it is not recommended to overclock Raptor Lake because they are very sensitive CPUs when it comes to temperature and voltage / current (amps) leading
to degradation. If you push the amps or run Nitro mobo power limit profiles...once you cross a certain point and entropy sets in, it's all downhill from there.

If you run more than the default 307 amps you will have problems with certain workloads regardless of whether your cpu has degraded or not. And of course the excessive current will lead to actual degradation in short order.

I don't know where you got your cpu but I'm telling you it's a problem. Swap it out and see that I'm right. Don't shoot the messenger.

PS, immediately after your game crashes to desktop, launch it again and see how long it takes to crash. Do this again and watch each time it'll crash even faster because you haven't given enough time for your coolant temperature to dissipate the heat generated so the CPU will run a few degrees celsius hotter and hit the instability curve sooner. This is a non-issue with a new processor. Also check for WHEA 19 errors in Windows Event Viewer. Or simply run HWinfo and look for internal CPU errors at the bottom in red.

I'm not sure if you are understanding, but my current CPU is perfectly fine with compiling shaders in UE, and has successfully gone through multiple CPU stress tests.
I haven't overclocked or used ETU on this CPU.

Just to reiterate, my BIOS was updated and had microcode fix before I installed the CPU and has been updated since.

I am starting to think its GPU driver related and there's not much I can do with a 50 series.
I have a couple logs from other games that mention d12, so I might have to wait for Nvidia to sort out their drivers.

[jmsantos]

New nvidia drivers dropped today. I installed them and tried Indy again.. and no dice.. same issue. Halfway through the opening it crashed to desktop. I'm pretty sure it's not a GPU driver issue and indeed a CPU issue as we've talked about here. But I'm curious if anyone has better experience with the newer drivers. Thanks.

[ZombeeDeath]

Originally posted by jmsantos:

New nvidia drivers dropped today. I installed them and tried Indy again.. and no dice.. same issue. Halfway through the opening it crashed to desktop. I'm pretty sure it's not a GPU driver issue and indeed a CPU issue as we've talked about here. But I'm curious if anyone has better experience with the newer drivers. Thanks.

So I tried the new drivers - crashed on startup.
Tried again but in safe mode, got in and was able to play a lot further than I did before. However, Ray Tracing/DLSS/FG was off. I turned them all on, Ray Tracing - Medium, DLSS - Auto, FG - x2, and crashed to desktop within 5 seconds. Will need to do more testing, but at least I can at least finish it (hopefully) without it looking really super pretty.

[ZombeeDeath]

Originally posted by RGBFPS:

Originally posted by ZombeeDeath:

So I tried the new drivers - crashed on startup.
Tried again but in safe mode, got in and was able to play a lot further than I did before. However, Ray Tracing/DLSS/FG was off. I turned them all on, Ray Tracing - Medium, DLSS - Auto, FG - x2, and crashed to desktop within 5 seconds. Will need to do more testing, but at least I can at least finish it (hopefully) without it looking really super pretty.

This is because you're putting more load on your CPU, especially at 1080p. Your CPU is cooked. Sorry, but it's true.

I just tested Cyberpunk on Ultra + Full RT + DLSS Quality + FG x2 for an hour, and no crashes. I have also been running benchmarks for CPU and RT and there has been no degradation in scores.
I'm not 100% convinced its the CPU, maybe partly? But I have seen a few posts elsewhere that games are crashing on 50 series cards, even on the new driver.
I will be running more tests, but until I see consistent issues during intensive CPU load, I'm not 100% convinced that its 100% my CPU.

[DarkMyth]

Originally posted by RGBFPS:

This is 1000% caused by Intel 13th and 14th Gen CPU degradation issues. Case closed. RMA your CPU and update your mobo BIOS to the latest version and set 'Intel Default Profile' - Not Performance. Especially, DO-NOT-RUN the 'Extreme Profile'. It WILL happen again over time otherwise.

Yeah been through that and run multiple test on my processor no issues found. Working with Bethesda support and they can't find what's causing it either. If it was processor I would see it in more than one game but I don't.

[DarkMyth]

Originally posted by RGBFPS:

Originally posted by ZombeeDeath:

I just tested Cyberpunk on Ultra + Full RT + DLSS Quality + FG x2 for an hour, and no crashes. I have also been running benchmarks for CPU and RT and there has been no degradation in scores.
I'm not 100% convinced its the CPU, maybe partly? But I have seen a few posts elsewhere that games are crashing on 50 series cards, even on the new driver.
I will be running more tests, but until I see consistent issues during intensive CPU load, I'm not 100% convinced that its 100% my CPU.

You're not understanding the problem. Period. It is and remains your CPU. It's NOT stable because it has degraded.

The fact that you can run one application with no problems is meaningless when it comes to Raptor Lake instability! I know what I'm talking about. I have vast experience with these CPUs under all kinds of imaginable conditions.

I'm not going to bore you with extensive details and write an entire book of which you will not listen. I'm okay with that.

What's the purpose the CPU test if it's not going to detect degradation? The argument you're making would make more sense if a test could be run to see if there's damage not this assumption it's the issue and do a RMA with only evidence being one game crashes to desktop. This sounds like a hail Mary to me.