Unplayable after startup with a 4K monitor

[hkson2005]

I have a NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB graphics card, 24GB RAM and Intel i5-7400 CPU.
In April when I first purchased this game, I was able to play the game smoothly with the above configuration under 1920x1080 resolution.
Recently I upgraded my monitor to a 4K one, and the original monitor is set up as the secondary monitor, i.e. dual monitor with different resolution.
I just tried to start Planet Zoo, but after the game launches, the screen blinks for a few times and then it jumps back to the desktop (Steam), though the game is still running and the icon is in the taskbar. If I click the game icon in the taskbar, I can see the game screen for 1-2 seconds, and then it blinks and jumps back to the desktop again. It is basically unplayable and I have to quit the game using the Task Manager.

I can't even change the resolution in the game as it jumps back to the desktop very quickly before I can change it. Is my graphics card too low-end to play this game under 4K resolution? Anybody encounters similar problem? How can I play the game?? I can accept playing it with 1920x1080 resolution, but do not want to disconnect and reconnect my monitor every time I play the game!

P.S. I can play Cities:Skylines and Planet Coaster without any problem with the same hardware.

[Starbucaneer]

Are you running both monitors while the game is running too?. If so then try disconnecting the old monitor as the resources being split between the two monitors may not leave enough for the game.

[hkson2005]

Origineel geplaatst door Starbucaneer:

Are you running both monitors while the game is running too?. If so then try disconnecting the old monitor as the resources being split between the two monitors may not leave enough for the game.

Yes. Using the Settings on Windows 10, I tried to disable my secondary monitor, the game still jumps back to the desktop. I also tried to disable the 4K monitor and use only the 1920x1080 one, the screen keeps blinking after launching the game!! Yet I have not tried physically disconnecting one of the monitors. Will try later...

[grampers62]

Nvidia 1060, good...
24Gb ram, good...
I5 a bit weak..
Motherboard?
Basic trouble shooting is to disconnect any extra hardware. Check for updated drivers. A bios update might be needed also. Also you might need to change refresh rate settings.

[hkson2005]

I opened the NVIDIA GeForce Experience and click "optimize" (recommended settings 2560x1440 full screen), and then launch the game using GeForce Experience instead of Steam... succeeded for once! no crashing to desktop this time
But then I tried to change the settings back to 3840x2160 (Fullscreen), OMG it keeps blinking again and I have to quit it using Task Manager.
Keep trying different settings for a few times, including the HDR settings (my monitor supports HDR)... Even I click the "optimize" button again without changing anything else... There is still no success anymore... It always goes back to the desktop, and every time when it goes back to the desktop, my monitor shows a message "HDR enabled". At that time I suspect HDR may be the reason of the crash.

But then I finally found the key!
What I did is ... I changed to window mode with 2560x1440 using GeForce Experience... The game could run very smoothly!
And then I changed to Borderless window with the resolution automatically changed to 3840x2160, still good and basically it appears the same as "fullscreen" but without any problems! The interesting thing is, when I go to in-game Settings, there is no option for me to choose "Fullscreen" anymore. "Fullscreen" can only be set using GeForce Experience outside the game.

I closed and re-opened the game for 2-3 times using borderless window with 3840x2160 and HDR enabled. It still looks good. It seems that the "fullscreen" setting is the reason causing the crash.

[grampers62]

I've often thought there to be something tied to GeForce causing many players issues. Usually it doesn't play well with the game's cobra engine.