Blender now crashing when I go to Material Preview or Rendered views, whether from Microsoft Store or Steam versions.

[TyrorexDMZ]

Literally right after I finished something important in Blender in the Microsoft Store version, it updated to 4.2. It then asked if I wanted to bring along my 4.1.x settings. I did- but then it crashed, and crashed every single time at startup.
Eventually, I had to reset the app. Not only did I lose my specific compositing setups- it now crashes whenever I go to Material Preview or Rendered views. Since it was the Microsoft Store version, I though "OK, I'll try the Steam version."
Nope- same results, crashing within the second I go to Material Preview or Rendered views, as well as any attempts to access the Shading tab on top. Something did not get tested properly in this update. And I would really hate to think my GPU or CPU got left behind, despite just getting this computer 4 years ago at most, when I need to be using Blender right now.

EDIT: Just did another check. It crashes on EEVEE Rendered View specifically, not Cycles. However, I REALLY need EEVEE. And Material Preview crashes no matter what, which frankly shouldn't be happening at all.
Again, something clearly went wrong or was overlooked with this update.
Whatever happened, Blender needs to officially be rolled back to pre-4.1 on the developer's end on all fronts where the software is distributed, ASAP, until this gets resolved.

MORE EDITS OF DOWNGRADES...
Most of the Add-ons simply aren't there in the Add-on window, being moved to Extensions. Key among them, Images as Planes is completely gone across both. Not cool.
In the EEVEE menu, Ambient Occlusion and Bloom are both gone.

[processor.dev1l]

Regarding the material preview/rendered views crash, it stopped doing it for me after I set up GPU in the System tab

[processor.dev1l]

Oh, and Images as planes is not needed anymore. in the Add menu you have -> Image -> Mesh Plane now.

[TyrorexDMZ]

Good news- I found the Mesh Plane option. Thank you.
Bad news- I don't know how to set up the GPU in System tab. No matter which one I select (CUDA, Optix, Hip or oneAPI), it says "No compatible GPU found for Cycles" (...though I only want to use EEVEE).
Am I seriously going to be forced to roll back or download an earlier version, and not allowed to progress with Blender? Or is there some other option I'm not seeing to allow/force use of my previously useable GPU?

EDIT: Just decided to rollback to 4.1 in the Steam version. It's working now, though I have to re-set everything back up again. Checked the GPU settings in System in this version, and...same results. Meaning there is some odd bug with 4.2 EEVEE and Material Preview, and it's not my GPU. Not upgrading to 4.2 again until Blender figures this out.

[processor.dev1l]

Hm, and are your graphics drivers fully up-to-date?

[TyrorexDMZ]

As far as I know, yes. I went right to the Device Manager, I right-clicked to check my Display Adapter (AMD Radeon) for updates, and my computer claims it's the best for this device.

[MrCat]

Is there any other way to stop it from crashing?Ive tried to lower GPU usage in the settings but it always crashes.


(as an adobe user. How much money do i have to throw money at blender to make them fix my exacly pc problem)

[Firefly5885]

Had the same problem, just from looking around online it does seem like this is because blender doesn't have access to the appropriate GPU for EEVEE, either it's not set up properly in the blender settings or you might just not have the right GPU.

Personally I have an older radeon GPU that simply isn't recognised by blender. Different brands of GPUs and older GPUs are set up differently, so that blender has to use a different code to 'talk' to your GPU. But the newer versions of Blender no longer 'talk' to older GPUs. So yah like others said just gotta roll back the version until they do.

This reddit post has some good discussion on it for a specific GPU.
https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/1aredtb/what_limitations_are_there_with_amd_rx_480_in/

Hopefully that accurately explains 'why' someone might have that issue.
Also yeah I'm no tech guy so I hope that isn't totally wrong lol

[not_cyan]

is 7 GB of ram enough?