[GUIDE] Temporary Solution to Avoid Crashes in PoE 2

[VIQ]

Temporary Solution to Avoid Crashes in PoE (Path of Exile)

System Used:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3090
Like many others, I’ve been experiencing recurring crashes in the game. After running several tests, I’ve found a temporary solution that works for me and might help others as well.

---

What I Tested

1. Different Windows Versions:

Windows 10 21H2: The game wouldn’t load at all but didn’t crash the computer.
Windows 11 24H2: The game launched, but there was about a 90% chance of the computer freezing when entering or changing locations.

2. Clients Tested:

Steam version
Standalone client
→ No difference: crashes persisted with both.

---

Temporary Solution

I used a tool called BES - Battle Encoder Shirase (a CPU limiter). Here’s how to set it up:

Download and install BES (you can easily find it via Google).
Launch BES and add the PoE (Path of Exile) process.
Limit the CPU usage of the process by -15%.
In PoE’s graphics settings, switch the renderer to Vulkan.

---

Results

I played for 8 consecutive hours without any crashes, freezes, or lag.
Tested on Windows 11 24H2.

---

This isn’t a permanent fix, but it works while waiting for an official patch. I hope this helps anyone facing similar issues!

Happy gaming! 😊

[MrSoul]

What’s your cooking like on your cpu? Just curious, cos can think of one reason why limiting its usage would prevent a crash like that.

[VIQ]

The reason BES works is that it limits the CPU usage of the Path of Exile process, which can prevent the CPU from hitting maximum utilization or thermal throttling.

When the CPU is under heavy load, especially with demanding games like PoE, it can lead to instability or crashes if:

1. The game isn’t optimized to handle high CPU loads efficiently.
2. The system's cooling isn’t sufficient to keep the CPU temperatures in check.
3. There are power delivery or voltage fluctuations at high loads.

By capping the CPU usage with BES (e.g., -15%), you’re reducing the strain on the CPU. This not only keeps the temperatures lower but also prevents the game from overloading specific threads or causing system instability.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it can mitigate the issue while waiting for a proper patch or optimization.

[Operation40]

Originally posted by VIQ:

prevent the CPU from hitting maximum utilization or thermal throttling.

now, I'm not saying there's no issues with the game.. but
and, games generally should not use 100% cpu.. but

your cpu should absolutely be able to sustain 100% usage without thermal throttling. if it can't, then something is wrong with cooling or BIOS settings.

[VIQ]

Originally posted by Operation40:

Originally posted by VIQ:

prevent the CPU from hitting maximum utilization or thermal throttling.

now, I'm not saying there's no issues with the game.. but
and, games generally should not use 100% cpu.. but

your cpu should absolutely be able to sustain 100% usage without thermal throttling. if it can't, then something is wrong with cooling or BIOS settings.

all the crash issues that people are encountering (which is to say, a large part, because on Reddit and the official forum, those are the topics with the most comments right now) are related to CPU and BIOS problems? While with any other game everything works?

Strange.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3152602
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3600337
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3597824
https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1h8d4to/freezingcrashing_computer/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2694490/discussions/0/594008890765538740/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2694490/discussions/0/598513360098592247/

[VIQ]

But I understand what you're saying! And I would really like for the problem to come from our respective PCs! But after trying as many things as possible, as well as some benchmarks (just in case), my CPU and BIOS are both working fine, I quickly concluded that there is a compatibility issue somewhere :/ maybe a driver? Still, I've tried a lot of things. The only solution I found is the one mentioned above, using a small third-party software to limit the CPU load during the game

[The Storyteller]

Recommended settings were crashing my game on loading screens and randomly during gameplay.

I switched to vulkan, chanded graphics to low everywhere, and disabled CPU core 0 on every launch. I haven't get a single crash since I did that.

I use an RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, Intel Core i7-10750H, 32GB RAM, and SSD.
Oh, and OS Win11 24H2.

:V

[Bigred]

didn't work for me.

[Alopen]

Thank you OP, this helped!

[노미]

There is a 289 page thread on their forums about it. In the week when this released it was already in the 100s of pages. There has not even been a response "we're working on it/we're looking into it." I understand they wanna be home for the holidays. And I do not mind that. But I would have liked a response of some kind at the very least.

[mkdr]

Because Microsoft needs to fix it, not GGG, at least for the total pc lockup issue with 24h2.

Instead of thread poster said, use this tool if youre on 24h2:

https://github.com/Kapps/PoEUncrasher/releases/

Or switch back to 23h2.

[Jagger]

its not ms who needed to fix it, its intel, and it was already fixed, also had game that crashed before, unity crashing, poe2 crashing like 90% of time while loading location, but working fine for few hours after bios upgrade, particulary cpu microcode 0x12b
https://i.imgur.com/MBH7xWK.png

[eaglet123]

Originally posted by mkdr:

Because Microsoft needs to fix it, not GGG, at least for the total pc lockup issue with 24h2.

Instead of thread poster said, use this tool if youre on 24h2:

https://github.com/Kapps/PoEUncrasher/releases/

Or switch back to 23h2.

Thank you, this really helps!

[Aya x Kru]

+1

[arakhel]

would disabling multi-threading altogether in the game menu help?

update:
Disabled multi-threading, no crashes at all. Other fixes are not working for me except for this. Even the various ways of letting CPU never reaching 100% or preserving CPU0 and CPU1, they end up crashing even more.

sadly with disabled multi-threading FPS never reach more than 30. And very unstable. Hopefully can be fixed soon.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3080

[frag]

+1, been solid for me since running this. Thank you!