Finally fixed my FFXV crashing (and stutter)

[the-slunk]

After researching the forums since purchasing this game (and trying every proposed fix outside of downgrading to version 1.25) nothing resolved my FFXV crashing issue. The crashes would occur anywhere between 5 minutes to an hour of gameplay. Additionally, I ran into the horrid graphics and audio stutter shortly after starting the game. The stuttering issue occurred at the first gas station (hammerhead) immediately after interacting with/activating avatara.

I wanted to share what finally resolved the crashing issue for me in hopes that it helps someone else out without having to revert to version 1.25 and losing their saves. Additionally, I wanted to share someone else's method of fixing the stuttering issue (note that these are two separate problems).

Issue #1: Stuttering

As mentioned, I ran into a horrid graphic and audio stuttering issue almost immediately after starting to play the game. It actually started right when I got to Hammerhead and interacted with the Avatara NPC. I followed the instructions by user Morbic in this thread (https://steamcommunity.com/app/637650/discussions/0/2564160288787962173/?ctp=3#c3435626476280354677)

Step 1 : Disable Control Flow Guard (CFG) in Windows 10 App Security settings (Windows Security -> App & Browser control -> Exploit protection settings -> Control flow guard (CFG) Select "Off by default".

Step 2 : Add an exception for the game's exe file in Windows/Bitdefender Antivirus

Following these two steps and restarting the game immediately resolved the stutter issue and made the game playable... until it crashed... constantly.

Issue #2: Crashing

Disclaimer: Disabling windows page filing (virtual memory) can cause adverse affects in Windows. This is especially true if you have less than 16gigs of ram in your system. I haven't run into any issues, but they mostly apply to those who are relying on virtual memory (virtualization, SE tasks, etc.) but you should know who you are.

Step 1 : Type "Performance" in the windows search bar and select the Performance options result-> Click the "Advanced" tab in the window -> Click "Change..." in the Virtual memory option under the Advanced tab -> Uncheck the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" in this window, and then select the "No paging file button" radio button -> press the "Set" button next to the selection -> click "OK"
(This is the opposite of other suggestions to increase the paging file size, but doing that only extended the time I could play before crashing, this is the first method that stopped the crashing completely for me)

Step 2 : RESTART YOUR PC. Setting to "No paging file" will not instruct you to restart your PC by default like it does when you set a custom size, but RESTART ANYWAY.

Step 3 : Set your TRAM to Low in the games options. This is technically unrelated to the above steps and may not need to be set, but before performing the above steps I could see the VRAM slowly creeping from 50% to around 93% in the in-game fps counter during gameplay.

After I performed the above steps, I was able to play for 7 hours straight without crashing. It was actually the first time I stopped playing by quitting out of the game rather than giving up after several crashes. I also played this morning for a few hours just to confirm it worked before posting this, again crash free.

My System:
CPU: I7-6700k
GPU: MSI 1080 ti
RAM: 16Gigs (4x4gb) 2800Mhz DDR4
OS: WIN10 64-bit
Drives: Steam on SATA SSD, Game loaded to 1TB 7200RPM HDD

If you end up trying this, please let me know if it worked for you or not. I'm only posting this up because it's the only method which worked for me and I tried literally every other suggestion (which felt like i was clutching straws) aside from reverting to version 1.25 and nothing resolved the issue for me previously.

Thanks!

[Red]

the-slunk eredeti hozzászólása:

Adol Christin eredeti hozzászólása:

Seems like I am xD.

I wish I had the specs to get the fps over 60 at least, with my settings.

That sucks man. For me, SK was already installed into the game after I downloaded it. I have no idea how lol, but maybe that might have helped improve the game for me.

My main drive is a 250gb samsung 860 evo. I've been using a 2TB HDD for my games. I only heard about the M.2 NVMe SSDs like end of last year. It was in a MMO I was playing. Everyone told me to get that specific type of SSD, as it would improve the loading time for the game the most. Far more than normal SSDs, according to them.

So, I got a 1TB Samsung 970 evo plus, and its definitely a huge improvement over HDDs for sure, but I have no idea how it compares to other SSDs personally.

I was looking at that drive and the WD Black SN750 (cheaper, almost on par with performance). Needless to say, I envy you for the drive haha. Also, it is dumb that it took me this long to finally get an SSD as a dedicated game drive considering I've dumped so much money into the rest of my system. I used the extra space on my windows drive (the m.2 SATA SSD) but with so many recent games coming out and being like 80gigs+, I sort of just defaulted to the HDD and put it on the back burner. This is the first game that I kinda thought would actually benefit from an SSD (outside of load times) and triggered research into HDD vs SSD load times. Sure enough I pulled the trigger on a 1TB SSD like 3 videos in and am beating myself up for not doing it sooner. There were some games where load times were like 14seconds for SSDs, and over a minute for the HDD and I was like "WTF am I doing with my life!!!". NVME vs SATA SSDs seemed to consistently be like a second or so apart and I couldn't justify the purchase, though I still REALLY want one. It's that "I don't need it" argument that's gonna eat at me until I get one anyway :/

Same, but for me, it was the price of SSDs that held me back lol. I already had a 2TB HDD, so I decided to cheapen out and get just a 250gb SSD for my windows drive. Honestly, while I knew that SSDs were faster than HDDs, at the time I didn't think it was big enough of a difference to justify the extra cost. Boy, was I wrong lol.

When I asked my friends and other people in the MMO what kind of SSD I should try to get for dedicated gaming, everyone pretty much unanimously agreed to the NVME one, and most of them recommended the samsung 970 evo. So, I just went for it , without doing any extra research xD.

Actually, I did do some research , but it was only comparing the evo plus and the 970 pro. In the end, the evo plus was cheaper and supposedly was just as fast as the pro. So, I went with that one. Still cost me quite a bit, but I don't regret it tbh.

[Chris]

Yeah thanks, I just wont buy the game...

[Kunyomi]

Andrehoodcool eredeti hozzászólása:

I tried this and saw this on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IREwfq7IIpU&t=11s and so far it was playable than before....i can play this...although sometime problem occurs but its fine...thx for the guide

Holy crap dude, this actually did the trick for me.
I had already turned off just the CFG, but also turning off the stuff in this video I noticed a huge improvement.
With this + Special K finally I experienced a battle without stutter, what a difference...

Still get the memory leaks, but at least I can restart the game and play a few hours stutter free again.

[VerrücktesPferd]

Kunyomi eredeti hozzászólása:

Andrehoodcool eredeti hozzászólása:

I tried this and saw this on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IREwfq7IIpU&t=11s and so far it was playable than before....i can play this...although sometime problem occurs but its fine...thx for the guide

Holy crap dude, this actually did the trick for me.
I had already turned off just the CFG, but also turning off the stuff in this video I noticed a huge improvement.
With this + Special K finally I experienced a battle without stutter, what a difference...

Still get the memory leaks, but at least I can restart the game and play a few hours stutter free again.

Yes, same here. Adding a custom status for the exe file not only for CFG but everything else as explained there does wonders. The game is still not running as smooth as it should and with the memory leak problem, but the overall feeling is very good now. I hope I can get to finish the game, even if done quickly and without many post-game or deviations if crashes should reappear. Hoping for a fix on the developers!!

[the-slunk]

Andrehoodcool eredeti hozzászólása:

I tried this and saw this on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IREwfq7IIpU&t=11s and so far it was playable than before....i can play this...although sometime problem occurs but its fine...thx for the guide

Thanks for Sharing! I'm gonna try turning off the additional Windows features for the game to see if i can further improve stability/performance.

[莫欺中年穷]

I have tried your method, but it has no effect. My symptom is that I cannot start the game. A few seconds after clicking Start, it will turn back to a green start

[Kunyomi]

Ln eredeti hozzászólása:

I have tried your method, but it has no effect. My symptom is that I cannot start the game. A few seconds after clicking Start, it will turn back to a green start

I've had this problem several times too and I fixed it once by restarting steam, and another with a full PC reboot.
No idea what causes it though.

[Andrehoodcool]

Hey Guys I just found the cuplrit.....I check my CPU Utilization is always 100%...sometimes...so i just found the solution myself...the culprit was the The Windows Game Bar...so i just turn off the setting on windows...and my cpu utilzation is better not as when the game Bar is on...just try it maybe it will help...

[keybox]

Compromising our security or our computers' ways to handle memory should not ever be considered a fix. Square Enix needs to take their head out of their asses. Anyone who has problems, flag the game as broken.

[the-slunk]

keybox eredeti hozzászólása:

Compromising our security or our computers' ways to handle memory should not ever be considered a fix. Square Enix needs to take their head out of their asses. Anyone who has problems, flag the game as broken.

Agreed, and I wouldn't consider this a legitimate "fix" but its definitely a functional work-around. I hope they fix the game as they should but I'm not one to hold my breath.

[Liam Neeson]

Sarumoon eredeti hozzászólása:

Did you just try putting the game on an SSD? I read your whole post only to find out you are playing it on an old mechanical HDD? That's yer problem right ther.

lol what a stupid post. I've got this on a Samsung nvme drive and still stutters.

[the-slunk]

Liam_Neeson eredeti hozzászólása:

Sarumoon eredeti hozzászólása:

Did you just try putting the game on an SSD? I read your whole post only to find out you are playing it on an old mechanical HDD? That's yer problem right ther.

lol what a stupid post. I've got this on a Samsung nvme drive and still stutters.

I have since purchaed an SSD for my games library, and the game still crashes. The stuttering was resolved long ago with the Windows CFG change, so I don't believe the drive has much (if anything) to do with the issues.

[The Glow]

the-slunk eredeti hozzászólása:

Liam_Neeson eredeti hozzászólása:

lol what a stupid post. I've got this on a Samsung nvme drive and still stutters.

I have since purchaed an SSD for my games library, and the game still crashes. The stuttering was resolved long ago with the Windows CFG change, so I don't believe the drive has much (if anything) to do with the issues.

Well I would say an SSD is a great thing to have in general. Ive been using them for the OS and games for nearly 9-10 years now.
But yea this game is all sorts of funky.

[PirateZeroX]

Didn't work for me, but I downgraded and now the game works perfectly.

[Chillin]

what is the point in that windows CFG? iv noticed with every game unless i disable this ♥♥♥♥ I get stutter and over all worse performance on everything across the board